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Showing content with the highest reputation on 12/14/22 in all areas

  1. 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!
    1 point
  2. The main problem is finding a repeater controller that will work with the equipment at hand. People will build a cheap repeater using a couple of HT's or a couple of mobile radios. A lucky few can afford a real purposely designed repeater with the required interface for a controller available. Most often there are no provisions for access to a COR, carrier operated relay, etc. so the builder ends up hacking the radios to gain access to necessary signals. When the builder's family are the only users then simply cross coupling the mic and audio outputs, with VOX enabled, is sufficient for basic functioning, because at least no ID is required. I picked up a simple interface box to do the cross coupling between two HT's, with VOX contol, to experiment with a cross-band repeater for Ham use. A simple duplexer like the below is sufficient to get the isolation at a 5 watt level. https://mfjenterprises.com/products/mfj-916bn#description https://www.buytwowayradios.com/surecom-sr-628.html
    1 point
  3. No, he said he couldn’t tell the difference between the Wouxun XS20G or 935G SOC radios and superheterodyne radios, but he could tell a big difference between the Wouxun SOC radios and cheaper SOC radios. Therefore he would also be able to tell a big difference between superheterodyne radios and the cheaper SOC radios.
    1 point
  4. The requirement for repeater identification is one that many people have argued about quite passionately, even here on MyGMRS, but the requirement is clearly written. It’s just as KAF6045 says, a GMRS repeater must be identified and the only exception is when the only people using the repeater are family members authorized to identify themselves using the call sign of the repeater’s owner (and who do so). It’s every person’s personal decision whether they comply or not.
    1 point
  5. If you're focused on getting 'max power' out for Transmit, then I need to ask, what are you talking to on the other end? If you've got 4 or 5 watt portables, transmitting at 25 watts (and setting aside any antenna system gain/loss for a moment) creates an imbalanced system at best - and generates a bunch of unnecessary interference to your own receiver at worst. In other words, if you can transmit out 15 miles, but your portables can only talk back in from 5 miles, what have you accomplished? Balance to the system is the key. As gortex mentioned, filtering the receive side is probably more important, but most advertising will focus on the 'horsepower' number, because that's what sells. Any rookie will pick a 50 watt transmit over 25, because more MUST be better. It's just one number, and transmit power rarely tells the whole story, especially when it comes to repeater system performance. Losing 1.5 or 2 dB to gain 60 or 70 dB of isolation is a pretty good trade off, and if you put a bandpass cavity tuned to the receive frequency on the receive side of that cheap duplexer, you're going to pick up even more isolation without increasing any losses on the transmit side. I can tell you that my basic rule of thumb for a generic repeater is to shoot for double the power of the portables being used. You're well above that at 25 watts, and I'm not aware of too many low cost repeaters that will do an actual 100% duty cycle at 25 watts. There are plenty that will approach 100% duty at 10 watts with a good cooling fan. Until you've got a quality receiver with decent filtering on the receive side of the system, it really doesn't matter how much power your transmitter has. Isolation, selectivity, and sensitivity are all more important than raw transmit power when you're looking at a repeater system.
    1 point
  6. I've had 3 different repeaters over the last two years: DIY 2 KG-1000Gs Retevis RT97 Vertex VXR-7000 All using the same ~$120 Tram 1486 base antenna and 75 feet of LMR400 coax The two KG-1000Gs was the most expensive (~$875) and had the most power - but it was also the most unwieldy and issue-prone The RT97 was a much more compact package, and was the least expensive (~$400), but only output about 4-5watts after the duplexer and has a limited duty-cycle The Vertex VXR-7000 (what I currently use) is by far the best solution. I paid $500 for mine (used), it puts out ~25 watts after the duplexer and it can be used 24/7 (100% duty cycle) - But because of its age its a bit of a pain to program/get set up. My recommendation, based on my experience, would be to try and get a good used commercial repeater (like the VXR-7000) OR an RT97. Next month another company will be releasing a new GMRS repeater very similar to the RT97 but easier to configure - but i'm not allowed to talk about that yet.. So you might want to wait and see if that one works better for your needs.
    1 point
  7. Is it used to turn on or off simultaneously receiving? One of the features of the 935 is its ability to receive two channels at once. Maybe this turns that off.
    1 point
  8. I have both the KG-UV9P and the KG-UV9G, and using the same cable I've used for my Baofeng and TYT handhelds, I've been able to successfully read from both Wouxon radios with Chirp using the KG-UV9D profile. I haven't tried writing anything to the KG-UV9G, but I had no problem writing to the KG-UV9P.
    1 point
  9. It's useful only if you have a real need to monitor two separate frequencies simultaneously, which I definitely must have. With "dual watch" if one frequency is in use, it will stop the "dual watch" and you very well could miss any traffic on the other frequency. With "dual band" on the other hand, you will never miss any traffic on either frequency, although you might need to quickly lower volume on the receiver you don't need to listen to!
    1 point
  10. Looks like a nice radio. What I like about it is the receiver is a true superheterodyne design. I haven't been impressed with the performance of the cheaper "radio on a chip" types that all seem to use the ubiquitous RDA1846S, or some variant of it. You get what you pay for. The D878-UV analog/DMR radio, which isn't cheap, I think uses the chip but seems to perform better than I would expect. I think the design uses a tracking filter on the receiver front end to help eliminate the nasty image responses you get with the radio on a chip design.
    1 point
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