nokones

I have to agree. Although, the TK880 is only a 25 watt radio, the MXT500 and the TK880 are essentially the same size radio. The TK880H, I think is 45-watts and is only a tad longer than the MXT500. The Kenwood radio is a great radio and is loaded with more features than the MXT500 and the channel capacity is 250 channels. The most I have ever paid for these radios is $125 for a radio in like new condition with power cable and a DTMF Microphone. I have both VHF and UHF models and I usually find them in very good condition for $75.

This is what I used for my two remote controlheads. It is a Ram Mount setup and since the MXT500s are on the small side, you could do the same thing. I used a similar setup temporarily in my Pickup for a Kenwood radio.

There are three good places to hard mount an under dashmount radio in a Wrangler, especially a MXT500. Hell, I even have 4 radios in my Wrangler, two under dashmount type, and two with remote controlheads with the radio units mounted behind the two front seats on the floor, and I have the 4 radios powered by the Aux 1 circuit. Here two of the locations I used. Be patient,so I can get to my PC to edit and rotate the one picture.

The MXT575 is limited on channel capacity, only 30 (which includes the 8 repeater channels). The MXT500 has 99 channel thus, means more custom channels with display names.

The noise factor is an easy fix, high noise environment external speaker or a high noise with noise canceling boom mic headset.

I would try mounting a quarterwave antenna inside the Skidsteer cabin in order to protect the antenna from being damaged. Just make sure that the antenna is mounted vertically.

My repeater's station ID has a polite mode whereas, the ID will stop when there is traffic and resume from the start.

About 3 years ago, I bought a brand new rack mount Motorola Repeater still in the box for $700, not including the duplexer. The brand new EMR Corp duplexer ran me about $450.

Most repeater stations do not transmit the tone/code with the Station ID. The station ID is not for you, it is for the FCC.

If the magmount sticks to something metal you should be ok. But, you do need to check the antenna VSWRs along with the forward and reflected.

What antenna are you using and how is it mounted and what is it mounted on? Definitely need the VSWR readings with the forward and reflected readings. Pictures would help? Have you verified that the antenna mount has factory chassis ground continuity without the coax plugged into the radio? Do you have the radio battery plus wire lead connected directly to the battery and the radio ground lead connected to a factory chassis grounding point?

What about a Midland MXTA 25 Phantom antenna?

Why is he being an ass again? He may always be one of those "Some People" who is not every ones favorite person, but was his post asinine because the context of the post does not have merit or is inappropriate, or just because of who he is on the forum? His post is a valid question and it amazes me why people with limited funds continue to waste their money on cheap inferior products that have a high risk of failing and if they would have spent their limited monies on a product that is of a lower risk of failing would be further ahead in not wasting their monies and their valuable time. If the said repeater is for a community to have some type of an emergency communications net it should be with a known reliable product and not be a high risk with the possibility of the system failing and being unreliable. Cheap Pandaland products have no place of being used in any important system that need to be reliable and robust for any emergency type of communications involving the preservation of human life or property.

It's Title 47, not Chapter 47. In otherwords, the GMRS Rules & Regulations fall under Code of Federal Regulations, Title 47, Chapter I, Subchapter D, Part 95, Subpart E.

Oops, on my part. I misread the subject paragraph and mistaken it as being related to GMRS. However, I do have a valid excuse, Android Cellphone Display Screens are way too small, and I have another excuse ready in my pocket just in case I need to whip out.

That would be a direct violation of the rules and regulations.

Webster defines Hobby as an activity done regularly in one's leisure time for pleasure. Now, the Amateur Radio Service Operators (a.k.a. Ham Radio) was considered as hobby way before the evolution of GMRS. A majority of the HAM Radio Operators prefer to not associate themselves with GMRS users so there is a good reason for not calling GMRS a hobby since the Hams do not want recognize and/or want to associate with the GMRS users. So, let's not call GMRS a hobby since the Hams hobbyist already call their hobby a hobby. Ham radio hobbyist essentially don't get in involved in or support other hobby activities like GMRS users and groups do. GMRS Users and Gtoups are active people and always on the move and don't sit around. All Ham hobbyists prefer to do is sit around and talk on the radio during POTAs, Nets, and go to Hamfests, so those activities really can't be called a hobby. GMRS people use radios for their selected hobbys, such as hiking, trail riding, and other outdoor hobbies, Ham radio hobbyist don't do that. GMRS radio people are users and/or groups and proud to be a GMRS User..

I believe the new encryption and radio inoperability requirements for Federally and some States funded systems may be the reason why most agencies are migrating to P25 Phase 2 Sysitems

If I recall, one of the reasons why the Television Industry wanted to migrate to digital emissions so they can be creative in using the same bandwidth of their licensed broadcast channel and cram in other broadcast channels in the same bandwidth.

Decades ago, FCC initiated an order to what was called "Frequency Refarming" of frequencies which involved narrowing frequencies to create more public safety channels and that order along with the Terrorist Attack on the World Trade Center in 2001 caused the initiating of another order that required the Television industry to move off of some of their allocated channels to free up bandwidth for public safety. Public Safety Radio Inoperability became a major goal for the Federal Government at that time.

The main reason why the migration to digital and encryption is because of over-the -air broadcasting of private information suchas, names and birthdates, and drivers license numbers and license plates information, from States law enforcement Data Bases like CLETS in California and the nationwide law enforcement NCIC data base. If my memory serves me right this requirement for encryption began sometime around 2005 by the Federal DOJ and/or FBI, and some States years later also made it a mandate for the various State Law Enforcement agencies to encrypt the private information if it was going to be broadcasted over the air.

When your programming cable is connected to the computer, your computer pick which comm port it wants to use. In the CPS, you have to tell the CPS which comm port the computer wants to use by going to the Set Up Page and click on Communications Port. You will notice that one of the 20 comm ports in the CPS is the only one that you can select so you need to select that port and click OK. Now, you can either read that codeplug or write to that codeplug. If any alerts come up just push pass it to write to the radio.

If your cable is for the TM-481a and is good working order, it should work on the TK-880. Depending on how the cable built, it will require the appropriate driver. Just make sure that the driver is compatible with Windows 11. If you're not sure if you need the Prolific or the FTDI driver, load both drivers on your computer and set the port selection according to the Device Manager. With the radio connected to the cable, pull the cable connector in and out of the computer while viewing the Device Manager and that may indicate the port the computer wants to use and set the port selection in the CPS accordingly. If the cable is a genuine Kenwood cable or built by Blue Max 49ers, you should be good to go. If it is built by some unknown provider that sells cheap Pandaland stuff from a business that is not dedicated to or does not specialized in only radio electronics, I would round-file the cable and get a quality built cable before you brick the radio permanently.

I'm using the KPG-46 FTDI cable with Windows 10 and 11 for my TK-780s and 880s with no problems. Who's cable are you using and where did you get it?

And make sure that you have Com Port 6 selected in the CPS.