nokones

Oh no. There goes the neighborhood.

Isn't there one of those emoji things for that expression?

It is a squawk, not a beep. Let the squawks begin. Some repeater owners are using MDC-1200 signalling as a requirement for accessing their repeaters. Besides the voice modulation you hear on the radio, it is normal for the radio to emit various types of noises, like static, intermod, MDC squawks, hetrodyne of multiple transmissions, squelch tails, and simulcast overlaps. If you don't like the various noises, turn off the radio and go turn on your computer and communicate with VOIP.

Although, not packed full of foo foo features that more than likely you won't need or ever use and is somewhat channel capacity challenged, you should at least take a look at the Midland radios. They are built better than any of the cheap POS radios that come from Pandaland and they are simple to use and most likely will meet your needs.

I remember installing one of these radios in one of my Jeep Club member's vehicle and I was unable to locate the option in the menu to change the bandwidth operation. Most of the older Midlands were narrowband only and I am not sure if Midland has updated this model to change the band operation from Narrowband to Wideband. If they did, it will be in the list of options in the menu only for channels 1-7, 15-22, and RP15 - RP22. Apparently, by upgrading the microphone to the noise canceling microphone will allow you to change the bandwidth in the MXT275. My guess is that Midland may have included a firmware update in the microphone for additional functionality in the radio.

Some time ago, I kinda remember that they were no longer accepting new members. Although, I could be wrong. If you're looking to be a member of a Club that has a repeater on Santiago, try Crest Communications, I believe they are still welcoming new members into their Club and they have been around since the early 70s. They are very active in the community.

I have several HT1000s, one XTS1500 model II, and two XTS5000 model IIIs and no cheap POS radios from Pandaland.

All FCC allocated channel pairs between 450-470 MHz are paired with a 5 MHz spread with the higher frequency of the pair is the mobile transmit (Repeater Station Receive) and channel pairs between 470-520 MHz have a 3 MHz spread.

A multi-band antenna will never be an optimum antenna for a specific band. The respective operating bands will be compromised in order to be marginal for the two bands

Back in the 90s, my car racing activities qualified the use of the Business Radio Service freqs and GMRS was not the appropriate radio service for those activities.

When I travel, I monitor all 15 GMRS 462 (main and interstitial) channels. I do not monitor the 467 channels. Also, I program all the repeaters channels as presets for the areas I intend to travel through for the just in case. I've had a GMRS license since the mid 90s and as of this date, I have only on a couple of occasions had the just in case situations to report a serious traffic collision when there was no cellular telephone coverage. I have never heard any trucker traffic, or at least I couldn't identify any trucker traffic because no one was talking about their Jake Brakes or putting out smokey reports or asking if the coup is open. I have never had engaged in any exchange of radio traffic anyone while traveling. Most of the simplex traffic appears to be FRS for a very brief period of time as you are within range. In the larger population centers there appears to be a lot of traffic on the various repeaters for the area. Essentially, most of my radio communication use is when traveling or wheeling with groups and it is usually on GMRS simplex. If it is my private travel group, we will communicate on either VHF or UHF Business Radio Service freqs.

Looks like there is some evidence of an agricultural expedition. I've been using business radio service freqs since the mid-90s for my radio comm on the track.

If you're thinking about marrying two Wouxuns together, forget about it. They have a desense problem because of the lack of shielding. I've seen maxon radios work somewhat decent and I have heard that people have married two Motorola MCS2000 with decent results. I haven't heard if anyone has tried a couple of XTLs. It would be best just getting a real repeater that has the correct duty cycle.

I have the Larsen Glassmount on the rear glass of my 23 Wrangler Rubi 2 Dr. and I have had and continue to have great success with it for my UHF radio. I can hit repeaters well over 50+ miles and I can definitely hear FRS traffic at least the 5 miles away as a desert buzzard would fly. I really don't have a need to talk simplex except when I am wheeling on the Trail and those distances normally don't exceed a mile, but on one occasion I did communicate simplex and I estimate the distance with a Midland MXT275 that is a 15 watt mobile clearly, about 10 and maybe 15 miles away. My VSWR on 467 Megs is 1.5 - 1.6:1 and on 462 Megs the VSWR is a good 1.2:1 and that is without any trimming. I decided to leave the antenna as is and not trim it. I personally don't see anything wrong with using a glassmount antenna. Decades ago, I have had great success with the Antenna Specialist Cellular Look-A-Likes on both VHF and UHF Fun & Non-Fun Bands. Also, I have used a glassmount Antenna for a CB radio, but the measuring the effective Farz accurately was somewhat difficult and it did depend on conditions. I have never tried using the rear windows defrost to see if it affects the reception performance. We don't get those types of conditions here in the greater Valley of the Sun in sunny Sun City West, Arizona. For my VHF Radio I am using a non-Ground Plane Laird B1442N Base Load antenna on a side fender mount. I was surprised with the performance of this Antenna. I was able to hear a repeater on the roof of a 5 story building about 30 miles away over and around a tall hill. I'm seeing about 1.2:1 with this antenna on 154 Megs. For my UHF DMR radio I am using the Midland MXTA25 Phantom Antenna and I am seeing about 1.4:1 VSWR on 464 Megs transmitting analog emissions. For my Cobra 29 LTD Classic CB radio I am using the Firestik II 3 foot antenna while on the trail and a 5 foot Firestik II antenna for the Highways and Byways with a spring and quick disconnect. I'm seeing less than 1.1:1 with the 5 ft antenna and less than 1.2:1 with the 3 ft antenna. The CB Antenna is mounted in the usual Wrangler JL location.

Depending on the age of your MXT500, after channel RP22 (Ch. 30), you will have the ability of custom programming channels 31 through 128 with any GMRS repeater channels. You will need a mini USB C cable and the programming software to custom program. If you have one of the older 30 channel MXT500 radios, the Midland website will have the firmware that you can download to expand the channel capacity to 128 channels.