cdesigns

Low band means big antennas, not my thing lol

WTF..... just received my pair of radios, YES the audio is awesome, compared to my commercial ht, this little radios sound better, deep loud audio, and range is great too, hitting many local repeaters with the "mini antenna" , very impressed.

It says on the specs FRS/GMRS and also says 400-470mhz, if its programable it will be great for sure. I will buy them just to have them lol.

Is this the smallest FRS/GMRS radio in the world? I have seen many radio watches, but this one looks very small. Radios

I would love for Motorola or Vertex to bring a decent quality GMRS full power radio with all the features in the front panel....... I saw the MXT100 at walmart last night, very small radio, I'm worried when they start selling the 15w and 40w version, we are going to have the airwaves full of unlicensed people at high power, I live in a rural area and I still can pick up unlicensed people all over (disney parks, neighborhoods) I have a good antenna , lately I see a lot of construction workers using this radios on GMRS frequencies, very little use the FRS channels.

So I emailed him , and got this response.... Hi James, I don't know if you are aware that DMR is illegal on GMRS, I don't know if you are using a DMR repeater in analog mode, but GMRS doesn't allow digital voice or use GMRS for business. FCC fines are big, not worth it. Carlos C.WQVA578 HIS REPLY: lol no we have gmrs analog kenwood system and we have a digital system that we can cross link legally as it's non radio based and third party traffic approved. already checked with the fcc. only cross link that is illegal is cross band to another uhf, vhf in any mode and auto patch unless used for control access only. it's all legit.

illegal in every way, GMRS can't be used for business and that sounds like a business billing you to use their illegal DMR repeater lol.

I used to have one of those kenwoods way before I got my GMRS license, can you set tones easilly from the front panel?

I think I will by a few for my kids to work my repeater, I was worried about a "trebble like voice" or low audio.

I have like 10-15 flip and numeric key pad phones to choose from lol, good idea, I forgot all about that, I will use an old sprint phone that has GPS and large battery and its analog/digital still shows signal from sprint, it will show locked on the screen when you call 911, I think is the only one with GPS that I have, the others are just to old. good for my kids since they are only 4 and 9 years old and may forget the address.

Got any links for that ? I can't find any.

How is the sound of those radios? do they sound decent?

You can send me one of those R1225, I will test them

Would the heads of maxtracsHEADS work? I have 4 radios that I bought 800mhz trunking that are just paper weight right now.

I love the Eco-worthy 20amp MPPT charger, is cheap and it works great, here is one that I made for campings, it gives me the option to charge the car battery and add more solar panels, underneath the charger I have (2) 12ah SLA batteries. They power a brushless fan, LEDS and ipads etc on my campings or out on the field adventures CHECK OUT THE VIDEO https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-mKA2k4EN8

LOL, the point is that you need to give the battery some jolt once in a while to reduce the crystallization on the battery plates, expensive charges like the outback uses a controlled over charging method , and the desulfator is for those with cheaper charge controllers that don't have that equalization stage. Not the same methods, but at the end of the day it will jolt the battery to reduce crystallization. I have used it before on my cheap solar setups when I started doing solar and when I tried a desulfator the battery lasted longer 1.5 years more than my other setups, that were the same. This is for people who are using cheap solar chargers, if the OP decides to use a good charger then he doesn't need this. When the budget is low, I always recommend this MPPT charger, I have 2 running for 3 years now and they squeeze all the power from my solar cells and work excellent at least for the price, I have used them in solar powered pedal boats and electric wheelchairs lol http://www.eco-worthy.com/catalog/worthy-mppt-solar-charge-controller-12v24v-p-182.html

So, I made a trade today and got myself a FT7800R ham radio, later I found out it was MARS/CAP modded = for those who doesn't know, it allows the radio to transmit out of band like GMRS, other than been illegal, the radio also looses power transmitting out of the HAM BAND, did some bench test and I get 38-41watts on HAM BAND but once I go over the 440mhz the power drops a lot, on 462mhz I'm about 23watts and 467mhz at 19watts and drops by the second. Other than been illegal, the modification could damage your radio. I would love to be legal and have the full 40-45watts output

On the Outback is called Equalization mode, its a more controlled desulfation. Either way, the best way to protect your batteries is to never drain them bellow 50% and keep that water level full. I ran half of my home in Puerto Rico with solar and batteries, and its something I want to do here in my home in Florida too. But I want the Tesla battery $$$$ I have to wait a little. lol

Many people don't know it, but the best type of solar cell out there is the Amorphous Silicon Thin Film, they require more space but they produce more power in many situations. http://www.ebay.com/itm/UniSolar-Flexible-24V-136-Watt-Solar-Panel-RV-Boat-Battery-Charger-with-Adhesive-/152115254978?hash=item236ac696c2:g:VMgAAOSwARZXi9VO You can buy a 100w Polycrystalline or Monocrystalline solar panel, and to actually get the 100W you need the perfect weather, full sun, cold weather, if the solar panel gets warm or hot, the power will drop very quickly. The Amorphous cell, will work great with cold or hot weathers, and under cloudy conditions. I made a test about 2 years ago using a Unisolar Amorphous 136watt solar panel and a Solarworld 160w monocrystalline solar panel. Both solar panel facing up, no angles, about 3' from the ground in Florida summer weather. 8am readings: Amorphous 64w Monocrystalline 17w 10am readings: Amorphous 113w Monocrystalline 72w 12pm readings: (sun angle perfect) Amorpous 141w monocrystalline 128w 3pm readings with clouds Amorphous 98w Monocrystalline 81w We installed 2 amorphous solar panels on my fathers RV and believe it or not, o a full moon or under a bright walmart light pole "depending on the type of light" you can see the charge controller working best we have seen is 7 watts. The only problem is that they require more space, but I prefer them over Monocrystalline or Polycrystalline solar panels, specially on cloudy days.

All of those charge controllers you mentioned are top brands, they do have good charging algorithms that will protect the batteries and many have a desulfation stage, Outback has one if not mistaken, but many people use cheap $20-$60 ebay solar controllers, at least many repeaters setups I have seen on youtube are using cheap solar charge controllers that might have a few stages of charging, but do not have a desulfator setting, that's when the desulfator I posted comes handy. Ones of the rules is to always have enough juice to power your system for 3 days without solar, and never discharge your battery bellow 50-60%

Forgot to add, if you don't have a expensive solar charger with desulfator, then this is a must to mantain the battery alive. http://www.ebay.com/itm/Wizbang-Battery-Desulfator-Desulphator-Solar-Wind-EV-Marine-Storage-12-Volt-/231951927269?hash=item36016987e5:g:ENEAAOSwCM5XPwVn

Always keep this in mind, any battery NON lithium , will be only usable at 50% of its capacity, so if you have a 12v battery 100ahr , you really have 50ahr, draining the battery below 50% will kill it. If you battery is lithium , you can lower use up to 80% of its capacity on good brands. I spent a year playing with solar panels and different types of batteries. And I learned the hard way not to drain the battery below 50% of its capacity if its acid/gel type.

Thanks for the info, makes sense about interfering with repeaters in the area.

467.5750 467.6000 467.6250 467.6500 467.6750 467.7000 467.7250 So we are licensed to transmit on this frequencies and receive 5mhz lower on a repeater setup right? But can we TX/RX on those 467mhz frequencies Simplex mode TX and RX on 467mhz? I'm looking for just a little more privacy when traveling and stay away from bubble pack GMRS people It should be legal right?