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I had heard of a DMR repeater or repeaters being licensed as experimental on GMRS years ago. The FCC addressed digital modes for Part 95 A about the same time frame as using Part 90 radios. Their thoughts at the time were that the existing radios allowed were meeting the needs of the general public. I also feel that digital modulation would benefit the public, although the 900 MHz FHSS radios would fill this purpose. It would be nice to be able to have repeaters capable of digital available for GMRS.

Here is a little review. Since I got the Nano VNA f I decided to test an antenna that I have had for a while. I had bought 2 for a road trip. Btech sells them for $29. They are a lot cheaper then buying a magnet NMO and nmo antenna. I have been happy with the 2m (144mhz) performance, It has ok performance with GMRS and I feel it has been meh with 70cm (444mhz) performance. So I wanted to see what the numbers were like as far as SWR. I have been mostly using it for repeater usage on 2M and GMRS. No luck on 2m simplex, FRS/GMRS works well for simplex when in range. Furthest GMRS repeater has been to Alexandria give or take 11 miles from the truck. The same antenna, is being tested on a cookie backing pan in my dining room connected to an FT991a. I have managed to connect to 2m Frederick MD repeaters which are 27+ miles away on 5 watts. Still can't make a simplex call 5 miles with the same setup running 30 watts. The stats from BTech 's website: https://baofengtech.com/NAGOYA-UT-72 Frequency Range: 136-174MHz, 400-520MHz; Optimal Frequency Range: 140-170MHz, 420-470MHzWave: 1/4λ (144MHz) - 5/8λ (430MHz)Gain: 3.5dBiMax power: 80 WattsVSWR : Less 1.5:1Impedance: 50 OHMConnector: SMA-F & PL-259Length: 20 inches So the VNA is showing the following. 144.562 National 2m SWR 2.53 :1 144.000 MHz SWR 2.89:1 147.999 MHz SWR 2.21:1 159.300-163.500 lowest SWR of 1.18:1 420.000 SWR 1.92:1 450.000 SWR 1.33:1 444.900-445.800 lowest of SWR of 1.3:1 FRS/GMRS Frequencies 462.5625 SWR 1.35:1 467.7250 SWR 1.40 SWR was 1.35-1.38:1 for most of the FRS/GMRS band. Lowest actually was at 1.27:1 at 464.575 - 465.763 MHZ well outside of Amateur radio and FRS/GMRS service allocations.

After posting to someone else's thread and realizing I hijacked his thread about scanning, I figured I'd start a new thread with cool "tips and tricks" that people have discovered with their new KG-1000G radios. Perhaps we can also use this thread as a "does anyone know how to..." for the KG-1000G. It will also be an interesting read for anyone considering this radio, since it will hopefully eventually contain a lot of detailed info about how specific features are implemented. I'll start with this one (cross-posted from the other thread - if someone can tell me how do delete that other post, I will be glad to do so!): Quickly adding a "privacy tone" that others are using on blister pack radios My Jeep and I were in a parade over the weekend for a couple of WWII vets that were celebrating birthdays (97 and 100!). The organizers were on GMRS/FRS HTs and I asked what channel they were on. "Channel 7 with privacy channel 35" he told me. Not knowing which brand radios they were using nor remembering off the top of my head which frequency corresponds to "privacy code 35" on most radios, I was able to use the Menu [41] "SC-CTC" option (which I've programmed to Key C) to "grab" their PL frequency and then save it to my radio on channel 7 within about 30 seconds. Super handy if you're needing to inter-operate with people on Motorola, Midland, or Cobra radios and using "privacy channels". Note: If you want to be able to RX and Tx with the tone, you need to also change the default setting for Menu [40] "SC-QT" from DECODER to ALL. Pretty neat feature that saved me the stress of having to manually look up possible tones and then program them via FPP while the parade was starting...

I think we’re going to hear more digital voice activity. There are plenty of choices for radios to use from the cheap Chinese models and the older but very useable commercial types all with digital voice features People are buying them and programming them up for GMRS and digital, either out of ignorance or just plain don’t give a sh*t attitude because I’m not going to get caught. My feeling is the FCC will ignore it as long as possible until it reaches the point where the chaos on the band seriously degrades the usability. At that point they will have to make a tuff choice, either officially allow it with specific rules on where it can be used or get serious about enforcement. That’s what the FCC did with the rule changes back in 2017/2018 with the FRS/GMRS combo radios. The FCC gave up, though in the towel and just made the wide spread practice legal.

I read a post over on radioreference awhile back, that there is a legit experimental licence for digital on GMRS, it's in Alameda, CA https://apps.fcc.gov/els/GetAtt.html?id=234790&x=

I accidentally bought the wrong cable to go between my IC-756 PRO and the shiny new Heil mic I just bought. Its right on the radio end, but wrong number of XLR pins on the mic end (too many on the cable). The eBay seller accepts returns at the shipping expense of the buyer, but the correct cable costs $25 more than the one I got; I would have been out $31 to fix my mistake. For $13 I got the parts to make the correct connections, savings of $12 over getting the correct cable in the first place, $18 over sending the wrong cable back and ordering the correct one. Still not sure if I feel smart or dumb, but I do feel lucky.

I do actually...will drop you a PM.

If you transmit on a GMRS radio without a GMRS license you will be fined $250,000 and/or go to prison If you transmit on GMRS frequencies on a UV-5R you will be fined $250,000 and/or go to prison You can legally use a UV-5R on GMRS frequencies if you just lower the power level.. If you don't, you will be fined $250,000 and/or go to prison You don't need a GMRS license to use a GMRS radio if you put it on low-power and use the FRS only channels. If you talk a non-licensed person on GMRS "the FCC will come after you" (this one was JUST posed on this forum last week!)

It can be done but not cheap. We had a similar setup at a tower site. EMS Med system (462.xxx) with a 451.xxx channel. It was a mix of duplexer and combiner. No the cheap flatpacks. Basically 462/467 was on one duplexer (TX/RX 6" cavity) and 451/456 on another duplexer. Both antenna leads came into another TX/RX duplexer with notch/pass filters. It was very tight and 451-456 was about 80db out of the 462-467 channels. This was all custom built by TX/RX. No clue what it cost but just the 6" cavities (6 per duplexer), can't be cheap. Although it worked ok, the antenna swept about 460 so worked better on the 462 channel. I would think the bigger issue with your idea is getting an antenna to tune up good on 462 and 440. Thats a pretty big split.

Not if you are a Proud Boy insurrecting at the Capitol Bldg! ...tortured, that is!?