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I recommend that you add @Socalgmrs to your “ignore list”. Life gets better. Personally I prefer to have a link to the CFR page on the internet rather than capturing a point in time with PDFs: https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-47/chapter-I/subchapter-D/part-95

I just spoke with a large radio importer/reseller based here in the U.S. (i cant say who) - He said his tariff fees are based on the wholesale price (not 'calculated value' at the port of entry, as I thought/read about) - because the new fees would nearly double the retail price, and he knows he cant sell any at those prices, he has halted all new radio shipments.. i dont like it but I am willing to feel a little short-term pain for longer-term trade equity...

And there ya go with the negativity yet again. @WRVK513 If you want an actual Part 95 certified radio then yes the firmware will be locked. And this goes for pretty much all Part 95 certified consumer grade radios. We know plenty of people use non certified amateur band radios that have been unlocked/Mars modded on GMRS, but those radios are not Part 95 certified. And if you don't want a locked down radio then look else where.

I just received my new KG1000G+ UPS TODAY!!

That's because it's a mobile radio and can't transmit at a low enough power output to be legal on 8-14. That's pretty much standard on mobile GMRS radios.

The advertisement for the GP-9NC shows it as a GMRS antenna and covers 460-470MHz. The GP-9 and GP-9N (no C at the end) are ham only. The letter "C" is Comet's designation for the commercial band (kinda where GMRS resides) - not ham. The letter "N" means it has a "Type N" connector and the straight GP-9 is ham only with a SO-239 connector. When I got mine, the bag it came in said it was GP-9N and they put on a tiny sticker with the letter "C" at the end of it. My guess is they didn't want to print up new packaging to add a letter. I don't remember what paperwork it came with though (ham or GMRS) but I didn't have to tune it.

Nor should anybody post the details about your repeater here for you. If you become a member you can do it yourself. That also enables the mechanism people can use to contact you with questions or to notify you of problems.

Ya, that can be annoying and nice at the same time. But you have to do it in the right order. If you put the tone in the RX it'll automatically put it in the TX, but you still need to go there and press the blue button to enter it. At that point if you have a split tone you can enter it, but you must put the RX tone in 1st. It you put the TX tone in 1st and then the RX it'll change the TX tone. That was just part of the learning curve on the radio.

I prefer to activate car alarms with a 1000 watt transistorized spurious RF master blaster on 11 meters. I kid I kid it’s just a joke chill

I listed my original first edition Baofeng UV-82 on eBay for $350 since it's now a pre-tarrif classic..

https://absolute-emc.com/calculator/convert/dBm

Yes I have rucked plenty. I was both airborne and air assault qualified, assigned to airborne units. And when my assigned weapon was not the M60, then I would get assigned to carry the PRC-77 radio. So yes I know a thing or two about rucking extra weight. Now go strap on a 75-80 pound ruck sack, carry the M60 machine gun with 1000-1500 rounds of ammunition along with your main and backup parachute before you say anything else about how I supposedly don't know anything about carrying weight. I was also a combat engineer so I carried even more stuff than the average infantryman. And I have done so in combat on a few occasions. Let's break down the weight infantryman ruck -70 pounds combat engineer ruck - 75-80 pounds Main and reserve parachutes - 53 pounds. M60 machine gun unloaded - 23 pounds 500 rounds of spare ammo - 35 pounds Those weights didn't even include any explosives or mines I also had to carry. You showed your rear again by assuming that I don't have any experience rucking heavy weights. And we all know what assume actually means.

There is nothing wrong with wanting a portable GMRS setup that will put out 20-50 watts. I like using 10 AH or 12AH lipo4 batteries for 20 watt or less radios. Most 10 AH lipo4 are the same size as the batteries in computer battery backup systems. The lipo4 batteries are quite a bit lighter. I like the Redodo brand of lipo4 batteries when it comes to 50 AH or 100 AH batteries. A group 24 lipo4 batterie will be half the weight of a standard group 24 lead acid deep cycle battery. And just ignore Negative Nancy with his negative waves.

It was a nice thing for him to do. He didn’t lecture anyone; he just tried to make it easier for us. You’ve been grumbling about things lately. Are you becoming infected with the socalgmrs bug?

I would add that moving things around like this out of the normal progression is going to make things problematic when you try to communicate with someone who has their radio set up correctly. You are really better off being able to know when someone says go to channel 12 with a tone of xyz that you are doing the same thing.

95.1763 (d) 467 MHz interstitial channels. Only hand-held portable units may transmit on these 7 channels. The channel center frequencies are: 467.5625, 467.5875, 467.6125, 467.6375, 467.6625, 467.6875, and 467.7125 MHz.

47 was my radio call sign in my last law enforcement job. I have a fondness for it.

Realizing this is a 3 year old thread and things have changed in those years. And this is only my opinion...... These forums seem loaded with people who seem willing to, and are encouraged to, return and exchange budget radios at the drop of a hat when the radio doesn't appear to work well. Yet, in my opinion. With Midland they appear willing to "soldier on" with a radio clearly not performing to advertised standards. Despite the company having a true customer service department and a defective product claim process. And, instead prefer to limit their actions to airing their disappointment in the forums. Which I actually appreciate a lot, as it helps me form my own opinions of products and manufacturers. I guess in the end, I just don't understand what seems to me a strange unwillingness to allow a company to solve their problem for fairly expensive products.

Again, you live in an area that allows that. Most people will never see those kinds of ranges. Your range of 200+ miles in very unrealistic for the majority of people.

The GP-9 (PL259) doesn't say it covers GMRS in the paperwork either. But the SWR is 1.8 or less across all GMRS channels, 2m and 70cm. Others have tested their GP-9 antennas and the SWR was above 2.0 on GMRS. So each antenna does need to be checked.

Which is a poor attitude to take. There are some significant differences between GMRS and Ham Radio. It's not just technical, more operational rules based. Its fine to conduct various business activities on GMRS, whereas on Ham its strictly forbidden, as one major example. Then the ability for an entire family to operate under one license is another. With Ham everyone must have their own individual license, no sharing allowed. And if one doesn't even want to apply for a GMRS license there is always the license free FRS radios, that communicate just fine with GMRS when adjust for the difference in bandwidth between the two services. Ham radio has nothing like this. Its examples of the kind above that people make a choice where Ham radio doesn't fit their usage requirements, thus getting a Ham license would be a waste of time, and something likely to never be used. Nothing to do with being a "quitter". On the topic of license free operation one should consider the average consumer has several choices, they can operate on HF (CB 11M), VHF (MURS) and on UHF (FRS). When thought about this way it's more like Ham Radio Lite without the license requirements.

Thanks, everyone. I appreciate it!

A friend would scramble everyone's TVs on the block when he would fire up his CB and amp in his truck when we were in high school. The neighbors loved him for that I live in a small rural town of 1100 people ( I think they counted chickens and cows to get to 1100) with several of us having our amateur licenses. We try not to use any amps when working HF so we don't overload everyone else's radios. One is 500 yards away from me and two are 300 yards away. I had to get on one of them when he decided to run a 165 watt VHF amp during a net. He was overloading my Icom dual band radio all across the 2m band.

There is a class of hams, old and young, who feel the need to feel superior in some way because they had to pass a test. Since the exams are all multiple choice now, with all the possible questions published with the correct answers, it’s no big deal. Spend some time memorizing the questions and answers is not impressive, which is what many end up doing. In years past one had to draw schematics etc. and answer questions with no published answer guide. Im not diminishing what people who have passed the various ham exams accomplished. I’m encouraged by those who want to go beyond simply memorizing the questions and answers, but want to know the underlying theory. We get those people here on this forum. We should do everything we can to make them feel welcomed and politely answers the questions they have. Snarky attitudes should have no place here.

So far the folks getting into our neighborhood network just use the appropriate call sign and first name. That way no one has to memorize all the call sign. We pretty much know who Sal is even if we have three.

Make sure if using “Unit number ___” that you’re wearing a shoulder mic, a black basket weave belt complete with flashlight, knife, and keys. Also helpful if you drive an ex-cop car, as this helps complete the picture. [emoji16]

What about all of those junky/crappy radios (Midlands, TidRadios, Retevis, Wouxun, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc) that were "junk" - and you "threw straight into the trash can" ? Are you staying that instead of taking advantage of the warranties on ALL of those radios that you seem to know so much about and have told us you purchased, and "threw straight into the trash", you never even once considered getting a replacement instead?

Yes

That is what I thought.. But this guy is there, on the front lines - this is his (big) business/profession, and that's what he's telling me. Right or wrong, he's stopped importing - and i guarantee many on this forum are going to notice.

@amaff beat me to it. He is correct in that it is illegal for mobiles to transmit on channels 8-14 since the only go down to 5 watts and those channels are limited to 0.5 watts max.

Ya, I just got the CA712EFC and the "C" is just a sticker they put on. 1st time I bought the antenna I emailed the company and they said that's the way they do it. 2nd time I ordered the antenna it was the same. No need to email the company, had already been through it.

You'll need to look for these on Amazon. It should fix the problem with your radio.

I would love to find a Motorola repeater for less than half the price of the Retevis repeaters. I know what a good used Motorola Quantar costs since we just bought one 5-6 months ago. We paid $1000 for the 2m Quantar 125. I'm sure you could find older Motorola repeaters for less. While using two mobile radios connected together as a repeater works, they will never be as good as an actual purpose built repeater such as the ones from Motorola. @WRTM295 The Retevis should work well for you as a temporary setup. And you can always keep it for an emergency portable repeater once you get a better repeater.

Just what I Thought !! YOU DON'T Know what Warranties Are ! Nope, was Your best answer.

Major Update: On 04/08/2025 our group managed to save up for temporary 22 watt Repeater unit. This unit should be installed on April 20th of this year. With help from my family and some friends along with some community members. We managed to get the 462.675 in Kasson Mn repeater back on the air soon. A 50 watt repeater system is in the plans. The GoFundMe link is still active for the newer system however so far no donations have been placed on that platform. Donation From: WRTM295 - Unit 102 - Emma JG WRTM295 - Unit 101 - Ryan C KC0CLC - Marvin M Mark M David j And Others. The base antenna is a whipped tuned antenna MNO pole Mount 30ft high for now till we can purchase a base unit.

We had a few PFCs that went 5150 or 86 because of repeated blanket parties. The worst offenders would receive 3 or 4 parties in one night, depending on who was on fire watch, and how bad the offender was.

Interesting. I have a DB-20G and 2 UV-9Gs, and never had a single problem with any of the 3. Well, aside from my own mistakes programming.

It's the only way he can get attention.. He clearly has no friends and i'm sure his family all ignores him, and he obviously never had any genuine respect at his job. But here, he has figured out how to get people to notice him. It is horribly sad, but, he's retarded, soo.....

Yeah, the manufacture says the same thing when your radio thing breaks.

Hams in my area are completely friendly to GMRS. Maybe a reciprocity problem some places.

This is my experience as well. Most hams are welcoming GMRS users. I’m sure some of that is motivated by a hope that people will want to expand into amateur radio.

Is GRMS different from GMRS school?

So maybe our used UV-5Rs will be worth more. Maybe we can use a UV-5R or TD-H3 etc. as a basic unit of trade.

It's working now (state +freq, and state+type).

IF you 'fried' your radio, it was not because it was connected to a Ghost antenna, unless that antenna or your wiring is defective/shorted. My guess is you've messed up a setting, which is statistically far, FAR more likely than any damage to the radio.

Agree.. I personally have two TD-H3s (and I bought them off amazon) for over 8 months, never had a problem with them, in fact they have surpassed my expectations for them. several other friends have bought them... for a total of 8 radios. Of all of those one had a problem and like you said it was quickly replaced no questioned asked.

Before I begin: I've endeavored to obtain both a GMRS license, and an Amateur Extra radio license. WSCL244/KF0QNM. I have learned much since then, but there's always more to learn. - Installation - This was difficult, but only due to the fact that my type of vehicle (Ford Fusion 2017) is extremely difficult to get through the firewall. Since also installing an HF Radio (Yaesu FT-891), getting a power cord routed through the door jam from the battery was much easier, at the risk of interference, which fortunately was minimal. The center of my console fit the KG1000G+ perfectly. The antenna system I chose was the Midland MXTA26 6dBi whip antenna, and the Midland MXTA12 mag mount. These work perfectly with the KG1000G+, and the radio is quite happy with it. The mag mount is on the center of the roof of my vehicle, with the cables guided around the edge of the rear windshield with mild adhesive, going through the rear side of my trunk lid. The weather stripping is slightly depressed from the cable, but it has not caused an issue, nor has water traveled into the trunk. In retrospect, there is most likely a better way to route the antenna cable, but this would involve physically drilling holes into my car, which I want to avoid. Signal quality is 80% good. Rare moments of static, which is unavoidable because of my route to work and where I live. As the great Notarubicon would say: Your FARS may vary. I can communicate to repeaters pretty far. I was able to reach Lakeville from Brooklyn Park, MN, which is 40+ miles. I am wired directly to my car's battery. You can build a battery box for use inside the vehicle if you so desire. My KG1000G+ operates just fine between 11.8v to 15.1v. - Ease of Use - This radio does require a bit of a learning curve, but is nowhere near as advanced as a ham radio. Programming from the handset is possible, but is quite slow. Easiest way to program the radio is by connecting the radio to a computer. I recommend using a laptop if you're mobile. You can listen to 2 meter frequencies on the KG1000G+ as well. It does this quite well if you like to monitor certain frequencies. You, cannot, however, transmit on ham bands. There are no ways to "unlock" this radio to do that, either. That is possibly for the best. The buttons on the handset are solid, and the handset itself is decent. I'm currently hanging the handset with a vent mount. It's easy to switch from GMRS, NOAA, and the 2m/70cm bands. You can listen to FM radio on this thing, too, I believe... but why? It's best to treat this radio as a "set it and forget it" like a Ronco product. Know what you want to do and who to talk to, and all is good. I do have a scan function set on this radio with one of the programmable buttons on top. Useful if I ever want to eavesdrop on a conversation. Don't actually join in on someone else's conversation unless you can provide useful information, though. It's kind of the same principle of interrupting people when they're talking in person. I have used my KG1000G+ with my job, however. They use FRS radios, which are compatible with GMRS, and I can communicate to them just fine. - Complaints - Periodically, there will be buzzing on random channels. Worried that this was a problem with the radio, some people have told me that it might be because some people are using digital signals on GMRS, it's interpreted as garbage. The KG1000G+ is an analog-only radio. This has been the only issue. - Compliments - This radio has impressive range, both on send and receive. 50 watts is the maximum power allowed on GMRS, and it works quite well. I've met some people on the GMRS system and do talk to them every now and then. GMRS is touted as a tool, however, a bit of ragchew every now and then isn't too bad. I try to keep transmissions under 15 seconds. The fans do kick in after a while. This radio works well in very cold environment as well as hot ones, but if the temperature is too high, such as a car sitting in the hot sun, the radio may refuse to transmit. This isn't an issue, but rather, a feature to protect the radio. The KG1000G+ is very sensitive, and it's interesting to hear the conversations that my scanner will pick up on. It works well communicating long distances, works with my job, my handheld radios, and the Midland GMRS radio I have attached to my desk at home. - Tips - Get an external speaker. I got an Icom speaker for $20 on Amazon. It is MUCH louder than the speaker built into the radio. Oftentimes I'm having to hold the handset to my ear to hear better. Just get a single speaker for the channel you want to listen to the most. I don't think it's needed to have both speaker ports occupied, unless you really want to. - Final Thoughts - This was a pricey GMRS radio, and I know that cheaper ones exist, but honestly the Wouxun KG1000G+ has been solid and reliable, even if the installation was a pain. I recommend it as both a mobile and as a base station radio. One feature I've not used is operating it as a repeater (requires a second radio). I am not in the most ideal situation as far as radios go since I live in an apartment, so my "shack" is my car. Final Verdict: 7/10 + Good receive/transmit quality, + Handset and radio are solidly built, - Installation was difficult, but that's because of my vehicle type, - Doesn't like digital noise.

I am opposite of @SteveShannon, I use the Wouxun KG-1000G as the extra power helps me. Part of that is because of where I live and the local terrain. Plus I like having a removable head unit both in my vehicle and at home. I can install the main unit out of the way and have the smaller head unit elsewhere. I would have considered the DB20G for my SxS if it would have been IP rated. But since it is not, I went with the Wouxun KG-XS20G since it meets my needs better. There are a lot of different radios out there. Most people that have the DB20-G are happy with them and they are inexpensive. Most people that own Wouxun radios have not had issues either. But the Wouxun radios do cost more. Again, more details will help us recommend a radio for you. You won't go wrong with the DB20-G or either of the Wouxun mobile radios.

This is true. And while the MXT500 worked for me, I didn't care for how it sounded nor did I like the menu and lack of features. I ended up donating the radio to the club I belong to. We are going to install it into our emergency coms trailer alongside all the other radios. Again nothing wrong with Midland radios for those that want a simple easy to use radio right out of the box. But they aren't for me. I like to tweak and change settings, etc. This goes for my radios, computers, motorcycles, etc.

My parents are both in their 70's. They dont go on jeep events but wanted a radio to talk on my repeaters. The Midland is perfect for that. Why would I buy a crazy complicated CCR to put in there vehicels that they would totally baffled about. I mean I still can't get my father to swtich from his flip phone and holy crap when someone sends him a text and the "darn thing beeps at me". You also dont realize the amount of farmers that use midland. I've installed a dozen repeaters (LMR) for farms that are using Midlands in all the tractors and equipment on the farm. They are simple and last. If your using GMRS as HAM lite then your right there are better choices. But for simple communications they serve a purpose and will sell more than all the other vendors combined this year and next year.