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We get it you don't like Midland but thousands are fine with them. You recommend what you want and I'll recommend what I feel is an appropriate radio for the user. Additionally Midland will sell thousands and continue to fill a void in the service for true simple devices that work fine.

@WRYZ926 The MXT500 having low power out of the box was the biggest let down. I had hoped that Midland fixed the issue since then... but I guess not. The only upside is, there is almost zero difference between 35w and 50w, from a real-world use standpoint. You can measure a difference, but likely wouldn't see an extra 10 feet in range.

I know my test was not even close to professional since I used a SureCom SW-102. I tested a total of four radios using the same 32 feet of LMR400 going to my Comet CA-712EFC antenna. The base of the antenna is 18 feet above ground. I tested the Midland MXT500, Wouxun KG-XS20G, Wouxun KG-1000G and KG-1000G Plus. MXT500 - 35 watts KG-XS20G - 25 watts KG-1000G - 47 watts KG-1000G Plus - 48 watts I updated the MXT500 to the most up to date firmware before testing. All radios were powered by the same R & L Electronics 30 Amp power supply. I used the MXT500 and KG-XS20G while we were testing the repeater antennas at 400 feet and 21 miles away from me on simplex. I received better signal reports when using the KG-XS20G compared to the MXT500. Granted Midland radios are fine for those wanting a very simple radio. But there seems to be an issue with some MXT500's not putting out anywhere close to the advertised 50 watts. I would not complain about only getting 45 watts out but 35 watts was too low in my opinion.

@Merky1761 That looks like a very nice project. Congratulations.

Here’s mine that I am almost finished with. MXT 500 in a Harbor Freight Apache 3800 case. Microphone and power cords ect go inside the Tupperware. It’s powered off of a 12 volt power supply at the house and a 10ah LiFePO4 battery when in the field. Waiting on a solar battery charger and a few other things

This is the next step - readily available

Even Midland radios are made in China. When it comes amateur band radios, even some Yaesu radios are now made in China.

Just for giggles, I decided to test my Midland MXT500 that has the latest Firmware update with 128 channels to see how much power I am putting out. I normally let my friends use the radio as a loaner when they are radio-less when I am on a Driving Tour with one of my car clubs or one of my Jeep Clubs on a Trail Run. This is a great radio for that purpose. I ran my tests with my recent recertified Bird 43 Watt Meter and a recertified 100 Watt 200-500 MHz slug and a brand spanking new 10 Watt 400-800 MHz slug to check the reflection. I also used two 12" test leads with N Connectors to connect the radio and an EMR Corp. 0-1 GHz 125 Watt Dummy Load. The first phase of my test was transmitting into the dummy load and the results were, on 462.550 MHz was 52 watts and transmitting on 467.725 MHz with a result of 51 watts. The second phase of my test, I connected the radio to a Midland MXTA25 3 dB Phantom Antenna with a Midland Mag-Mount and cable sitting on a cookie sheet and I measured the VSWR at 1.4:1 at 465.000 MHz with a RigExpert Antenna Analyzer. On 462.550 MHz I measured 52 watts with .6 watt reflected and on 467.725 MHz I measured 51 watts with .7 watts reflected. I had my Midland MXT500 radio powered by a Powerwerx SPS30DM Power Supply set at 14.3 DC Volts and the power draw results for both frequencies on transmitter keyed are as follows: 462.550 MHz 8.61 AMPS at 13.59 Volts; and 467.725 9.71 AMPS at 13.51 volts. I guess I can't complain about the RF Output Power with this radio. However, I do have some minor complaints with this radio such as, no Talk Around, Monitor (PL Defeat), Zone/Bank of Channels features, and the absence of some CTCSS tone freqs. Other than that its not a bad GMRS radio.

If I had to guess they are running MotoTrbo GPS tracking on the radios. The GPS system can be programmed to poll the radios every 10 minutes or every 1 kilometer of movement. They are short bursts, around 600ms to 1 second. If a car is moving it sends a lot more traffic than if it doesn't.

You do nice looking work!

Midland MXT500. Battery is doing fine so far, I have only had it out twice so I can’t comment on longevity. I have left it on at the house for two days and it was still at 13.4 volts. I’m looking to put a small solar panel and charger with it.

He might be able to put together an RJ45 coupler, a straight through Cat6 cable, and the cable that came with the radios to get the right pin out and length, but shielding might be an issue.

I posted the correct pinout for making a new cable along with suggesting the use of shielded cable and shielded connectors. If the cable that came with the radios isn't long enough then a custom length cable will need to be made. The pinout Wouxun uses won't match any commercially available cables unless one purchases a custom made cable. Good luck on the project.

When you’re an asshole to the one person who honestly tried to calm the discussion down a little you’re not likely to find much help. I realize that you just wanted specific answers to the questions you were asking, not to have someone tell you had already chosen wrong, but that’s how forums are. And I certainly understand how the idiotic outburst against CCRs is the farthest thing from being helpful. I’ve mostly learned to ignore that person and his whining about CCRs. But Gil (wruu653) truly is someone who tries hard to help. I hope you find someone who can help you with your repeater.

I know you mentioned watching some videos already but if you haven’t seen this one it’s a pretty good introduction to all things GMRS. Check out @marcspaz’s Intro to GMRS Video. edit - if you use an iPad you may want to try the HamStudy app or their web site as well.

I’ve been working with the gentleman at delta com on this, he is also actively working to identify the signals, his transmitters are 25w and the nearest is in Southfield. ill look some more, still waiting to hear back from the general manager of the water tower who is responsible for its operations. The only licenses I found were for ATT on that water tower.

I've done some technical writing for the company I work at, Power Point slide shows for training/sales, test procedures and manuals, but it's not my primary job. People think it's easy. Nope! It's boring mind numbing work and requires a lot of attention to details. People who do it full time professionally really earn their money. Doing design calculations, simulations and circuit design is much more fun, and it keeps the mind sharp too.

My parents are both in their 70's. They dont go on jeep events but wanted a radio to talk on my repeaters. The Midland is perfect for that. Why would I buy a crazy complicated CCR to put in there vehicels that they would totally baffled about. I mean I still can't get my father to swtich from his flip phone and holy crap when someone sends him a text and the "darn thing beeps at me". You also dont realize the amount of farmers that use midland. I've installed a dozen repeaters (LMR) for farms that are using Midlands in all the tractors and equipment on the farm. They are simple and last. If your using GMRS as HAM lite then your right there are better choices. But for simple communications they serve a purpose and will sell more than all the other vendors combined this year and next year.

That ship sailed loooong time ago.

How DARE you sir! Have some respect! After all, he memorized a test, he has been a H.A.M. for OVER 30 years and a radio tech for over 15 years! By God, he is even R-56 certified!!! That is why he put all that in his forum-signature, because he DESERVES respect!

Yeah, programming a DMR radio is a PIA. Then again NXDN and P25 isn’t much different. I’ve done all three of the above.

Geezus.... Thank you for proving that the people we make fun of actually do exist. But don't worry, because we are all VERY impressed with how smart you think you are!

While I was not initially impressed with the radio, after spending time using it, it became 1 of 2 radios I recommend for an OTC purpose built radio. I recommend the KG-1000G for those who want the bells and whistles and like to play with tech, and I recommend the MXT500 or MXT575 for people who just want it to work out of the box and simple operation. Everyone has their opinions. There are plenty of good radios on the market for varying prices, but the Midland radios are definitely a good brand with quality options.

What you say we try that again... Seems like you are getting off on the wrong foot and coming in hot. I don't think initially people were trying to be disparaging but perhaps you took it that way. First, thank you for your service. Second, no one cares about your degrees. Oh Yeah, Spoiler alert it's a forum not the help desk where you bought your radios so advice and opinions are going to be at the discretion of the people giving it. You wouldn't ask a stranger for directions on the street and yell at them would you? What people are trying to point out is older commercial grade equipment has a well regarded reputation for doing the job that your set up does not. Perhaps someone at your local Ham club has a set up you can buy that isn't some "shady seller". If you stick around you'll find some helpful people here, in fact there right here in this thread. Good luck.

As someone that has recommended a few radios to a few people in my day, i have, and still do recommend Midlands to "regular people" that just need simple vehicle to vehicle comms; ie; The Jeep Crowd. Radio Dorks and latent hams will require something with more bells and whistles, but MANY normal people are more than satisfied with the simplicity and performance of the Midland mobiles. Choose the radio with the features that are right for you, and ignore the online "experts" that look down on you for not being the same kind of socially reet-ard-ed know-it-alls that they are - it's difficult, becuase there are a lot of them right here in this forum.. Even in this thread..

The Wouxun KG-1000G and KG-1000G Plus do not use a standard straight through or crossover cable. The extension cable that comes with the radio works for both remote mounting the head and for connecting two radios together for a repeater. This is where a common and inexpensive RJ12/RJ45 cable tester comes in handy. Hint for you - pins 5 and 7 are reversed. That being said. There are plenty of members here that have made a repeater using two KG-1000G radios. Most, if not all, of them have since went to using an actual purpose built repeater. The reason for this is that the KG-1000G does not have sufficient duty cycle rates for use as a repeater. An actually repeater will have a 100% duty cycle and will hold up to constant use. PS: Here is a good thread explaining duty cycle https://forums.mygmrs.com/topic/1399-duty-cycle-explained/#comment-26152

Midland works fine for the intended audiance. There are way more folks out there using midland products than you think. If not Midland would stop selling it. I've seen them at Farm Shows, Jeep Events, RV Shows and other places. To be honest Midland has been doing GMRS stuff since beforer many of you were born. I have a xstal midland GMRS rig at home that my father put in a car 40 years ago. Yes products change but Midland is just one of many folks that sell stuff. They just cater to folks who want a plug and play radio. Not everyone wants 15 repeaters in there radio or ham and everything else. My parents love the KISS method. I run them in all my Jeeps for that reason.

This is true. And while the MXT500 worked for me, I didn't care for how it sounded nor did I like the menu and lack of features. I ended up donating the radio to the club I belong to. We are going to install it into our emergency coms trailer alongside all the other radios. Again nothing wrong with Midland radios for those that want a simple easy to use radio right out of the box. But they aren't for me. I like to tweak and change settings, etc. This goes for my radios, computers, motorcycles, etc.

Vertex Standard EVX-R70-G7-40 Repeater using an EMR Corp Duplexer connected to a Laird FG4605 5 dB Omni Base Station Antenna with Times Microwave LMR400 Cable with a Polyphaser and the antenna tip is at 30' AGL

All I can say is "Good Luck"

I agree. Deltacom is actively helping me track it down too, they appreciate my investigative work, we’re talking about going in on a KrakenSDR together I’ve called the water authority twice, the second time explained the situation to the secretary of the guy I’m looking for, they leave them office at 3pm so who knows. im datalogging all the decoded message blocks into text format with date time groups to get a good idea of the times they’re most active to be better positioned to track it down. There’s 2 hour gaps in the middle of the day where the channel isn’t used, then used for 20 min continuously then not again till the next day. Very sporadic and making pinning it down difficult.

I have one. Bottom right corner of photo. https://forums.mygmrs.com/gallery/image/415-amplifiersjpeg/?context=new The power output falls off outside of the Ham band. For example the DC current input at 13.8VDC with 4 watts of RF input was about 5 amps. At the GMRS frequencies it dropped to around 3 amps. I need to put it on my Bird watt meter and get a power measurement now that I got some higher power UHF slugs for it. I'm guessing I'm only getting MAYBE 20 to 30 watts at most out of it on GMRS frequencies. https://forums.mygmrs.com/gallery/image/321-bird-43-wattmeter/

https://www.buytwowayradios.com/blog/2021/01/how-to-turn-the-wouxun-kg-1000g-into-a-gmrs-repeater.html

You would be better off getting the BTech AMP-U25 amplifier from Amazon. Easier to return if it doesn't work and it will have better customer service through BTech. And it will keep you at the legal 50 watt limit for GMRS. BTech AMP-U25

See that’s the tone I’m getting at. Feel better? Question is rhetorical. You’d be wrong by the way. I try to help when I can and I listen a lot. “A forum is an online discussion board where people can ask questions, share their experiences, and discuss topics of mutual interest.” I pulled the definition and I believe my understanding was/is on the mark. I think the keyword is “discussion” not aggression. I’m sure you’ve heard the proverbial “you attract more bees with honey than vinegar”. I’ve got no dog in this fight. I’m not perfect and I think people should get a second chance. I don’t know about a third one though. I didn’t dig a hole, I just saw a boat quickly sinking and thought maybe I mention the stopper sitting there could be used to plug it. Sounds like you got this. If not I hope you find the answers you’re looking for. Cheers ️

There is a Baton Rouge Amateur Radio Club with a non-facebook website. You might contact them. brarc dot org

I don't have facebook but I found several GMRS facebook groups clubs just doing a search for Louisiana GMRS radio Clubs. I did the same with ham radio clubs and found multiple websites with contact information. Not know where in Louisiana you reside I can't narrow it down.

I pulled out those MP31s I have to use while I was in the attic last night working on the AC. They still have my call sign taped to them.

My wife and I wrote a script for a training video on how to program and use DMR radios. Yep, our marriage was strained for a while.

The Nautel Tool is just a copy of RadioMobileOnline

Here is the pinout for the Wouxun extension cables. 1-1, 2-2, 3-3, 4-4, 5-7, 6-6, 7-5, 8-8 I will suggest using a good shielded Cat6 cable along with shielded RJ45 connectors if you plan on making your own cable. The shielded cable will help keep out RFI from other radios. Again, it will work, but you will be better off getting a purpose built repeater and a decent duplexer versus using two KG-1000G radios for the reasons already mentioned.

Don't be a dick because I know more than you. Quick scanning Grinder, do some research and learn stuff. Then maybe you will know as much as I do.... but I doubt it. You're the one doing GMRS video's. How about you explain it detail what I was talking about in my post? I mean that was a really watered down version of how that all works. You could go into the weeds about how path loss is actually effected by different environments, the amount of expected per city block and how the calculations are done and averaged in a 360 degree plot for a distance specified by the user. You could explain the time it takes depending on the granularity of the mapping. How it's normally only done in 5 or 10 degree increments but can be done in finer increments at the cost of processing time. That a 10 degree map is averaged and can miss certain things that might block a signal that will show as good on a map. How the maps that are used for a reference are really important to be up to date so that they will indicate those area's that will have the signal blocked. You could go into what HAAT (height above average terrain) is and how it effects things. How the same maps are used for those calculations. The 6dB realized gain that you get every time you double your antenna height and how radio stations ERP is actually calculated using that information. There is a LOT that can be discussed with UHF coverage. Could talk about multipath fading and why moving less than a foot in some instances can get a poor signal full quieting. Lot's of things to cover. But I know Grinder is waiting for you. SO you go boy.

It's not really difficult, but it is needlessly complex, mostly because of leftover commercial radio characteristics: First, you have to create a list of talkgroups. Then you have to create channels. A channel consists of a channel name, Brandmeister ID (or other digital ID), timeslot, color code, frequency, bandwidth, whether transmit is inhibited, whether it's an analog or digital channel, and if it's digital you need a talkgroup assigned. That's why you have to create the list of talkgroups first. There are other fields as well including encryption etc., but you get the idea. Then you have to create at least one zone and assign channels to the zone. You may (not mandatory) also populate a database of digital IDs which links the call sign, Brandmeister ID, and contact name. This can be downloaded. The newest DMR radios have room for 500,000 contacts. My radio handles 200,000 so I can only load most of North America. On your radio you select a zone and then select a channel within that zone.

I made a repeater using to KG-1000Gs and I never had an issue with duty cycle, even when our entire group was banging away at it for days at a time. I DID however run into the issue of desense which was limiting the range of the setup - I was getting 25+ miles, but why my geography I should have been getting a lot more fars. As Mr @WRYZ926 said, I too upgraded to a purpose-built repeater and with LESS power out, i get 2x+ more fars.

There is. I’m still helping my blind friend with his DMR radio (as well as my own) and I wish I could get the ear of the firmware programmers for these Anytone and Alinco DMR radios. There’s absolutely no reason it has to be as difficult as it is. With simple changes in firmware a person could easily just create two channels for each repeater (one per timeslot) and then just input or select the talk group. DMR radios would only be slightly more complicated than analog.

Enjoy the CCR you purchased. I'm sure you wont be on this forum long. Manage expectations. Buy junk get junk results. I love how a new GMRS user jumps on here and complains when those in the field for 30+ years give them honest answers. Maybe youtube should be your friend.

Welcome to myGMRS.com. In one sense GMRS is quite simple, yet you can take it to quite an extreme. And some people do. Your budget will determine a lot about what kind of radios you buy. I would start with a couple of HTs to get your feet wet. GMRS is in the UHF band so don't expect to get the distances you hear by hams doing HF. Trees, terrain, etc. will affect your distance. It could be anywhere from 1/2 mile to 50 miles or more. Do your own testing in your area of operation to find out what's real for you. "Privacy Tones" aren't private. Others can still hear you, you just can't hear them unless they transmit with the same tone. Repeaters typically use tones to operate. These are just some basics to help you get started. @OffRoaderX has some good videos to help you get started. As you come up with more specific questions, feel free to ask. Also, you can do a search to find questions that have already been answered. 73 Edit: I forgot to mention, @marcspaz did a real good video on intro to GMRS.

Even though this scenario can actually happen, I encourage you to get your ham license and get on the air. You will increase your circle of trusted friends which can be a real asset during such an event. Also, I think it was @Lscott that pointed out once that in a stressful situation you want a radio that is very simple to operate. It sounds like good advice to me.

Pro Tip: Normal people only answer questions when someone asks a question. You're welcome.

Doesn't matter,. no one needed to know or was curious anyway