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Maybe the problem is the people you’re trying to talk to. The Anytone isn’t a bad radio.

Could be any number of aBazillion reasons, but based on all the details you have provided I am guessing that you are hearing a repeater, but trying to talk back on a simplex channel instead of the repeater channel.

Several of us also have and enjoy the Radioddity db20g.

The 70CM band for Amateur radio covers 420mhz to 450mhz. Some other countries have different blocks, but in the US we have 30mhz of use. People getting devices that are from other countries and using them here in that frequency block are in for a big disappointment because those devices aren't actually legal to use. They complain to the FCC about interference issues and find out the hard way.

Or you have no tones set so you’re hearing everything but without a transmit tone you can’t get in. Or both.

More proof that "some people" should be ignored with extreme prejudice.

Yes, a spring mounted antenna can sometimes result in choppiness. But picket fencing like Gil mentioned is very common even if an antenna is not spring mounted.

Most folks know when you’re done speaking when they stop hearing words.

Hey folks, a few months back, I discussed providing a presentation on the introduction to GMRS, to just cover the basics. We held the presentation a couple of weeks ago and I wanted to share the video with everyone. Fair warning, I'm not a pro YouTuber and my collar mic dropped with a few minutes left... please be gentle. LoL This is geared towards people with little to no experience. Hopefully it helps some people. The PowerPoint presentation is available for download, here... https://marcspaz.com/gmrs/GMRS101.ppsx Thank you to those who helped with content ideas.

The fan maybe?

Do they send it back if it does more?

A lower-gain antenna works better in areas where the signals can reflect from many surfaces (multipath). Gain works two ways, not only by increasing the radiated output but also by increasing the received signal. In an urban environment lower gain helps reject multipath signals, while in a mountainous area, it reduces the multipath reflected from hard walls. YMMV

It might be, but honestly it’s hard to generalize. Gain simply means that the power delivered by the radio is more focused in certain directions. If you know where you want to direct your signal that can help, but if you need your signal to be received by a station that is moving around, or much higher or lower in elevation, a low gain antenna can be better.

I always seem to forget about the Radioddity DB20G. That's another good choice.

Kenwood Radios TK-3180 Portable TK-8180 Mobile Most on the used market are 450-520 radios and work well for GMRS You can share the same programming with each radio, but you have change the buttons from the mobile to portable having different buttons configurations. See my comments on Radio Reference linked below. (10) Kenwood TK-3180 great GMRS HT! | RadioReference.com Forums

It's all good. I know what it's like to have too much blood in the caffeine system. And we all make mistakes from time to time. What matters is that we realize we do.

OK: It came in yesterday and using my FTDI USB K-1 cable, it programs pretty easily on both digital and analog. And it seems to work fine in analog simplex and repeaters and digital simplex (perhaps, as I only purchased one, but one can hear the "picket fencing" from its transmission digital simplex when one listens on an analog receiver), but digital DMR repeaters seems to be problematic so far. But later today I will initiate some more experimentation on both digital simplex and digital DMR repeater.

You’re are correct. Note to self, drink coffee before responding. Thanks for the catch.️

@jdgilkey what is your budget? Retevis and Wouxun both make a 20 watt mobile. There is the Retevis RB86 and Wouxun KG-XS20G that will fit your needs. I have the Wouxun KG-XS20G and it works great. Yes Baofeng and Midland also make 20 or 25 watt mobiles. Most will tell you to get the Retevic or Wouxun over both of those though. The KG-1000G is a 50 watt radio that will need to be wired directly to the battery.

To be fair, any current commercial radio that you can get wideband on is going to be excellent for GMRS. There are plenty of options that are considered end of life that are great too. Motorola didn't have many, if any commercial radios that did get part 95 certification, but there are a boatload of Kenwood's that did. Depending on what you need (mobile, mobile with remote head/rf deck, HT, etc) will determine what you find. TK8150 is 45w, will do wideband, and remote head is an option, I have 2 of them.

You'll find the Midland MXT26 Antenna, is a very good antenna for GMRS freqs with excellent VSWRs. Other good mobile antennae are the Larsens and Lairds but, they need to be trimmed/tuned to your radio as a complete system. If you want good results it's best to use professional grade antennae and not amateur/hobbyist grade antennae.

My only experience with Kenwood is a TK880 Mobile and its been very positive. I don't have any experience with the Kenwood portable but I have to assume the quality of their portables have to be as good as their mobiles. I use the Kenwood TK880 in one of my cars that can not accommodate a radio installation because of the physical size and the radio will accommodate multiple programming zones with as many channels you need in any zone. Also, the programming is not that difficult and the software is easy to acquire. One clue in the quality of the radio is the support in the model line by both the manufacturer and the after-market suppliers for accessories such as the batteries and audio components. I'm more of a Motorola guy. I have the XTL5000 and XTL2500 mobile radios in my other cars and I have a large selection of various XTS5000 portables, along with the XTS3000, XTS2500, XTS1500 series, and various Astro Sabers, and numerous JEDI series portables. I don't have any Waris radios but I have used them briefly in my previous life and have found them very reliable and easy to use. The programming software for the Waris radio line is becoming easier to acquire these days. If you're in the market for a Waris radio, you have to be careful with the channel capacities. Some portables appear to be 128 channel radio but some of them on the market are only 16 channel radios. I'm not sure if the mobiles are in the same situation.

If you try to go the legit way for current model software for Motorola, you're probably going to be disappointed. Motorola is not interested in supporting Ham or GMRS at a corporate level, and getting things like Wideband entitlement for CPS software is nearly impossible. The newest CPS2 software for the XPR/Trbo series is not out in the wild, and the older CPS software won't even read new radios fresh from the Factory. If you are dealing with older model analog radios like the CDM1250 mentioned above, the PM400, M1225, etc. then there are plenty of unofficial resources and available software, but it's still not 'Plug and Play'. If you are starting from nothing, you would probably be best served to purchase a radio that's already programmed for what you need, and then try to acquire the software & cables to read that radio & save a baseline profile that you can begin to experiment with.

To bad neither radio is a GMRS radio. Both are ham radios and should be used for ham.

Motorola, Kenwood, ICOM all make good commercial gear. For SAR alot of our users utilize ICOM for cost and programmability. Personally I use MSI equipment but I did use alot of ICOM in the past. Kenwood has some good gear also. As far at Motorola there is no need for APX radios. A CDM1250 is a solid little GMRS rig.

What channels are you hearing this on? 15 -22 shares receive frequencies with repeater channels so it’s possible that they are coming through a repeater so they may not hear you. It’s possible also you are just too far away to reach them even though you can hear them or they may have tones set and don’t hear you.

@WSAB905 if this happens while moving It could be what is known as picket fencing which can happen if the signal is being interrupted by obstacles and (as I understand it) parts of the signal are arriving at different speeds. …I’m sure someone can explain it better than me.

It could be a loose connection with the coax or a bad solder job. I had an issue where the tiny connector on my mag mount coat was a little loose where it connects to the PL259 connecter. I didn't notice an issue unless I was hitting bumps while driving. I suggest double checking your solder job and making sure everything is tight from the antenna to the radio.

Is it while you’re moving or parked that it’s choppy?

There is a FDMA version of DMR, called Tier-1, used the EU’s license free band of 446.0 to 446.2 MHz. This link is for the ETSI document for dPMR specifications. http://dmr446.hamstation.eu/docs/ETSI-TS-102-490.pdf The DMR Tier-1 specifications are similar but use a 12.5KHz channel. Most of what we use here is Tier-2, conventional, or Tier-3, trunked.

Most modern radios have a green or blue light that illuminates while a transmission is being received and turns red when you hit the PTT. But I don’t mind a Roger beep. I can completely ignore it.

Some would see that as a feature.

I was going to suggest a Motorola XTS 3000 or 5000 and the XTL-5000, but then you had to throw in the "easy to acquire the software" part.. So, stay way from the XTS and XTLs... But I'm really just here waiting for "some people" to proclaim that you will get a $10,000 fine if you even think about using a commercial radio on the GMRS.

There are only eight repeater channels and they are pre-programmed into GMRS radios. A repeater channel in this case consists of a transmit frequency (on which your radio transmits to the repeater) and a receive frequency that is 5 MHz lower. If you create additional repeater channels they will use those same frequencies, differing only in tones. If your radio doesn’t automatically do an offset then you would have to program one.

Actually it’s the TK-3170. Great HT for GMRS carry. Can push it out of band for use in the Ham 70cm band. It’s also Part 95 certified too. https://forums.mygmrs.com/gallery/image/263-tk-3170jpg/?context=new If you don’t care about FCC certification there other Kenwood HT’s you can try. Mainly they are FM and some digital mode, the later usable on the Ham bands. The ones with DMR might be most attractive for Ham usage. I have all of the below FM/Digital models in the UHF and VHF versions except for the NX-1300 so far. https://forums.mygmrs.com/gallery/image/290-nx-1300duk5/?context=new https://forums.mygmrs.com/gallery/image/251-nx-300jpg/?context=new https://forums.mygmrs.com/gallery/image/255-tk-d300e-fmdmr/?context=new http://comms.kenwood.com/common/pdf/download/TK-5220_5320_Specsheet.pdf I have a few of the TK-3180’s. Nice radio with good features and 512 channels. https://pdfs.kenwoodproducts.com/10/TK-2180&3180Brochure.pdf Even so I still have a preference for the TK-3170. The trunking version, TK-3173, is also very nice and uses the same software as the TK-3170. I have several of those. https://pdfs.kenwoodproducts.com/12/TK-3173BrochureRev.pdf