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I own and have used $39 SWR meters, $80 SWR meters, $500 antenna analyzers and $1,500 antenna analyzers. The 'analyzers' do much more than simple SWR meters, however they all measured virtually the same SWR on all my antennas.. For simple tuning of a GMRS antenna for your car, a $39 SWR meter is more than plenty good enough for most normal people.

That was both. Here is a screen shot of the specs from Buy Two Way Radios.

Funny you should ask... Cricket Ventures worked with Wouxun to develop a GMRS mobile radio that now know as the KG-1000G. I worked with Danny from Cricket Ventures in 2020 to do an unbiased eval of the only prototype in existence at the time. Man, I fell in love with that radio the moment I turned it on. Anyway, per my communications with Danny, the electronics of the KG-1000G are indeed the KG-uv980 with different firmware. While I have never used a radio that was marketed as the KG-uv980, with the success of the KG-1000G, I have to think the KG-uv980 is a rock star, too.

@Lscott it's really just a trash copy of the Yaesu FT-8900r. I think they sold a ton of them after Yaesu stopped making the 8900, based on Yaesu's reputation instead of their own.

I've used my Surecom meter, a NanoVNA and the Comet analyzer. They all have their place but I find the Surecom not to be as accurate as the Comet analyzer or NanoVNA. And the NanoVNA's have a learning curve to them.

The PDC2 was not designed for GMRS frequencies. The specs say 24-30 MHz. You’ll need a different SWR meter.

Then you would benefit from using a 50 watt mobile. I get in areas around here with lots of pine and cedar trees that cause issues. The worst is when those trees are right along the edge of the roads.

Man, that really sucks. I hope you can get this all sorted out. If I were the judge, I'd tell Btech to replace the radio warranty or not since it's not what you actually ordered.

I have two of the RigExpert analyzers. I really like them. Easy to use with lots of features for someone who enjoys fiddling with antennas. And they are on sale right now I believe. If I was only going to check one antenna though I would just get a decent combination SWR/power meter. The NanoVNA (I’ve got one too) is an interesting tool, especially if you’re testing fittings for insertion losses, but not as nice to use as the RigExpert.

A VNA is a better choice as it not only measures SWR, it can also measure cable losses, tell you if the antenna needs lengthening or shortening to tune it to a frequency and display the SWR across the entire band.

Personally I would get the Wouxun KG-Q10H instead of the KG-Q10G. The Q10G firmware is more locked down

It's in the product description (first paragraph) for the UV980P now, though I don't remember seeing that part in the past. https://www.buytwowayradios.com/wouxun-kg-uv980p.html Yeah, it's been a couple of few months since I looked, the 1.25m version was listed last time, but I put off grabbing one...not there when I checked today.

Yea, I've used my 705 at 10W to get 250 miles or so into a "local" net on my way home on 80 meters, which I think is pretty impressive. I just don't know if I have the space for another deck tucked away.

The Wouxun KG-Q10G will receive AM air band.

The Yaesu FT5DR receives AM and FM from 500khz to 900 MHz, is rated IPX7 (submersible), and transmits on 2m and 70cm. It might be possible to open it up for GMRS. It’s arguably the best APRS handheld currently available. It’s not cheap, but if you watch the sales you can occasionally find it for $360.

Well that explains it! Thanks

Unfortunately the 1.25m (220 MHz), 6m, and 10m bands are all low power when it comes to tri-band and quad-band radios. And that is a shame since it forces you to buy additional single band radios if you want higher power output. One would have to step up to the Icom IC-7100 to get 100 watts max power on 6m through 160m bands with 50 watts for 2m and 35 watts for 70cm. The Wouxun KG-1000g (not plus) still has some of the RX features of the KG-UV980. It will receive a wide variety of bands/frequencies. While there is no performance differences between the KG-1000g and KG-1000G Plus that I can tell, the Plus version is easier to setup and use right out of the box. While I have no experiences with the TYT TH-9800, I have been very pleased with the TYT TH-7800 dual band radios.

Have you considered a scanner? If you just want to listen to lots of different transmissions a scanner will do a better job than a two way radio.

The Wouxun KG-uv980 is also a quadband radio that might target the same audience. I wonder how it is.

Looks like some of the Subaru's I see around my area, lifted, brush guard, lots of extra lights, and "Overlander" stickers all over them. Then, they have a GMRS (usually a high priced Midland) radio installed. That Camry would be pulled over for the lack of fender's or mud flaps in my area, but it would be interesting to know what that owner was going for. (Hopefully it is not a 4 cylinder with those oversize tires though, and how is the braking)?

Although your power supply might be rated to provide up to 30 amps, it had better not be using that much. When transmitting at a full 50 watts you should see somewhere around 12 amps max. When in standby it should only read an amp or so. I would hook up a separate voltmeter and watch what happens to the voltage measured right at the power input on the back panel of the radio. If it sags under 12 volts you have a problem with your power. If it’s not in warranty then I would look for poor connections to the power supply. I had a radio that was constantly resetting and I eventually discovered that there was a bad connection on the power cable. I would agree that it sounds like there’s an internal problem of some kind. I don’t know if you could load the 50v2 firmware. I agree with @WRXB215 that BTech should just replace it.

@Guest Send it back for a replacement.

I have the Midland MXT500 and two Wouxun KG-1000G's. The Midland is sitting in a box while the two KG-1000G's are in use as my base station and in my vehicle. My base station is a KG-1000G while my mobile setup is the KG-1000G Plus. Both radios are very close in price but the Wouxun is definitely better. The KG-1000G has better transmit and receive audio, a removable face for mounting in vehicles and just seems better made than the MXT500. Even though I don't care for the Midland I would still take it over the B-Tech GMRS 50v2. @WRZX542 you didn't say where you are located. Location, terrain, etc will affect how far you can reach out. You will have farther range in places like the desert southwest or the Great Plains without a lot of hills/mountains or lots of forested areas. A 50 watt radio will help push the signal through forested areas compared to a 20 watt radio. You won't see much of a difference in open areas with a clear line of sight.

I have gone through 2 of them and a friends also failed.. All failed within 3 years. They aren't the greatest quality and the screen is very small and difficult to read while driving. I would suggest a KG-1000G, or if you dont need all the extra fancy stuff even a Midland MXT500. But honestly, you will probably never notice any difference in farz going from 20W to 40 or 50W..

It's time for me to switch things up again. Not sure what I'm switching to yet, but I pulled my XTL5000'S out of the Jeep today. I'm thinking of going back to a MXT500 or possibly an MXT575. I love the simplicity. Also, I removed the hi-lift from the hood and removed my light bar in preparation for some new Rigid cubes that are on the way. Of course I had to flex to showoff the clean, new look. LOL

Man, just for giggles, I searched for lifted Camry. This thing is pretty wild. Still not a Jeep, though. Ha

Just a short video from this past weekend. @hfd376 and a few others local to the area joined me for a nice New Year's Eve trail ride.

I've been trying for over a decade to do that mostly with 2m HAM, but with more focus on statewide than national. The only reason it won't work is the attitude of the HAMs. I hate the answer that HF is necessary; it is only if people are to stubborn to cooperate on another approach. HF is faster for long distance but there's a possibility that conditions won't be good for propagation. We should be practicing using all the options available. What I plan on doing with GMRS is a neighborhood radio watch. My GMRS base station can reach those FRS users around me who don't have HAM or GMRS. I can give them info even if they can't talk back, arrange meetings, call for reinforcements, etc. What most of them do is volunteer to work with agencies. They don't seem to want to work with individuals. So after 10 years in ARES, I quit and I'm following my own plan.

Rely on ham radio for the distance comms and work to establish a “last 10 miles” delivery. It simply doesn’t make sense to use FRS for the distance work.

This is definitely an HF type of task. In fact, that’s where the word Relay came from in the ARRL (American Radio Relay League). There are relay nets that practice daily. The National Traffic System is one: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Traffic_System

Well the national organization that represents Hams, ARRL, has its roots in just such an activity. ARRL stands for Amateur Radio Relay League. In the very early days of spark transmitting messages were passed from station to station cross country. That was just about the only way to communicate long distances in those days. Even today there are emergency Net practice sessions on the VHF/UHF Ham bands, and on some HF ones, where one of the activities is traffic passing of messages.

I came across the North Shore Emergency Association's website recently and found their club history page interesting: nsea.com/nseainfo.htm This link briefly discusses how the "travel tone" of 141.3 Hz and the national calling/emergency frequency of 462.675 MHz came to be. NSEA was one of the very first adopters of GMRS in the early 1970s, then the Class "A" Citizens Band. Here's a quick snippet from the link: NSEA members were instrumental in bringing UHF technology to other public service groups in CB, especially R.E.A.C.T. (Radio Emergency Associated Citizens Teams). Beginning in 1976 key NSEA members spent extensive time meeting with REACT teams in more than a dozen-and-a-half different states, bringing a portable repeater, together with a number of mobile and portable units for field demonstrations...As a result, over 200 personal use repeater systems (all on the same frequency [462.675 MHz]) were set up throughout the United States. In recognition of this trend of explosive growth the Federal Communications Commission formally recognized our frequency [462.675 MHz] as the national emergency and traveler's assistance channel in the Part 95A Rules and Regulations. Pretty cool slice of radio history!

@WRZV454 While I do think GMRS is more of a bring your own contacts compared to ham that doesn’t mean you can’t meet contacts via GMRS. I certainly have. Don’t be discouraged by on line bantering. As for the “no pending request” I believe the website is buggy sometimes. I sent a request once, received a response and yet the site said there was no pending request. You can try again. One repeater near you looks like the owner hasn’t been logged in for a couple months. You may need to be patient. They may not have seen your request. Perhaps you could try sending a request via snail mail if they don’t respond. Happy Holidays, good luck and 73’s

Hmm.. just to be a contrarian, I will posit that the whole appeal of FRS/GMRS is its simplicity and "open the box and get started" ease of use. Thus, having designated channel numbers helps the vast majority of FRS/GMRS users. I'll bet that if you polled 1,000 frequent users of FRS/GMRS radios what frequency their favorite channel was on, 950 of them wouldn't have a clue. The other 50 are participating in this forum. ?