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Looks to be stoopid easy to get an Arduino to do this - There's already morse code software available for it. It can't do regular audio I/O but can output a tone. I think I'll go ahead and do it and publish a "how to" for everybody

Sign up for notifications for the Raspberry Pi boards from the official dealers. They are pretty available at good prices. I think I paid $15 for a Pi Zero W and $35 for a Pi 3b+. Adafruit gets them in and notifies you and you buy them immediately. They sell out quickly but they don’t gouge.

It is a short circuit for DC, but this is ultra high frequency AC where you have waveforms and reactive impedance. Here’s a pretty good explanation:

I'm not saying, just guessing but it looks like the Radio City Radios are a 're-branded' Baofeng radio... For an entry level radio i would say go for it or spend $10 less and get a Baofeng.. After all,, many many of us here started out with a Baofeng..

Many of the authorized dealers have them in stock again and you can get them at the list price, not what some scalper on Amazon is charging. But if you can do it with an Arduino, go for it!

@Sshannon love Dave. He's got some good videos.

Let us know how it goes, please. Edited to add: I apologize if you feel like I’m not trying to help you. Your statement below made me think that maybe you didn’t understand the point of leaving the RX tone clear in your radio. I was just trying to explain why it works. It’s just another tool to help diagnose problems:

Not if you're out of range.

Amateur Radio. Available in three classes: entry level Technician (mostly VHF and UHF access), General (adds more >VHF bands, and most of HF), Amateur Extra (full privileges)

Thanks for the post. Any suggestions on an nmo type that would easily tip back when hit. It's looking like this will be an adventure into the unknown. When I find a piece of clean 1/4" plexiglass to do a mockup with an old dual band setup. This will save an ugly scare if it fails. I will report back on the results when I get it done. The two of the antennas that met a tragic death were comet SBB5. The best dual band ever. P.E. (retired)? Thanks WRJA397

One nice feature for any radio you get is to be able to lock the keypad. We were using our radios earlier this year and I left my wife the KG-935G and I took the KG-S88G with me into the snow because of its IP67 rating. My wife was concerned she would mess something up on the 935. It has three different lock settings so I locked it so the only thing she could change was the volume. You might want to check what ever radio you decide on to see if has different lock settings.

Welcome Of those radios I only have personal experience with the KG-935G plus and I’ll say it’s my favorite every day radio and I haven’t heard anyone that has it that doesn’t like it. I know someone with the GMSR v2 and his sound quality is good into a repeater between us, where he is probably 10 miles away from the repeater. I’d say watch some videos like NotaRubicon and get a feel for what the different features are and what may be important for your use.

Thank you for the explaination. Let me 1st my feet wet and go from there. I would like some info on Ham radio eventually but for now I just want to get some knowledge on how to use GMSR radios so I don't over whem my self. By the way I was looking at the Wouxun KG 935 Gt and the BTECH GMSR v2 or Pro and the Midland GT000VP4 - What are ya'lls opinon on these radios. TIA

Well I gotta get one at a time. Then pro’s ain’t cheap. But yes. I sure will!

If anything I have ever posted would help, I have no problem if someone uses it in part or completely.

I think it’s a great idea. We answer the same questions over and over. But it does no good to give them lip service in the forums. People who are willing to compile the questions and answers that already exist on this site should put something together and write to Rich, offering to maintain them. Or even start a new thread called FAQs.

No, if you leave out the receive tone you receive everything. Add the receive tone after making sure you have the transmit tone correct.

And it’s on sale now. Please let us know how well it works! https://www.retevis.com/bluetooth-app-controlled-mobile-radio-rt99-us?gclid=Cj0KCQjwuZGnBhD1ARIsACxbAVjmaVDzTUjw8wrno62Ffp4BQeX7VWRsYfVBpmtIyQKAQsWv2nw31QwaAkwnEALw_wcB

Maybe, but you weren’t specific enough. The repeater’s Output is its TX but is heard on your radio’s RX. Similarly, your radio’s TX frequency or TX tone, must match the repeater’s Input frequency and tone. Your radio transmits at 467.xxx MHz to the repeater. The repeater transmits at 462.xxx to anyone listening. There are only eight 467/462 repeater frequency pairs. Those frequencies are established by the FCC rules. Nearly all repeaters require a tone, otherwise they would be re-transmitting everything they receive. Your radio transmits a specific tone (CTCSS or PL, they’re two names for the same thing) or digital pattern (DTCSS or DCS or DPL) to open the repeater. That’s called the input or uplink or even receive tone for the repeater. The repeater usually sends a tone or digital pattern along with its transmissions. That’s the output or downlink or transmit tone of the repeater. Those terms are standardized so we can share information. The repeater output tone is for your convenience to lessen interruptions, but it doesn’t provide any kind of security. There are only eight frequencies that repeaters can receive on and only eight that they can transmit on. The frequencies that repeaters transmit on are the same as people use for simplex communications as well. If you are within range of a couple of repeaters that receive and transmit on the same frequencies, using different tones can ensure that your transmissions are being repeated by the correct one and that you’re hearing the correct one. So, for example, repeater Sandhawk and repeater Black Brant both receive on 467.550 MHz and transmit on 462.550 MHz. They’re far enough apart that they don’t usually bother each other, but you happen to live where you receive them both. Sandhawk uses an uplink or input tone of 67.5 Hz. That means that you MUST set your transmit or TX tone to 67.5 Hz or Sandhawk will just disregard your transmissions. Sandhawk uses a different tone, 100 Hz, for its output tone. Using two different tones for TX and RX is referred to as having a “split tone”. It’s usually done by repeater operators who want to protect against unauthorized access to their repeaters. Why? Because it’s easy to scan for the repeater output tone. It’s not as easy to scan for the input tone. The Black Brant repeater uses 103.5 Hz for both input and output. What a lot of people don’t initially understand is that these tones work like filters. If I set my handheld radio to a receive tone of 103.5 Hz my radio will only break squelch when it receives a transmission that incorporates that tone, which would be the Black Brant repeater. If I set my radio receive tone to 100 Hz it will only reproduce transmissions it receives which include a 100 Hz tone. But, if I don’t set a receive tone in my radio, it does no filtering. It literally reproduces everything that has a signal strength sufficient to break squelch. That’s useful, especially when trying to troubleshoot. Don’t fall into the trap of referring to a tone by a number or some other shorthand because not all radios number the codes the same. Always refer to the frequency of the tone, such as 103.5 Hz, or the DCS code. Not all radios include all the tones. Motorola and Midland include the standard tones, but fail to include some of the tones included in the overseas brands. Thus they might not be able to access some repeaters.

Honestly, I think more information is needed. Unless this is a thought experiment, like Schrödinger's Cat.

Your radios TX is transmit. Your radios RX is receive. The repeater is going to RX (recieve) your TX and TX (transmit to your receive) RX. Yes it can be complicating. What you need to remember is the TX and RX listed is where you need to program those numbers for your radio. Hope that helps.

Like @Sshannon said, your farz probably wont change in any way that you will ever see or notice, but just knowing that you have that additional power feels good.

If you tell someone that over the air, unless it is a business/LMR frequency that you have paid for, you deserve snark comments. Nobody can claim that you cant use a channel.. Well, they can, but you can ignore them or laugh at them when they tell you that. Then CAN claim that you cant use their repeater, and while you should honor their request, there isn't anything they can do to stop you, and the FCC wont care, just just play nice.

My GMRS repeater is at about 1,800 feet in Southern California and covers around 40-50 miles in 3 directions on about 25 watts, but only about 1 mile in one direction because of mountains. My group had another repeater at about 5,500 feet in Southern California and it covered LAX to San Diego and Scirocco Summit on 50 watts. Line of sight and antenna height are critical.

tell em to watch NotARubicon videos

In about 2 weeks ago.

That’s much more likely as well, but the measures described in R56 and the Reeve presentation that I occasionally post protect against that as well. .

You may be hearing a linked repeater. There's quite a few of them here in AZ too. I'm just outside of Phoenix, but because of the linked repeaters, I hear a group talking in Albuquerque almost daily when I'm scanning.