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Happy Independence Day!

Remember that I personally work in the commercial two-way field. Ham's and GMRS folks have the ability to disconnect their gear. Police and fire don't. And again, a public safety dispatch site really can't. They need stuff up and operational all the time. The stuff I am talking about is what gets done with their setups and what keeps them on the air. If you disconnect your antenna line from your radio then it's no different than leaving it connected IF everything is properly grounded and bonded. Because the lines, tower, and equipment is all still grounded. Something I forgot to mention with grounding and bonding. And the reason you bond the coax cables to the tower at the top, every 100 feet down and then at the bottom where the cable turns out of the tower and goes to the building is the magnetic pulse that happens if the tower does get hit. Due to the extreme currents that are present during the event (strike) there is a significant magnetic field that surrounds the tower. We all know that a wire will have a field around it as current passes through it. It's how motors work. Now crank that from a 6 volt battery to lightning. EVERY conductor that's around that structure taking the hit is exposed to that field. And remember that we pass coils of wire in magnetic fields to generate power. Again, little DC generator hooked to a light bulb with a couple small magnets will light a light bulb when we spin the generator with our fingers. Turn that up to lightning power and magnetic fields. So we BOND the coax shield, since it's a conductor back to the tower to equalize that induced current and voltage and shunt it back to the tower and ultimately to ground. There is a LOT of science to bonding and grounding of towers and antenna systems. There are some of use that have went down that rabbit hole and have a reasonable understanding of this. And I will say this, keeping it simple. Cars get hit by lightning, even though they are on rubber tires. And the reason is that 6 inches of rubber ain't enough to keep an arc that's thousands or tens of thousands of feet in length from hitting a car with 4 inches of rubber. And they get hit because they aren't grounded. You ever get a bite from a car getting in or out? It's a thing. But a glass jar isn't gonna keep that genie in the bottle any more than 4 inches of rubber is gonna keep your car from being hit. IT has to be grounded properly or you are INVITING a strike.

You spelt farz wrong.

IIRC something like this will occur if you are using the 935G software instead of the software specifically for the 935G PLUS radio.. are you sure you are using the Plus version of the software and not the regular 935G software? You can download it here: https://www.buytwowayradios.com/downloads/dl/file/id/1572/product/5920/wouxun_kg_935g_plus_programming_software.zip If you are already using the correct software then my only other response is "this sounds like a Windows issue".

Terri, Again I want to express my appreciation for your calm and thoughtful comments and informative posts in response to curmudgeonliness. Happy Independence Day!

You're certainly entitled to your opinion, and since this is a (mostly) GMRS group of users, I don't know that you'll find [m]any dissenting voices here. I'll just point out that BTECH had working, final BF-F8HP Pro hardware in April 2024 at firmware version 9 when I came on board, and my continuous "here's a bug", "we need to make this better", "we need this new feature" meant that the radios shipped 6 months later at the beginning of October 2024 at V29, including a complete re-write of the menus by me to real US English. V33 was released in the middle of November, 2024 to fix a few bugs we knew about (the radios had to be initially programmed during manufacturing) and we managed to get in fixes for a few user-reported bugs and quite a few user-requested features within the 6 weeks between V29 and V33. V44 shipped in mid-April, 2025 with the CPS 1.2.5m that supports all of the new V33 and V44 features being released at the beginning of June, 2025. V44 and its CPS add quite a few features requested by users and lays the foundation for additional improvements. These radios are updatable by the user, with the same cable used for programming, and any upgrade problems will either be addressed by support email (when possible) or via warranty replacement( (if needed). I'll also mention that nobody has ever bricked a BF-F8HP Pro while updating it (and believe me, I've had many chances as I've done every firmware release from V8 through V44, across 9 radios (ranging from hand-built engineering samples to pre-production units to early production, and then finally a bunch of production units). Many of these firmware features are exclusive to BTECH, either in perpetuity or for various numbers of years. There's no 'generic' version of this radio and there won't ever be. The user-updatable firmware means that a radio you bought on release day, today, or in the future will all be able to run the latest firmware. Even before V29 and the radio's release, I was showing it to select users (it had no labeling except for some marker dots in the battery compartment, and I changed the official boot screen to an actual picture of a boot to not give away where it would eventually be coming from). The universal response was "Wow! A Baofeng that doesn't <bleep>!". Before you dismiss it, take a look at the Release Notes below, which shows what has changed in the firmware between V29 and V44: vers-old.pdf

It sounds like the Baofeng just doesn't have the "legs" to reach the repeater. Even given the same nominal wattage, some radios just have a little better reach than others.

Hi Steve I am new to GMRS, that being said I don't understand LOL. Im using chirp now cause the WOUXUN programming software was giving errors on my windows 11. so I feel lost on what settings I should be using Thanks

Its easiest to start with the pre-programmed channels so you can see what they look like in CHIRP.. Once you figure that out you can then create your own new, custom channels. Re Tone or TSql, i believe @SteveShannon already answered that question in your other post, and because he is an officially-recognized HERD, you should listen to what he says.

The output power isn’t meaningless, but it has much less of an effect than the antenna height and gain. A 20 watt radio can easily transmit 100 miles if there are no obstructions, but obstructions are common. A fifty watt radio cannot overcome obstructions, but it can power its way through vegetation which might attenuate the signal of a less powerful radio until it cannot be detected. There are lots of threads which discuss which antennas work well and how and where to mount them. And attenuation affects signals in both directions. So, more important than the output power is the cable, the antenna gain, the antenna mounting position, and the antenna height. Personally I use a db20g radio with a Midland MXTA26 antenna on the center of my steel roof using a magnetic mount from Midland.

I think radio waves are the same as audio frequencies - resonance....either you are in tune or not. Something we are all familiar with

I’m looking at Midland HTs, the T75s specifically, for hunting, which have everything you mentioned, plus vibration alerts (handy when you need quiet most of the time, but still want to know when someone is trying to reach you). I haven’t made the purchase yet of course, so I can’t speak directly to them, but they show enough promise to me I’m eyeing them eagerly and counting pennies lol. At risk of wading headlong into the “Midland vs Baofeng” debate, for the NOAA Wx Radio side, Midland, with their engineering in Kansas City (in tornado alley), has been legendary for the best quality wx radios for a long time. I’ve relied on them for a tabletop weather radio for over a decade after some horrendous ones from other manufacturers that lasted less than a year in some cases. In other words, I’ve come to literally rely on Midland’s wx radio tech like I do a smoke detector or a seatbelt, after bad experiences with other brands. So with one of those “imho” anecdotal things, if wx radio quality is what you’re after, I’d at least give Midland’s offerings a glance, even with the higher price point. And then go with your gut, don’t just take my word for it, even if it means non-Midland for the purchase. Cuz while I might be coming down on team Midland in this thread, ultimately, you do you—no need for me to take more than a for-me-only stance in the manufacturer debate that has raged long before I entered this hobby of radio.

Welcome, 874! Looking forward to catching ya on the air. Plenty of folks here to help you grow your knowledge. Don't hesitate to ask a question. Welcome to the GMRS family!

Hello everyone, I'm WSIW874 Troy, I live in Lewisburg. I'm extremely new to GMRS. I've only had my license for a week or two. I have 3 baofeng uv-5r radios that I have only monitored some of the ham repeaters in my area. That's the extent of my radio knowledge. I'm very willing to learn more.

I just wish there weren’t 40 varieties of radios from them. It gets hard to figure out what’s different about all of them and which ones are newer. They have a dizzying amount of models.

I'm really that way also, just threw LZ out there as a joke. I can't think of a genre of music that doesn't have something I don't like in it. Mine is the a/c in the shack, seems to warble a nice mark/space after those RTTY Contests go silent.

My understanding is that if the radio itself is branded as BTECH, it is contract manufactured for them to their specs (by someone other than Baofeng). If the radio itself is branded as Baofeng (regardless of whether the box only says BTECH), it is a customized model from Baofeng which is usually (always?) exclusive to BTECH. For example, the UV-82HP is a BTECH exclusive, although there are generic tri-power UV-82s. My work on the BF-F8HP Pro (a BTECH exclusive) shows that BTECH is listening to customer feedback (many requests from Facebook, here, and other places) and it has been incorporated into the two firmware updates released so far, with more to come). It is also quite ahead of other analog Baofeng handhelds in terms of features, bug fixes, and programming software (Disclaimer: I write the Windows CPS programming software for the BF-F8HP Pro and co-manage firmware development, as well as dabbling in documentation. However, nothing I post should be considered an official statement of BTECH.) Speaking of the BF-F8HP Pro, if you use coupon code "CPS" at checkout you'll get 20% off (on that model only, and only on the BTECH website, not on Amazon). I should point out that the BF-F8HP Pro is not type approved for GMRS use, but since the equipment reviews rules were relaxed a while ago to allow discussions of non-GMRS equipment due to the overlap between the GMRS and ham communities, mentioning it here should be OK.

No it wasn’t. The Q codes started in 1912. QSL started in the 1920s. 10-4 was created in the 1930s.

I have bulkheads through the wall to bring the coax in. I also have a metal plate on each side of the wall with a piece of 1/4" 20 all thread through the wall that I use for my ground point. I have a ground rod right below the bulkheads and the all thread, plates, and lightning arrestors are all connected to that ground. That ground rod along with my masts and roof mounted antennas are all bonded to my service ground. I disconnect the coax from the bulkheads inside the house and put caps on them. I know the caps won't be much protection but hopefully they keep any charge coming down the coax and just shooting into the room. Nothing will protect from a direct lightning strike. All we can do is minimize the damage from near strikes.

Less risk, but not no risk. The coax might still be at risk. What’s the breakdown voltage for the insulation of the coax? A long piece of coax exposed to a high voltage pulse at one end but disconnected at the other end can still be damaged. And what about the center conductor? It isn’t grounded unless you have done something to ground it. Depending on the design the antenna radiator elements are not usually connected to ground.

That won’t protect the radio at all. Electrons don’t stop instantly and between the antenna connector and the power input there’s a lot of components that are at a different potential than the coax shield and center conductor. Yes, it’s not cheap. Tying all of the legs to a single ground rod requires changing the path of the discharge. Having a ground for each provides a straight path to ground, plus having more rods reduces the impedance going to the ground. In an engineered ground system such as a substation you might even see a ground mat, chemicals, and other things done to minimize the resistance and create a large bed of equal potential.

Hey, I get SMG1 from over here in Bellevue. I'm usually scanning during the day on Wednesdays and Fridays during the work day (~8:30-5:00) including today. Give me a shout. WSHZ630 - Adam. You might want to key up for 10 seconds or so before trying to be sure I pick you up on scan, that's about how long my cycle is.

You got some winners, there. Last night on a 70cm repeater I overheard a net that was mostly mapped over to VHF, with people checking in from Vegas/Nevada, Montana, Arizona, Utah, and Idaho. The strange thing was that the repeater I was receiving this net on was based at Brighton, Utah, which is a ski resort; not one of the "big" repeaters near the city. They must have a very well placed antenna to be able to tie into a relatively spread-out network of repeaters from 19 miles up the canyon in the mountains. The "tarzan call" guy is pretty annoying. Every morning from about 7:50 through 8:00am he shouts sort of singing war cries on GMRS 18. They're mostly impossible to understand, though they mention the time. I think today I heard him say "Ashton it's almost 8AM!!!" (in a singing / shouting tone of voice). And then a little later, "It's 8:00am, Ashton!!!" (along with more chanting and singing). I think he is his son's alarm clock, and GMRS or FRS is his tool. But the signal is strong for several miles. I'm often driving my kids to an activity they participate in daily at this time, and I hear him equally well whether I'm a few miles to the north of my home, or a few miles to the south -- stronger than I would expect FRS to carry. If you're this guy, and you're reading this, please switch to channel 12; that sort of thing doesn't need to be transmitted at more than 500mw.

I've heard a bunch on FRS and simplex GMRS. A bunch of it has already been listed here... School pickup lines, traffic flagmen, 5 year old kids screaming and holding the call button for minutes on end, tree services, crane operators, the nursery next door to me, etc but these are the ones that stand out so far.... Guy called out to his wife while on the stool - "Next commercial break can you bring me some TP? I'm waiting". A local Gym was using FRS for a bit - until somebody started messing with them. Every time they transmitted, somebody else keyed up with a recording of Cheech and Chong's "Dave's not here" skit Last night was a winner though - a man and woman talking on FRS that thought FRS was wonderful. It couldn't be traced like their cell phone and the guy with the ankle monitor was far enough away as not to violate the terms of the personal protection order and still be able to communicate.

How about some how to, or tutorials, on basic topics. GMRS is mainly aimed at non technical people who simply want a good means of communications and don't have much interest in the theory or radio as a hobby. For that there is Ham Radio. For example one wants a mobile installation. Basic info on how a mobile radio should be wired up for electrical safety, battery connections, fuses etc. What type of coax cable to use, cable connectors, antenna location and antenna mounts. Recommended mobile radios, antenna manufactures and models. Some sample photos of other people's installations for ideas to go along with the written material. Another would be for portable radios. Recommended manufactures and models. Issues with using a portable radio in a mobile setting, speaker microphones, heat sets, battery types, battery eliminators, cable adapters from the portable radio to mobile antenna. Again some sample photos. Repeater operation. What are they used for. What specific channels are reserved for them. Explain why there are two frequencies used and in general how this is programed in to the radio. Explain what a "PL" tone is used for and why it's typically required. The how to's should be kept at a low simple technical level. The idea is to help somebody setup a functional radio installation without getting mired in a lot of theory. After the system is up and running there is plenty of time and people who can provide additional info for those that have the interest.

That's about as close to a smoking gun as you're going to get from the FCC. They are aware that people are using surplus Part 90 equipment - and they don't intend to anything to stop that use. As others have mentioned, there's never been a single enforcement action by the FCC against anyone for using Part 90 equipment in Part 95. If you've been around the block with the FCC a few times, you begin to realize that many of the rules have been written after the fact.