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I paid about $99 for my Tram 1486 which is on one section (9 feet) of a telescoping flagpole, attached to the chimney, no guy-wires. I get about 50 miles of farz and have not worried about it since I put it up 2 years ago, making it, by definition, a "worry free" base antenna. I use it as both a repeater antenna and as a base-station (simplex) antenna.

Some radios I had luck hex editing the code plug to put in frequencies the software ordinarily wouldn’t allow. I had a buddy gifted me 3 two channel Kenwood ProTalk radios he had kicking around his shop ready for the trash bin. They were worthless for Ham use since there was no way to enter non approved frequencies into them there the radio buttons or programming software he could find http://www.vincentcom.com/pdf/KENWOODPDF/TK-3200.pdf Those you can only select from a list of hard coded frequencies in the programming software or in the radios firmware. Of course none of them were in the ham band or GMRS. After a bit of digging around with a hex editor I was able to put in the local GMRS wide area coverage repeater on one memory slot and the GMRS simplex travel channel on the other memory slot directly in the code plug. Now at least they’re useful for something. Other radios one might can hack the code plug to put them on frequencies they weren’t originally intended to use.

What are you using to measure the power output? Do you know it's an accurate measurement? Do you have a way to measure frequency stability and frequency center if you start changing power levels? What do you wish to accomplish by raising the power, other than to reach the "maximum allowed"? Raising the power on a smaller repeater generally increases the heat being generated, and reduces the duty cycle of the repeater. Many smaller repeaters were advertised as being 50% or even 100% duty cycle at high power, but in reality they don't last when you run them at full power for more than a few minutes at a time. I won't get started on the overkill concept of using a 50 watt repeater to talk to 5 watt portables. Sometimes less is more. I'd rather have 5 watts ERP at 100 ft. above average terrain than 50 watts at 10 ft. Not exactly the answer you were asking for, but hopefully something to think about.

I bet that was "Auto Repair Randy" in Salton City! He's always monitoring that repeater.. We chat every time i go 4X4ing anywhere in the area.

While I was traveling back from a car club driving tour outing up in the San Jacinto Mountains to the Resort where my car club is holding a week long National Convention, I came upon a multi-car traffic collision with the road almost completely blocked in a blinding curve, on State Route 74, between Palm Desert and Idyllwild, and I noticed several people trying to use their cellular telephone probably trying to report the collision. I assumed they were not having any success because we were in a cellular dead zone which was several miles long. I did not stop to check on injuries because there was no safe place to pullover since it was a narrow mountain road with essentially no shoulders. I continued on hoping to see some bars on my cell phone. Fortunately, I had both my portable and mobile GMRS units with me and I attempted to make contact with another station that could relay the incident to the California Highway Patrol. I knew there were two repeaters in the area so I tried Coachella Valley Repeater and called out in the blind asking if any station would relay the incident to the CHP. A station in the Salton City Area answered up and relayed the incident and came back to tell me he was successful in making contact with the CHP. I signed off and continued my drive back to La Quinta It pays to have a GMRS Radio as an additional means of communications to report emergencies to public safety agencies. Also, it pays to be prepared and know the GMRS system in the area you are traveling in and have your radio units programmed accordingly just in case. This was the “just in case”.

I took another trip from CA to TX. My wife was with me this time so I didn't geek out as much as I usually do. I had programmed all the GMRS repeaters along the route into my KG-935G+ as well as all of the 2m repeaters. I had my Yaesu VX-6R with me as well. My route avoided most large cities. I scanned all of the GMRS repeater and simplex frequencies, along with 2m, 70cm repeaters and call freqs. I heard a little 2m and GMRS repeater traffic in the CA central valley and then didn't hear anything until KIngman, AZ. I heard 2m traffic there. There was a little GMRS/FRS traffic in Flagstaff. I didn't hear anything else until I got to Central TX. I was on FM roads so that is no surprise. My destination was Beaumont, TX, where my youngest daughter lives. There was quite a bit of 2m traffic there as well as a GMRS repeater in the Beaumont area owned and operated by a GMRS club. I had joined the club last year to get access to their repeaters. One reason I like the 935G is I can listen to railroad frequencies. My path half way across the country was along major rail lines. So I had one radio just scanning those frequencies all the time. I heard a lot of train stuff which I enjoyed. It is interesting to hear a train crew talking to a dispatcher in the middle of the Mojave desert. On the way back I-40 in Flagstaff was funneled to one lane and the traffic was stopped. I called out on a 2m repeater and a GMRS repeater and got no response. I heard a couple of people talking on GMRS and talked to them and it turns out the were using FRS radios in a campground. It was a good trip. The addition of scanning RR frequencies was fun. My wife even got to the point that when she heard the EOT (end of train) signal she would start looking for the train. Enjoy your radios, they can make roads trips more fun even if you don't talk to anyone.

DB404 is $500 alone. Add in shipping and hardline and connectors and your at $1000 really quick. As said its all about budget. I know alot of folks use the Ed Fong and rave about them. Personally I think they are junk but up to you. The FG Series Laird antenna is a good all around base antenna. Some good LMR and a FG will work well for a basic base radio. If simplex is your plan then thats a good option.

My guess is that the original post was simply to "stir the pot", which it succeeded in doing, but in case it's a serious post, the general public has at its disposal, with some subject to licensing, the following: 40 channels of CB radio frequencies, including AM, FM, USB and LSB. 5 channels of MURS frequencies. 22 channels of FRS / GMRS frequencies. An additional 8 GMRS channels, which also allow for repeater use. A wide spectrum of UHF, VHF, and HF frequencies allotted to amateur radio. With that much of the RF spectrum, and that many options, Is there any reason to "violate Rules & Regulations" by transmitting where you ought not to, other than the notion of getting away with something?

Thanks for the replies. I tested the power output with a Bird wattmeter. The repeater for now isn't in use, until I can figure out the CWID problem. Seems that some of these FR4000's will tx a cwid and some don't. I'm not real concerned with increasing the output power. I was just more curious if it was really that easy or if it would harm the radio. I'm still playing around with it. My antenna (DB404) for now is as high as I can possibly get it (about 40'), without getting a tower (and a divorce) and it's being fed with Andrew Heliax ldf4-50a

No problem, light hearted is how I read it. When I got the KG-935G+, I searched for hours for ways to open it up, and no dice. I ended up getting my amateur license (I wanted to anyways) and purchased a Wouxun KG-UV9D Mate, and opened that one up to include GMRS. Problem solved lol

The "best" is one that works well & fits your budget. Are you looking to work simplex to local portables? Mobiles? Or, do you just want to communicate through distant (or local) repeater(s)? If it's through a repeater, do you want to work multiple repeaters in different compass directions? Or, just one specific repeater? How far away are the repeaters you want to work? Any issues of terrain? 75 miles in Kansas is a probably a different solution than 25 miles in the foothills of Colorado. The answers to those questions would likely change the suggestions you are going to get, and you might want to put up a budget range or limit to define the dollars you'd intend to spend. I've seen people work a repeater with a paperclip for an antenna. I've also seen guys working earth-moon-earth contests. Those are probably the 2 extremes you could fall between.

Well yeah. Better?

It was meant as light hearted sarcasm. Something that fails when typing. It is my favorite GMRS radio.

The BTECH GMRS-V2 has full memory control. Sent from my SM-A136U using Tapatalk

In my case it wasn't so much a lot of redundancy as upgrading equipment (baofeng to ft4x to ft5d), and chasing bands and modes, and some of it that single band LMR gear...DMR/MotoTrbo and P25 in both VHF and UHF, C4FM, wanting in-built APRS, plus 1.25, 6m, and 33cm. With antennas, it's been more chasing functionality, or adapting to limitations. i am finding myself wanting to pare down a little, though...start shifting some of the stuff for projects that never got off the ground. when i really dove into the hobby, everything was shut down, so antenna heights weren't an issue, as office days started up again, i had to either get used to folding the antenna every time, or swapping out (and finding one short enough to work), and later relocating with new limitations. It has kind of come in handy as i shuffle equipment between vehicles, though....the antenna that was slightly too long on the truck will be a good fit on the better half's car, and can be joined by the compact radio that was in the now-departed beater, without needing to purchase new gear.

Hey folks. I have had a small group of people ask me about tones and GMRS/FRS basics in the past week. I figured I would take one of the conversations here and share it for people new to the service. Hopefully it will help you understand Private Lines, Privacy Tones, sub-channels, tones and squelching methods, in general. I am only covering the two most popular in GMRS and FRS, but there are many others available as you move into different radio services and technology. Before we get into what all that stuff is, lets talk about why it exists. Per NOAA and the US Census Bureau, the lower 48 states is approximately 3.1 million square miles. Also, 83% of Americans live on 10% of the total available square miles and 40% of all US citizens live on the east and west coast in counties touching oceans. Following this logic, about 500,000+ licensed and unlicensed operators (estimated by me) are sharing FRS and GMRS radio space, in roughly 310,000 square miles. So, how does 500,000 people in close proximity, sharing 22 channels, all use their radios at the same time without interfering with each other? Motorola brings you PL tones! Lets get this out of the way... regardless of what the manufacturers may tell you or how they label their products, there is no privacy. Period. Private Lines (PL), Privacy Tones, Sub-channels and any other name for the same service, does not stop people from hearing you, it stops you from hearing them. I know... seems like a day in Opposite World, but that's how it works. I suppose the first thing to do is explain what the PL tones really are, what the more common types are and what each of them do. A traditional squelch is a signal level squelch. Meaning, no audio will come out of the speaker until a strong enough signal is received. Then there are also user squelch types. With analog radios, the most common type of user squelch uses encoding called Continuous Tone-Coded Squelch System or CTCSS. This feature is defined as being used to reduce the annoyance of listening to other users on a shared two-way radio channel. So, as mentioned above, its not that you as a person speaking have any type of privacy, but rather you don't have to listen to everyone on the same frequency. Hopefully the third time is a charm. Many GMRS and FRS radios only have simple CTCSS functions called Tone Squelch, often displayed as TSQL on the screen when enabled. This means two things. One is, regardless of what you do with your squelch knob or set your RF squelch to, no audio will come out of the speaker unless the tone you selected is embedded in the signal you are receiving. The other thing it does is, when you transmit, what ever tone frequency you have programed gets transmitted with/in your signal to unlock or open the squelch of other radios configured the same way. There is another method of CTCSS called "split tone". This means that you can use one tone when you transmit and another for your receive. This comes in handy when repeater owners are trying to limit who can access the repeater, as higher cost radios typically have split tone capability, compared to poorly built and inexpensive radios that would be problematic on a repeater do not. Also, this makes it a bit more difficult to "discover" the input tone by using scanning tools. Another function of split tone CTCSS is that you can also set your radio to transmit a tone to unlock a repeater or other radio, but leave your receive tone set to null (nothing). When this mode is enabled, there is typically a display on the radio that either reads TN or TONE. That means you can bring up a repeater or unlock a radio squelch, but also hear everyone else regardless of what tones they are running, if any at all. This is actually a great feature for GMRS radios since Repeater Channels share FRS frequencies and GMRS simplex frequencies. So you can tell if the frequency is in use as well as being able to talk to others who many not be using the repeater. CTCSS is an analog squelching system. There is also a digital squelching system called Digital-Code Squelch or DCS. It has similar use cases as CTCSS, but it is sending digitally embedded numeric codes instead of a sub-audible tone. I apologize in advance, but this next portion may get a little confusing. If you have questions, just ask and myself or one of the other knowledgeable members will be able to help. All of the numbers below are simply random samples I selected for example. Last I checked, there are 38 standard tones and an additional 13 expanded tones (not available on every radio) for a total possible 51 tones and 83 DCS codes. Along with the use examples above, you can get creative with DCS, because we are dealing with binary numbers instead of a tone. You can have the numbers used in a bunch of different combinations. For example, the number 411 in binary is 00110100 00110001 00110001. The reverse of this would be 11001011 11001011 11001110. So we are swapping the meaning of a 1 and a 0. So the combinations could be as follows: Normal-Normal = Transmit sends 411 and your radio squelch only opens when it receives 411 in the standard format 00110100 00110001 00110001. Reverse-Reverse = Transmit sends 411 reversed (or bit swapped) and your radio squelch only opens when it receives 411 reversed, meaning 11001011 11001011 11001110. Normal-Reverse = Transmit sends 411 standard binary format and your radio squelch only opens when it receives 411 in a reversed binary format. Reverse-Normal = Transmit sends 411 in a reversed binary format and your radio squelch only opens when it receives 411 in a standard format. Unfortunately, I am unaware of any radio's that have a DCS option to leave your user squelch open while transmitting a DCS code. If DCS is enabled, you cannot hear anyone else unless they are using the same DCS number and binary combination. CTCSS tones can also be "reversed". CTCSS tones, since its analog, we have a phase reversal, often called "reverse burst" when it is only reversed at the end of the transmission. (Something to Google in your spare time.) On some high-end radios, squelching can get really exotic. You may be able to create your own custom tone instead of using one of the standard tones. You may also be able to combine CTCSS tones and DCS codes. For example: User-CTCSS = Transmit 2600Hz tone, squelch opens with 2600Hz tone. (random number example) T-DCS = Transmit 141.3 tone, squelch opens with 411 code. DCS-T = Transmit 411 code, squelch opens with 141.3 tone. T-rDCS = Transmit 141.3 tone, squelch opens with 411 bit swapped code. rDCS-T = Transmit 411 bit swapped code, squelch opens with 141.3 tone. Now, here is the kind of disappointing part. Some manufactures try to make their equipment sound like something its not. They will use things like there own custom number code to identify a traditional CTCSS code. For example, Midland uses code number 22 (also known as a sub-channel) to indicate the tone 141.3. This makes coordination on tone selection a bit cumbersome between some brands. It also means that if your radio doesn't display the actual CTCSS tone or DCS code, you need to keep your owner's manual handy for reference. So... I don't know if that explanation made things better or worse. LOL Anyway, some companies use verbiage like "Privacy Tones" which adds to the confusion for some people. If you are using a true full CTCSS, it just means you are limited to whom you can hear, but everyone can still hear you. The examples I provided above for DCS are not what actually gets transmitted, but rather a conceptual process to help understand at a very basic level of what occurs, simply to understand the difference. DCS adds a 134.4 bps bitstream to the transmitted audio. To move past concept to the weeds, this video does a great job.