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I dont usually like to post videos here, but I have been so inspired by several of the "experts" in this forum complaining that we should not be using radios made in China that I put together a list of all the American Made radios AND I vow to purchase each one of these American made radios and do a full review of them in the next 30 days.. Thank you to "some people" that opened my eyes about not purchasing radios that are not made in America.

Great, thanks. Now I bought one too! ?

Agreed, FHSS makes so much sense, IMO, makes you hope they'll do the same for other crowded bands... it will make sharing the airwaves a lot easier too... G.

THANKS...I found the ten-channel expandability in the software too, though I have no radios yet, so I was not aware that it would actually work. I suspect that Motorola will change that "flaw" eventually, either for all existing units, for newer ones, or will update that software with some extra bells and whistles but only six channels. Sounds like FHSS is the way to go, but will we be saying the same thing in a few years about 2.4GHz or 5GHZ compared to 900MHz? Whoever suspected that we would be walking around with phones on those bands with hidden antennæ?

Most VNA's do more than antenna analyzers. Though the manual https://nanovna.com/?page_id=64 isn't the most clear it appears to support setting cable velocity factor, and can detect short/open distance. You have to fiddle with stop frequency to adjust for "length".

Actually, this happens in my area all the time on the repeaters. Not so much on simplex, though. There is a 650 repeater I use all the time on Bull Run Mountain and another 650 repeater in Ellicott City (52 miles away). On the near daily basis, even with different tones, we end up having massive issues. My buddy may bring up the BRM repeater with the proper tone, but even though he is closer to the repeater than the other station, the other station using the Ellicott City repeater will either come over the top of him of they both end up wiping each other out. Not a good time.

If you are trying to hear everything on the GMRS frequencies then dont be surprised when you DO hear everything on the GMRS frequencies. IMHO the beauty of GMRS is the you and your group can set up your own CHANNEL by picking a frequency, adding a PL filter and greatly decreasing the chance of hearing others while meeting your comm needs. There is NO privacy ("they" can still hear you) but you can miss the other stuff most of the time.

I'd also be checking your antenna feedline for continuity. What you described with the ability to transmit, but not receive, could potentially be caused if you have a VERY slight gap between the coax and the connector - effectively creating your own iso-tee. That's why people ring out their connectors when they're done installing them. With your adapters on each end, that possibility becomes a bit more likely.

See, that's the fundamental issue. It doesn't matter what some POS government agency says "Made In America" means, it's the general perception and expectation of what that means, or rather what it once use to mean, which included ALL of the components, not just the completed unit. It was the slow migration of manufacturing leaving the country. If you're old enough, there was a time when almost everything was made in America, and it had nothing to do with nationalism or patriotism. It was about jobs and pride in the work, about making a quality product. Those days are, sadly, all but completely gone, no matter how much people wave their flags and scream for nationalism and patriotism. Words won't fix the issue, bringing actual (competitive) manufacturing and innovation back to America will. Until then, accept the reality that virtually all of your communications equipment (and their components) is made in a foreign country, no matter what 'American' company name is on it. Yeah, you too Motorola. (sorry for the rant)

Our first tower site for our SAR team was owned by a concrete company. You could almost not see the building with growth. We told them we would clean up the site, mow all year and help fix windows doors etc. We were there for 5 years until we moved to a county site. It was a great partnership and we left the place much better than it was. With that said we were a 501C3 with insurance. Without that it may be a stumbling block in these days.

That would be one way. The second radio would need to be right next to the power supply. If the switching frequency is around 150KHz you would expect to see problems at 150KHz intervals. I’ve had small circuit board DC to DC converters on the bench generate enough noise to break the squelch on a hand held radio on the other side of my office stopping it from scanning. Most of the time it was on VHF I had the issue. Ferrite cores might help if you do see problems. However having the power supply in a tightly sealed metal case would improve things too. No guarantees that you can eliminate the interference, if found, completely or to a level where it doesn’t impact operation to the point where communication is unreliable.

All of my Amateur hand-held units from Kenwood, Icom, and Yaesu, offer a AA (or maybe AAA for the smaller units) cases. For some radios, the alkaline cell cases trigger a lower power mode (different voltage -- four AA are 6V, six would be 9V, while the NiCad/NimH/Lion [pick your decade] packs tend to center on 7.2-8.4V. The amateur gear tends to run on variable voltage levels. The recent ID-52 is 4.5V battery case (I suspect typo in manual -- they spec output power for 5.5V, but 3xAA is only 4.5), 7.4V rechargeable battery, and 10-16V for external power -- 5W for external and rechargeable, 100mW for AA. The Tyt -- no external power jack, nor (to my knowledge) battery cases. Might be some hidden convention for stuff that fell into Part 90 land-mobile. Anytone 878 -- no external power jack seen, but manual does show a "battery eliminator" -- which looks like a battery case with a 12V lighter plug permanently attached, and based upon the label it is really a 2/3rds capacity battery, with battery charger circuit built in; meaning the radio is operating off the battery, and the battery is being charged during the idle periods between Tx. Doesn't look too useful as the cord enters from the bottom, meaning one has to provide some form of holder with an open bottom -- might as well put velcro strips on the regular charging stand with the optional lighter adapter. Tyt and Anytone are both DMR rigs. The wall warts for the chargers won't power radio operations. Using USB charging, the aforementioned Icom radio can operate drawing from the battery on Tx, charging on Rx and idle. Using "cigarette lighter" adapter or external 12V supply will operate it and charge at the same time. My Yaesu rigs can either operate off 12V, OR charge, but not both (seems they have the charge controller in the radio and not the battery, and the charging circuit only activates when the radio is OFF. Apologies for what is basically a harangue/lecture...

So how much RF trash is generated by the cheap unshielded switching supply? You should run the VFO over a wide range and see if there are any noticeable increases in noise level or mysterious “carriers” that repeat at regular frequency intervals.

Exactly right. If they could find a private business who would let them put a tower on top of their building that would make a good start. Or, maybe a volunteer fire dept. Give them a donation and a helping hand with property maintenance. A little good will goes a long way sometimes.

Thanks for some good info! I went ahead and got myself a 1500ES with the latest firmware, and the CPS wasn't hard to find and get working on a win10 pc. So far I'm really enjoying it and is a nice radio to have. Thanks for the feedback guys

Start by removing the RX tone while troubleshooting - that way you will hear everything on that channel, then get close(er) to the repeater - it is entirely possible that the HT is not able to hit the repeater from your current location.

I blame you. It should arrive today. ?

No and it adds no privacy either.

I am a Ham, but had my GMRS license long before my amateur radio license, going back to 1988. It was an individual license back then and gear was primitive at best, but that is part of what made it easy. Me and my Ham friends (whom actually do appreciate GMRS) very rarely use VHF/UHF ham frequencies anymore and are almost completely GMRS. Many of us got sick of the club politics. We just use GMRS to chat while we are heading to meet up, stay in touch on the road, and in touch while offroad. Be it in 4X4's, on foot, small boats, etc. Anyway, I wouldn't let it discourage you. While some clubs have linked GMRS repeaters and have Nets, there are way more causal users and families with handhelds, mobiles, as well as base stations or repeaters in their garage so they can talk to family and friends.

I was not here, in 'Merica, until I came here (legally) in 1991. Learn something new every day. Thank you for education and history lesson. And speaking about cars (somebody in some thread/post mentioned Japanese cars) Toyota Camry is the most 'Merican made car.

This reminds me of when I was a kid and did sales and repairs of TV's. I used to have so many people bitch about my Mitsubishi, Toshiba and Sony inventory levels and model options being so much more than "American" TV's like RCA, Phillips, Magnavox and Sharp. One day, I setup a display with every 19" TV I sold, with the back's of every TV open so all could see. I had post-it notes pointing out that every single TV, regardless of the brand, domestic or otherwise, all had the identical Mitsubishi or Toshiba main board. People refused to believe that it was just packaging. Even after seeing it with their own eyes. I had some people accuse me of staging the boards to look like they were the same. I guess, what I am saying is, stupid should hurt.

All this country can make is Debt!!!

Thank you for not HiJakkin me.. Easy answer: By making decent (not the best) radios and selling them for low-dollars.. And they can do this because of no unions, less/no environmental restrictions, government subsidies ENCOURAGING manufacturing, no/few child labor regulations, etc.. Basically the opposite of what you find in the U.S.

I used to be responsible for a fleet of AN/TRC-170 Troposcatter terminals, 6600 Watts would drop birds and kill trees (including pine trees) in the distance when used in Line of Sight (LOS) mode. At Timberline Lodge, I would rope off half the parking lot, and then see my signal drop when some fool would run over the flagging tape, knock over a dozen traffic cones and park their larger than school bus sized recreational vehicle right in front of my "Mickey Mouse Ears" antenna system. SatCom was a lot easier in that regard. After a week, there would be a path of dead birds and brown/red conifer tree in the distance....I did not like working LOS mode with those terminals. (Smarter birds would leave the area, it was always the robins and finches that were found dead, no eagles or crows.) Living in a pine forest then resulted in the development of UHF satellite communications, because, as you mentioned VHF has become saturated in many areas. VHF is cheap, but abundant, and I see that as well with UHF. UHF is also saturated (partially due to the proliferation of CCR's), and so is 900 MHz ISM band frequency hopping radios, as they were sold to every office and construction company in the region. That is also why I added a DTR410 to my suite of radios that I use to monitor local comms. All of this is driving many users to higher end and more selective radios though, which I see as a good thing. For GMRS, antenna height and quality can help, but so can a better radio. My minimum is Motorola CDM1550LS+ mobiles and HT750/1250 handhelds (but would use CDM1250's for mobiles if I owned any). It is all about the system or package, which can result in the system becoming more than its parts, if a person does not cheap out or cut corners. While CCR's may get people into the hobby, better gear will help, as will height and quality coax and antennas. Some of these forums have made me laugh with the justification of some of the worst RF emitters I have ever experienced, or lack of grounding, or lack of lightening protection with antennas/coax/towers/push up pipes connected to houses that would burn to the ground in a lightening strike. Pay attention to details, as those details may come back to bite you.....or you may get lucky and never have a problem.

I have a few n9tax antennas and have always had good results. Sent from my SM-A125U using Tapatalk

Congrats on the KG-1000G ! IMHO, the best mobile GMRS radio you can find today.. If you get a "UHF" antenna, you will have to cut it.. If you get any antenna that says "GMRS", you will not have to cut it. Although every different GMRS antenna has different specs, pretty much any GMRS antenna mounted properly on your (jeep??) will work just as well as any other since when you are on the trails you're generally not really talking very long distances.. No doubt some sad-GMRS user will quote a bunch of specs saying one antenna has better gain or lower loss, blah blah.. But in the real world, when on the trail you're not going to notice much difference so dont get too wrapped up on what the basement dwellers spew.

The pair of DLR 1060 is here, and I had a chance to play with them in suburban environment. The setting was simple: Operator1 is riding bicycle around, Operator2 is stationary at the BBQ table at public park. Communications were happening via a pair of TK-3170 and a pair of DLRs. TK-3170 were configured at wide-band full power (4W) with DPL. DLRs are on default setting: Channel 1, no PIN. So, the DLRs did not outshoot Kenwoods, but were not than much far behind. When we lost comms on DLRs, Kenwoods demonstrated a lot of white noise, and while squelch broke reliably and spoken words were 100% discernible, my experience tells me that we would lost comms via Kenwoods in about quarter of mile. Two experiments were performed. Experiment 1: Across the park, quarries and along the river bank with minimal obstacles. Trees are rare and foliage is not dense. Not exactly open field, but close. Comms failed when our line of sight started to go through the suburban subdivision. Distance was 1.75 miles. Experiment 2: Through dense suburban subdivision with 1- and 2-story homes on small lots. Comms failed at approx 0.75 miles. Unfortunately, I was not able to borrow better FRS radios like GXT1000 to make a direct comparison. But DLRs were not much worse than full-power TK-3170s, so they will leave FRS in the dust, especially crappier ones. DLR is seriously smaller and lighter than old brick TK-3170. It can sit in the front pocket of shorts and does not impede bicycle riding, while there is no way I can stuff 3170 into the pocket, it must be on the belt. Next test is in the mountains, but it's not going to happen soon because of some time constrains in the coming month. Besides, Operator2, colleague and friend, borrowed DLRs for their family outing over the weekend.

We are using Asterisk as the server (running on a raspberry pi 3) and the RTCM made by micro-node. Cheaper hardware solutions vs the RTCM are available but require other configuration. I have not used any of the other hardware so I wont touch on that. I chose the RTCM for its single unit design and application specific properties. The interfacing with the RTCM is rather simple, I went with the MTR2000 repeater for reliability, full duty cycle and used market availability. Our group hosts its own local node server (Asterisk running on a raspberry pi 3) with 6 repeaters connected to it. This local node also allows us access to the MyGMRS national linking network hosted by the owner of this site. By entering commands in Asterisk or using DTMF, links to other systems can be connected or disconnected on the fly. Things like usage counters and the visual map show links with red lines as well as what site is transmitting by changing its marker from green to red, all of this in real time. Its not as hard as it sounds, Rich from MyGMRS was a huge help, you can also find a linking thread in the private section here. Along the way I found a company that was able to build a custom cable for interfacing the MTR2000 with the RTCM, it provides a reliable solution that's repeatable and works flawless. The MTR2000 repeater can be configured to work with the RTCM rather simply using the repeaters wire-line card to handle the audio and the 96 pin J5 connector to pull ctcss, core, ptt and power. We are using the RTCM and MTR at 6 sites with a stand alone MTR at a 7th and could not be happier. These machines are worth every penny, its not 2 mobiles in a box its a true full duty cycle, commercial grade repeater. Due to the simplicity I have several more RTCM / MRT2000 combos ready to go I just need to fined a few more tower sites with internet. Hope this answers a few questions.

We are already doing it http://link.mygmrs.com Corey

Yeah... The VX8DR I mentioned above actually came with two "tips", a longer screw-on tip if one intended to use 6m.

Ignoring digital aspect, the discontinued Kenwood F6A and Yaesu VX8DR (US edition) also had 1.25m FM support. Though the Yaesu only ran it at low power (I suspect they couldn't really get the circuit and rubber duck to fully tune 6m, 2m, 1.25m, and 70cm as a non-blatant quad-band, and since the international version doesn't do 1.25m they rolled back power output to avoid damaging the final from antenna feedback). The only 1.25m I find in a recent HRO catalog is the Yaesu VX-6R tri-band FM, no YSF mode.