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First, let me apologize for the tread hijack. I didn't see the need to start a new thread on this fine radio. Thank you everyone for understanding. Received my radio a week ago. This is my first Chinese radio and it met all my expectations and then some. #1: I was able to fully program the radio through the keypad. This is the first radio I have owned that I was able to do that, and rather easily at that. #2. It has a great battery. I ordered a spare battery, desktop charger, and the battery eliminator for mobile use. #3. The color display is awesome. It's better than the photos and videos I've seen. I almost had an ASMR moment when pulling the protective film off the display. I love doing that on new items. ? #4. Build quality was much better than I expected. On par with my Japanese branded ham HTs. It's a rugged radio that will stand up to just about anything except being submerged. But then this is a premium radio and it carries a premium price. This is definitely NOT a cheap disposable Chinese radio. #5. Performance? I easily hit my nearest repeater that is 35 miles away. Usual caveats apply, over flat farmland, no obstructions, etc. I know, lots of cheap HT radios can easily do that. Nothing special about that. While performing the radio check, I was told the KG-935G was as clear as my 40W mobile unit. That's the part that impressed me. #6. As the radio is a joint project between Wouxun and buytwowayradios.com, buytwowayradios.com (they deserve a plug here) wrote the specs and the owner's manual and it shows. The manual is written in proper & correct English, very well edited, and has the beginner operator in mind. Everything is well explained. As mentioned, this was the easiest radio I ever programmed. I expected programming to be 'challenging' so I ordered the programming cable. I'm still glad I did because it can be used on a lot of other radios, Wouxun and other brands. I did download the software and use it to look at what I did. In reviewing my menu settings I didn't miss anything. One can program the radio faster with the cable, software, and a computer, but it is easily done through the keypad. Using the keypad just takes longer. Photo 1: The radio and the accessories. Photo 2: This carry case was listed under Wouxun accessories, but not under KG-935G accessories. Glad I found it, it easily holds two HT radios. Photo 3: Decent close up photo of the display. As I said earlier, the display actually looks better than in the photo. I also replaced the Wouxun rubber ducky antenna with a Nagoya NA-771G antenna. Maybe I'll drive out about ~40 to 45 miles from the repeater and switch antennas. See if it makes a difference.

(FYI: I am adding this prefacing text to my original post to tip manufacturers and readers off that I am creating a new reply today, 9/2, which will serve as a running, bullet list summary of the various points. You can go there for a quicker summary and look throughout this entire post for more specifics. Back to the original post...) A post to GMRS radio manufacturers... (For other folks, admittedly this post is a bit lengthy. This is because my main target audience are radio manufacturers who might read this forum, so I wanted to include details for their benefit. Of course, if not a manufacturer, feel free to continue reading if you'd like.) I'm fairly recent to GMRS. Even so, in that short time I've found myself in astonished [not in a good way] amazement regarding radio design decisions, quality control issues, and documentation issues. Taking these one at a time (and throwing in the bonus topic of price creep) ... Radio Design Decisions Hopefully manufacturers realize that many people buying what-should-be-more-capable GMRS radios want to use them with GMRS repeaters and not just to talk with their children on simplex. However, the design decisions I've witnessed leave me in stunned it-can't-be disbelief: + Some radios allow for the storage of the eight GMRS repeater pair channels in only eight memories. This entirely misses the mark that repeater users may need to access repeaters which use the same freq pair but with different access tones. What are GMRS repeater users expected to do in this case? Keep programming / reprogramming the tones as the users switch between those repeaters? This is inconvenient and annoying. It is even more inconvenient if the radio has to be programmed with a PC and programming cable instead of being programmable in the field using a radio's keypad. + Though I'm not sure, I seem to recall reading that at least one radio was designed with access tones in an all or nothing mode. That is, specifying an access tone applied it to all of the stored frequencies. Not good. And even if this was not the case, some radios do not (or did not) support split tones. Split tones are important for GMRS repeater use. These days some repeaters utilize a DCS transmit tone and a CTCSS receive tone, or vice versa, or two different CTCSS tones, or two different DCS tones. Split tone capability please. + Some radios were released with narrow band only. For people with wide band radios, the apparent volume of a narrow band transmission is lower, which can be annoying to listen to. Capable GMRS radios (i.e., "non-bubble-pack" variety) especially should be designed with selectable wide band and narrow band capability. Quality Control Issues It's amazing what quality control issues were released to consumers: + Without specifying which manufacturers, even recently released radios capable of both wide and narrow band were factory pre-programmed with memories set to narrow band. So right away, especially non-bubble-pack radio users will likely want to change those to wide band. This is not convenient if such radios must be programmed via a PC and programming cable, and even worse if the cable is not provided with the radio. A before-it's-released-to-the-consumer quality check should have detected and prevented this. + Similar to the above, without specifying which manufacturers, some recently released radios were factory pre-programmed with access tones stored in the memories. Not good. For example, if a particular memory had CTCSS receive tone 156.7 stored and the radio is set to use that memory, that means a transmission would be heard only if the corresponding 156.7 transmit tone is transmitted by a sender. This would be bad especially for new users - they might not even realize that they are not receiving transmissions which don't send the appropriate tone. And as above, this is a irritant if such radios require a PC and programming cable to correct this, and even worse if the cable is not included with the radio. A before-it's-released-to-the-consumer quality check should have detected and prevented this. + OEM programming software is often buggy. Or the ability to copy/paste whole row(s) or selected cells of programming data is not supported. This makes programming painful. Documentation Issues To put it kindly, often the documentation, especially for Chinese radios, is lacking. Important details are omitted. The English is poor. Please hire people with a better command of English. But that is not enough. Also make sure that the document writers understand radios well enough to know what to write. Both of these skills are needed to create worthwhile documentation. Price Creep I've been noticing price creep recently. For example, one manufacturer released a radio not long ago, then fairly recently released an updated model for $20 more, and then released an even more recent model shortly later for $50 more than the first model. I'm not saying necessarily that the two latter radios do not warrant their increased prices, but the higher prices in rapid succession have been noticed by others as well. This manufacturer also sells a mobile GMRS radio that is a bit shy of $400, which is in the mucho dinero level of the established, big name manufacturers. Again, I'm not saying necessarily that this manufacturer doesn't deserve such prices, but as the saying goes, "people are beginning to talk." This manufacturer can afford to charge these prices at least currently due to the design features incorporated in their radios versus the past, lacking offerings from their competitors. But if their competitors incorporate such features at more modest prices, they might woo customers away. Such is the waltz that is capitalism. Consumers are noticing the rapidity with which the increasingly priced radios with incremental improvements (perhaps an intentional business model) are released. As such, the consumers and their wallets might hold off on future purchases for a few beats to see what's coming 'round the bend. Examples of Good Execution I didn't want to provide only examples of bad execution. Here are some examples of good execution: + I don't know what Wouxun did or didn't do in say the last five years, but they seem to have their act together in the more recent past I'm aware of. For example, I purchased a KG-905G radio recently. Rightfully so, it did not arrive from the factory programmed in narrow band for channels in which wide band is permissible. Rightfully so, it did not arrive with access tones factory pre-programmed in memories instead of the more desirable case of no factory pre-programmed tones. Also, this radio allows a user to store multiple versions of the same repeater freqs with different tones. + Randy, from youtube channel "NotaRubicon Productions," reviewed the newly released Wouxun KG-935G handheld GMRS radio recently. It is apparent that the designers understand features to include which facilitate the use of this radio. Or possibly they included such features due to listening to influencers such as Randy and/or buytwowayradios.com. For example, the radio can be operated in a dual receive mode. To make it readily apparent which of the two selectable channels is the one that will be transmitted on when pressing the PTT button, an attention-getting red bar is present in the portion of the display corresponding to that frequency. Nice. Now let's take the case in which dual receive is active and one steps away from the radio but can hear that a transmission was received. Was it frequency A or B? There is an indicator which shows which frequency last received a transmission. Nice. But let's say you're a person who likes to keep things simple. You might find dual receive confusing or annoying. Dual receive is selectable; one is not forced to use it. Nice. * Recently, buytwowayradios.com has made the Wouxun KG-XS20G mobile radio available for purchase. While I'm waiting for reviews of this radio (believe one will be coming soon from Randy), a feature I like is one that was abandoned by many manufacturers, including the big name $$$ ones. I'm referring to the use of the sturdy, old-style mic connector. This is the connector which utilizes the strain-relieved mic cord secured by a rotating, threaded locking collar instead of the RJ-45 type of connector. I, and plenty of others, dislike the RJ-45 type of connector, especially for mobile radios. Disclosures + I have no connection with Wouxun, other than I purchased their KG-905G radio. I mention them simply because I like many of their design decisions. In case anyone thinks that I'm an automatic Wouxun fan-boy, that is not the case. For example, I wish the KG-905G radio was fully field programmable via it's key pad and knobs. As far as I know, to add or change frequencies in its memories, a PC and programming cable is required. Once that's been done, one can use the radio's limited keypad and knobs to specify or change things such as access tones, power level, and wide or narrow band. While this is better than radios that don't allow for any or next-to-nothing programmability from their keypad/knobs, I wish that the KG-905G was more field programmable in addition to the PC and programming cable method. Since the keypad of this radio is basic (i.e., numeric keys are not included), even if a convoluted way of inputting or updating frequencies could be done via the radio's keypad and knobs, I would like that. This would make the radio more flexible when traveling or otherwise away from home. + I have no connection with Randy nor his NotaRubicon youtube channel. I mention them only because he and his channel provide spot-on information about GMRS and GMRS radios. + I have no connection with buytwowayradios.com other than that's the web site from which I bought the KG-905G radio and some accessories. It is my understanding that BTWR may have interfaced with manufacturers such as Wouxun to drive design decisions for certain, uniquely-offered radios. If so, BTWR is a good asset for the GMRS world. And if that helps the manufacturer create desirable products which differentiate them from competitors and therefore drives sales, it's a win-win. Summary For the radio manufacturer's, I've provided examples of problematic radio designs, quality control issues, documentation issues, and a potential warning about increasing price creep. I've also provided examples of good execution. Finally, while providing radios with good features is nice, it is important that manufacturers also ensure reliability. The allure of whiz-bang features is long forgotten if a radio/its battery/etc fail a short time after the warranty period ends. But the bad reputation for such a manufacturer will exist long after in this case. Bad or non-existent after-purchase support also falls in this category. Note: The opinions expressed are my own. The opinions of others may vary.

Just turn to channel 3 on your handheld

I’m on my way to that area now I’m on my way to that area now Turn turn on channel 3

You make a very good point and I appreciate saying it. How I interpret what you are saying is “with freedom and rights comes even bigger responsibility”. Thanks to you and all your fellow high profile repeater owners for sharing with the community. Michael WRHS965 KE8PLM

I believe I need to say this after the Darth Vader post before. Here's my personal take and my situation. Most of you are NOT going to be able to park an antenna system 240 feet AGL and 700 feet HAAT and connect your repeater to it. I can. Most of you are NOT going to have a multi-port TX combiner that allows you to connect MULTIPLE repeaters on multiple frequencies to one antenna. I have that as well. Most of you are not going to have a stream of faulty equipment that you have the knowledge and equipment to repair and put on the air and instead need to purchase new or used hardware that honestly ain't cheap. Again, perks of being a radio guy. Some folks will say it's just too old replace it, so I do. I ask what they want done with the old stuff and remind them it's technically classified as hazardous waste (due to chemicals in capacitors and the lead based solder) and they request we dispose of it. All that being said. If you had the ability to park an antenna that high. Cover 7 counties with your GMRS repeater and have that level of coverage, you no doubt would but it's not in the reach of many. For me it's right down the road, so I do it. And the fact that's it's NOT on a 40 foot TV tower in the back yard and can only cover the two closest towns and no further, I feel it's my responsibility if I am gonna occupy the frequencies that I need to allow EVERYONE that is licensed and operates within the rules to use the repeaters I provide. So I do allow everyone. I closely follow the laws. I do have others around me running DMR on GMRS, Selling access as a for profit business (his business license attached to his GMRS site indicates its NOT a non-profit) I refuse to do either. If I want to sell air time,,, I will go get an FB6 or market frequency (would need it due to footprint) and sell air time on a commercial community repeater. I ain't into that though. Don't think that since I do this, you need to do the same. But if you DO decide to put your GMRS repeater system on full send and cover 7 counties with it, remember that you ARE creating interference for others that are not. And in doing so, their repeater on a 40 foot tower becomes useless to them as you overpower it when your repeater starts to transmit. That guy SHOULD have access to your system because you are denying him access to his stuff. Or at least interfering with it a lot. I have worked with and continue to work with the local guys. We have put together a band plan, I have setup duplexers and repeaters for those guys to interleave their channels with my efforts to minimize interference. And I will continue to do so.

If you drive up near the repeater, and you can hear others transmitting to the repeater on 467.xxxx, then SEEKing on Menu Item 31 will give you the correct digital tone to use to transmit into the repeater.

Usually it is the "normal" digital code, D245N, but sometimes it is the "inverse" digital code: D245I. Trial and error and SEEK menu item 31 when someone is transmitting (If the transmit and receive digital codes are the same).

PS: Take a look at the Anytone AT-779 a/k/a Radioddity DM-20G a/k/a Retevis Ra-25 for your truck ($99 to $129 retail). I love mine: 18 watts Cigarette lighter plug I purchased a $20 mag-mount antenna and a $25 cup-mount holder for it:

WELCOME! Make sure that your channels have NO receive CTCSS tones set, so that your receive is wide open to listen to whatever is transmitted on that frequency. I have the clone of your Radioddity, the Pofung P15UV, purchased specifically so that I could use Menu items 30 and 31 to scan for CTCSS and DCS tones transmitted by others to gain access to Repeaters. Take a drive up to a hilltop area and see if anyone comes back to your transmissions then; you'll have better range, the higher you are! They may not hear you still, if they have Receiver tones set up to block out unwanted transmissions -- You will have to use Menu Items 30 and 31 to see if they are expecting transmission tones and even this will not work, if they use different tones for XMIT & RCVE Check out these repeaters for SoCal - Los Angeles: Crestline: 575 ("462.575"; Transmit Tone = 67.0) if you are on the more Eastern side of the County Mt. Disappointment 600 (167.9) Mt Harvard 625 (151.4) Club 650 (107.2) Especially in the San Fernando Valley Ranchino 700 (D271N) If you are in the Northern Inland Empire RT 725 (100.0) Be careful; there are Bozos on this bus! Remember to program these into Channels 31-54, so that your HT knows to transmit up on 467.xxxx and yet receive on 462.xxxx* The Morse Code is FCC required Identifiers of who owns the Repeater. Check out this YouTube video for background: We like to support the socially-challenged! ? *I assume you have the updated Radioddity firmware to allow these extra DIY Repeater channels. Turn off power, hold down the button just below the Push-to-Talk button and turn on power: a firmware number will briefly appear, such as 006.03.006, which is currently the updated firmware number.

REALLY NICE PHOTOS AND GREAT REVIEW OF THE KG-935G, MY EXPERIENCE ALSO - THANKS FOR THE TIP ON THE CASE, GOING T0 ADD ONE TO MY NEXT ORDER. I HAVE ONE KG-935G NOW AND ANOTHER ON BACKORDER MAYBE SHIP THIS WEEK, TOM

Cord came in, tested it, works great, but only in one ear. I'll live with it, it at least got me operational without taking my ear protection off.

Yup, it takes a lot of work and time. I had to apply some significance pressure to make progress. It's slow but does work. When you get to the point where you're happy with the result lighten up on the pressure, and as you observed, do circles to buff out any remaining swirl marks. I've also experimented with using an electric toothbrush as well with some modest results. I put a small dab on a paper towel and went to work. I use the toothpaste just as it comes out of the tube. After polishing for 5 to 10 minutes wipe off the toothpaste then tilt the screen to get a light to reflect off the surface while looking at it. This highlights any scratches in the plastic so you can see how much progress you're making. One hint. Use tape around the edges of the screen. This keeps the toothpaste from getting into any buttons and keys nearby. Don't ask me how I know this.

I'll give that a shot, I also bought a mono version. Will report, but I'm not going out in the field without a radio anymore. Some places I go don't have cell reception.

tl:dr: Some CCRs are really bad clinkers while others work reasonably well. That's the same situation as anything coming out of China, though. They'll make anything you ask them to make at whatever price point you want it to meet. So read reviews and test reports on this (or any) radio. If they work alright and seem well built then don't worry about the architecture. Long answer: Don't get wrapped around the axle about SoC or similarly the terms direct conversion, direct sampling, SDR, hybrid, double conversion, heterodyne, etc. The words are thrown around indiscriminately. Basically a good radio is a good radio no matter its architecture while a bad radio will be bad regardless. The RDA1846 chip that most of these radios use can perform adequately if the design is sound otherwise. It's one particular frequency agile wideband RF chip but not the only by far. There's tons of them now, some that cover HF to SHF. One I'm familiar with is an Analog Devices part that can TX and RX on 2x2 MIMO from 70 MHz to 6 GHz. It's not something intended for cheap consumer HTs though. The chip is $300 alone and a drop-in SoM (System on a Module) is $1,600... You might generalize saying it's easier to make a straight superheterodyne radio that performs fine but is less expensive. Mostly it's reliability and build quality that suffers. After decades of engineering churn there's not much fat left to cut in the fundamental architecture to significantly improve performance so all you're left with is using cheaper components. So it won't last as long being tossed around but the actual RF performance is indistinguishable otherwise. But such a radio is inflexible and doesn't lend itself to adaption to something else. DSP techniques are still evolving and proprietary. So there's a lot more ways to screw up a direct conversion radio. Algorithms and firmware are where established companies (Motorola, Harris, Yaesu, Kenwood, whomever) can really distance themselves from competitors. Motorola is probably using direct conversion in the XPR7000 and EVX models and it works well. But then again no one other than Motorola knows really what is inside their ASICs to know for sure. But the guts don't matter, they aren't able to bend the laws of economics, physics or engineering. What matters is where the rubber meets the road - does it work or not? And if they can do it other companies can, too. In fact Harris builds most of the high performance, high reliability radios for the military and one portable example, the AN/PRC-152 (Falcon III), is a highly frequency nimble (covers 30-512 MHz and 762-870 MHz without gaps) 5 watt TX SDR that can do several analog and digital modes, some of which (like APCO-25, amongst other things) were added with a firmware upgrade after the radio was accepted and put into service. That sort of flexibility is why SDR is where it's at. The reason these CCRs proliferate is once a basic design is done they can adapt it to just about anything. That comes with up- and downsides. They can just make them faster and cheaper or they can add interesting form factors or features, whatever. And even heterodyne architecture have DSP, so the line isn't really that distinct to say this-or-that. If you're still interested after that diatribe you can start digging into the engineering behind various architectures and RF generally here: https://analog.intgckts.com/wireless-receiver-architectures/

As I mentioned in the paragraph I inserted at the top of my original post, I created this current reply you're reading as a summary section. If/as additional points are made which could aid manufacturers and buyers, I will edit and update this same section. Here is the running list, in no particular order: • Ability to store multiple versions of a GMRS repeater frequency with different tones is good • No arbitrary limit of how many of the above can be stored • To expand on the second point immediately above, careful about designing arbitrary limits in general • Tones should be specific for each memory and not across-the-board • When designing more capable "non-bubble-pack" radios, provide wide band and narrow band capability, not narrow band only • Double check firmware before new radios are released or when updating firmware. (E.g., don't release radios with access tones or narrow band set in memories.) • Careful about proprietary designs. (E.g., naming tones with proprietary names may be ok for bubble pack radios, but for more capable radios I'd stick with naming conventions such as 107.2, D025N, etc.) • Memory banks/groups are nice • Test OEM radio programming software adequately before releasing it. These are often released with obvious, main-function bugs. It's one thing to not catch more obscure error legs, but main-function bugs should be detected and fixed during testing. • OEM programming software should support a good, 21st century UI experience, such as copy/pasting • Good documentation please. Missing, pertinent information is frustrating. So is poor English. • The ability to field program a radio (including frequencies) using its keypad and/or knobs is desirable • For mobile radios, please use a DIN style mic connector. This is the type which has a strain-relieved cable and a rotating, threaded, locking collar. This is more robust than the RJ-45 style of connector. • Attention-to-detail niceties enhance a user's experience. Examples can be found in the "Examples of Good Execution" portion of the original post. • Admittedly my personal opinion: non-bubble-pack radios should look professional/commercial rather than gimmicky • HTs should be stable (i.e., not prone to tipping over) when placed vertically on a flat surface. E.g., the end should be squared off, not rounded.

mbrun, I agree with you regarding BuyTwoWayRadio's positive role in advancing and improving GMRS. Another person who has done so is Randy from youtube channel NotaRubicon. It's obvious that GMRS manufacturers are aware of him and that he is an influencer. For example, when he mentioned nine or so issues with a recently introduced GMRS radio, the manufacturer responded and fixed the bulk of the issues with a firmware update immediately. Another good contribution is mygmrs.com. Its forum appears to be the main GMRS watering hole. The repeater database is also appreciated. Thanks for mentioning you were glad to see this thread started. I appreciate your and everyone's comments.

Glad to see a little confirmation to what I strongly suspected (and have alluded to a bit lately)...between the current state of things, and info I've run across on both both wouxun and retevis regarding quantity buying, I've had a hunch it was really the distributors more to thank than just the manufacturer. I know BTWR also has a strong presence on Reddit gathering feedback, I'm fairly sure bettersaferradio does also. That combined with another distributors experiences theyve been quite public about. While I do have a little issue with some of BSR's marketing (all the "SHTF!" and similar buzzwords), I can't fault their or BTWR's efforts at getting better products to the market. It's kind of cool seeing the market finally get a little focus on better products, and i do think there's room to get above the bare minimum and keep an easy to use radio for the basic simplex crowd while including enough features for the somewhat more advanced user (and spreading the cost across both)...the current growth of options would seem to support that.

BuyTwoWayRadios needs to be given credit for the improvements that the have made to happen with the recent crop of Wouxun Radios. I can’t honestly say that I can attribute any of the recent improvements to the manufacturer directly. Some background for you. I received one of the first shipment of KG905G radios. I had preordered it the first I learned it was in the works. Within the first couple of hours I discovered major flaws. Wouxun thought this was perfectly acceptable apparently, because no respectable quality control department ever would have passed it. They must think we Americans are to stupid to notice. Within a short time after reporting the issue to BTWR independently verifying the issues, production on the radio was halted. I believe early action on their part saved the 905G from being a disaster and I suspect it was likely a major contributor to the long delay before Wouxun got the issues resolved and product begin shipping again. They earned a lot of respect from me for this. Since that time I have had many interactions with BTWR regarding product performance and have assisted with pre-release testing of product, including the two most recent releases. I am pleased to report that many issues were caught by both parties and corrected before units went into full production. It is sad however that it is taking a distributor to do the manufacturer’s job for them, but for those of us that own Wouxun GMRS radios we should be very thankful they are involved. And as far as the UI improvements in the latest crop of radios, we have BTWR to thank, both for opening the door to external collaboration but also pushing the manufacturer to do a better job. I am actively lobbying for still a much improved user experience and a way of doing field programming of channelized radios. Comments in this thread may prove helpful in making the case further that change is necessary. mrGMRS, I agree with you. The 905G (or its successor) can and should be able to be fully and conveniently field programmed, and it should be able to be done faster and more conveniently that any of the current crop of GMRS radios, even those with keypads. The story is written. The question is whether the manufacturer cares. However, all of this is mute if everyone wants radios at bottom of the barrel prices. If there is no money to be made… Just my two cents. I must admit I was thrilled to see this thread start. Michael WRHS965 KE8PLM

Thanks. The range and reception seems pretty good, once I changed all bands from narrow to wide. Still, I ordered an Nagoya NA-771 antenna to see if that further improves things. This one below was not listed as a repeater in the mygmrs database, but a comment in reply to a listing, so let me make sure I understand it. First the comment... New Socal Free Speech Repeater... Serving Orange, San Diego,LA and Inland Empire. Located high in the Cleveland National Forest (4000ft) 462.550 DPL 306 Output 467.550 DPL 306 Input For mature audiences only...Brought to you by the folks that bring you the L.A. Maga 725... MAGA 550 ! Loud and big in Socal. So one would tune to Repeater Channel 1, correct? The DPL 306 is basically a privacy code, true? Would some form of CTCSS code be required to potentially access that repeater, and if so, how would one locate it? Seems if he wants people to use the repeater, he would provide that information, unless I'm missing something. Also, on a separate note, if anyone figures out whether or not my Pofung P15UV is simply a rebranded Radioddity GM-30 or something different let me know. Here's the radio in question, for anyone interested, which I've posted as an affiliate link, but that's not why I'm sharing it. https://amzn.to/2Y7VNlv

WELCOME to GMRS! If it were me, I would go up on the repeater and ask permission there and if they are testy, tell them you wrote and no reply. Since there are only 8 GMRS repeater pairs, I like to SCAN and if I hear obvious repeater communications on those channel, I take notes. Can your rig "scan" CTCSS tones, that is, tell you what tone is being used by the repeater users when they transmit. This is a very handy feature and I may buy another HT just to get that feature! My "ham radio" Yaesu FT-857d can do that feature for me now, but it cannot transmit on the GMRS channels; only receive. It is necessary to know the repeater tone for your transmissions to be "heard" by the repeater. Using tones for your reception is optional; they help eliminate interference to you from other repeaters on the same frequency. Since I am an explorer, I never use reception tones, so I can always hear what other activity is present and then do some tone and location research about the others I hear. You have, of course, looked at the San Diego area of the map here on MyGMRS? UPDATE: the previous poster, OffRoaderX, has a terrific series of YouTube instructional videos about GMRS and other topics: Search NotARubicon on YouTube and Subscribe and Thumbs Up him, if you like his videos!

I'm new to radio and was shocked too at how bad, like completely terrible, the execution has been. No wonder Wouxun is taking off like they are. The term in my industry for this is called Product Management and User Experience. All of these companies need to do some user and field testing, get feedback, iterate, etc. I was trying to standardized on Retevis for my uses. The new models from Wouxun are very interesting. I don't need or want a $400 radio that lives in a glass case. Need something that can bet beat up. However, I do appreciate fine art and there is a place for $400.

If there isnt a lot of RF noise/weak signals in your area you wont notice.. I'm a "SuperHet Snob" but I've been using my 935G for a few days now and abostively love it, SOC or not.

Agreed. I think it's a couple vendors that are working with wouxun and going the extra mile to get user feedback and get that incorporated into updated/future products. I know I see buytwowayradios active in r/gmrs, and fairly sure I've seen someone associated with bettersaferradio active as well.

I am in complete support of the GMRS community. With that said, THIS IS NOT AMATEUR RADIO (HAM) !. Just to be perfectly clear, again, this is NOT amateur (HAM) radio and was/is not designed/created as such. Nowhere that I have read, is it my responsibility to promote, encourage or even support GMRS use whether it be for family, business, personal or at the hobby level of use. That would be better served in the Amateur (HAM) radio classification and it's something they do quite well. I support and commend the HAM's for the time, expense and dedication they have and continue to perform at. I whole heartedly support their mission. I also can't thank them enough for their OUTSTANDING work and support of the citizens, emergency services agencies, infrastructure, beit power, water, red cross and the list goes on, during major incidents such as hurricanes, wildland fires and other manmade and natural disasters. The amount of money, time, training and dedication these folks invest is unbelievable and GREATLY APPRECIATED !. My hat is off to each and every operator . However, again I say, this is NOT amateur (HAM) radio, was not created by the FCC as such and the rules governing its use do not reflect such, so why is it always compared to and "expected to be" just like the Amateur service. If you prefer the way repeaters are operated in the Amateur field, then by all means choose and use that spectrum. If GMRS is a better fit for your needs and expectations, please feel free to utilize GMRS. The same goes for the Business classification and the rest. Understand (which requires you to take the time to read) the intended purpose and acceptable use and practices of this spectrum and you'll save yourself and the rest of us the possible aggravation and possible heart ache, associated with potentially choosing the wrong classification. Your failure to do so should not result in me being expected to and receive ridicule if I don't, conform to "your vision or expectation" of GMRS. I placed my repeater in service to serve the needs of myself, my family, my friends and my team, all of whom are current GMRS license holders. As a courtesy, let me say that again, as a "courtesy", I decided to offer access to, with my prior permission, other local, licensed users, that felt they could benefit from the use of this repeater. Why limit access to permission only and local only ? This checks several boxes on my list. First, I want to verify that the person or persons using my repeater are in fact currently licensed, local, and have a specific need to support their request. Second, it's another tool in the quest to keep control over the type of use my repeater will be utilized for and as a responsible and liable repeater owner, this is one of many ways I attempt to accomplish this. Another reason is notifications, if I need to take the repeater off the air for any reason or there's a problem that all users should be aware of, I am able to make notification to ALL operators that I have granted permission to by a group email. Yes, I keep a current list of everyone permission has been granted to as well as all of those who have requested access but were denied along with the reason for denial. I have spent and continue to spend a substantial amount of money to place this system on and keep it on the air and while it is still not able to deliver an optimum coverage area, continue to explore the possibilities for improvement almost daily. As most are already aware, every time that repeater is keyed up, it's causing additional wear and shortening the life of the equipment. So, unless someone has an unlimited amount of disposable income available to them it would only make sense that a GMRS repeater owner could & would take steps to limit the amount of unnecessary wear to their system in an attempt to lesson the maintenance and inevitable replacement cost, attempt to limit the amount of down time and most of all ensure the system is operational when they need it. This is one of the reasons that I clearly state in my listing that THIS system is not a "social networking" system. I not only discourage but will revoke permission to someone who decides they're going to start a lengthy transmission on what they had for dinner last night or what they watched on television etc. as this not the intended use I want for my equipment and causes the repeater to be tied up unnecessarily while causing the most damage (over time) to any system. Both are issues I am attempting to avoid by clearly conveying my rules in advance and if you don't like my rules, there's nothing written anywhere that says you "MUST" use my repeater. There are other repeater frequencies you can choose (or if you wanted to be a less than neighborly user (a jerk) you could choose the same frequency) and if there are no other repeaters available in your area and you don't like my rules, you are more than welcome to purchase, install and maintain your very own system where you too can make up the rules for accessing and utilizing your repeater. Yet another reason why I state once again, know and understand the different types of licensing/spectrum available and choose accordingly. I hope everyone that does signs up for and use GMRS has a positive experience and if GMRS is right for you, would encourage you to pursue obtaining your license. Just make sure you are choosing the correct category/spectrum for your likes & needs first. Good luck to all, stay healthy, well, safe and happy. Respectfully submitted, John