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"Clowns to the left of me, jokers to the right, here I am stuck in the middle with you" Could not pass that up, a little Steelers Wheel

$370, probably closer to $400 including coax and antenna, for a 2-watt five-channel transceiver, hard-wired into a vehicle that's parked 90% of the time, no repeaters, and arguably the smallest user base of all the radio services. Hard no. I'll stay with my GMRS and ham gear.

I was thinking of the same ?

Glad someone picked up what I was putting down. Though, I would've gone with "hams to the left of me, CBs to the right."

And here I am, stuck in the middle

@gortex2 the 03 is sharp, for sure. This was a deal I couldn't pass on and im very happy with it. I am also going to get a separate VHF unit to compliment this UHV model. I was using a MXT500, FTM300DR, and an FT891. The 891 will stay for now, but even at the age of these radios, they are way better than the new amateur radios on the market. Since the FCC has grandfathered in these radios, I'm going to use it as an opportunity to improve my mobile setup with something much more durable.

I've read commercial radios are much higher quality and recommended to those who can afford it and would like the benefit of a radio with better components. I also read it can be challenging to find software to program these radios but that some here can help with programming. My question is two-fold. 1. Is one brand easier to program than another? Ie-Kenwood vs Motorola 2. To get help with programming do I ship the radio to someone here or can they send me software and walk me through the process? Just learning how it all works.

OK, got some measurements. For GMRS frequencies, (462 - 468), it climbs steadily throughout the band. Starts at 1.2 @ 462, and rises to just under 2.0 @ 468. MURS is excellent across the band - starting at less than 1.5 @ 150 and dropping to around 1.25 @ 155. 2 meter is totally workable throughout the band, third picture below shows. 70cm is kind of all over the place, but lots of workable frequencies.

I wanted to share a quick video. I picked up another XTL5000 a few days ago. Got an amazing deal from a friend of mine on a complete system. I did a quick bench test and I am very happy with the power output. The receive sensitivity is amazing, too. I ran this on my bench for about an hour on GMRS and Ham and the unit is still cool to the touch. I am 100% replacing my gear in the Jeep with this.

Would this be considered as a "Race War" or a "Religion War"?

XTL is a solid little unit. I ran a VHF and UHF one in the JK until I swapped them for the APX. The W Series heads are nice but I prefer the 03 in my JT. Handheld controls seem to compliment the jeeps a little more.

Can you record what you’re hearing so we can hear?

Oh boy this is a subject that has been discussed at length but first let me address the repeater part of this. PL 141.3 is a common tone used for open repeaters, not restricted to any particular channel/frequency. I have all eight repeater channels programmed with this for travel. Not to be confused with the channel used for travel. Good practice to make sure the repeaters you may access doing this are indeed open. it’s easy enough to ask if you get on one and if not how to get permission. The generally accepted off road channel is 16 (4x4) and many have adopted 19 though others use 20 for highway. This has been debated to death and you won’t have to look hard to find much on the subject.

I'll take a solid pass. Way, way to much money, even though I'm positive it's a great radio. I used a pair of ICOM MURS handhelds and couldn't get 1 full statute mile out of them. Measured output was 1.2w on high. I sent my son the the school parking lot and he went out of range before he got there. Just for grins, I called out to him with my bullhorn and he could hear that. Could make out what I was saying, but he heard it, which was better than the radios. So, while you're mileage may vary, it's a whole lotta nope for me.

I agree with the others. A mobile MURS radio doesn't do anything that a good MURS handheld won't do. Either can be connected to the same external antennas, With a handheld all the controls are in your hand, a feature folks are willing to pay extra for in a mobile radio it would appear, It's possible that the KG1000M has a better receiver than an inexpensive MURS radio, but probably not much different than a decent handheld, 2 watts is 2 watts, regardless of form-factor, 5 channels is 5 channels, regardless of form-factor, If you just want a microphone in your hand, there are ones that plug into the handhelds. It's like they asked "What's a problem nobody has, so we can solve it?"

Ditto, I'd be happy to try them out if they wanted to ship me a couple MURS radios to test, but the reality is I have no real need that they (or MURS in general) meet that isn't already met with other gear I have ?

It’s 60 fps of Rick Astley in all his full 4K UHD remastered glory; sounds like you may need to download more RAM if you ask me: https://downloadmoreram.com

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..

Yeah, well at least these racks will give you a good ride when you're in the mood and won't complain about headaches.

Nice observation. Don’t let the SWR power reading mislead you. I have that same meter. The readings I get when using that meter with an antenna will at times appear as though less power is being put out and at times more power is being put out. However, when I replace the antenna with a purely resistive dummy load, that same meter has shown consistently that power of all my radios to be within a 1-5% of what the manufacturer’s rating is. One time I was using the meter with a 5-watt HT. Radio measured 4.9+ watts into the dummy load but about 8.9 watts into an antenna. Wow, big difference. Bottom line, don’t trust the power readings you get with that meter while using an antenna. Give the readings you obtain while using a dummy load more weight. After all, that is how the factory determines power too. Just a little nugget of experience for you. Hope it helps. Regards, Michael WRHS965 KE8PLM