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I just passed my TECH and am awaiting arrival of my sparkling new call sign. I can say that the best thing I am doing is being a part of REACT. Their mission gives me a sense of purpose and gets me out of the house once in a while. Plus the people in the group are wonderful and so helpful. Find a group like that John. One that gives you a reason to grab your radio with great people to support you.

Help me out here. On 1 hand, "one must only transmit on type accepted radios OR ELSE!" But on the other hand, chinese radios suck and are bad and no one should use them So...what GMRS radios are out there that are type accepted, and not Chinese? Because by your logic (CCRs bad, non-type-accepted bad), it sounds like no one should be using GMRS period.

The only reason I know of this problem is because other people complained about it. I find the H3 to be a pretty darn good radio. If you aren't a power user you'd never find that limitation. And remember you are paying $30 for a radio, battery, charger, cables, 2 antenna, vox setup. I don't know how they can possible do it. If you want a full featured radio go out and get a $400 radio, I'm gunna stick with the CCR for now.

I suspect they said Chirp but this was a reference to the radios program software in general. It certainly seems Chirp isn’t moving forward for this radio for whatever reasons, though I’m sure it would be welcomed as the radio is so popular in its various forms.

Checked the requests....doesnt look like any updates or progress for months, at this point. https://chirp.danplanet.com/issues/9241 https://chirpmyradio.com/issues/8953

Still only shows the DB25-G, not the DB20-G.

My buddy is using this Larsen on his Chevy truck, with a hood lip mount and his Icom 2730. It’s only 18” total and seems to work really well. It’s apparently designed for use with public safety agencies, so I expect it’s durable (it certainly seems sturdy in person). I just ordered one for my 4Runner too, to run when I go HAM down the road. Mine will be in the existing NMO in my rear roof. Pulse Larsen NMO150/450/758 Tri-Band VHF, UHF, 7/800 MHz Antenna Part Number: NMO150-450-758

You wuz took! Actually, if you bought it as a GMRS radio (single band) there’s probably no need for a coil and capacitor. They’re there on my antenna because it was a dual band antenna.

Really they’re a GPS with a sunlight visible screen, a full set of topo maps and a GMRS radio . Several members of my rocketry club got them because Garmin pioneered sending locations between GMRS radios. In our hilly terrain it means we can find someone who might have gotten hurt. Also, I think my Midland and Motorola GMRS radios were from Malaysia rather than China. They were not $20 radios, but they weren’t $400 either, maybe $100 for 2? I guess the moral is this: if you want a $20 radio, it will almost certainly come from China. If you want a quality radio from somewhere other than China, be prepared to pay more money. They are available though.

excellent synopsis. I look at antenna gains sort of like squeezing jello. You only have so much energy, so you can shape it (yagi/beam). Its all trade-offs. Depends on your unique situations/requirements. Best of luck.

Sadly I think part of the reason that ccr are terrible (not all but the one that are especially looked at by novices) is if you look at the FCC certification for the radio it's done in a lab in China. Often with the same person, so it feels like no real certification is going on except for a rubber stamp. It would be like asking your wife to certify you were working to your employeer while you were in the pool all day. Sent from my SM-S901U using Tapatalk

Mine didn’t until the radio it was on fell and landed on the antenna and the white core the wire is coiled around broke. It gave its life so we could study it.

That frequency will be on channel Rp21 with a tone number 22. I’m not much more help than that as I don’t have this radio.

This appears to be a fake. I went searching because yours looked nothing like mine.

The answer to all 3 questions are "just the FCC rules." The long and short of it... the FCC is less worried about the hardware compliance for performance sake and more worried about the end user. Restricting the hardware to help prevent users who are not knowledgeable from getting on emergency frequencies and causing harmful interference is the end goal. There are some other license holders that they are trying to prevent interference with, too... but emergency services is the top priority. There are a bunch of radios that are capable of covering all of the desired frequencies and typically outperform the technical requirements for GMRS and other services, but due to the risk of harmful interference, they can't get certified for legal use.

Think of the radiation of an antenna 0 dbi gain as a ball. Bear with me simplifying as much as I can. As you squish the ball it get flatter and The sides bulge. Having more of the radiation pattern focused to the horizon. This is what a higher gain antenna is accomplishing. Without going into directional antennas. So the more gain an antenna has the flatter the radiating disc gets. But it starts losing coverage vertically. Yes/no higher gain antennas can help with obstructions. For instance, vehicular offroading with a group where there are elevation changes I will get better coverage for the radios above and below me with a lower gain antenna such as a 1/4. Where if I were to drive in a flat wooded area. I would want a higher gain antenna in the hopes of punching through the leaves and trees. When it comes to hts. I haven't noticed a night and day difference between 0 and higher gain antennas. The ht often is only around 4'8" to 6' off the ground. Often maybe a slightly better radio report from otherside of the repeater with a higher gain antenna. What i do notice is the eye poking risk, physical interference and the constant jabbing of the higher gain (often much longer) antenna. Truthfully ht antennas are relatively cheap. Try different one (borrow if you can) to see what works and you can live with. Sent from my SM-S901U using Tapatalk

Disclaimer: I do not condone transmitting illegally. This is a technical discussion question intended to bring better understanding to if/why radio compliance and FCC certification matters. While looking for a new GMRS HT, I noticed a pattern of manufacturers creating what appears to be two models of the same radio but with different capabilities. For example, the Wouxun KG-Q10G and KG-Q10H appear to be the same exact radio, with the exception that the G model is locked down to only transmitting on the GMRS frequencies (and cut a few HAM features), whereas the H model is (presumably) not locked down in such a way. The same thing could be said about the infamous Baofeng UV-5R versus the UV-5G. I recently also got a little interest in MURS and thought it would be neat to have a radio that could transmit on both GMRS and MURS frequencies. Bundle that with a few business radio frequencies that I’m licensed to use, and now I’m searching for a radio that can transmit on all of the above (although I don’t believe one exists legally as explained below). It would be nice to have one radio that could do it all instead of having to carry 3 separate radios, one for each application. Now let’s talk about the FCC rules. After reviewing many convoluted forum posts about part-95 acceptance and reading the rules themselves, I came to the conclusion that such multi-band radios exist but could not transmit legally – mostly HAM radios. This is because part 95 specifies that any compliant radio can only transmit on part 95 frequencies. (Yes, I know there are legacy part 90/95 compliant radios plus multiple revisions of the part 95 rules, but let’s just ignore those for now.) My real question boils down to this: blatantly ignoring the fact that there is some (il)legality involved in transmitting on a radio that is noncompliant with part 95… Are there any reasons someone wouldn’t just go out and buy the non-GMRS version of a radio and program it to “masquerade” as a GMRS radio? What’s wrong with programming a HAM radio for 462.6125 MHz, setting the bandwidth to 20kHz, limiting the power to 5W, and pulling the PTT trigger? I’m sure we all know someone who’s used a UV-5R or other non-compliant HT to talk GMRS/FRS/MURS/etc. Why shouldn’t (or should) someone go out and buy a Wouxun KG-Q10H or Baofeng UV-5R instead of their GMRS counterparts and use it in a non-compliant fashion as their all-in-one HT? I’m looking for more of a nuts-and-bolts explanation of frequencies, bandwidths, transmit power, etc. and less of an explanation of the part 95 rules – it has already been well established that transmitting on GMRS frequencies with an unapproved radio is illegal. Again: I do not condone transmitting illegally. This is a technical discussion question intended to bring better understanding to if/why radio compliance and FCC certification matters.

Handheld plus a spare battery at first, preferably inexpensive and simple. The Baofeng UV5R is a good one to learn the basics. Then, as you learn what appeals to you you can always get something else.

For your application, take a look at the KRK-10 remote head kit. That will let you stash the RF deck under a seat or in the trunk, so only the (much smaller) control head will need to be mounted in the cab. A cupholder mount or other Lido product should work fine for the control head.

Thanks to both of you who answered me, like I mentioned I’m new to the radio system appreciate your responses.

It certainly does sound like the antenna may be your problem. Of course it could be the cable to the antenna as well. Do you have a meter to check SWR. I was under the impression Chirp was not available for the DB20.?

Adam Sanders, I live in Murfreesboro/Walter Hill (north Rutherford County), I have been permitted to use the RUTHERFORD 600 repeater and am still awaiting approval on a couple more repeaters in the middle Tennessee area. I have a set of Baofeng UV-9G turned on from time to time. I grew-up in Lewisburg, spent a LOT of time in and between Columbia and Lawrenceburg in my teen years. I am hoping to learn a lot from groups like this as I am new to the world of GMRS.

Go back to the original antenna.

I have two db20g radios. To answer your question, no I have not heard of problems receiving like you described. Desense is a real possibility, but I would not expect it if you are 60 yards away from the db20g while transmitting. I understand you’re 100% sure of your tones, but it would be an easy thing to test. Turn off the receive tone on the db20g and see if that helps. I have seen radios that transmit everything except the voice sounds. That can happen when the microphone hole is plugged or when the microphone signal wire is separated somehow.

What channel are you using in your test? Can you receive in simplex with no tones?

Just tried this and it still is responding the same. New antennas on both HT and the db20 but was not having trouble HT to HT the other day. and seems odd that the 20 can transmit fine but not receive. i'm very new to this, but i'm 100% confident in my tones, and antenna compatibility with both units. attached is video where you can hear what it's doing, clearly hear it key up and then the heavier tone when i release the Ht, i was at 60'yards on this test with clear LOS. IMG_2099.mov

How close is your HT? If to close they can desence each other. Try putting some distance between the two radios, 50’ or so.

I agree, TID should have indicated that above channel slot 54 it is RX only on the GMRS setup. It is not documented anywhere in their information that I can find. The only thing I can figure is that in GMRS mode the idea was it was "restricted" for people who are new... but that still doesn't make much sense since they could still have restricted to GMRS only frequencies but allow all "channel slots" to be RX and TX capable. ** Is there anything about getting it FCC GMRS certified about this restriction that they seem to have imposed for no reason and not documented? I don't know why there would be. But again, there is a way around it for those who know how to properly and accurately set it up in "NORMAL" mode but... yeah, that is not the FCC GMRS "certified" mode. I hope that TIDRADIO does decide at some point to change the Firmare to allow TX above 54 .. but ... I'm not too terribly bothered about it now that I know of it. I just wish like you said that they had DOCUMENTED it and been upfront about it from the start. (and reviewers who did not discover and mention it just means to me that they did not fully test it before their youtube review. (at least not enough to stumble across the problem. But to be fair, I think it took me a month before I noticed that it was a problem)

Based on my understanding, they can only do this after they have observed, identified, and fingerprinted the radio.. They cannot tell anything about a fresh, out-of-the-box, never before surveilled radio.

My CCR works as expected and does a fine job for how I use it. I have zero regrets. The company treats me well. No idea how they treat anyone else. At this point I have no need for an expensive HT as the H3 suits it's purpose.

I use a SignalStick as well as the telescoping Smiley. These both blow the Nagoya models out of the water for me, especially indoors. I have the 771G. Rarely use it now.

I’m fairly certain @OffRoaderX was having a go at “some people” and their constant negativity. I found the Nagoya 771G to be a good improvement. I keep it handy if I need that little bit more but the length is a bit much for every day use. I’ve recently been using the Nagoya NA-320A tri band HT antenna (similar to the 771 in size) which has made it possible to reach a local 220 amateur radio repeater with the Wouxun KG-Q10H. Beware of the fakes out there.

People laugh at this, but they were unimpressive at best for me. The ducky that came with my radios performs better.

Garmin radios are still made in Taiwan I believe. Mine was anyway.

It is really amazing that people spend and waste their money and put up with all the problems and limitations of these POS CCRs.

I just got this TD H8 and it has the stock rubber duck on it for another day, but the little cheap Baofeng GM-15 and Radio Oddity GM-30 seem to have as good if not better reception with 771s. I was messing around with a Negoya UT-72G on a pizza pan this weekend, and that seemed to be great. I've only just started, so I think a base antenna with a mobile unit might be in order now that there are people to talk to!

Have you been diagnosed? Or, has nobody pointed it out to you yet?

Consider the following graphic: In this graphic you'll see a thin red line. That's just where my SDR is tuned to listen. And then a wider red vertical band. That's how wide in terms of frequency bandwidth I have my SDR software set to listen. Within that faint red band is a jiggly band that grows wider and narrower. The bottom is the beginning of a transmission, and the top is the end of the transmission, in time. If I have my listening radio set to narrowband, that's similar to the faint red band being narrower. If that were the case, you would see some of the transmitted signal falling outside of the band in which I'm listening. So we're losing information. However, that also means that more of the faint red band is filled by radio waves (the jiggly band), so it will sound louder, though more distorted.

I've had contact with them many times for issues and questions. I guess I go straight to Luxi when I email them and she responds within a day or two. So far they've been pretty reactive to my inquiries.

It’s not unusual at all to transmit from radio A to a repeater but be unable to hear your own transmission on a nearby second radio, radio B. B is desensitized by its proximity to the relatively powerful signal from A. As long as others can hear you don’t worry about radios in the same room as you.

The 0.5 watt ERP limit on interstitial channels applies to GMRS radios as well. FCC documents show that the reason for the 0.5 watt ERP limit was to avoid interference with the surrounding repeater channels.

Your best bet is to find a local radio club (amateur or GMRS, regardless of what type of radio you THINK you want), then attend a meeting or two, meet some active members, ask questions, ask for demos, ask for advice specific to your area with regard to what bands/freqs are most used in the region; available repeaters and amount of "traffic" (radio comms). Most clubs allow non-members to attend, and are more than happy to share their knowledge. These same clubs are usually involved with coordinated EMCOMMS with local agencies, providing simulated exercises and practice of their protocols so those that participate know what the heck to do when actual SHTF. Once you learn more about local reality, THEN you can decide what you want to pursue, and what you want to spend money on. Having said all that, "line of sight" is not as, ahem, clear cut as you might think. I'm dealing with highrise buildings in an urban area with mountains (actually little more than pointy hills) and difficult terrain, yet with some actual testing with a buddy, I have pretty decent capabilities out to about 2.5 - 3 miles in general. GMRS is NOT a "social gathering place" in a lot of areas, so a lot of people get discouraged when no one responds. GMRS is also NOT for hobbyists/experimenters that want to try new methods, as it has severe restrictions of band usage and types of transmissions. The Amateur (ham) bands are where there is a lot of contesting, long distance random contacts, multiple modes (including multiple digital modes which simplify long distance contact by combining RF with internet linking of repeaters/reflectors), and lots of regular "nets" where you can check in, test your equipment, and interact with others on a more or less regular basis. There are FAR more bands and unlimited freqs within those bands (based on actual local band plans), vs maximum of 30 specific channels on GMRS which are shared among all within range.

I'm Marc Spaz, and I approve this message. In compliance with the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002.

A wise man once said a product or service is worth whatever someone is willing to pay for it.

Totally agree they are too expensive for the quality.

WSFB954 Donald Chilton (Lenny) I live in Murfreesboro Tennessee. Been a radio nerd for quite awhile! And I’m able to hit the Brentwood repeater!

WRTI650 Doug Robertson here. I live in Franklin, just north of downtown and work at a church just south of downtown Franklin. Pretty new to the radio world but somehow became the subject expert to friends that know nothing and are getting GMRS radios. I'm hitting several repeaters in the area, some different from work and my home. Looking to join this friendly group and learn! Blessings!

Not according to the regulations, but from a technical standpoint yes, and many people do.

I would look at what Kenwood sells.