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4.61 amps while transmitting on high power is not bad at all. And a 10 AH LIPO4 battery should last quite a while considering you are going to be receiving the majority of the time. Now I wouldn't get into long rag chew sessions while running on battery power. And I would have no issues using the accessory port/cigarette lighter in vehicles since those are rated at 10 amps.

I picked up a pair of GTX67 Pro Midlands for my son and his girl. They aren’t “radio people” so the simplified operation is a benefit for them. It’s also a good match for the MTX575 in his Jeep. He’s been happy with them so far.

Well, I use it for keeping track of each other skiing, communicating with friends and family back on land when out of cell tower range sailing (marine VHF doesn't really have repeaters in my area), hiking, camping, and even quick things like backing up to the trailer with someone guiding me back. But it doesn't really bother me that there are those who like to chat with strangers. Diverse use cases is probably what "general" means in GMRS.

I agree with you. Even with the older chemstry of my (Li-ion) portable power station, a Jackery Explorer 240 241Wh, I'm now confident I can run my KG-XS20G+ for the day with reserve capacity to re-charge a KG-935G+ battery or two. Luckily, I got the 100w solar panel option so I just need to get a couple hours into morning for the Jackery to be 100% again. However, as you suggest, I'm going to get a more durable and safer LiFePO4 power station, but now I can take a little more time deciding. Any suggestions on brand? Thanks!

It’s much brighter than either of them. It’s very nice for seeing the screen in the outdoors!

Really. Wow. I find my Wouxun radios are the best built, best sounding, best operating radios beating many much higher priced radios out there. I have several 905G's and 935G's which I hand out to my off-road group or snowmobiling or hunting buddies they drop them in streams, run over them, leave them sitting in a tree in 10 degree weather all night, stick them in their back pocket and sit on them while rough riding their SxS's, and they just don't miss a beat. I use a UV8H (same as 935G but ham version) when by myself hiking or kayaking or whatever. They just work flawlessly IP66 rated, rugged, durable, easy to use. IMO, I don't think you can beat them. They do tend to cost a bit more than most "cheap" GMRS radios, and I've tried many of them if your going for price, then sure they may be a bit more than most, but they are certainly not junk. They sound better and are more durable and easier to use than $800 Motorola or Yeasu HT's I've tried. I certainly wouldn't hesitate to get another Wouxun. The 905G is a very solid choice and about as easy as it gets to use. I can hand those to my 86 year old dad and he uses it, giant font on the display, minimal buttons, nothing to worry about. Personally I'm not a Midland fan, the radios are not very rugged (most have no IP rating at all), have operational issues and don't sound very good, especially when trying to talk to someone with a different type/brand of radio. That has just been my experience. Some people like them, so... As the original poster's question, @OffRoaderX is correct, do not use any advertised "range" in fact usually if a radio advertises a range figure, it's probably a good idea to steer clear of them as range is almost completely dependent on what is between you and the other radio. Very heavy foliage, even a 5W "65mi range" radio will only get you 1.5-2mi at most. Open fields, you might see several miles. If your on a side of a mountain talking to someone 80mi away on another mountain side facing you, that will work just fine too. Inside a car, will severely reduce your range. 5w will help inside vehicles or in heavy foliage, as will a better antenna, but most all 3-5W radios will perform fairly closely in most situations as far as range is concerned. That said I prefer to err on the side of more than less, 2.4 is ... pretty pathetic and if that's what they advertise it's probably even less. Even the vaunted Baofang UV5R puts out 3.8 or so (advertised as a 5W) , your wattage may vary as the manufacturing variance on those varies alot some people say they only get 3w, some say 4, some say 4.5....the ones I had did 3.8...not unexpected with a $30 radio. My 905G's all put out over 5W around 5.1-5.2 on full charge. My 935G and UV8H put out 5.7-5.8W on GMRS 16. More testament to Wouxun as they tend to underrate most of their radios in the wattage dept.

Some of us are old radio buffs and some of us are just getting started. Do you have questions about GMRS or in radio, in general? Unlike many of the Facebook groups, this is a place you can ask any radio-related question without negative retorts. Ask away, we're here together to grow and learn.

It’s so nice for you to join us. We feel truly blessed to have such a wonderful person in our midst.

I checked both the KG-935G+ and KG-XS20G+ software. They only support the proprietary Wouxun ".KG" file format.

I’ve switched over to RT Systems for almost all of my radios. I enjoy the consistency but I did use Chirp before. One of the menus in Chirp allows you to import from RepeaterBook (good for ham radio listings but not as complete as MyGMRS’s database for GMRS.) I think it also allows importing CSV (comma separated variable) files. But I don’t know about Wouxun software. Not meant negatively; I just haven’t used it.

The advantage of the Channel Wizard, its function really is it puts all the settings for creating a new channel in one location. This is much simpler than moving all around the menu to put things in one at a time. Having now tried it I have to say it’s a pretty nice feature.

That’s kind of you to say. I try and help when I can and if I can. There are some good people here and smarter than me. What makes someone good or helpful isn’t predicated on their geography. You’ll find them all over the map. You don’t have to look very hard to see that. I have had this radio for some time and to be honest I was in the same boat as @WRNU354 and I just hadn’t bothered with the Channel Wizard feature before. So I also gave it a go and I can confirm once you save the channel that’s is as far as the Channel Wizard is concerned, channel wizard is no longer looking at the channel you saved. Your radio is working properly. Now that I have used this I agree with @WRNU354 that this is a great way to add a channel while on the road. Perfect looking up a repeater on the map and adding it without having to bust out the laptop.

The range of either radios will likely be limited by whatever is between you and your friends and family whilst hiking and traveling. For car-to-car talking on the highway, the 5W radios might be slightly better. Either way, when comparing features and options, you can likely find better options at much lower prices - and for hiking or driving use, the reality is nobody will care if they have a license or not. Also: Be wary of anyone here proclaiming that any brand is "junk", without any information to back up their opinion - there are "some people" on this forum with severe mental disabilities that just cannot help themselves from saying the same things over and over and over without any actual information or data to back it up - and no matter how much everyone laughs at them, they just never "get it". These people should be ignored .. and, laughed at.

Well, I got up and running with my new antenna, a $40 “uayosek”(whopping 2.5db) off Amazon and 25 ft of DXEng RG8X connected the BF UV5G Plus. At 16’ in the air with my handheld, it got 4.84 watts on high @1.04 swr. Worked well enough I bumped it down to medium and got 3.42w, and 1.62w at low. I was able to hit the big repeater on Sunday full quiet at high, and a little scratchy on medium. Having listened to suggestions made, and the Euro being about even with the dollar, I ordered 25 feet of MP Ultraflex 7 Sahara, which arrived today. Preliminary test shows 7.94w, 4.95w, and 2.61w, a significant improvement. SWR appears a tiny bit higher, but it is coiled and only tested on the antenna down so that will probably change. Price wasn’t too crazy for the Ultraflex, about $65 assembled and shipped. It definitely fits the bill though, lighter than LMR400, only .28 thick, the BNC connectors they put on it look like they were straight up machined out of bar stock, and its db loss is only a touch higher(.1 or .2 db) than LMR400UF. I am gonna try to get it all put up tomorrow night for the local net, but so far it looks like it will work well.

I received the new KG-935H yesterday and ran test on high power this morning with a fresh battery using my Surecom SW-102 and a *dummy load, here is what I got. I posted my KG-Q10H at ultra high setting results for comparison. I have not had a chance to take it out in the world as of yet. * I mention this because obviously MURS and GMRS are not type approved and MURS output is way high at these settings. This is only a test, if this had been an actual emergency you would have heard screaming KG-935H 2m - 8.8 watts 1.25m - 4.6 watts 70cm - 8.4 watts GMRS - 6.8 watts rept, 7.4 watts smpx MURS - 9.7 watts KG-Q10H 2m - 4.5 watts 1.25m - 2.9 watts 70cm - 6.5 watts 6m - 1.1 watts GMRS - 5.5 watts MURS - 4.6 watts

If by the club you mean The Mesa Crest Club if you click on the link and post your question in their forum you may have better luck than asking in the overall forums general area. Good luck.

The use-case for my GMRS radios is family / community communications during emergencies and special events. To that end, I selected the KG-XS20G+ for my mobile and base station solution since it can be easily powered by my cars' auxiliary DC power outlet or small portable power station or A/C powered 13.8vdc power supply. The KG-XS20G+ big red power button connects to circuitry drawing current as long as DC power is connected to the radio. This always-on circuity detects the power button being push and then switches on the rest of the radio's internals. Also, in case DC power is removed, this power-button circuitry returns the radio to its prior on/off state once DC power is restored. Since one of my power sources, the small portable power station, is limited in capacity I decided to measure power consumption with different radio configurations and uses. DC Current draw * Radio off - 13.5 mA Radio in SINGLE DISPLAY with nothing being received or transmitted - 195 mA Radio in DUAL DISPLAY with nothing being received or transmitted - 266 mA Radio in SINGLE DISPLAY with Area A in scanning mode and nothing being received or transmitted - 197 mA Radio in DUAL DISPLAY with Area A in scanning mode and nothing being received or transmitted - 266 mA Radio in SINGLE DISPLAY with Area A receiving with audio set to moderate volume - 270 mA Radio in DUAL DISPLAY with Area A and Area B receiving with audio set to moderate volume - 345 mA Radio in SINGLE DISPLAY with Area A transmitting at 5W on Channel 1 - 1.76 A Radio in SINGLE DISPLAY with Area A transmitting at 20W on Channel 15 - 4.61 A Radio in SINGLE DISPLAY with nothing be received and FM on at moderate volume - 290 mA Radio in SINGLE DISPLAY with nothing being received and WEATHER on at moderate volume - 339 mA * All measurements were made with a Fluke 17B+ and connected in series with the positive line of the BTECH RPS-30M 10A switching power supply to the KG-XS20G+. No other devices were connected to the supply. When DC power or the radio was turned on or off time was given to allow the DC current draw to settle. DC current values measured during receive or transmit are approximations. Results I expected: Radio OFF current draw is reasonable and likely not a factor under normal conditions. Running with DUAL DISPLAY is a bit expensive. I'm going to avoid using DUAL DISPLAY when running on my portable power station. Transmitting at 20W is really expensive and should be limited especially when running on my portable power station. Results that surprised me: Scanning is free. It doesn't consume more power than monitoring one channel. Scan away! Weather radio consumes more power than listening to FM radio. A surprise, but not a big deal.

You should, assuming the tone matches the input tone of the repeater. You’ll actually be transmitting on 467.650 MHz; that is what the offset does.

I use Chirp and the red Wouxun cable from By Two Way Radios which is the first one you referance. I use a Mac so I tend to use Chirp because they are Mac compatible. Some of the radios are Mac supported by RT and they have a good reputation.

I am not sure, I didn't even know this was a thing until now! haha

Agreed - after messing around with it, I like it. I do want to use my PC to add all the local frequencies and set up some scan groups. Would you use the Wouxun software or Chirp? And what cable? I see these two options: Wouxun USB Programming Cable (PCO-001 / PCO-009) XLT Painless Programming Cable I appreciate all the replies.

Another good alternative is the DX Engineering 400MAX coax cable. Another alternative is the JET brand coax from R&L Electronics. I've used plenty of the JET brand for jumpers and short runs 20 feet or less. I mostly order from ABR when I need a custom length and I don't feel like making my own cables. Otherwise I go with DX Engineering 400MAX for standard lengths and JET for my jumpers. Now let's see what Negative Nancy has to say about DX Engineering or JET coax cables.

I use even cheaper ones that are very good. Amazon sells one called "KMR-400". Super good quality and connectors. $49 for 50ft. Pretty good for an LMR-400 facsimile.

Use this area for things that don't fit into the other topics. A general, catch-all.

I picked up a DB20-G from Radioddity a few weeks ago and was lost with the keys, menu etc.. Once I brought it in the radio room and set it up I found it is easy to us. The CHIRP programing is way easer to add channels and name them than trying to do it thu the radio keys. But other than that its seems to be a solid radio. I'm about 10 miles from my closest repeater and I'm able to reach it using a mobile antenna on a 8" pole. For my first GMRS radio I'm very happy with it.

Of course it Helps to have property in another name, not tied to you for these reasons too.

I’m glad you stopped by!

Well, I am in process of replacing 600 and some foot of 7/8 line on a tower with this exact problem. It IS water ingress. The only fix is full replacement of the feed line. Water gets in two ways. First is a break in the jacket, if the jacket fails the water runs down the cable and in the crack. Second is a break in the antenna radome (fiberglass outer housing). Water runs in, through the connector and into the cable. Either way, it's in the cable. But once it's in the cable, it's in the cable. If you want to try to take the cable down and put it in a dehydrator and get the moisture out, OK. But while you have the cable down, just go ahead and replace it anyway because that's the only option that will work. And while you are replacing the cable, replace the antenna. Then worry about water proofing the connections once everything bad has been replaced. Not sure why I got back on here just to post this. But I really have no intention after reading much of the stuff on here of making it a habit.

"some people" are born without the natural and normal ability to relate-to, or understand other people's wants and priorities, as if they think they are the center of the universe or that everyone thinks exactly the same way they think. "some people" born without this very basic ability that also post proof of their defect on social-media or websites, over and over, time and time again, endlessly, again and again, non-stop and obsessively, are commonly referred to as retards.

I picked up that habit in the military. I was told that plugging or unplugging accessories while the unit is powered could be harmful. TBH, I just took it as gospel and never did any research of my own. It takes literally a second, so I don't see any need to change my habit.

I beginning to think that he got kicked off of the short bus and possibly banned from ever riding it again.

I think elsewhere he said they use BF UV-9Gs.

You just have to know where to look. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Akshully - In most (all?) states you cannot simply "look up" info from a license plate. Whereas anyone can look up someone's full legal name and address in about 3 seconds on the FCC's freely available and widely-known website. Not saying criminals are going to be searching out people on vacation as the OP suggests (that's stupid), but comparing looking up a vehicle tag to a callsign is not a valid comparison. ..and if i've learned anything from people on this website, it is that minor little pedantic details like this are apparently very... VERY important and worth arguing over for days or even months to prove who thinks they are smarter...

Not much different that having your vehicle tag looked up. [emoji1787] Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Same. It performs pretty well for me and I like having it. I get better range with it than I do with any stick antenna.

Exactly. They have almost exactly the same low gain and RF pattern as a dipole with a null in the direction of the axis of the element. They’re vertically polarized. And they’re relatively easy and inexpensive to build if a person has an antenna analyzer, tubing cutter, tape measure, and can follow simple instructions. Saying get a real antenna is simply a way to put down others. I don’t believe @tweiss3 intended it that way because it’s out of character for him (I was surprised to see that in his post), but it’s true to @Socalgmrs character.

It is a good thing that literally nobody on this forum cares what you think at this point, probably just like at home. And, point of order: Nobody asked you what you think or for your totally useless opinion

This is why while @SvenMarbles choice may be right for him, it’s not an absolute one answer for everyone. It’s still simple, just not that simple.

…hold on now let me double bag that for you, did you get everything?

I think if burglars showed up for my radio equipment (or computers), my housemate would hand the stuff over and check twice to make sure the burglars didn't miss anything.

It seems like in the morning his medications have not yet kicked-in because by evening his posts are usually not as rhee-tard-ted. One would also think that he would figure out that nobody likes him and he would go away, based on the constant corrections people post pointing out how virtually nothing he says is correct or helpful. On the bright-side, he is a great example of someone with zero self-awareness, and even less social-grace or abilities.

I used to feel that way but I gradually realized that it’s not up to me. It is a hobby for many. Just like Citizen Band many people use GMRS as a way to chat with people who they might not know.

Nothing prohibits it. Some people dislike the idea of GMRS turning into a sort of "Ham Lite" service, but if nobody is breaking the rules so who really cares?

If a CWID is allowed to identify a Repeater, then Why wouldn't CW be allowed to identify a Call sign ?

Last month I passed the Technician class amateur license exam. With some studying, the test can be successfully passed on the first attempt. I scheduled my exam with the Greater Los Angeles Amateur Radio Group that was held at a Sizzler restaurant in Fullerton, CA. It cost $10 to take the test. They submit your license to the FCC electronically. I took the test on Saturday, paid my fee ($35) on Monday, and had my ticket and call sign by 1:00 AM Tuesday. It is very quick with their system. Those who pass the exam are given a 5W TYT TH-UV88 handheld radio, already programmed with the repeaters for the Papa System repeaters. They provide it to welcome you to the world of amateur radio. The whole environment was welcoming and fun. The Papa System has repeaters all over the southern California area and they have many modes, analog and digital. It's a great system to gain experience with your new license. They even hold a new hams net every Wednesday night at 7:00 PM. You can talk with others from the Mexican border, out to Yuma, all the way north to Ridgecrest and Santa Barbara on the coast. All of the repeaters are linked, so you can hear/talk over a very wide area. Just wanted to let people know that you can obtain your license in the LA area in an easy, convenient manner if you are in the area. The whole process was smooth and easy.

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,