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Wow, thanks so much to all of you! Steve, you have already taught me some of the type of information I am wanting to know in just your one post! Offroader, I have a couple of Tidradio TD-H3s set to GMRS mode I purchased to see if I will be interested in the hobby. As I was trying to explain, I'm interested in learning how things work more than just how to make them work if that makes any sense, as I would think this knowledge could apply to all radios, not just my specific one. I'll certainly check out all the resources mentioned here when I get home. Thanks again.

We normally would allow a candidate to take both exams IF they have studied for both. Otherwise it would be a waste of everyone's time. There is a lot of overlap between the Technician exam and the General Exam and we get a lot of people taking and passing both in the same session. The Amateur Extra exam is much more involved and covers materials that are not part of the two more basic exams. IMO, the General license allows one to access most useful frequencies and modes, and would provide about 90% of what the Extra ticket allows. I would encourage the OP to study and give it a try, but not to be too worried about it until they're more experienced and/or find the General license somehow limiting.

I'd agree that Marc's video is a great intro to GMRS. I'm not aware of any specific book on GMRS, likely due to it being a very basic service intended for family communications and recreational use. The ARRL has several good books that, while intended for Amateur Radio service, can still be a big help in understanding two-way radio use in general. As Steve had said, they might be a little more than you need, but IMO they WILL help you understand radio basics. You may be able to find them used or in eBook form. This is the basic operating guide: [url]https://home.arrl.org/action/Store/Product-Details/productId/114292[/url] This is the basic antenna handbook: [url]https://home.arrl.org/action/Store/Product-Details/productId/114354[/url]

The Comet 2x4SR is an excellent multi band mobile antenna. Since you said that you can get into that repeater with an HT then yes going to 20/25 watt radio will improve things. Stepping up to a 40/50 watt radio will definitely improve things. I have a repeater that is about 50-55 miles away that I can get into with a 20 watt radio but the other people hear a lot of static on my transmission. Everyone can hear me clearly when I use a 50 watt radio. Basically you have to quadruple the power output to notice any big difference. I am still going to suggest going with the Comet CA-GMRS for a few reasons. One is that it is light enough at only 2 pounds. Second, it has a wind load of 135 mph. And you can also get rid of the pizza pan that will definitely act as a sail in high winds. The CA-GMRS is lists at 5.5 dBi which is 3.4 dBd. The 2x4SR is listed at 6.2 dBi ( 4.1 dBd). Plus you would still have to use a metal pan for your ground plane which is a wind sail. I can't tell in your photo if your roof is fairly flat or has a ridge. Getting your antenna up some more and going with a mobile radio will improve performance for you.

If you aced the Tech, you probably would have passed the General at that time. You could likely study up a little and go pass it. Exams are usually given free, and while a new license now carries a $35 fee to the FCC, you can upgrade from Tech to General free. I think the "flash cards" option is the easiest way to study for the exam: [url]https://www.hamexam.org/[/url]

Of course I do. But I'm not tearing my system up until it gets warmer out. I might have the opportunity to heat up the lightning arrester and fittings to see if the SWR moves when I thaw the water in that connection if it even exists there. If nothing happens it's at the antenna. I'm tending to think that is going to be the problem area because the antenna fitting was wrapped on the ground and it has that aluminum shroud over it for protection. It seems like it would be the hardest to be infiltrated. While the lightning arrester is down stream and the water would flow down the cable. I have my drip loop and did what I could so the arrestor wasn't at the bottom of the run. But my bet is the issue is there if it's not a defect in my antenna.

Hi Whippy, There are lots of books, but the only one I have is the ARRL Amateur Radio Handbook. I suspect it’s more than you want. I’m not sure the what a person needs to know for GMRS would fill a book. Set the same channel, match the tones, push the button and talk. Marc Spaz on this forum has an excellent introductory video. Someone else will come up with a link. GMRS is limited to 22 receive channels and 30 transmit channels by the fcc regulations. Certified radios have those channels programmed in. Tones (CTCSS, PL, CTS are all names for the exact same thing) and digital codes (DPL, DTCSS, and DCS are all the same) are used to limit interruptions, but do not provide security. If I transmit using tone 100 Hz as my CTCSS, and someone else has their receiver tone set to something else, they won’t hear me because their receiver only allows through those that have matching tones. But if they set their tone to 100 Hz they will hear me because their receiver filters out everything except transmissions that include the 100 Hz tone. But if they don’t have a tone set on receive they have no filter and their receiver will reproduce everything. Codes work the same way. @OffRoaderX has YouTube videos under his other identity, Notarubicon that have enough information to fill several books.

It’s a very good tool, but while line of sight is great for vhf and uhf radio work, it’s not absolute. For instance, here’s how it analyzed the path between my friend’s house and my cabin. He and I can communicate via 2 meter simplex, but according to the chart we shouldn’t expect to:

I agree that it IS population-driven - why invest in infrastructure to service a handful of people? Even here in relatively densely populated Maryland, we have surprisingly large areas with no cell service. The "Eastern Shore" (the peninsula east of the Chesapeake Bay) is still a lot of farmland and timber plus vast areas of marshland, and there are areas I routinely visit there with little or no cell service. A lot of the marsh is being abandoned and stuff like the roads and telephone lines are just deteriorating, with no plans to improve things or add stuff like cable TV or cell towers. I can still reach ham repeaters from most of these places due to how flat the terrain is. Our western panhandle is mountainous and there are large areas in our two westernmost counties where cell service is unavailable, not counting the local pockets like deep ravines and hollows. Out there, my ham radio has limited service for some of the same reasons cell service doesn't penetrate: no line-of-sight to towers.

I be more than happy to check your CPS settings if you send me the .cpg file. And I can check your settings on my XTL2500 to see if it is related to a CPS issue.

I assume you checked the receive freq setting for accuracy in the CPS? How about try setting the receiver tone decode on a channel for CSQ to make sure it is not a tone decode issue. Also, check the respective Conventional Personality Receive and Transmit settings match for either Analog or Astro. If you can receive with the CSQ setting, make sure the MPL box is unchecked for that channel in the Zone/Channel Assignment section. If a DPL tone is used and the tone is not an inverted DPL for receive make sure the receive DPL Inverted box is unchecked. Those boxes can be accidentally checked without your knowledge. Make sure the Speaker connectors makes a tight connection at the connectors. Sometimes you have to really squeeze the connectors together and make sure the pins are properly aligned. Make sure the wires are a tight connection at the 4 connector pins. Try the speaker on another audio source to make sure that speaker is in good working order.

any channel will suffice for an emergency Ch.. For example, i was traveling north on 395 last week... This lady came on Ch 18 where i was monitoring and hollered out, "is anyone out there, i need help" I replied, yea,, what's up.. She yelled back, i just passed Sand Canyon Road going north and i need to know where the next gas station is,, i said, are you running out of gas, she said no, i'm about ready to $hit my pants Now this is a true story,, i told her about a mile up you'll find a place called Pearsons.. I guess that suffices for an emergency.. She must of made it, i didn't hear her again.

Yes, I finally did it. I got my Tech (KD3AKT). Had a lot of fun on 10M on Sunday. Got 2 contacts from TX, one from OK, one from ND, one from OR and one from CA. All on 20 watts. What a fun hobby.

The clicking is not normal. I'm curious to see what is causing it.

A ham friend has a 9800 that doesn’t click.

The TH-7800 and TH-9800 use the same password unlock to open them up. Though you must use the official TYT programming software to do so. I went with the TH-7800 dual band since there is no 6m or 10m FM repeaters near me and the fact that a 6m and/or 10m antenna would be way to big to drive around with all of the time. I have one TH-7800 in the vehicle and the other is setup in a go box for Winlink. I have not noticed any clicking noises like @Wayfarer has with my TH-7800's so maybe it is something with the TH-9800's.

Me too. There's essentially no 6m activity around here and the antenna for 6m is impractically long.

No hardware change needed, it's just a software change done on startup. I only use my 9800 on 2m and 70cm

Very little gmrs activity here too. But a decent amount of 2m traffic. I'm a member of our local club here and we use three 2m repeaters to keep in touch, especially when up in the back country. My TH-9800 doesn't even transmit on gmrs channels, I assume there must be a diode to clip to make it work there. But it is nice to be able to receive GMRS channels. We have an off-road club that comes up from Boise now and again that uses gmrs out on the trail and it's useful to listen to them give reports on road conditions, for instance. My ham buddies were right, I got a lot more friendly help here on mygmrs than I did on the ham forums.

Buytwowayradios also has a Optional 3200 mah Battery that Does work on the 935G/H but requires the charge cradle, since there's not a USB-C port on those.

Might as well go for the Gold and try for an Extra too. If you pass the General they should let you take the Extra exam in the same session.

You know...if you think about it...Alaskans are using radio for its original intended purpose. Radio at its core is just a way for people to communicate at a distance. Historical accounts suggest that in the early 20th century, radio was seen as a tool to make everyday activities easier and safer. In most of the country, there are other ways to do that now, so for most of us, it's just a hobby or a tool to make another hobby easier and safer. I think Marconi would be proud if he saw people using radios to call for someone to come help transport the moose that's going to feed the family over the winter.

Interesting. I have noticed that on RadioReference, hardly anyone wants to admit to having one, but on a couple of Facebook groups I belong to, a lot of the members have them as well as various Baofengs. I don't think I've ever keyed my TYT up on GMRS. There's very little GMRS activity around me, and I don't have "radio dork" friends or family near me to converse with. I do get a lot of use out of it on one of the local ham repeaters. It's a very friendly group of people and if you announce that you're mobile and listening, usually someone will have a conversation with you.

I agree with everything you’ve stated. MyGMRS lists 14 repeaters for Alaska and I bet that is still much lower than reality.

I put together for OST programming, thought it might be helpful for others. The forum can't copy tables, so it is attached is the excel file. Included is also a "complete" CTCSS tone list with corresponding P25 NAC from the NIFOG manual. CSCSS vs NAC vs DCS - Copy.xlsx Hopefully this helps someone.

Oklahoma has about twice as many repeaters as Alaska but with five times the population. There certainly aren't enough repeaters in Alaska to serve the entire state, but until very recently, most of the villages in the north and interior didn't have cell phone coverage and it's still pretty spotty in a lot of them. Radio was (maybe still is) used as a way to stay in touch if you were outside the village hunting, fishing, or whatever. They were pretty casual about whether you had a license. I wouldn't be surprised if there are unlicensed "pirate" repeaters in some villages that don't appear in any database. When you're 300 miles from the next village, who's going to hear? They also use marine radio a lot -- much more than GMRS or ham. In some villages, almost everyone has one. They're obviously not on the water, but again, who's going to hear? There are a lot more than 6 GMRS repeaters in Alaska, because I've personally used at least 8. Owners and users are pretty cagey about where they are, and you have to know somebody to get access to them. I suspect a lot of them are unlicensed. With the advent of radios that scan for frequencies and codes, it's probably easier now to find one, but only if you happen to be listening when it's in use. I didn't do amateur radio back then, so I have no idea how many ham repeaters there are. Probably more than you'll find listed, though. Alaska is a very different place than the rest of the country, and Alaskans kind have an attitude of, "You don't understand our situation, so you don't get to make rules for us."

Make sure you have the channel set to WIDE.

The Scadacore site is interesting, but without antenna height input, I don't think it's as accurate as it could be. NVM, I just figured out how to input antenna heights.

Nice! After messing with it on my cell I think I’ll have to fiddle with it on a home computer. The site is hard to navigate with an iPhone.

It’s a website called scadacore.com. The tool is RF Line of Sight. https://www.scadacore.com/tools/rf-path/rf-line-of-sight/

Double tap...

The SWR isn’t the issue and you’ll never be able to detect an audible difference in reception between 1.3:1 and 1.0:1. When you say you can’t hear people who are really close, do you mean that the radio isn’t breaking squelch? If you turn squelch down or off can you hear them? Do you have any PL tones or DPL codes set for receive? If so, clear them out completely for the channel you’re attempting to hear. With tones/codes cleared out and squelch at minimum you should hear static. if you still cannot receive even that you might simply have a bad receiver or audio problem.

Thanks guys! It does work pretty well, but is more of a “lets see what I got that will work before we ask the wife for more money for nicer setup”. It was definitely an inexpensive way to get a HT some more range. Luckily I am at about 600ft asl but the big repeater is 30 miles away at 8600asl so I can clear the mountains between me and it(about 3000-3500). I will probably go to an umbrella base with a 16-24foot extension pole, maybe with something like a Comet 2x4sr on top. That would give me an easy 4-7 feet taller, but still maintain a fairly light antenna on top. Then I need to decide whether I want a 25w, or 40-50w mobile, but paying 3-4 times the price for about 10% more signal kind turns me off. Here is the plot for the big repeater I can hit on 5w. I am the blue pin. But this repeater has huge range. We heard a guy last weekend hit it with a 7 element yagi and 50watts iirc from N. Las Vegas, about 110 miles away!! He was scratchy, but readable.

Hey Guys thank you for sharing your information on the 935H. Does the 935H have the capability for the Mars/Cap mod? Is the battery interchangeable with other wouxun radios like the kg-uv9gx? Thanks

I guess remember stuff like that because I never did drugs and the Van Clubs in Southern California were using CB Radios way before it became popular and we were into traveling all over towing our Ski Boats. I was a member of the Van Spectrum Van Club which was almost as big as the West Coast Van Club The Van Club I belong to had their own private CB channel that no one else had access to before the 40 channel CBs were introduced. We would call it the Adam Channel and used it locally, but when we traveled outside our local area we would normally use the trucker's channels because we were towing boat trailers and we needed to hear the Smokey Reports because of the 55 MPH speed limit for towing trailers in California.

I personally would use the free Wouxun software from Buy Two Way Radios as long as you have a Windows computer or a way to run Windows programs on Linux or Mac. The reason I say this is the fact that there is always a chance that one could brick their radios by choosing the wrong one in CHIRP. I'm not saying that one will brick their radio by choosing the 935G in CHIRP. Just a word of caution,

I have handles. Love handles.

That's fine. Marketing “lingo” aside, proper wrapping/sealing is all that’s required regardless of connector type is all i’m saying. There is nothing wrong with pl259/so239 if installed properly. Spending money on N connectors is not really going to change anything or be a magical “permanent fix”.

SWR can change with temperature changes. I have seen it happen on my HF antennas when temps get into single digits. The SWR usually goes up a bit. But the SWR goes back to normal once temps get to 20 degrees or higher. So far the changes have not been so bad that the internal tuner on my IC-7300 can't handle. Most of the time I don't even need to use the internal tuner.

An N connector is sealed. Filling the recess completely with grease could create hydraulic pressure when screwing the connector halves together and that hydraulic pressure could prevent the connector from screwing together fully making the seal even worse. The video you posted of the “STUF” specifically mentions not to fill an N connector with it, but to use less to avoid this hydraulic pressure.

You can use dielectric grease. Just put a small amount on the outside of the female threads only.

I’m sorry that happened. If it’s one of those aluminum tubes at the bottom of a comet antenna I would have thought the same thing. As far as grease, some people simply use Vaseline. Fill the connectors and screw them together. UHF connectors (plug = PL259, socket = SO239) are not waterproof at all. Water gets in and ruins the coax. Depending how long it has been you might have to cut several feet off the end or replace the entire run. N connectors are sealed much better but should still be sealed in one of several ways. It sounds like you know exactly what to do, but for anyone reading this who’s wondering, DX Engineering has kits https://www.dxengineering.com/search/part-type/weatherproofing-kits?SortBy=BestKeywordMatch&SortOrder=Ascending&keyword=Coax+Waterproofing+

And using the APP from Tidradio I was also not able to program any transmit frequencies into channel 55, I assume and up even though I didn't try. I have AM stationed programmed into the radio and the APP won't read those from memory either. If I write back I lose my AM stations (Airport).

My understanding is that UHF is better at penetrating dry structures than HF or VHF (which is why cell phones work in buildings), but it’s worse at penetrating water or water bearing vegetation, which is why leafy trees affect it.

I'm going to close my post out with something that will piss some people off, and others will say I don't know what I am talking about... so if you don't want to read all of the post, you may want to skip to the END. The reason CB went to the wayside isn't known for sure, but I have a few ideas. Modulation type isn't one of them. I think there is zero chance of CB replacing FRS. I don't think it could even take a significant part of the market, and I will explain why. First, people get extremely frustrated because their mobile CB radio performs so poorly, with regard to range. As mentioned above, that is almost always due to the antenna. The primary problem is, the average DIY person doesn't poses the tools or skills to properly install a CB and antenna, nor verify if it is working correctly. This wasn't always the case, but somewhere in time, this common knowledge kind of vanished, leading people to think they can just bolt on the antenna and life is good. Then, there is the size of the antenna. The shortest proper length for a CB antenna is 104 inches. That's not a type-o... that is over eight and a half feet. Not everyone is willing to put an antenna that big on their vehicle. So, you see everyone using a compromised antenna... like the 4' and even 3' firestik antennas. I own a 4 footer and a 1 footer, but I know they are only going to work for a mile or less. FRS is at a frequency that only requires a 6" antenna, and the installation is way, way more forgiving. Just by it's nature, its not common to incorrectly install an FRS antenna. And when manufacturers put even shorter antennas on them, say a 3", it's no where near the compromise made in CB with a 3' antenna. So, you take a radio and antenna that doesn't install correctly easily and complicate that install with an antenna that more resembles a dummy load than an antenna, and yeah, the performance is gonna suck. Creating an even smaller, overpriced version in a handheld doesn't sound like a good time, either. Now, there is also another issue to deal with. While there are FM CB radios available, FM quality on CB is no where near the audio quality of FRS. FRS radio uses a lot more bandwidth, which means the signal can carry more data, aka higher fidelity audio. Many people will prefer FRS just because it sounds better. END Now to upset some people... I believe that a properly installed mobile CB and antenna or a quality CB handheld will outperform an FRS radio 100% of the time. I also believe that a properly installed mobile CB and antenna AND a quality CB handheld will outperform their counterpart in GMRS radio a vast majority of the time, when it comes to P2P comms. The two top reasons why GMRS has made it to the top of the pile is due to repeaters and the frequency used is ideal for heavily wooded and dense urban areas. While generally, I believe CB is superior in many cases, it seems that US radio use in dense woods and cities are the most common use cases... hence GMRS (and FRS) win over mobile and handheld CB.

I'm getting more truckers are using their cell phones instead. So what do they do when out of range of a cell tower?

I ran by the local CB shop last October that is part of a truck stop to see if they had a 50ft antenna cable and the guy asked what it was for. Told him GMRS and he said "oh, ham radio". He didn't have a clue as to what GMRS is.

When I passed the Tech test (35 out of 35) they did offer me to take the General test but I chose not to because I had not studied for it.... Kind of wish I had taken it just to see how I would have done.