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I have a few 8180s in the 30W version and it worked fine for all. axorlov is correct, the 'H' is high power and K1/K2 is the firmware edition probably. The manual for all the 7180/8180 series is the same and software is shared. I've had no issues using 49D software on any of mine and once one is done I simply upload from that one then download configuration to a new one so they're identical. Run with it and don't sweat.

I'm sure 8180 owners and experts will chime in, but for now: The "H" means high power, 45W in case of 8180. From programming standpoint 8180H and 8180 should be identical. "K" - I have no clue, but with my Kenwood 3170 "K" is a regular one, and "K4" is with 12-key keypad. I would follow the advice and chose 8180H if your radio on hand is 8180H-K. Safe download - now this is a longshot these days! hamfiles.co.uk considered to be reliable. I just download from the radiosoftware.ru, I like to live dangerously. Kenwood software for Windows works in Win10. I personally have KPG-49D and KPG-101D working fine. Firmware update does not seem to be required (with my 880 and 3170).

I was with the Anchorage Fire Dept when the quake of '64 (second strongest earthquake ever recorded) happened. I was at the intersection of Spenard Rd. and Fireweed watching the land roll in actual waves going south along Spenard Rd. The first thing I did was try to go down Romig Hill but the culvert that carried the creek was crushed and the road blocked by the mounded dirt and pavement. I headed east on Fireweed and made it into Airport Heights and from there onto the roads home in Mt. View. After determining our house was still standing and everyone was safe I went to my assigned station, Station #3 where we started doing search and rescue. Fortunately, there were no serious injuries but lots of closed roads and damaged buildings. As our area was the East side we didn't know about the damage along 4th Ave or the Turnigan subdivision. I will say if it wasn't for the hams and their HF equipment letting people get news and information out of, and into the primary damage zones things could have been a lot worse. The ham operators were a real lifeline collecting reports from areas having no available access and providing critical information about the Tsunami that destroyed Valdez and hit both Seward and Whittier. The hams did yeoman duty in keeping information flowing so emergency responders and relief workers were sent where they were needed. Your little repeater in Eagle River could play an important role should something like that happen again. I would think about it being able to keep people together more than closing it off for just your little group.

So here is my real world experience with emergency communication during an emergency, or rather lack of communication. In 2018 we had a 7.1 quake here in Alaska. It didn't cause massive damage but we did have power outages for 4-12 hours, infrastructure damage closing a few roads and breaking a few water mains. A few buildings collapsed as well. Gas lines went undamaged as far as I know. It happened just as everyone was either getting to or was at work. I was at home with our 2 year old. My wife was in the "city" which is about 20 min from us. I did not have a second car at the time. It was November so not too cold but still below freezing. I have a small gen set able to power up a few basic circuits and the gas furnace. The cell grid became overloaded and useless almost immediately. Calls did not work and text messages took hours. The internet was slow but still running if you had power to keep your modem/router on. I was unable to check on family and friends. Luckily our old and failing sea port held up otherwise we would be talking about a much different story. That is when I started looking into a way to set up a radio network that would cover my whole area but was user friendly. Yeah there are HAM repeaters set up on the mountains around here with elevations of 4500 feet and super wide coverage but most of my family and friends aren't interested in tested licenses. So I got a Retevis RT97 repeater tuned for GMRS, a SLA battery, a charge controller, a solar panel and a simple N9TAX antenna. I hiked up a mountain and set it around 2000 feet overlooking the entire area I wanted to cover. I now can easily get my family and friends on board. Most have radios at this point. Most have simple HT radios and as long as they are not standing in a deep hole with heavy obstructions around they can reach into the small repeater just fine out to around 25 miles. Those with mobile radios and better antennas can reach into it from basically anywhere in the city regardless of obstructions. So a single GMRS repeater works well for us due to our geography. I am not trying to communicate with people hours or days away. It may not work for everyone but it works for us. I have also thought about the whole extended grid down resulting in supply shortages and safety concerns. In something like that you need to try and isolate yourself, physically but I also programmed in "emergency"/"SHTF" frequencies into the repeater which are just outside of the GMRS band and in the LMR business realm. Things like a 462.525 and 467.750 split. These frequencies are un-used locally. If the world ends, I can switch over to them and at least prevent all the FRS/GMRS crowd from listening in so easy.

Maybe I am the only one, but I am confused about the purpose of this ongoing rant. Complaints on an online forum are not going to change anything. If you want change, file a Petition for Rulemaking with the FCC. Then get people to support your petition. But, to the points you raise. First, about GMRS radios themselves: Some of your facts are wrong or off target, there is no need for a -5 MHz (not KHz) offset on a GMRS radio. There are only 8 repeater input frequencies defined and those are all 5MHz higher than the 8 defined repeater input frequencies. And, the number of internal memory locations (aka "channels) that a given user needs is very difficult to determine. Probably more than 22, but 180? Zello? Zello works just fine without a GMRS radio at all. But, Zello is an Internet (IP) based app, which means anything that connects to Zello needs an Internet connection. But, you also suggest GMRS should work when away from any cellular infrastructure. So, how is your Zello equipped GMRS radio supposed to connect to Zello when you are in the middle of nowhere? And you complaint about morse code, I really don't know what that is about? We live in a free market economic system. Manufacturers are free to offer products they feel will meet customer and investor needs. You have a choice. And, if you don't like the certified GMRS products you can choose from, there are plenty of other options, from super-cheap CCRs to super-high end Part-90 commercial equipment. Technical questions aside, your major complaint seems to be about licensing fees. Here again I think you are off base. Many services, especially commercial, marine, aviation, LMR, broadcast, common carrier, cellular, etc. have licensing fees and they are often quite expensive. At $7 a year, GMRS is cheap by comparison. Yes, it is more than Amateur. But, Amateur radio is also considered a public service, with a long history and International agreements. And, what difference does it make who you pay a licensing fee to the FCC, the ARRL, a local radio club or whatever? But, even here you are not current. There is now a proposal in the FCC to lower GMRS licensing fees to $50 and add a fee for Amateur radio. The reason? It appears federal law requires fees be set to recover costs. The GMRS fee was bringing in too much money, ham radio was bringing in nothing. You also object to being taxed on your GMRS radio, but have no issue with the FCC requiring a cell phone company to offer a GMRS repeater service on every tower for free. When you consider the equipment and installation costs, plus administration and maintenance costs, are you willing to pay for that every month when Verizon and AT&T raise your bill to cover their costs? There is no free lunch. Ok, you obviously feel strongly about something, otherwise you wouldn't have started this topic and posted 7 follow-up comments. But, it is really hard to understand just what it is you are complaining about and what you think should be done about it. Can you succinctly state the top 5 high level problems you see with GMRS today, the reasons you think those are problems, and 5 proposed solutions.

I'm not sure if any of you ever got a communications license for a business before, but it is really expensive and time consuming. I charge customers around $3,000 per site, for a single frequency, and I'm not even the final coordinator. They charge as much as another $500 per application. I have seen applications take months... even beyond a year in some cases, if the FCC asks for changes or amendments in order to come into compliance. And you can't legally operate until the license is approved. That means all of the engineering documents are submitted, surveys are submitted, etc. You could spend $10,000-$15,000 for a small, local commercial radio system for just one frequency and a few radios. Many businesses find it much easier and cheaper to stick to free services like FRS and MURS for that very reason.