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https://www.tsa.gov/travel/security-screening/whatcanibring/items/radio Yes, you can carry it on your carry-on bag. Make sure you carry a copy of your FCC License (GMRS/HA). Also know the restrictions on batteries you can take, and the maximum amp-hours you are permitted to carry (including the total in your phone, power bank, radio batteries, etc.).

RT97 “Duty Cycle” I had a replacement RT97 come in today as a replacement for one that failed. The prior failed as it would not longer talk to a computer for programming. The TX/RX worked fine. I decided to test this new units “duty cycle” and heat displacement abilities. The first thing I did was open it up and see what it has internally to bridge the transmitter to the aluminum outer housing. The bottom of the RX/TX unit has large fins cast into its aluminum body. It appears to be bedded in thermal paste to make a conductive path the aluminum outer housing. I took a food thermometer and put it into the thermal paste. The unit was at 70 degrees. The “Test”: Stage One: I had it transmitting on high power. The transmission was broken up into three 1 minute sections with 10 seconds between each followed by a whole 2 minutes of TX. The transmitter rose from 70 degrees to 82 degrees. Hardly warm to the touch. (12 degree rise for 5 min Total TX w/ 40 seconds rest) Stage Two: I gave it about 2 minutes of rest and hit it with two more sessions of 2 minutes transmissions, separated by 20 seconds. It had fallen to just below 80 prior to and rose to 89 after.(9 degree rise for 4 min Total TX, w/ 2 min 20 seconds rest) Stage Three: I finally let it sit for 1 minute and did five more sessions of 2 minutes transmissions, separated by 20 seconds. The temp started at 88 and rose to 102 (14 degree rise for 10 Min Total TX w/ 2 min 20 seconds rest) End total of 19 min of TX w/ 3 min 20 seconds of rest. The temp rose from 70 degrees to 102 degrees. What I find interesting is that after the radio “warmed up” it took significantly more time to heat up further. I expected the 10 min spent TX'ing in Stage 3 to raise it more than it did. At the end after only about 60 seconds of rest it already had dropped to 94 degrees from a high of 102. I did not repeat this test on low power but I can only assume it would take longer to heat up. Being as my use with these repeaters are outdoors here in Alaska it doesn’t appear that heat will be an issue for me. During the winter our avg daily temp is around 20 degrees and we only get to an avg daily temp of 60-65 in the summer. This leaves a lot of head room. The cooler ambient temperatures should further increase the rate of heat dissipation as my home was 70 degrees to start with. Anyone see any flaws with my logic?

Another poster started a similar thread for KG-1000G and I thought it was such a great idea, I figured I'd start one for KG-935G. Some of this may apply to the KG-XS20G (manuals look very similar) or to other KGs. Here's one I'll start with (and it has much to do with the software): Scan Groups Preface: The KG-935G has 999 memory slots. Scanning channels is fairly slow. Priority Channel scan is a great idea, but implemented globally (vs within a scan-group). If you visit different areas frequently, its best to scan only the stuff near you. If you have less than 100 channels of interest in any given area (I have 25 at most in any geographic area), this may help you. Aside from where I live, I regularly visit 2 areas, and less frequently visit 2 others. Using the (less than great) Wouxun software: First: Renumber all scan groups to Group1=100-199, Group2=200-299, etc etc (I made Group10=001-099). This makes it such that any channel's first digit is the same as the scan group number. (out of the box, group 2 runs from 100, to 199. Not so intuitive later on...) Second, create a fake "Channel" at 100, 200, 300, 400, etc. Set it to no transmit, Scan Add = OFF, and give it a name for your areas of interest. For example, I have: 100="<HOME>" [settings: Rx 137.1, TX off, TX Power low, Mode narrow] 200="<DFW>" (Dallas) 300="<ETex>" (east Texas) 400= "<Hou>" (Houston) 800="<HotList" (stuff I might like to hear anywhere) several others. I left channels 1-99 factory stock. Finally, separate all of your regional channels under the appropriate bank. For example, I have Tyler GMRS repeater in 311, DallasFire at 255. The Northwest Houston GMRS repeater in 401. You could further subdivide these by band, service, interest (e.g. 200=DFWGMRS, 400=HouGMRS, 500 Hou-HAM, 600-HOUfire) so you only scan GMRS for your area, or all the HAMs in an area, or only Fire/Police in another. After doing that, it is a simple matter to use the radio's menu keyboard to set the scan group to match wherever you find yourself. And here's the true magic: Because you renumbered the groups, and stored a fake "label" channel at x00... if you ever forget, you can just key in "200", "400", etc, to see the channel group label ("<DFW>" & "<Hou>" in my case). Press UP Arrow to quickly find the channel you want, or set the scan group to #2 and you're scanning all the channels you saved for that "region" (Dallas on my radio). Now it's your turn: Have any tips/tricks for KG-935G (or very closely related) radios? Post them here!

Omit the "." from the end of the link.

And discount what you will hear about the Slim Jim variant. It has been debunked, it has no more gain than a plain J-pole. The myth of the Slim Jim goes back to an early article about the design that "hopes" to have higher gain. No such improvement was ever detected, but the legend goes on via "Post Office" game repetition of the original story with the details left out.

A good J pole should have about 3db gain. There are variations with a little more gain, but I am not fully versed in them. I have successfully made and used 3 J-poles and am currently using one on my 1.25m Alinco. My nanonva and wattmeter both say the SWR is in the 1.1:1 range, where my Comet triband antenna is about 1.5:1 on 1.25m

Repeater is my guess; use Rptr-8 if you cannot scan the tones needed to trigger the repeater, it may be split tone . That is different output and input tones. Can you scan for digital tones as well? Maybe Menu 29 or 30? Have you looked on this site’s repeater database? Channel 22 is the simplex channel that shares the same output frequency as Rptr-8. Rptr-8 transmits on 467.725 What city or zip are you in Loudin County VA?

Carry my APX all the time. Just drop in carry on bag and leave there until you get off. As said verify battery types are allowed on aircraft.

I ended up picking up one of these XPR7550e Enabled radios for a pretty decent price. Other than the difficulty of Motorola, I actually really like the radio. The wideband entitlement allows you to program the proper 20k bandwidth for GMRS, and full 25k for ham. It also got me looking back into DMR. Actually, I was looking at picking up an inexpensive DMR radio, then came across this for the same price. As for daily use, I've been carrying this for a week now. When in the car, I still use my Yaesu mobile since I use APRS/vhf a lot while out and about. But for the county "emergency" ARES is on UHF, and the Skywarn stuff is linked VHF/UHF, so this will do it all. I also noticed the selectivity is really good, and didn't break squelch from RFI when next to a Vertex VX800. I'm not going to replace the Vertex fleet for GMRS, but I wouldn't hesitate to buy more if the price is right. I am looking for a VHF version just to have and play around with, but the price must be right.

You're likely right about that. I haven't written much code in a while. I do mostly power electronics design. From time to time I do get involved with some embedded microcontroller stuff.

There were 2 versions of the R1225 made. The "High Power" version did 25 (low) or 40+ watts (high). Don't run an R1225 on high if you want it to live. They're famous for burning up. The high power versions are pretty easy to distinguish because they've got a pretty large set of cooling fins as compared to a typical MaxTrac or GM300 mobile. Model number M44GRC90C2AA. The lower power versions would run from 1-10 watts. They had a smaller set of cooling fins - similar to a typical Radius mobile. Model # M04GRC90J2AA If you have the 1225 CPS Software, and the proper equipment, you can tweak the radio's output power for the high/low settings, but I wouldn't recommend going below 23 watts or so on the High power version. Trying to put it down to 15 watts is asking for trouble. Repeater-builder is a great resource for Motorola repeaters. http://www.repeater-builder.com/motorola/gr1225/gr1225-overview.html

GMRS625 is running. The 700 doesn't seem to ever be up. I contacted the owner months back and was told they were updating it. Been trying to get the 625 on the myGMRS net but I am either doing something very wrong or the net isn't designed to do it the way I am trying. You can get into the 625 from the Point Mackenzie Area. I got in well enough with a 5 watt HT and a mag mount 1/4 wave antenna. Don't know if that helps you.

Open the programming software on your computer, click on READ (from radio) and go to KEY SETTINGS. Replace KG-XS20G with your call sign and then click on WRITE (to radio).

I believe they would be initialized to zero by default. One could also set the compiler warnings to ignore it too depending on whose you use.

You never know what information can result in a rescue. Local Ham, Benjamin Kuo, AI6YR: Missing Hiker Found After Man Using Computer at Home Pinpoints His Location

I purchased one of these for my Jeep. I ordered the programming cable for it as well. Typical use for GMRS is off roading. We just did a trip up in the Cascades of WA, had 5 jeeps. It worked just fine. I like the many features and functions-much better than my MXT-400-that is now set up as a base station. The compact chasis and front facing buttons are a big plus, and it's easy to read the display. The only issue I had was dealing with disabling my anti virus program in order to run the Wouxun program. For a mobile setup with a decent antenna, it is just fine. I'm a Ham so if I need to do longer distance stuff I can use that platform. We only have one GMRS repeater in my general area but it has tremendous coverage and I can hit that from most places I travel locally. I'm very pleased with this radio. Wouxun makes a solid radio even though techincall it's in the "Chinese Radio" category. IMHO one of the best units available. Midland does have 2 options in this general power output range but not nearly the features, especially with the Wouxun's wide band TX/RX ability. I'd recommend this radio for sure.