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SUCCESS!!! This software creates code plugs that are unencoded XML. I used my HEX editor to change the TRANSMIT frequency on Channel 19 to the INPUT frequency for Repeater Channel 19R and used the BF-T11 software to enter the ENCODE CTCSS tone and now I have confirmed at home that these handy little units can transmit and receive on the 5 MHz split! Now 2 watts is not enough for me to actually access my local repeater from inside my home, but later today when I go driving closer to this repeater, I will confirm that this will actually allow me access to this 650 Repeater:

No, they’re advertised as “50 watts maximum transmit power”, meaning they are limited to 50 watts. They’re not guaranteed to transmit 50 watts. Here the page: https://www.buytwowayradios.com/wouxun-kg-1000g.html Further to the point made by everyone who has responded to you, the “Power Requirements” section states “13.8VDC +/-15%”. A car’s voltage regulator is set to put out 13.8 volts while the engine is running (+/- some tolerance) in order to constantly charge the battery. A battery in a car that is not running will only have 12.7 volts or so. More to the point, the FCC limits mobile GMRS transmitters to 50 watts output. That limitation must be obeyed under any circumstances, including when your car is running. Thus, mobile radios are adjusted to transmit up to their maximum transmit power when the car is running and allowed to sag somewhat when running on straight battery power. That’s the real life scenario.

See attached files. 14641445_GroundingTipsfortheShack.pdf 203345484_LightningProtectionGroundingSolutionsforCommunicationSites.pdf

Let also not forget the expense repeater operators go through to construct and maintain a repeater! I'm not talking about a couple KG-1000 mobiles with an amazon duplexer, rather a full blown commercial grade, wide area, repeater at a tower site that may or may not have rental fees. It's not cheap by any stretch, and if a repeater operator wants to ban someone, they have every moral and legal right to do so. Be thankful most of us simply do it for free and only ban troublemakers.

To follow-up with what Stone said, if you are going to put a grounding system in with spike/surge protection, it needs to be perfect or you are just improving your odds of getting struck and having stuff get broken by making a better grounded lightning attracter. During lightning season, I just disconnect the cables and toss them on the ground when the radio is not in use. I never lost anything but a single antenna and transmission line due to an indirect lightning strike. Zero damage to the house or anything else around the antenna. I guess the point of my story is, execute with perfection or don't waste your time.

I'm not so much a Midland hater per say, but I'd say I was a little disappointed with my MXT-275 as well. I didn't have any real problems with it until I realized it was stuck in narrow band, and that it could not do split tones (I had the pre-c port version). One of our best repeaters in my area used DCS split tones, so that was a bummer. As I became more involved with GMRS, I quickly outgrew the radio and wanted more features, so I sold it to a fellow jeeper that just wanted a radio for simplex coms.

We use the Garmin radios when we’re out searching for rockets. We can see each other’s locations (simplex) in real time on a topo map. In the event of a medical emergency (this is hilly terrain) we can find each other quickly. Having a uhf channel sending APRS (or any kind of location data) is definitely not useless.

Well, I think it's pretty cool. I got my wife and I a pair of Motorola T801s for a cruise we took in southern Europe, and being able to text with each other in five different countries without having to buy phone service was actually phenomenal. We've used them camping when out of cell/wifi contact for significant time, too. The best part? I did all the pairing and programming, and then I just had to show her how to turn it on and hang it on the back of her bag. All the rest was on the phone that's already glued to her hand anyway! (It *was* challenging to deal with her frustration with not having perfect, 100% connection, but it still got the job done)

yah... About that......

For as limited as they are, my BF-888s are still in use.

Thanks for the feedback, it just arrived yesterday and I’m really impressed. The build quality and functionality is night and day from the other baofengs I mentioned. I’m hitting a repeater from about 20 miles away through thick woods and suburbs with the help of a na- 771G and a little elevation with my office being on the second story of my home and my area being very flat (note the authentic 771G is outperforming the 15.6 inch 771 clone that came with it for GMRS when I compare the two). I can believe this thing only cost $50. I have the UT72-G on my truck and it’s a lot better reception compared to using the 771G on mobile. I have not done any tests on actual wattage or SWR but compared to the other Baofengs on the same antenna it’s shooting a stronger signal with clearer transmission. don’t sleep on this radio.. it’s not like other HTs. only downside I’m seeing so far is that I don’t love the buttons (they seem a little firm, but will hopefully loosen up) and the battery (2200 mah) does seem to be consumed quickly when transmitting. That said I don’t have a good frame of reference compared to other HTs (seems like you would get about 3-5hrs transmitting on high) but keep in mind at this price you get two batteries. Note: I’m using the chirp like programming software from the baofeng.co.uk site made for the exact model and it works really well with the added benefit of teaching you Chinese through the menus -- I now know the symbols for “get phone data” and “write to phone”

I agree. We should all care. Bad rules weaken respect for rules overall. For that reason we should all point out bad rules so that good rules, which I do fully support, are obeyed. Any rule for which noncompliance cannot be detected is a bad rule.

I understand the regulation. It’s stupid.

I decided to go on the cheap end of things with my antenna only. I tried ordering a Comet antenna for GMRS and of course, the company must have jumped on the "Shortage" bandwagon. I checked high and low and could not find a Comet antenna anywhere. So I settled for a Harvest BC200-U which claims to be tuned for the GMRS band, absolutely no tuning needed. Well, after having the issues and reading more reviews, that is a lie. My antenna wasn't even close to being ok on the GMRS band, at least for the repeater input. The 462MHz portion was around a 1.6:1 SWR. 467MHz was around a 2.5:1 SWR or higher. So I took it apart and found a very poor design. The spots where the pieces connected together were pinched together with these little brass pieces. About 2/3 of the way up was a split in the radiator where 2 ceramic capacitors were soldered, bridging the gap to the upper part. They use pieces of foam to keep the radiator from smacking around inside and one of the pieces was loosely wrapped around the capacitors and glued in place causing it to rip the capacitors apart with even a slight touch wiggling the foam. The capacitor on the lower coil was not even glued in place. So, I did a bunch of experimenting to get the antenna to resonate on the GMRS band. I had another antenna that was specifically set on 466MHz and I decided to copy that design which was very similar to the harvest antenna design. The difference was that the other antenna didn't use capacitors and it didn't have a loading coil at the bottom. I removed all of the capacitors off of the harvest antennas and just put pieces of copper wire to connect straight through. I soldered all the joints on the radiator to make them more electrically secure. At the bottom of the antenna where the main radiator connects in it has a set screw evidently for tuning. I trimmed the whole radiator down until it came into an acceptable range (sorry, I cannot tell you how much I cut off because I was pretty flustered at this point after having to do so much soldering and unsoldering) and I put the antenna back together. I made a coax choke out of RG8U coax (wound 4 times in a 2.5" diameter) and placed that below the antenna and connected my coax into it. I now have an antenna with less than a 1.4:1 SWR across the band from 462.55-467.725MHz. The performance of this antenna didn't really change. The only thing that was noticed is that coverage is slightly better in spots where it was dead or static. So, UNLESS you happen to own an antenna analyzer or know someone who does, and you are smart with antennas, I would not purchase this antenna. It DOES work pretty decent once modified, but for the plug and play person who just wants to set up GMRS and talk, I would NOT recommend it. It is cheaply made compared to other commercial antennas. BUT if you are on a budget and have the knowledge and equipment, you can make it work. I have included a picture of my antenna analyzer for proof on the reading AFTER I made modifications. I get on average 2.5-5 miles on simplex (not using a repeater) at 45 watts. I have to include in here that I live in Maine in a low spot directly at the base of a hill that immediately goes up 100 more feet. I am at around 310 feet above sea level with hills spreading out from me going up as high as 1,000 feet but also including valleys in with that, so what happens is that my signal will travel down these valleys pretty far but once a tall hill is hit, my signal is not reaching over the other side at all.

I'll bite! Well, since GMRS/FRS is meant to be "easy to use" I'd say replicate what the DTR radios on the 900mhz band are doing. Set a 16-bit or 20-bit pseudo random FHSS sequence and have them hop in the upper 12.5kHz of every wideband GMRS channel, and use the whole 12.5kHz for the FRS channels. IMO. it doesn't get any simpler than that. Eiter 65k channels, or 1M channels, depending on 16 or 20 bit for the random FHSS sequence. G.

First, I'm sorry if this comes off as cross, however the way you had typed and worded this message promotes the air of "I want it therefore it should be given to me" type of attitude, which to many repeater owners, translates to abuse of equipment they paid for and maintain. Everyone has a gripe, its discussion of the concern or issue in an adult manor that brings some form of resolution or at very least a little more respect for you as a person. Now second, if you have read the FCC rules that you agreed to, you will find the following: 47 CFR 95.1705 (D) Individual Licensee Duties, The holder of an individual license: (2) May allow any person to use (i.e., benefit from the operation of) its GMRS repeater, or alternatively, may limit the use of its GMRS repeater to specific persons; (3) May disallow the use of its GMRS repeater by specific persons as may be necessary to carry out its responsibilities under this section. Another words, as a repeater owner, I have the authority to refuse access to users who fail to follow FCC rules, or fail to follow rules I have set for the use of the repeater (Including collection of any club fees associated with maintaining said repeater/repeaters) or if you conduct yourself in a way that may be harmful or interfering of any communications through said repeater. I have banned people for prolonged "key up" times where they were intentionally jamming the repeater in hopes of damaging the unit. I also banned a user who tried to tell me I had to pay him for the use of the repeater I had bought and set up. This means that when you contact the FCC, they will likely ignore you, or if you do get a response, it'll likely be "The system owner has legal authority to restrict the systems use to specific individuals."

So the message he showed is not an APRS message but looks more like a modified version which would make sense being it would need licensed to baojunk. APRS works well in the ham band and works for what it is. Again someone is trying to bring more ham radio into GMRS. I just dont get that fascination. In reality APRS uses a huge network of digipeaters so having a simplex UHF channel sending APRS is about useless.