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The fact that the OP, and a thousand others have to ask this question, prove that this is incorrect. It might be written down somewhere, but the fact that nobody knows and even less people abide by it shows that, in the real-world, this is incorrect. as @Sshannon said, there is no [widely-recognized] call channel IN USE - to refer to some outdated and UNUSED reference is disingenuous at best.

I have, or have had every GMRS radio that Wouxun makes. In some cases, multiple ones, and I have never, once, seen this issue. I also have many friends, and about 200K fans, and none, never, once, have mentioned this issue.

I posted this before as a warning about using non-FCC-type-accepted radios on GMRS, but it seems like it's worth a re-post. This screen grab from an FCC training film illustrates just how serious the FCC is about enforcing type-acceptance regulations. I know. Scary.

yah, i'm outraged... because its such a major issue...

Or just push the PTT on the repeater channel and ask if someone hears you … Wake me when all is well with the universe. I suspect 80% of the tones on RayP’s radio were just fine.

All of the control functionality (such as tone encoding and decoding) except the RF front end is probably integrated into a chipset though, so in that sense it is a rig on a chip. Some radios (including Baofengs) have the ability to scan for tones. You could try transmitting every single tone while a friend of yours scans your signal to discern what tone you’re sending and make sure it matches. I make no guarantee that the friendship will survive the exercise.

Channel 20, 462.675 MHz, has been designated as a Travel Channel with 141.3 Hz encoding only, as the Travel Tone, with CSQ on receive, for the last couple of decades.

I noticed the same thing with this thread. Almost like the site posted it twice or had a huge lag in the first posting that came after the second post. The Sunday post wasn’t there before the Monday post.

I don’t think they intended to. The first post didn’t appear when I looked for unread posts until yesterday, even though it was posted Sunday.

Welcome to GMRS! I'm the VP of the club in Miami. We're all friends here despite the rules. Feel free to make mistakes we all did it

Absent some expensive test equipment, you will need to check the tones against another radio or other radios, or against a repeater known to be encoding and decoding certain tones. I had a 905G that would not decode a local Motorola repeater's output tone of 210.7. There were other tones I discovered by accident that would not encode and/or decode with another radio of the same model, when only a few yards apart. I forget which tones. I have seen one or two comments from viewers on Randy's YT channel regarding this issue a few years ago. I asked the poster for details but never got a reply. Then I had radios that exhibited this undesirable tendency. Recently, I was testing simplex range between a friend's KG1000G+ and my own S88. We were using a 245 DPL. I had set the DPL in both radios and later double checked to ensure that I had not put in the wrong tone on one or a reverse tone. I had not. We were on simplex with varying signal strength between very good and very poor as I drove down the road. For whatever reason, when he transmitted on that simplex channel (between 1 and 7, I forget which), he would not open my decoder. I had to hit my monitor button to hear him. This is a real issue, despite apparent lack of reporting of same.

Nobody does that. They’re right. CTCSS is an actual tone. DCS is a digital code. The mistake some people make is depending on numeric designators for the tones. Motorola only had 38 and they used numbers 1 through 38 to refer to them, but most other manufacturers have added a few extra tones so it’s crucial that you look up the actual tone, such as 100.0 Hz, and use that to ensure you’re comparing apples to apples.

PL is the same thing as CTCSS.

I just scrolled the channels up (or down). So once I hit channel up or down past the last pre-programmed channels (1 or 30) it automatically jumps to the weather frequencies. This was pre-programming/out of the box.

Thanks. I did read through the manual, but somehow missed that. I was able to program it to my liking using Chirp.

Q1. No. It doesn’t work like that. You would need two radios and a duplexer. Q2. Two radios plug into the high and low ports. For GMRS the receiver is plugged into the high port because it receives on the 467 MHz channel. The transmitter plugs into the low port because it transmits on the 462 MHz channel.

Yes, but it seems for it to be a default freq you need to set the special key "12" in the manual to cycle to NOAA. https://tidodmaster.oss-us-west-1.aliyuncs.com/h3/H3-Ham manual.pdf page 10 and 11. First thing when you get a radio is to read the manual. The second thing is try to figure out whether the manual actually applies to your radio and try all the buttons.

I am curious how far people have made contacts. I recently received transmissions from (what seemed to me) a very long distance away. I was on a high hill on the dunes of Lake Michigan near Muskegon, Michigan and was able to clearly listen to the Racine, Wisconsin repeater 85 miles away on the other side of the lake purely accidentally. Guys were mainly talking about fishing and the upcoming salmon and steelhead runs. I also heard traffic from Ohio and Indiana. I was on a hand-held GMRS Pro and also used a Baofeng UV-17 Pro GPS while employing a N9TAX Labs Slim-Jim GMRS antenna. Of course with only 5 Watts I wasn't able to make contacts, but it got me thinking. Just how far have people actually made contacts? I imagine mountain top to mountain top could be quite far.

This is a work in progress, but here’s what i have so far. Intended use will be for camping, fishing, power outages, and when SHTF. Ammo can $17 - 6ah lifepo4 battery $19 - 10w eco-worthy solar panel $21 - 30a mppt charge controller $12 - surecom sr-112 simplex repeater controller w/kenwood mobile plug $55 - leixen vv-898 10w uhf/vhf transceiver $67 - velcro $5 - so239 to so239 bulkhead connector $3 - n9tax murs/gmrs tuned slim jim antenna $33 - 2 cig plug sockets $8. Total = $240. I’d still like to change a few things, but it’s functional. Mainly i want to add an external power connector of some sort for solar charging so that i don't have to open it up to get to the other cig plug thats attached to the charge controller. I’m thinking about a marine grade water proof cig plug with dust cover and cutting another hole in the ammo can to mount it, but not sure yet. Also want to add some foam inserts to keep the battery in place. Everything else is either screwed down or held on by velcro. I also want something other than alligator clips on the battery that can be quick connect/disconnect. Inside the box i labeled i have the mic and some other goodies if i want to use it for comms rather than a repeater, or in case of an emergency. The radio is programmed in Bank A with just gmrs repeater freqs, Bank B is programmed with murs/frs/gmrs/marine (for emergency use)/2m calling (for emergency use) and noaa. The leixen only draws .3a idle/RX and 1.5a during TX, so the 6ah (72wh) battery should last for a few days without the solar panel attached if need be. Anyway, here is the functional, but not finished product. (and yes, i have to remove the box to close the lid. the charge controller fits in that spot. might look for a smaller charge controller so that it all fits inside.)

I finally had one of my returns come through so I had some funds in my Amazon account. Been going back and forth between the 805g and the 905g and it looks like the 905g won out so I'll be getting my first actual GMRS radio. I've had a lot of other radios(most returned for one reason or another)but this'll be the first one that's actually Part 95E approved. I've already got the factory CPS installed on my Linux Box via WINE so I'll be ready to set it up when it gets here Saturday. I'm going to test fit a Nagoya 701c antenna to see if it has a small enough O.D. to work and if it does I'll order a GMRS tuned Nagoya for it. Anyway, just wanted to share the good news. PS. Also ordered a KG-805g too.

Oh my, that sounds serious! So what will happen if he uses an illegal radio on GMRS?

I dont think you actually understand what the term "major issue" means. Now please write a page-long explanation of why i'm wrong so more people can laugh at you.

10-15 years ago I talked to a scout troop who were high up in the Sierras (above 9000') from across the valley (7000'). They were on a 5W VHS 2m handheld as was I. Our approximate distance was 92 miles. I was a scout in the late 60s and part of the 70s. I would think FRS/GMRS would be great for scouting activities. They could learn basics about radios and about dealing with government websites when getting a GMRS license. Hopefully someone involved in scouting will jump in here at some point.

Not to be THAT guy, but hardly anybody is using a “legal” radio. I bet at least 65% or more of licensed GMRS users are using “illegal” rigs. Like it matters. The FCC botched it when they allowed bubble pack FRS radios to include GMRS freqs. It is now basically a free for all, or CB 2.0. They should be happy some of us even pay for a license.

That's kind of what I was saying in a tongue of cheek sort of way. It's doubtful that someone who makes thousands or even hundreds of thousands of radios each year wouldn't do something about an issue like this. I even emailed buytwowsyradios and Anthony got back to me saying that other than a handful of S88's he's not heard of such an issue. I think it's much to do over nothing but I'll have a year in case something does go sideways.

Attributing this to sloppiness is presumptive. I wouldn’t be surprised if all the tone frequencies in the radio are based on a single oscillator. Components fail. That’s just a fact of life. Show me any manufacturer that has a perfect record.

There is no official channel. Some people have suggested 19, but millions of people can’t use it.

Some initial observations: So much to learn; so little time! Audio comes out of the internal front mounted speaker as well as the microphone, so in noisy conditions, putting the mic to one's ear is helpful. It's analog transmitter is not has robust as the propagation that I can achieve with it's sibling, the DB20-G; not surprising since this is a combination analog/DMR unit. Although the VFO returns an "Rx Only" message when I attempt to transmit on a GMRS channel, when programmed into the radio by using CPS software, these channels are transmissible (including repeater pairs). Radioddity now includes a 3rd party alternative CPS programming software package, MM7DBT's CPEditor, which seems to be universally recognized as easier and better to use. As far as the idea of a "backpack radio," I think you have hit it on the head here: I am starting to be more inclined to keep my DB20-G in the mobile, where analog and range are more important to me, and I will look into converting this to some sort of "go-pack" radio with rechargeable battery and hotspot to give me these options "on the road" while traveling and outside of my vehicle. Another DMR user made me aware of DMR radios with a feature of roaming and finding and tuning to upcoming DMR repeaters while mobile, and it looks like this radio has this feature; although I have not done anything with it. More to come...

So depending on the day of the week the radio was made the tones may be off or they may not be off. All the tones or just some of them. It seems that tones are pretty much hardwired into the radio, that is to say they're preset without variation so how they can be out of spec. would beg the question as to how a major manufacturer like Wouxun could be so sloppy.

The repeater receives on 467.### and transmits on 462.###. The .### part is almost always the same. I've heard of it being different but I've never seen it myself. You have repeater channels that are already set up like this. You have to use the tone on TX or the repeater will ignore you. You can hear the repeater with the same tone as the repeater or no tone at all. Tones work like this: I set a tone on receive and I only hear signals with that same tone. I don't set a tone on receive and I hear all signals regardless if they have any tone. Hope this helps.

Hi Sshannon! They aren't. If there is one thing in radio that I have an intimate working knowledge of, it is PL's. I suspect many do not discover a problem because they don't set the decoders, to begin with. The problems I have experienced with Wouxun GMRS radios, pretty much across the board can, as I noted earlier, seem to even vary with the day of the week, leading me to believe there may be an inconsistency somewhere.

I stand corrected.. ONE other guy ...

I wouldn't sweat it too much. Around my area, normal range (say mobile to mobile) is about 3 miles. On a good day, if both operators are on high spots, maybe 8 to 9 miles.

WOW! I never gat anywhere near these kinds of distance. Perhaps it's all the buildings, chemical plants, trees, and houses full of fffff...FURNITURE!

I’m not, but when I went back to school the second time (because I failed to hand in assignments that were imperfect) I had to learn how to accept imperfections and make decisions. I had to learn to accept good enough instead of holding out for perfect.

I concur.. Putting together a repeater with two KG1000's is fun, but you will get better performance and can probably save some money with a "real" repeater. You can find a good, used UHF repeater for a few hundred $$, and some can double as a base-station.

Yes you can make a repeater using two radios. But you will be better off using an actual purpose built repeater. @OffRoaderX can tell you more about using two KG-1000G radios as a repeater. What I can tell you is that the KG-1000G makes a nice base station when used with a good antenna and good coax. My setup is a KG-1000G, Comet CA-712 antenna and LMR400 type coax. The antenna is 18 feet above the ground at its base. I can talk to others on simplex up to 25 miles away here in Mid Missouri. Geographical location and antenna height will make a difference.

When conditions are good, I've checked into the Taylor County (Florida) repeater net from Brandon, FL - repeater is 170 miles north of me and talked with a guy in Quincy, FL that is 68 miles northwest of the repeater. 230 miles as the crow flies. On the daily, 71 miles as the crow flies. 45 Miles to the Sarasota repeater south of me and 35 miles further south talking to folks in Port Charlotte.

I had to go look. So many things about his question sounded like the other thread. I discovered that it’s the same guy. He posted this question Sunday and in the same sub forum he posted the same question Monday. The Monday post got all the love, but the Sunday post didn’t show upon my device until wryc373 commented. Strange.

Someone else did this recently. The whole socket unscrewed instead of between the antenna and the socket. The socket has a very coarse thread compared to the SMA machine thread. Most likely you've done the same thing. Try to separate the antenna and the socket and then screw the socket back into the radio. Hopefully you haven't damaged anything.

And DPL is the same as DCS or DTCSS.

You can't back up the firmware in CHIRP. I think you're talking about the codeplug(frequencies and settings) which have nothing to do with a firmware update. There's an entirely different program that you use to update the firmware. I'll post a link to YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-UpeCZnsVo

It’s there today:

The UHF band is line of sight. So, the further you can see, the further you can talk. I lost track of my longest GMRS contact, but I have talked to astronauts on the ISS at 250 miles above the Earth with only 5w on VHF/UHF. I think my longest GMRS contact was about 170 miles while on a mountain over 4,500' MSL.

I did this same thing to mine, but the center pin also came out. I twisted the antenna off the part below the blue line in that picture using two pairs of pliers (and some electrical tape around the parts to mitigate damage from the pliers). Then I dug out as much of the Loctite as I could. Mine had a little ball of it touching the pin inside the connector, which I assume is why the pin came out too. I ended up pulling the pin all the way out of the connector so I could clean it, so when I re-inserted it I didn't go all the way in coz I wanted to make sure it made connection to the circuit board when I put it back in the radio hole. Then I screwed it down as best as I could using a dime (I don't even know what the proper tool for these rings is, and my needlenose pliers are too fat for the grooves). Eventually the pin came up and hit the dime so I had to improvise from that point on with a small screwdriver. But at least I know it's touching the circuit board where it should. Then the brass ring had to go on, and it has a rubber ring underneath it to seal the whole thing up and make it submersible. Again, I had to improvise with a small screwdriver but I got it as tight as I could. The radio works like it should. And I can change antennas now. I'm just not sure it's submersible anymore since I wasn't able to tighten everything as tight as I would like to. And I don't know if maybe I should have put something on the center pin to seal that part up as well. But the actual radio works just as well as it did when I got it.

If the frequencies are different they shouldn’t interfere with each other. Two nearby repeaters on the same frequency could cause interference with each other regardless of whether they have different tones. Tones don’t prevent interference.

@WRXP381 is the kind of sad-H.A.M. that some Youtubers make fun of all the time. If he does not yet actually have a H.A.M. license, then he is a latent Sad H.A.M... Hopefully you get the radio back together - keep us updated.

I was also thinking maybe heat might help separate the pieces from the glue. Maybe acetone (nail polish remover). No hard science advice here, just ideas. I would certainly try to repair if possible and wish you luck with it. Disregard negative comments. This is absolutely the place to bring stuff like this.

GMRS radios are permitted to have removable antennas if they don’t transmit data, but if they transmit data the antennas are required to be non-removable. That’s why some manufacturers glue antennas in place, in order to receive 95E certification from the FCC, which is necessary in the United States. Other manufacturers, like Garmin, mold their antennas into their cases for the same reason. But frankly, as long as you’re not interfering with people’s radio interception, almost nobody cares.

The BTECH GMRS-V2 isn't bad. I love the fact you can program any GMRS frequency into any channel position and delete those you don't want to.use. Their flexibility is a strong selling point. Sent from my SM-A136U using Tapatalk