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Showing content with the highest reputation on 01/12/25 in all areas

  1. WRYS709

    Radioddity DB20G

    I’d bet dollars to donuts that most DB20-G users use their cigarette lighter plug for power. In my vehicle, I do, and why not?! It’s so easy to unplug and hide the equipment in a zone where I am concerned about someone breaking a window to steal it when it’s in plain sight. And for the one in my shack: the Powerwerx adapter makes it plug and play without losing the versatility of having the cigarette lighter plug, when needed.
    2 points
  2. WRYZ926

    Radioddity DB20G

    The cigarette lighter plug is not that big of a deal and easy to either remove or get an adapter as shown in the above post. A few 20 watt radios from different manufacturers come with the lighter adapter.
    2 points
  3. 2 points
  4. 2 points
  5. SvenMarbles

    Radioddity DB20G

    Stick a penny in that fuse box and you can power a 100 watt radio with a cigarette lighter plug Just keep transmissions brief..
    1 point
  6. WRXL702

    Radioddity DB20G

    I Use A Cigarette Lighter Power Connection For My 45 Watt Vertex Standard VX-4600. It Has Performed Flawlessly For The Last 1 1/2 Years. Good Battery Connection Terminals & Battery Condition, Are More Important In My Opinion........
    1 point
  7. Horseshit. There’s nothing wrong with people getting together in a club (or perhaps even a forum) to discuss, learn about, and share enjoyment of GMRS.
    1 point
  8. 1 point
  9. SvenMarbles

    Radioddity DB20G

    I like the cigarette lighter plug and I use it. It's actually part of what I like about it...
    1 point
  10. The same purpose as any other GMRS or HAM radio club.
    1 point
  11. WSEZ, if you are more concerned about a spelling error than the question itself and have nothing of value to offer a newcomer to the radio hobby, maybe you need to find a different hobby yourself instead of putting others down so you can feel superior.
    1 point
  12. ok thx steve the repeater owner is sadly not a ham so i'll just have to use snail mail but useful tool for future use if i were to get an GMRS operator that sounded familiar to the ham side
    1 point
  13. tcp2525

    Radioddity DB20G

    Definitely a really nice adapter, but why adapt something I didn't want in the first place to something useful? Easier to just cut it off and put whatever I want on the end of the cables. I would have preferred that the wires came pre-tinned and ready to go. That's the way they did it the last 150 years, no sense in changing now.
    1 point
  14. SteveShannon

    Radioddity DB20G

    Exactly right. Almost every car comes with a power port that accepts the cigarette lighter plug. Although the cigarette lighter plug isn’t what many of us might eventually use, it’s the closest thing there is to being universally available and works well for these low power radios allowing them to be used immediately.
    1 point
  15. I always was a "Kenwood guy" for decades, but sadly they dropped the ball in the amateur sector by discontinuing the famous V71a after 20 years of production. I'm glad I have four of them. I was always tempted to explore their commercial radios but never got around to it. Did you really say you have too many radios? Really? Is that even possible? As for digital, I have D-Star, DMR and C4FM covered. In all honesty, I really dislike the sound of digital and much prefer the natural sound of good old analog. I found that C4FM is the better sounding of all digital formats and D-Star the worst. I hope the FCC never allows digital on GMRS.
    1 point
  16. What you are experiencing is the way different antennas are resonating. If you look at this using a VNA you will see even though the SWR is showing 1.1:1 for a given frequency, or relatively close to it, you will see the resistance can vary anywhere between 40-60 ohms. The other main consideration is American watts versus Chinese watts. This is why I always use the famous Bird watt meter that accurately displays American watts and has the capability to covert Chinese watts to American watts with a high degree of accuracy. Most Chinese SWR/Watt meters simply can't handle the conversion properly.
    1 point
  17. I have my Yaesu FT-857d, so I am well aware of the shack in the box, but none of the truly portable ones are manufactured anymore. So there is nothing I can recommend. But I have my Radioddity DB20-G and I purchased a Quansheng UV-K5(8) and flashed the IJV3 Firmware and now for $20 I have a 2 meter/440 DSB HT that is compatible with SSB. I made a 65 mile contact with my legacy AEA 5/8 telescoping antenna on 2 meters SSB.
    1 point
  18. WSGL775

    Repeaters

    Well some good news folks! I was able to make contact on the repeater designated as Alamo NW 462.625 with an operator about 35 miles from my location. So I know the radio works. It was very clear without any noise. The other two repeaters - no contact. I'll keep trying on those frequencies. I appreciate your insight and help on this matter Jim. Thank You!
    1 point
  19. @AndyOnTheRadio BLUF: I have a unit with the same problem. See bold text below. I think Amazon has a bad batch of DB25-Gs (or they are all bad CCRs). I have experimented with three (two are on the way back to Amazon) and I do not recommend this model at this point. Unit 1: The unit continues to show a channel in the “receiving” color for a random amount of time after the incoming transmission has stopped. I was prepared for less than the advertised 25 watts, but this one quickly drops to around 14W while transmitting. Works fine with the CPS and CHIRP. Reseting the unit or flashing to default with the CPS does not make a difference. Unit 2: Power output is around what I expected (~16-17 watts), but a different bug with this one. The TX Power/Mic Volume display always shows 220-230 for the volume value. It should be 0 if you key the mic with a silent background. The actual transmit audio is fine/good reports from another station. Reseting the unit or flashing to default with the CPS does not make a difference. Unit 3: Requested as a replacement for one of the above units. Power output is around what I expected (~16-17 watts), but this one has multiple bugs. The unit has an issue communicating with the CPS and CHIRP. Attempting to write with the CPS causes the unit to crash/reboot shortly after the write starts. CHIRP cannot read the unit and shows the “short read of the block 0x0000” error. Connected to a BTECH 30A/13.8V power supply (confirmed output of 13.8v with multimeter) unit shows 12.5V when pressing number 0. Reseting the unit does not make a difference. Writing a full flash of the CPS defaults is not possible. I tried with both the included “junk” programming cable and a BTECH cable. Other things I have noticed: 1) The supplied programming cable is junk and likely uses counterfeit chips. The driver that installs automatically for Windows 11 will prevent the cable from being used. You can download an old driver, but Windows constantly replaces it (and there isn’t an easy was to stop that on consumer versions of Windows). I bought a BTECH cable that works fine. 2) The CPS defaults are different than the radio “Reset All” defaults. 3) One of the supplied t-connector to 12v outlets had a sloppy t-connector fit. If the t-connector was bumped in the right direction it could lose power. I like the concept of this radio. CHIRP compatibility was part of my deciding factor over what I think is the more popular and simple DB20. At this point I don’t have any confidence in receiving a radio that doesn’t have issues.
    1 point
  20. tweiss3

    CERT team

    Low cost? The $200 fee is cheaper than 6 users being licensed under GMRS. Your biggest issue is going to be using good equipment certified for Part 90 LMR, not MARS modified ham radios. If you read all of Part 90, it's not hard to identify how to get licensed for county wide/state wide operations without coordination, you can even license a mobile repeater without coordination, but you have to prove eligibility under 90.35 (a). As @gortex2 said above, a non-profit may be able to get out of the fees, but you will need a federal tax ID.
    1 point
  21. gortex2

    CERT team

    A true non profit can get a part 90 license pretty easy and depending on the organization pay no fees to the FCC. The issue in the end is people dont want to put in the work. CB, HAM, FRS, and MURs is more than most really need to be honest. CERT can easiliy be a non profit or work under a county umbrella to get licesenced. I guess it really depends on the organizational needs but the other simple mode is VOIP apps. Zello or other apps are jsut as good as radio comms 95% of the time. Using a combination of FRS and voip for an application can work well.
    1 point
  22. Did the repeaters change their PL tone? Did you play with the RX tone? With the H3 I know if you play with the RX it'll reset the TX tone. You have to either set the TX alone without doing anything to the RX. Or set the RX and the TX will be set also. It you reset the RX, the TX goes back to no tone.
    1 point
  23. That would be great. Not much action down here in Durango.
    1 point
  24. OffRoaderX

    CERT team

    Dude.. just... duude... Either you are one of the worlds greatest trolls, approaching even my troll-status, OR you are seriously broken inside and should seek help and medication.
    1 point
  25. WRUU653

    CERT team

    Says the guy who claims you can’t use inverted tones.
    1 point
  26. Skunkworks

    Kenwood TK-890H-K

    Thanks for the help everyone. Turns out the ignition sense wire was in the wrong spot in the 9-pin on the back of the radio. I was told wrong by the seller on ebay (big surprise, right). He even circled for me, but wrong. The radio powered up, but I suspect the speaker was getting no power. Once correct, it all works as it should. I'm very happy with the radio.
    1 point
  27. I'd like to "somewhat" unlock mine as well. I'm using the Radiodity GM-30 software (the only one that works as of now) and I can program tones and such, but all of the other memories are pretty much locked. The DIY memories can be renamed, but the TX/RX frequencies can't be changed. You can add some RX only frequencies into memory, but no TX that's not already programmed. I'd like to program in some repeaters local to where I travel along with appropriate tones, etc., but I'm pretty much stuck with the first 22 channels and RPT1 - 8, and just 1 set of each. I'd like to duplicate some frequencies for different areas and remove the ones I don't need. It's a bit more frustrating than their older UV-5's that let you bounce all over wherever you wanted and program 10 channels with different tones and the same freq for every city you pass thru on a drive.
    1 point
  28. Looks like you are off to a good start. Gotta say, it does look like a nice collection, but there still is some open space on them shelves.
    0 points
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