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The difference in range between the least expensive Baofeng handheld radio and the most expensive Wouxun is zero.

It is amazing what is being done with 3D printers. I do not have one yet, hopefully someday, but will have to improve my Fusion360 skills as they are lacking compared to the designs you guys have shown. Like many of you, I found the radios starting to multiply so I did create my own version of an organization/charging shelf in metal. Holds a lot of stuff, but already running out of room. Also made a simple bracket for the Kenwood TK-880H mobiles as I take them in and out of my vehicles often.

As others have stated, there will be no difference in range. Look at different radios and go with what has good reviews, the features you want and at the price you want. The Wouxun KG-905G is a good radio that is easy to use. The plus is no buttons for new users to push and then mess the programing up. Programming the 905G is very simple using the free Wouxun software available for download at Buy Two Way Radio's website. Note that the Wouxun programming software only runs on Windows 10/11. And contrary to a single person's opinion, the Wouxun GMRS radios are well liked and they all get good reviews. In other words, learn to ignore Negative Nancy like the rest of us do.

This ^

I suggest spending some time reading posts here. The 905g has a very good reputation, but it’s also more expensive than many others. As far as Wouxun being the best brand I think that’s fairly subjective.

The reason I have a pile of them is that they're short and flexible and work well enough. If we're out backpacking, I always have a Signal Stick wrapped up in my pack in case I need to get out a bit further. Depending on terrain it won't make a TON of difference, but depending on terrain it might and it weighs nothing, so it comes with. And in testing it's made a decent bit of difference in clarity when working at the edge of a handheld's performance.

I have the TIDRadio TD-H3 (a pair) and the Wouxun KG-935G Plus. The H3s are dirty as all hell and can often be heard over police and fire frequencies in my city. The Wouxun is very well-built, solid feeling, has a decent sounding speaker, the control knobs feel nice and tolerant, and the signal + audio reports I get for it are always good and people often ask me what I am using and when I tell them, they are shocked while claiming they never thought it would be a Wouxun CCR. That is my experience.

While you will only hear the one repeater by doing that, you will still receive the signal from the other repeater. You can see it on your radio if it has a signal meter. It's the same way on a repeater channel with tones set and someone close by transmits on the corresponding simplex channel without any tones. You won't hear the simplex transmission but you will still see it on the radio's signal meter. Just because you can't hear one of the signals does not mean that it will not interfere with the other signal that you can hear.

Good news for those of us who have been waiting. I think the title about says it. Cheers and a thank you to Mel Terechenok at Chirp.

Very cool @WRZR574. The mobile radio bracket is brilliant and I really like the antenna holders. Simple and efficient. Bravo!

I have found that there is no one magic antenna that will work well and/or be an improvement over the stock antenna for all handheld radios. The Nagoya and Abbree 771G antennas did make a difference with my Baofeng GMRS radios but the stock antennas on my Wouxun GMRS radios did better than the 771Gs did. All you can do is try a few different antennas and go with what works best with your radio.

Just remember that any and all updates/support for Windows 10 will stop in October of this year. I think there is an option for continued Windows 10 support if you are willing to pay annually for it. Yes Wouxun radios do cost more than other brands but they are better quality and are generally clean as @RayDiddio mentioned. I have Baofeng UV-5R GMRS, handhelds along with Wouxun and Icom handhelds. The Wouxun is definitely better than the Baofeng radios and it is even better than the Icom IC-T10 I own.

I have a pair of Baofeng UV-5G Plus that work well for strictly GMRS communications. 5W of power, according to the specifications. I also have a Baofeng 5RM that works well for GMRS, as well as 2m and 70cm ham bands. 10W of power, according to the specifications. They are very close to each other in price. Neither model has given any problems and are both CHIRP programmable. The screen isn't too great when out in daylight, but they work well.

SWR in a handheld antenna is nearly meaningless because there’s no transmission line. All the power still exits the antenna. In an antenna system, a portion of power is converted to heat within the transmission line between the transmitter and the antenna. High SWR results in power reflecting and traveling back through the transmission line to the radio where it reflects again and incurs more losses before it gets back to the antenna. Each time more power goes out the antenna until all of the power has either been converted to heat in the transmission line or RF radiation in the antenna. In a system with virtually no transmission line virtually none of the power becomes heat. For that reason handheld radios (including cell phones) have virtually no transmission lines and so SWR has very little importance.

If my memory serves me right from my analog conventional simulcast system days, (and that was eons ago), it takes a difference between the two signals levels of 6 dB or greater for full capture. Anything less than that you will get the warbles and wah wahs.

I've the 701G, 771G, 701 dual-band, and 771 dual band. My unscientific observation is that the 701s were a little disappointing because for the most part, they didn't perform any better than the rubber duck. Perhaps a little better clarity in some circumstances, but that's about it. The 771s are another matter. I don't necessarily get more distance because of the terrain, but I definitely put out a signal with more authority. In areas where I'd be static-y or breaking up with a short antenna, I get through loud and clear. I'm not really sure if the GMRS-specific versions outperform the dual-band ones. I get about the same distance in ordinary use, but I haven't actually done any tests of range. I still use the 701 a lot because most of the time it will work just fine for my purpose and it's more convenient than a longer antenna. I have a little bag with a couple of different antenna options in case I want them and I usually have it in my vehicle, so I pretty much have everything covered. I have some Nagoya tri-band antennas on order, and I'll be interested to see how they compare to the Comet and two no-name tri-band antennas I'm currently using. My current tri-band antennas perform more like 701s than 771s on 2m, 70cm, and GMRS (in spite of their length), which shouldn't be surprising because the more things you ask an antenna to do, the less well it does each of them. There's a 1.25m repeater in Oklahoma City, and I can access it from a reasonable distance, considering that the 5RM puts out about 4-5 watts on 220, but I've never gotten anyone to answer a signal check. It works, but I guess nobody monitors it.

Short answer is I have selected a repeater channel with the least traffic in my area. I monitored and researched out channels that would be appropriate, then determined a tone that would not conflict with other repeaters. The open repeater in question is very low traffic and in the distance. There is another repeater near by on a different tone and it does not appear to be problem with ours if the radios are setup correctly. There is just no clean channel we can use due to the amount of repeaters in our area and changing channels for our entire CERT and fire district at this point would be challenging.

I would go with a different repeater channel if all possible. The reason being is that anyone in-between the two repeaters will have issues from receiving both repeaters at the same time. I go through this all of the time being halfway between two repeaters.

Yes it will, but the FM signals may still interfere with each other. With AM it’s possible to actually listen to two signal on the same frequency. With FM the radio attempts to capture the strongest signal. The tone doesn’t prevent that because the tone has no effect on reception, just reproduction.

You’ll catch on. Welcome!

Just because he can hit the repeater does not mean anyone wants to talk to him.

Why are you here? We all already know what an A-hole is, there is no need to keep giving us an example. Shouldn't you be busy talking to all your friends on a repeater 200 miles away.

@Sonicgott, thanks for the well written and complete review. Also, if you’re new to the site, @Socalgmrs has a social problem that none of us understand. Apparently the only way he can feel self worth is to denigrate others and his most frequent targets are new members. The best way to deal with it is to simply place him on your ignore list until he bails out of this site like he did before. It should be a sticky somewhere for new members.

My radio club in the near future will be implementing a DMR repeater system in the near future with a repeater located on high elevated remote radio site. The long-term goal is having linked repeaters throughout the State for Statewide radio coverage. Since, I am essentially don't have any spare room in my 23 Wrangler Rubi 2 Dr. I elected to go overhead with the installation of a Motorola XPR5550e dashmount radio. This makes the fourth radio I have installed in my jeep. I was hoping the Club would have gone the P25 route, but they decided to go DMR.

A HT or mobile, with high selectivity, clean transmissions (minimal spurious emissions), able to be programed by chirp. Nice to have a zone feature but this is not necessary.

Programming a DMR radio is not simple and I'm sure most people will not want to mess with it. P25 is so much simpler than DMR. However, my radio club will have a few codeplug templates available for the club's approved radios to help the members to get on the air.

You will get many replies for and against, so it’s really a silly question. How about doing some research on your own, read reviews, watch YouTube videos, and form an opinion based on that. Consider using the search function here, where you’ll surely find more info. One thing is certain; Wouxun isn’t “the best”.

Don't own a Wouxun. But I recommend searching the forum and you will get plenty of recommendations and reviews. You Tube can also be a good source of information. When it comes to 5W handhelds I would not consider any of them "long range" out of the box. Of course range can be significantly increased if you plan on using repeaters. Or, if you make provisions to connect it to an external antenna, preferably mounted very high. Simply put you are not going to see a really noticeable differences in range from brand to brand. So I wouldn't assume one is much better than the when it comes to range. Commercial grade radios Motorola / Kenwood etc... are very nice. But it usually involves buying a used radio, programing software, a programing cable and a steeper learning curve. Not to mention determining if the radio is GMRS compliant. So if you are beginner an out of the box solution is probably the better way to go for a first GMRS radio. Best of luck.

I can only take one person. I removed the rear seat so I can have my refrigerator and carry my recovery gear, and of course, install/bolt down the VHF and UHF XTL5000 remote radios on the floor. The attached picture is without the recovery gear. The next time I load up my recovery gear, I'll snap a picture and post it.

I think WRTC928 has it right. Monitor gmrs normally? Maybe not, big maybe. But during an emergency when communication is critical as in his Alaska situation, I'm pretty sure emergency agencies are listening. Not only for calls for help but for information from the ground. I can tell you this, Back in the early 70's I busted up my knee and ended up working the FD alarm center (the military doesn't let you just sit around if you're just sort of banged up, they will find something for you to do). Obviously we had our radios, sky cop, EOD, aircraft and hospital radios. In addition, we had the ability to monitor and communicate with the various local civilian (all volunteer) FD's, county sheriff and CHP. We responded to a lot of off base mutual aid emergencies. And while our vehicles didn't have anything but FD radios, our alarm center could relay information from the other folks. My point is, you never know just who is listening.

i learned the hard way after dozens of radios. Hytera PD682 & PD612 for me.

I’m gonna get run over and flammed but I use radios every day. All day 7days a week for 12 hrs a day. I had woxouns. They always get the worst signal reports. They are expensive and really have no better features then any one else. The big gimmick is mark from Huntington Beach califonia pre programs them with all kinds of useless frequencies that most people don’t need or want. To me woxouns are not worth the hype. Woxoun retivis radiotitty midland and rugged all belong in the dumpster. If you’re gonna spend $150 or so you can buy a kenwood or Motorola. If you want a sub $50 radio that does just as good or better there are many other options as well. Now, some cross dresser ex hand model that calls him self queen will come out of his basement to yell at me and call me names. However I’m not the one making money from gmrs radios. I just use them all the time.

The problem with (too) many repeaters with setting T-Squelch (your radio encodes a tone on xmit and decodes a tone on receive) is that some repeater owners (for reasons that defy all logic) choose to require a tone to access the repeater, yet do not encode a tone on the repeater output which allows the end-user to set their decoder and still hear that repeater. This forces the end-user to set their CTCSS to encode a tone only and use carrier squelch for receive. It is as though they just did not have that additional thirty seconds it would have taken them to program a tone on the repeater output. There are several such repeaters here in South Carolina. I have noted this issue with ham and GMRS repeaters. Almost thirty years ago, some ham repeater owners may have had a decent excuse in that they needed an expensive or hard-to-find board or tone reeds to cause their repeater to encode a tone on its output. These days, repeaters are programmable, just like ht's and mobiles, and all it takes is a few seconds of your time to program a tone on the output so end-users can enjoy setting their "T-Squelch" and keeping their receiver quiet until something on the local repeater comes in.

Even if it had tones the risk of interference doesn’t decrease. It should be on a different frequency. Are there any open frequencies of the eight used for repeaters?

That is what I have noticed as well. I think all this gets me what I need to know about my repeater situation. Fortunately, the no tone repeater in my area is much weaker and 45 miles away. So it's not a problem for most my users, but some. I am just surprised anyone would setup a repeater with no tones in general.

This is all what I thought, thank you for confirming. The only real solution that I can see to ensure someone only hears the repeater with Tones they want, is to make sure their channel is set to T-Squelch instead of just Tone. That will allow filtering for just signals with a specific Tone.

Yes it will. That’s how it works.

WHY do you insist on talking SHIT about radios you either Don't own, or know NOTHING about ?? Why do you think you get "Blasted" ? This is Why !!

Does it transmit OK on low power, or is it completely silent? All bands, or only UHF or only VHF? The assembly of these radios often requires manual soldering of the antenna connector's center pin to the PCB, and I've seen some bad solder jobs. I've also occasionally seen defective SMA male connectors on radios - no center pin, they forgot to thread the connector, etc.

So I’m going to get blasted like I always do but the h3/h8 seam to have the worst reputation. And I tend to agree. On this site alone it seams weekly some has a big problem with one. Just take a look around. That weirdo dude that calls himself a queen always disagrees and recommends them all the time and therefore people keep buying them but I have seen in person about 1/2 of them are dead out of the box or close to it. After being in radios and using them every day all day long, talking to hundreds or people in real life and reading this and other sites it seams to me the H3 may be the worst hand held ever made. With the h8 right behind it(it’s just fatter so it can’t run as well) Tid, radioditty, retivis, midland and rugged should be looked at the the plague. blast away people but take a good hard look at this site and the other gmrs and ham sites.

Did you look at the map? Arab is about midway between the Huntsville repeaters and a repeater called Palisades Park 650.

I've had a KG-UV980P (ham) radio for about a year. It's nearly the same as the 1000 but has a slightly different transmit range. It can transmit 10m,6m,2m,70cm and is easily unlockable so you don't need two radios in your car if you want to use HAM & GMRS (& CB too, if that's your bag). I use it almost daily. Great radio.

I admire your concern, but there's a few things I'll point out: 1. I prefer to be nondestructive to my vehicle, at least on the surface. I've done only a small hole puncture in the grommet of my firewall. 2. I've done a large amount of research before making my purchase, and I've learned quite a bit. 3. I'd prefer constructive criticism as opposed to discriminant condescending tones. Only Notarubicon is permitted to do that. Have a nice day.

3D Printers are a must have..

What radio would you suggest that is 1/2-1/4 the price and has similar features and capabilities? Any particular reviews you would suggest. With your experience i assume you have reviewed what you think is best, link?

More info:

I've had my KG-1000G radios for about the same amount of time. I have one in my 2023 Ford Escape and the other in the house. My experiences have been similar to yours. Installing radios in the Escape was a bit of a pain too. There are very few spots to get wires through the firewall. I am running a Tram 1174 antenna for GMRS and a Comet SBB-1 for 2m/70cm. I have height restrictions since I park my Escape in the garage. Plus the parking garages at doctors' offices have low clearances too. The Wouxun KG-1000G is close to the same price as the Midland MXT500/MXT575 and it has performed better than the Midland radios for me. And don't let Negative Nancy poo on your posts or about what radios you use. Just ignore him like the rest of us do.

Yes, you can do that, and nobody would care... But dont forget that the HAM version does not have "channels", so you would have to program them all as you mentioned, and also manually set & configure your repeater channels.. Not a big deal if you know/understand how to do that, but based on your question I am guessing that you may not know how. Also, as I'm sure you know, there is virtually 0 difference in farz between 8 watts and 10 watts - the only difference you will see is the battery draining faster.

Well, Logged in after not having been on here a while, and saw this thread. Thanks to Marc for taking the time! I shudder at the thought though of "ham" style culture becoming the "norm" for GMRS. Please refrain from emotional reactions, but I promise everyone that if this "cultural" situation of "hammy style" becomes the norm? GMRS will be in trouble. Using CW lingo/shorthand for voice modes is one of the operating habits of hams that are not the best. How many times have you heard the propane delivery guy using ham lingo when on the radio? Aircraft? EMS? Timber crews? Pipline? Railroad? Marine SSB (not ham but actual maritime SSB), Coast Guard, I can go on and on!! The phonetic alphabet is essential at times, and important to learn. Utility use is "inclusive" and using ham lingo is "exclusive"...

Hey folks. I have had a small group of people ask me about tones and GMRS/FRS basics in the past week. I figured I would take one of the conversations here and share it for people new to the service. Hopefully it will help you understand Private Lines, Privacy Tones, sub-channels, tones and squelching methods, in general. I am only covering the two most popular in GMRS and FRS, but there are many others available as you move into different radio services and technology. Before we get into what all that stuff is, lets talk about why it exists. Per NOAA and the US Census Bureau, the lower 48 states is approximately 3.1 million square miles. Also, 83% of Americans live on 10% of the total available square miles and 40% of all US citizens live on the east and west coast in counties touching oceans. Following this logic, about 500,000+ licensed and unlicensed operators (estimated by me) are sharing FRS and GMRS radio space, in roughly 310,000 square miles. So, how does 500,000 people in close proximity, sharing 22 channels, all use their radios at the same time without interfering with each other? Motorola brings you PL tones! Lets get this out of the way... regardless of what the manufacturers may tell you or how they label their products, there is no privacy. Period. Private Lines (PL), Privacy Tones, Sub-channels and any other name for the same service, does not stop people from hearing you, it stops you from hearing them. I know... seems like a day in Opposite World, but that's how it works. I suppose the first thing to do is explain what the PL tones really are, what the more common types are and what each of them do. A traditional squelch is a signal level squelch. Meaning, no audio will come out of the speaker until a strong enough signal is received. Then there are also user squelch types. With analog radios, the most common type of user squelch uses encoding called Continuous Tone-Coded Squelch System or CTCSS. This feature is defined as being used to reduce the annoyance of listening to other users on a shared two-way radio channel. So, as mentioned above, its not that you as a person speaking have any type of privacy, but rather you don't have to listen to everyone on the same frequency. Hopefully the third time is a charm. Many GMRS and FRS radios only have simple CTCSS functions called Tone Squelch, often displayed as TSQL on the screen when enabled. This means two things. One is, regardless of what you do with your squelch knob or set your RF squelch to, no audio will come out of the speaker unless the tone you selected is embedded in the signal you are receiving. The other thing it does is, when you transmit, what ever tone frequency you have programed gets transmitted with/in your signal to unlock or open the squelch of other radios configured the same way. There is another method of CTCSS called "split tone". This means that you can use one tone when you transmit and another for your receive. This comes in handy when repeater owners are trying to limit who can access the repeater, as higher cost radios typically have split tone capability, compared to poorly built and inexpensive radios that would be problematic on a repeater do not. Also, this makes it a bit more difficult to "discover" the input tone by using scanning tools. Another function of split tone CTCSS is that you can also set your radio to transmit a tone to unlock a repeater or other radio, but leave your receive tone set to null (nothing). When this mode is enabled, there is typically a display on the radio that either reads TN or TONE. That means you can bring up a repeater or unlock a radio squelch, but also hear everyone else regardless of what tones they are running, if any at all. This is actually a great feature for GMRS radios since Repeater Channels share FRS frequencies and GMRS simplex frequencies. So you can tell if the frequency is in use as well as being able to talk to others who many not be using the repeater. CTCSS is an analog squelching system. There is also a digital squelching system called Digital-Code Squelch or DCS. It has similar use cases as CTCSS, but it is sending digitally embedded numeric codes instead of a sub-audible tone. I apologize in advance, but this next portion may get a little confusing. If you have questions, just ask and myself or one of the other knowledgeable members will be able to help. All of the numbers below are simply random samples I selected for example. Last I checked, there are 38 standard tones and an additional 13 expanded tones (not available on every radio) for a total possible 51 tones and 83 DCS codes. Along with the use examples above, you can get creative with DCS, because we are dealing with binary numbers instead of a tone. You can have the numbers used in a bunch of different combinations. For example, the number 411 in binary is 00110100 00110001 00110001. The reverse of this would be 11001011 11001011 11001110. So we are swapping the meaning of a 1 and a 0. So the combinations could be as follows: Normal-Normal = Transmit sends 411 and your radio squelch only opens when it receives 411 in the standard format 00110100 00110001 00110001. Reverse-Reverse = Transmit sends 411 reversed (or bit swapped) and your radio squelch only opens when it receives 411 reversed, meaning 11001011 11001011 11001110. Normal-Reverse = Transmit sends 411 standard binary format and your radio squelch only opens when it receives 411 in a reversed binary format. Reverse-Normal = Transmit sends 411 in a reversed binary format and your radio squelch only opens when it receives 411 in a standard format. Unfortunately, I am unaware of any radio's that have a DCS option to leave your user squelch open while transmitting a DCS code. If DCS is enabled, you cannot hear anyone else unless they are using the same DCS number and binary combination. CTCSS tones can also be "reversed". CTCSS tones, since its analog, we have a phase reversal, often called "reverse burst" when it is only reversed at the end of the transmission. (Something to Google in your spare time.) On some high-end radios, squelching can get really exotic. You may be able to create your own custom tone instead of using one of the standard tones. You may also be able to combine CTCSS tones and DCS codes. For example: User-CTCSS = Transmit 2600Hz tone, squelch opens with 2600Hz tone. (random number example) T-DCS = Transmit 141.3 tone, squelch opens with 411 code. DCS-T = Transmit 411 code, squelch opens with 141.3 tone. T-rDCS = Transmit 141.3 tone, squelch opens with 411 bit swapped code. rDCS-T = Transmit 411 bit swapped code, squelch opens with 141.3 tone. Now, here is the kind of disappointing part. Some manufactures try to make their equipment sound like something its not. They will use things like there own custom number code to identify a traditional CTCSS code. For example, Midland uses code number 22 (also known as a sub-channel) to indicate the tone 141.3. This makes coordination on tone selection a bit cumbersome between some brands. It also means that if your radio doesn't display the actual CTCSS tone or DCS code, you need to keep your owner's manual handy for reference. So... I don't know if that explanation made things better or worse. LOL Anyway, some companies use verbiage like "Privacy Tones" which adds to the confusion for some people. If you are using a true full CTCSS, it just means you are limited to whom you can hear, but everyone can still hear you. The examples I provided above for DCS are not what actually gets transmitted, but rather a conceptual process to help understand at a very basic level of what occurs, simply to understand the difference. DCS adds a 134.4 bps bitstream to the transmitted audio. To move past concept to the weeds, this video does a great job.