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I just got an idea for a new video.

Thought I'd share my opinion on the MXT115 for various uses. I started with the MXT115 for my parents. Simple and cheap. Since then I installed one in our Kubota RTV for around the property as well as on my Kubota BX. I have 10+ acres as well as neighbors etc. I run a GR300 with 25 watts out of the duplexer into a DB404 at 30' at home. It works great for a 5 miles area (way more than needed). We are planning a trip to the GC this summer and plan to take the jeep and our new CTC. While setting the trailer up I decided to have GMRS, and WX. Ended up just sticking another MXT115 in the CTC. Small yet perfect for our use. Our CTC runs off a Jackery 300 that gets charged during the day while we drive. Again simple and effective. As with all Midland stuff I threw the supplied antenna in the dumpster and installed a Larsen HF NMO mount in the roof with a 1/4 wave antenna. I can pick up 3 WX channels at home in my driveway on the 1/4 wave so most likely stick with it. I do have a Larsen Triband I plan to bring in case I need better. I run the Tri-Band on the JT for my 8500 anyway. Our main use for the trip will be to talk to wife or myself when using the MSI talk about we carry also. Mostly campground communications when at bath house or shower. Anyway wanted to share. I plan to get a few more when i come home from my trip for our other utility vehicles around the property. Love midland or hate them these are all over in use for stuff like I am using them for.

I read the entire Part 95 section yesterday, and one thing that stood out to me is this: § 95.1733 Prohibited GMRS uses. (a) In addition to the prohibited uses outlined in § 95.333 of this chapter, GMRS stations must not communicate: .... (4) Music, whistling, sound effects or material to amuse or entertain; Every blister-pack GMRS radio I see has a "call" button. This button causes the radio to transmit either: Music, whistling, or sound effects. The rule above prohibits music, whistling, and sound effects OR material to amuse or entertain. Every GMRS sold in a blister pack will, with its call button, transmit a sound effect, so breaks the left-hand side of that OR clause. The purpose of the call button could arguably be "to amuse or entertain" as well, though I understand manufacturers will claim it is not intended to amuse or entertain (not even the duck calls... definitely those are neither amusing nor entertaining). Again, to violate 95.1733a4, the transmission is either music, or whistling, or a sound effect, OR material to amuse or entertain. I would love to see that feature excluded from radios, or at least harder for kids to discover.

I have to admit, when there are 5 kids in the neighborhood wracking that button nonstop for 3 hours, it gets old fast. Especially when you find out the kids are all in the same room.

First the easy one. In order for a license to be in her name she will need to have her own FRN. Regarding your GF using your license... I'm no expert, but the FCC has defined "family" in their licensing rules and I don't recall seeing GF, BF, BFF, or significant other among those included.

Perfect! I knew I subscribed for a reason. ?

The past couple of days I've been thinking about how I would like to combine the best parts of several Baofeng models to create my "dream" Baofeng radio. Don't get me wrong, I'm happy with my Wouxun KG-935G, but if the price of this hypothetical radio were right... Here's my detailed list so far, which is in no particular order (at the moment, maybe I'll re-order them by rank later): 1. From the UV-5R family in general: a. Use this radio’s feature set, functionality, and design as a base for this hypothetical radio. b. Have a similar, compact design. Using the UV-5R family’s exact chassis would be preferable, but may not be possible considering 4.a. See also 1.e. c. Have the same set of buttons, with additional new button(s) optional if deemed desirable. See also 1.d. d. The ability to press MONI, CALL, VFO/MFR, A/B, and BAND (or a similar set of buttons, see also 1.c) while transmitting to generate repeater tones. e. A 3200mAh–3800mAh battery, either as standard, or as an extended battery. See also 1.b, 4.c. f. Use these radios’ TX/RX LED, or use one of similar apparent brightness (the UV-9G’s TX/RX LED appears quite dim). g. The “FACTORY” trick. h. Commercial FM radio functionality (considering this feature is being cut from some models due to a chip shortage, I feel like it should be an explicit part of the list). See also 6. i. CHIRP compatible. 2. From the UV-5RX3: a. 1.25m/220MHz RX and TX. 3. From the UV-5RTP: a. 1W/4W/8W transmit power. See also 9. 4. From the UV-9G: a. IP67 rating (see also 1.b, 4.c). b. Volume knob guard. See also 7. c. Considering the UV-9G does not have an extended battery, I feel I must point out 1.e. I wonder if this has anything to do with the IP67 rating (see 4.a)? 5. Support for 199 channels instead of 128 (256 would have been preferable, but the LCD for channel numbers can only represent up to 199, and for the sake of cost I wouldn’t want a new LCD to be developed). 6. The ability to save and recall commercial FM radio presets (how many, I’m not sure; 20 to put it on par with the KG-935 would be nice). See also 1.h. 7. A stiffer volume knob. See also 4.b. 8. A green LED for the LCD backlight in addition to the blue and orange LEDs that already exist on the UV-5R family and UV-9G, for a total of 7 color combinations. 9. The availability of 0.5W transmit power. See also 3.a. 10. A “priority channel” feature for scanning. 11. Weather alert radio functionality (1050Hz Warning Alarm Tone detection). What would you add or remove?

One “safety” would be to change the in-line fuse to the radio (there is one, right?) to one with a (much) lower rating.

Randy tends to be allergic to Ham-jargon! ?

My options are 20 or 30 watts. So, sticking to 20 sounds like the safe route. Thanks (Connecting & disconnecting the HT is getting old.) Edit: "You should be okay on medium on the wouxun, whether you have it set for 10 or 20 watts." You are correct. I got my info mixed up.

My 45 and 50 watt rated radios tend to be between 10 and 11 Amps draw on high power. I want to say around 4.5 amps for the 20 watt rated anytone at779uv (twin to the retevis ra-25 @back4more70has). You should be okay on medium on the wouxun, whether you have it set for 10 or 20 watts. One thing to bear in mind looking at watts the outlet can handle, vs radio power output is everything else that needs power between input to the radio, and output to the antenna. 50% is good for a very rough estimate of input vs output when looking at wattage . Alternator noise is a possibility, but not as common an issue at gmrs frequencies. (Both of my at779uv are powered from the 12v sockets in the truck and beater car)

Looks good! I like programmable radios and am a geek with that kind of stuff, but for the rest of the family I have also decided to go Midland because they prefer simple, so that's what we are using in our cars and home. I do wish they would allow us to program them for wideband on the older models. I have returned several MXT275s to be redone for wideband (Assuming they have the USB C) but would be nice if CHIRP would work on them.

I took a few GMRS and FRS radios with me on a fishing trip, and they were awesome for keeping in contact when we each wander around lakes and streams, letting each other know about fishing luck and current locations. I've also taken them hiking, and my brother takes them hunting. Even using them between my house and the community pool ("bring me another beer") has been worth the price

Ok team, I have solved the issue - and along the way learnt a great deal about how PL/CTCSS/DCS/etc tones work. That said, before I get started I wanted to shout out to @wayoverthere @BoxCar @wrci350 and @Screech for all the suggestions, followups, ideas and collectively all the information that I needed to get this one solved. With that said, while I now understand it all, and I got it to work, I also realize that while it's easy in my head, it's hard to write down - i'm going to give it a try though so maybe someone stumbles across this one day and it helps them out. So through my journey I found out a few things: There are actually two repeaters on the 462.55/467.55 frequency that are relatively close to where I am located - one uses input tone 131.4 no output tone, the second uses input and output tone of 241.8 When i've been testing what has been suggested in this thread, I did have a variable that I hadn't thought to share/I didn't think mattered. I've had the van parked in different spots - and while those spots have been less than 20ft away, that's been the difference between hitting both repeaters clear as day vs barely at all. I've done this several times, it's quite consistent. So my solution is Setup two channels, each using their own output tones and both using no input tone. Set one of the two channels as my secondary channel on the KG1000 - I keep the primary channel on for my simplex comms with my friends When I receive a transmission I will return transmit on the frequency i've got set as my secondary - if i'm heard, awesome - If i'm not I quickly switch to the other channel and that inevitably gets through without an issue. What did I learn? Having no PL/privacy/CTCSS/DCS tone on the receive side means you hear everything on that frequency (I did not know this!) Line of sight/obstacles do and will have an impact to your transmissions I'm somewhat lucky that I have two overlapping repeaters that effectively extend my transmission range Hopefully this explains it all and clarifies the combination of items that happened. Adam tl;dr - radio works fine, user needed to better understand radio theory

As with many myths, there is a shred of truth in there. The original (V1) 5100s used XTS3000 RF decks. The V4 ("X-platform") and V6 ("ES-platform") 5100s introduced an all-new EFJ RF deck. I strongly advise against buying a non-ES/V6 5100 as they are infamous for a variety of hardware and software problems. The 5100ES is a very good radio and I prefer them to the XTS5000 in many ways.

Wonder what would happen if you said "yes, and your LED strobes are causing RF interference, please turn them off"?