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Yeah...whatever you Motorola Snobs are just angry my 200 dollar Retevis RT97 does the same thing. ::Heavy sarcasm::

Well, that is exactly what I was looking for. Appreciate the photo and suggestions!

Could be related to intermod in the TX. When some RF gets into your transmitter, the range drops like a rock...

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!

Well, the money has to be spent somewhere, either going straight with a Quantar that just works, or go cheap and then have to buy additional infrastructure just to make them sort of work... but in the end its all a matter of $$$. I doubt the Quantar will ever have issues interfering other equipment due to missing Part95 certification. Most of these trash CCR repeaters, Retevis, etc, those even though they are Part 95, they are far more likely to cause interference with the rest of the tower equipment, or desense like cheap POS, or even catch on fire and bring the whole tower down... yep... You buy cheap, you buy twice. G.

I'm glad you have your system up and running. Its wonderful you got a good site, and yes, there is a massive difference between using a duplexer or combiner and having separate TX & RX antennas. What Coax did you end up with, 1/2, 7/8, 1-1/4? Also, did the tower owner stick you with the bill for the structural analysis, or did he let you split that with other users? Around here, that's usually $3000+, and a big issue. I do want to point out a handful of things that I think are important to note: 1) The quantar is a wonderful quality repeater that can take abuse. It is however, according to every FCC ID I have checked for the UHF quantars, none are certified for GMRS (Part 95). If you were running it at your house or private site, and kept the power to 50W, not a single person would batt an eye. But, being at a commercial site, it may be a target when tracking down issues on adjacent systems and sites, and someone may say something. 2) The quantar does have a better receiver than the TKR-850, but the older TKR-820 is right on par with sensitivity when tuned up correctly, and can match the power of the 850 without problems. It of course, won't hit the 100W output of the quantar ever, but that's not a problem in most cases. 3) The difference between Moto and Kenwood repeaters is indistinguishable when you start tossing in cheaper options, like Bridgecom, Retevis, etc. Of course, some sites have these cheaper repeaters, and they work wonderfully, but there is also significant additional infrastructure backing it up, like full size 6 cavity bandpass+band reject duplexers, pre-amplifiers, filters, etc. I'm glad you had success, and yes, its much more than just buying $1k in equipment, and the overall maintenance, upkeep is continuous. I do suggest you check your tower lease, and make sure you aren't putting yourself in a tough spot with the FCC certification, but keep on trucking. Getting a site and following through is tough these days.

I'm a Kenwood guy, but I'm sitting this one out.

This is just my personal opinion. Unless you have a mobile high gain / beam antenna setup and plan on working world-wide FT8 while mobile, I wouldn't waste 10 cents on a 6m mobile. In the 20+ years I have been in radio, I have made exactly 1 voice contact on 6M that was past LOS. If I count FM repeaters, there were 2 contacts in 20 years. And even with 100w, my LOS is legit about 2.5-3.5 miles around my home. If you really want to talk while noodling around... get a 20m or 40m mobile. 20m is fantastic as far as users and mobile antenna efficiency, but fades faster after sunset than 40m. I personally have the ability to run everything from 160m through to GMRS in my Jeep, with only 2 radios and 2 antennas, swapping mono-band HF antennas depending on what band I want to work. If you really want to do it anyway, I would use 2 radios and antennas. Put the 6m antenna in spot 2,using a UHF mount and a Diamond HF6FX Monoband Mobile Antenna. Out of all the mobile antennas I have used, this is the one that I had the best luck with. Its the only antenna I made a long distance voice contact with, and on FT8 I worked 40 countries when the conditions were good. Also, unless you are going to keep power around 5w, you're probably going to have to keep whatever radio you are not using, off while talking on the other. If you want to do it all with 1 radio and 1 antenna, get a Yaesu 8900 (discontinued radio) or a clone of it, and a Diamond CR8900A antenna. It is pretuned to give best bandwidth and VSWR over the FM portions of 10m, 6m, 2m, and 70cm. It's not really usable for the Data/SSB portions of the 6m band without a tuner.

So does my 9.95 dollar BF-888s...

Laird. My Laird is less than 7" including the NMO base.

And in the end, that's all we can do...help understand the features and limitations, so users get the radio that meets their needs...one of those "right tool for the job" kinda things. My 50x1 was a great learning tool, but I wanted more. For some use case, midlands are fine radio, while others, not so much.

It wasn't so much price as it was features. Specifically, the ability to add additional GMRS frequencies/channels into memory, which cannot be done. I never suggested it was a 'bad radio', just that for the money, there are other radios available that provided more of what one might expect in an over $200 (Chinese) radio (and I exclude the KG-1000). Indeed, there are many sub $200 radios that offer a lot more capability. All that said, it seems the radio meets your needs and I am happy for you. The 50x1 simply did not meet my needs or expectations for a radio in the $200+ price range. IMHO, the 50x1, while a perhaps a good performing radio (RF wise), is anything but a good value at $220 given it's lack of flexibility when it comes to memories/programming. If there was any benefit to me from purchasing it, it was the learning experience and a lesson in doing your research before buying. As noted, I returned the radio the next day. However, as always, to each their own.

Thanks for the advice. I have settled on the CX-333. FYI, I passed my Technician Exam this past Saturday.

I recall when my previous employer in the oil industry started to receive Motorola Trbo XPR8400 repeaters and XPR6550 handhelds. I used my Aeroflex 3550A test set to check for receive sensitivity (UHF), which was between 0.17-0.20 uV. My boss said "I don't believe you", so he walked down to the lab and grabbed a few handhelds and checked for himself. He was impressed, as previous radios (Motorola PR1500's) were no around 0.25-0.35 uV, everything else being the same. In spec for UHF, but not as good as the digital capable handhelds. The XPR8400's and Quantars were essentially the same, with the XPR series repeater having digital capability, it was a one for one swap infrastructure wise. Those surplus UHF Quantars ended up in many local Auxiliary Communication Service (ACS) roles ever since (this was around 2010 or so). Quantars are one of the best repeaters ever made, and will serve any person or organization well.

Beyond having a very sensitive (hot) front end, the Quantar was also very selective, a difficult combination to achieve. I'm surprised to hear that the Quantar transmitter at 50 watts greatly out-performed the Kenwood transmit at 50 watts. I'd have to think that the Kenwood was falling short in either Deviation or it was off frequency. Lesser radios do tend to have some frequency drift as they warm up. The good stuff will be rock steady on frequency center. The biggest thing I've noticed with Quantars (and their cousins the MTR2000) is that all the internal audio processing is done with PCM (pulse coded modulation) - so any noise or hum is filtered out, and only the audio is passed. That would effectively mean that the MTR's and Quantars were full quieting with a receive signal strength of less than .35uV (around -116 dBm) - which is where many commercial radios are just beginning to break squelch.

Congrats!!, it sounds like you've reached the same conclusion I've reached as well. Motorola is not hype as they would have you believe, that is for sure. Totally agree, experience wins a lot of contests, for sure. @gortex2The only reason the "do it cheap crowd" gets away with their cheap stuff because guys like @JB007Ruleshave spent 5 figures on their repeater setup, so the overpriced pieces of garbage trash CCR radios have any hopes of working: Simple as that. Well, I think depends on what 30 dollar radio you are talking about, but in general most cheap radios mated to a 1k antenna will desense really bad, so you'll end up with a deaf radio. You'll need to add several hundreds of dollars of filtering to the 30$ radio front end (or lack thereof) just to make it work. I am certain the ISOtee on that Quantar is off-the-charts good... and all Kenwood radios I've ISOteed were not that great. Even the Vertex Standard radios were only marginally better, but there was a jump going from everything else to Motorola, even the 6550 receiver beats every Kenwood radio I've tested to date. Tuning goes a very very long way (understatement here). as I've found that tuning the radios correctly can make the difference between 3 miles and 30 miles with ease!! Given the cost of used Motorola gear, IMO, once your eyes are opened, there is no reason to ever go back to inferior equipment. G. EDIT: Forgot to say this (again), but there is a reason why the longest running, furthest reaching radios ever made by humanity are made by Motorola. Yes, the Voyager probes have Motorola radios... been running non-stop since the 70s, and they are past the Heliosphere, or about 14.4 billion miles from Earth (as of 11/2021)... so, if you want range, think only Motorola (except the R7 turd... ) How far does your light shine?