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I'll have to dig for final pictures but here was the pictures from our "trial" unit. Pretty much all is the same other than we replaced the connectors on the ICOM with BNC (it was an orderable part from them) vs the adapter we used on this unit. For this one that was VHF that basically the only change we made. The UHF has a similar duplexer but in silver. That really the only way to know them apart without turning on the radios. I'd have to dig for the parts list as this was done back in 2013.

I’m gonna put up a repeater and make it a requirement that everyone must use a roger beep and the more annoying the better. We’ll hold contests! And it’ll be on channel 19. ?

Repeater Builder had some charts https://www.repeater-builder.com/antenna/separation.html

We have 2 repeaters for our SAR group based on portables. Both use modified ICOM handhelds (Swapped MX antenna jack for BNC Jack from ham radio. I used a very small duplexer made for 15 watts or less. They are controlled with a vox style controller that plug into the mic jacks. Battery eliminators on all radios with a 3AH Gel Cell mounted in the pelican case. VHF is 2.3 watts out to the antenna on high power. UHF is 3 watts out to the antenna. They work as intended but if they sold the RT97 at the time I would have ordered it. Both are in a small pelican case. That was part of our use case. We have a portable mast with 25' of LMR400 and Unity Gain antenna for each. 2 guys can walk up a trail with the case, antenna and cable and set it up on a hill to give us that extra range. It doesn't get used all the time, but the location it was built for works well. We are primarily VHF so the power is not perfect but is better than hauling our big repeater up to a site with a 6 wheeler. The UHF has only been used for training. Works good, but as said if I had the RT or Midland option at that point I would have gotten those. In the end we have about $1000 per Pelican Case. The radios were purchased on state contract for $299 each, Duplexer was $100, repeater controller was 100 and another $200 in battery, RF jumpers, bulkhead mount and charger for battery. We went with the ICOM LMR radio because we use public safety band, and to be honest they are way better than any CCR you will try. The receiver on the ICOM is very hot and is very narrow to the band in use.

I purchased a BTECH GMRS-V2 this week via the BTECH Store on Amazon. I was pleasantly surprised to find a USB-C connector on the bottom of the battery (BL-8). I haven't done a full discharge/recharge yet but it seems to work and signals that it is charging. The battery flashes green briefly when plugging it in to USB and goes red to show that it is charging. It lights up with both USB-A->USB-C and USB-C->USB-C. It seems to charge on and off of the radio which is a nice feature if you have spare batteries. I may have just missed it, but I can't seem to find this discussed anywhere in documentation or reviews. Maybe a new feature that BTECH has not announced yet? I have 2 BTECH MURS-V1s that are a couple years old now, the BL-8 batteries that came with those do not have the port. I know some folks look for USB charging capability so they don't have to deal with a cradle, this is a really nice improvement to these radios if they are rolling this into the battery as standard going forward. I would guess YMMV if there is still mixed stock out in distribution.

We have two repeaters that cover virtually all of Southern California and the use of roger-beeps is very strongly encouraged.. This discourages "some people" from using the repeaters making for a more pleasant repeater experience for everyone. One of the repeaters also has it's own roger-beep.

Found a specific place to put a base antenna near a window. Again, a few inches either way makes all the difference, but at the moment everything is good. RG-8 for 12 feet, and an 18" thin cable adapter for the handheld.

Hey guys, many thanks for the assistance. Time to return it.

It’s six weeks old. Send it in for warranty replacement.

I have a friend living in a retirement community. He took a 70CM base antenna, stashed it inside the top of his fiberglass flag mast and burried the coax about 10’ to his garage. He has been running his repeater for over a year and works great.

How effective are antennas in attics. Using 50w Wouxun 1000g. Antenna cable is approx. 30' long. At present it is reaching a repeater around 30 miles.(straight shot)condo restrictions require antenna to be hidden.

I found a list of Railroad frequencies from a massive pre-programmed code plug for the Wouxun KG-UV9X and I turned them into a CSV file for you: Railroad Channels.csv

Just want to give you guys an update. I had time to go through the radio and did confirm it was a bad ceramic filter. I ordered new filters and just changed them today. It doesn't get any better than this, a $3.00 fix and 30 minutes to rip the radio down and hit it with the desoldering station. All working great and the recieve is hot. Thanks, guys, for all your help as it is much appreciated.

OK, let's see: I've checked it on my monitor Baofeng, a Motorola Talkabout, and the Radioddity DB-20G mobile unit in my car. I pick it up around my house and in various places in my town. I've compared the frequencies to local repeaters, and only one in the MyGMRS DB corresponds to either frequency. The one that *dooes* correspond has been around forever and is actively maintained (and identifies itself when the static is gone, etc...) It's hard to know if it's always the same thing, since I'm never running two radios at once, and I haven't done a systematized survey, but they*seem* to be a real transmissions...

https://signalstuff.com/products/ It's the same people behind hamstudy.org and examtools

I think that qualifies them as being cheap, stupid and dumb.

Cool, thanks! That's good enough; you don't need to dig for a BOM.

Hey there, I was thinking about this while sitting at work. Obviously half watt radios are not going to get very far, and an "emergency amatuer radio" that Transmits 100 watts on GMRS frequency is going to reach much farther. And line of sight has the biggest factor when it comes to the GMRS channels especially. But let's say a clear highway, completely straight, or even a field completely flat, was to he utilized. How far does that Half Watt Walmart FRS Radio transmit? 1 mile? 3 miles for the horizon? 35 miles to a mountain? How far does the 25 watt go? 50? How much does it matter for How much juice you're getting? It's not like amatuer where you get 1500 watts. Does 5-50 really change alot?

Both of the statement above, by @KAF6045 and @OffRoaderX are correct. The rest of my post is useless except as a geeky point of interest. There is a calculation that can be done to determine theoretical loss at given distance, but it assumes perfect conditions, i.e. "Free Space." That could useful for establishing an absolute outer limit for distance. Great for space travel. The equation looks like this: d is the distance between the receiving antenna and transmitting antenna. f is the frequency in Hertz c is the speed of light in the same units your distance is in. Gt is the gain of the transmitting antenna Gr is the gain of the receiving antenna Here's a calculator built to use it: https://www.pasternack.com/t-calculator-fspl.aspx

The official answer is "It depends" ...

So other than the Bridgecomm I can say for 100% none of the new repeaters I linked are 2 mobile radios inside a box. They are full blown repeaters. This is why I posted those repeaters. If Bridgecomm is 2 mobiles inside they don't talk about that in the programming of the repeater. You hook up the cable and program the code plug in the repeater per their video here on their site. I realize there are many "mobile" based repeaters that can be built and are even sold however the repeaters I linked are true repeaters. Many folks don't have the technical ability to assemble multiple radios so that's why I put the links here. I realize there are many "mobile" based repeaters that can be built and are even sold however the repeaters I linked are true repeaters. Many folks don't have the technical ability to assemble multiple radios so that's why I put the links here.

+1 on slightly used Motorola XPR8300/8400 repeaters. These can often be had from Sunny Communications with a duplexer for a very reasonable price. They also have the Aeroflex/Viavi test equipment to make sure they work before selling them.

Definitely - the CCR's (Inexpensive radios using Direct Conversion single chip design) have sensitive but not selective receivers (ie: Wide open to any and all other nearby transmitters). Those types of inexpensive radios have receivers that are easily overpowered due to their lack of filtering. You would be MUCH better off to buy a used LMR radio that has a really good specs for selectivity and sensitivity. Decent used LMR stuff is available at less than $100 per radio - especially when you don't care about the transmit power. At 20 ft of vertical separation, you would still need some type of a bandpass cavity for the receiver. Get more than 30 ft. and your difference between the transmit and receive coverage begins to get out of hand, not to mention the cost of getting a real sturdy mast that can stay up at over 50 ft. - just so your lowest antenna is still 20 ft. off the ground. There's a chart out there on the internet that's been posted here before, showing the differences in vertical vs. horizontal separation needed to achieve certain levels of isolation. As I remember it, 15 ft. of vertical isolation was equivalent to about 1000 ft. of horizontal. In other words, horizontal is not practical at all.

The aluminum tape idea is great. I have experienced many magnet mounts being thrown away before anyone had a look under that mylar. In Hawaii I took some off and saw that every mount had the center conductor corroded off underneath. I ended up re-soldering them and putting them back into service. Well, at least the ones that were not too corroded apart in other areas as well. These were mostly Laird brand. A co-worker used gutter tape (tar and foil based) available at the big box home improvement store across the street from Pier 34 in Honolulu.

When I scan frequencies I never add a tone to them just so I can hear it all. I can find the tone after I hear it if I want to talk back.

For me I monitor 675/141.3 when traveling only because that is our SAR repeater frequency for years (back to the react days). When around town or my repeaters my radios sit on my repeater. When in the Jeep we scan as the rides use a different channel every trip. I would say 90% of the conversations we hear in the jeeps are channel 1 or 2.

I wouldn't even attempt with anything less that 20'. If your using CCR stuff double that as the don't have the filtering to handle it.

Thanks for making me aware of this radio. I had similar requirements as the OP and this radio checks all my boxes. As a side note the specs also list it as being "MILSPEC vibration and shock compliant". A nice feature for hiking/back country use. I bought 4 and am considering a couple more for backup.

25+ Years ago, Motorola offered a low power Systel repeater that was just 2 watts, and was designed to offer repeater service combined with telephone interconnect for small warehouses, retirement homes, and factories. Inside the box, it was just 2 GP300 portables, a controller, and cooling fans. They worked, but they didn't last. Most got replaced within 5 years with a "real" repeater. I'll repeat what was said above. A duplexer saves you time, trouble, and money. If you're going to use a split antenna system, you're still going to need cavity filters to make it work properly. Unless you've already got the 2 antennas, the double lengths of coax, and the cavity filters, you're spending more money just to "save" on a duplexer. A properly tuned duplexer "eats" less than 2dB for a UHF system with a 5 MHz split. If you've been paying attention here, you should know that transmit power out is not the limiting factor in most repeater systems. People chase transmit power because they think it's what makes a repeater better. Balance is what makes a repeater system better. Duplexers provide balance.

I agree with @Sshannon a return shouldn’t be a problem. Sorry we couldn’t help. I tried to recreate the problem but nothing I did caused the issue. Let us know how it goes.

Sure, and I’ve seen people who want to impress others match a great audio system with crappy lightweight speakers. Some people spend money on the stuff they have to look at and neglect it on the parts that are out of view. People are funny sometimes. But nobody should be shamed for refusing to pay $150 for a Bluetooth microphone with crappy reviews. ?

NO actually he's NOT. I have seen more than one setup where the radio and antenna system was a combined total of over 10K and they used RG-8X coax to connect it. That was ONE. Second was a big ICOM, huge money. Reused cable that the braid was showing connected to a Yagi that was missing elements. Thought the expensive radio would compensate for the broke ass antenna. It didn't.

I currently have a DMR radio and will be getting a P25 radio shortly. I'm in the Dayton area and got connected to the P25 group here so I'm going to work through their programming guide and see if I can get up and running on that system.

Vertically or horizontally? It’s easiest to separate them vertically, in which case they don’t need horizontal separation.

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I've pealed off the Mylar on a bunch of magnet mounts. A good replacement is using some of the aluminum duck tape you can buy at the home improvement store. It sticks like crazy and is easy to trim off using a sharp blade. Also being aluminum it helps couple the antenna to the metal roof.

I don't think that the word "cheap" is appropriate to your example.

I call BULLSHIT - just another Sad-HAM disguised as a GMRS user. YOUR radio YOUR choice - if the sad-HAM control freaks dont like it, they can change the channel.. HOWEVER - as you mentioned, if the repeater owner requests that you not use a roger-beep on his repeater, then following the wishes of the equipment owner who's equipment you are using would be the polite thing to do, IMO..

Something else I "need" to have. I also wish more radios could be had with a handheld remote control head like this as well. Thank you for posting the link, I may have to spend some money myself.

In the Pacific Northwest, pretty much every major city has GMRS repeaters, often linked via Internet, or some amateur group with a UHF repeater in use. UHF is virtually saturated, and 900 MHz ISM band radios even proliferated for a while to get away from the FRS/GMRS and commercial UHF crowd. It often hampers or assists in my testing of Radio over Internet Protocol kits I build for my employer, to be sent around the country to link sites to a "Global Security Operations Center" in a central location. Having amateur, GMRS and commercial licenses means that I am on several forums, to include this one. This forum has a nice welcome feel to it, but also some of the same issues other sites have.....one upmanship, and sometimes outright arguments, but also a great deal of information from people that actually use their equipment. In my own experience, I would rather see pictures posted o people using their gear, posting to forums, making contact with other users. On that note, local GMRS community and forums like this help a lot. Especially after the FCC changes to GMRS in 2017, more people have become licensed (and not having to take a test probably helps with this). The fact that an entire family can use the same call sign, cost of license (now anyway, I paid $70), and being valid for ten years, means GMRS and my local community has grown its footprint a bit. I agree that GMRS appears to be a middle ground between the chaos with AM CB and amateur radio, with a bit more inclusivity in forums and users within the community. A much larger radio related site I frequent often results in arguments about how some commercial gear should be set up, HAM radio "police" dictating the legality of everything, and an attitude that if you do not know as much as someone else, you should stay away. It should also be noted that many communities that have Community Emergency Response Teams (CERT), often begin their training with blister pack FRS/GMRS radios (pre-2017 style radios), which was a great introduction to radio use in emergencies and within their respective communities.

A lot of Hams, many won’t publicly admit it, have their VHF/UHF Ham rigs with the MARS/CAP mod for the same reason. Oh, on VHF some have the marine channels programmed in too.

Not to reopen a can of worms but this seems like a scenario where a duel band receive (and TX) radio with GMRS and MURS would be handy… I know it’s not allowed.

From personal experience, in forest 2m (and MURS) is much better than 70cm (and GMRS). It is so much better that the difference in power between GMRS and MURS (4W vs 2W) does not make for the difference in propagation. In rocky canyons and mountains GMRS will hold the small edge over MURS because of better reflection and other wave effects. I still use GMRS for camping trips for a simple reason: the 40W mobile radio in a car at a campsite overshoots both GMRS and MURS handhelds by a wide margin, and it also hears better than handheld because of better receiver and more efficient antenna. With operator at campsite (or simplex repeater) you greatly extend the range of your GMRS handhelds, which is not possible with MURS. Simplex repeaters appear to be forbidden, so I only deploy it (configured to not pollute air when not needed) when far away from civilization.

As sophisticated as the radios are becoming I just wished they would do one with voice commands. They have that now with the systems in modern cars. Then second thing is provide an option to plug in a mobile radio to the communication network in the car so the ubiquitous info screen can be used to replace the front panel on the radio. Then you can stash the radio body out of sight and not screw around running cables all over the place, drilling holes etc. to mount it or the remote head. In place of that more manufactures can do what Anytone has done with the D578 buy offering a BT remote. It's about the size of a cell phone. I have one on order for mine. https://powerwerx.com/anytone-bt01-bluetooth-mic-d578uv

Perhaps, but I hear lots of kids on Channel 1 probably using their FRS radios on default Channel 1. Channels 15-22 allow for a maximum 50 watts on simplex so long as no repeater in the area is using it as the output frequency.

Apparently, if you join RadioReference.com for a short period of time, you download Railroad scanner frequencies in either pdf or csv formats: RadioReference Railroad download RadioReference.com Railroads Source page

If the CPS for a radio supports importation of a CSV file you might be able to export from Chirp to a CSV file (assuming that Chirp exports), and then reformat the file to work with your CPS.

The digital modes like FT8 and JS8call have me interested... QRP DX around the world for the price of a modified soundcard / transceiver. There is so much censorship online, that radio seems like a good way to bypass fake narrative frameworks.

I have one right here on my desk.. It's a nice upgrade the the UV9G.. The release has been delayed due to supply chain/shipping issues, but it should be available soon (my GUESS is 30-60 days, but this is only a guess).. Some new stuff on the UV9Gx: theme able color schemes much brighter LED flashlight stiffer knobs can receive down to 219Mhz more power control settings for better battery life a priority channel button, pre-set to the official highway channel, CH19 more pre-programmed frequenicies and most important a ROGER BEEP .................affiliate link below.. Oops.. sorry.. bad habit.