WRXB215

Thanks Randy, great video.

I agree with the first part of your post but I believe an open repeater means the owner is inviting others to use it. You will know if it’s open or not by it being listed that way. Also why does a squelch tail or roger beep mean it’s an open repeater?

Unfortunately these two sentences pass along bad information. 
I’ll take them separately:
Yes, it’s generally best to use feedline that matches the impedance of the radio, but  swapping a minor impedance mismatch has fewer disadvantages than using RG-58 or 58x which has incredibly high attenuation at GMRS frequencies.

Using 75 ohm feedline with a 50 ohm radio simply means that you start with a theoretical SWR of 1.5. That’s not terrible and PL-259 connectors are available for both of the common 75 ohm cables. So are adapters. 
 
RG-11 attenuates RF in the 400 MHz range at the rate of 3.5 dB per 100 feet. That’s a little more than half of your power lost in the cable. 
RG-58 attenuates RF in the 400 MHz range at the rate of 11.2 dB. That’s more than 90% of your power lost.
 
I wouldn’t use RG-58 for GMRS feedline for anything longer than 10 feet. 
 
https://www.w4rp.com/ref/coax.html

I am dead-center in the path of the storm... Extreme rain and hazardous squalls were predicted to arrive beginning at 4am... it is now almost 1PM and we got some light drizzle that stopped a few hours ago, and I think we had a couple of wind-gusts that might have topped 3-4mph...
The local news is really having a rough time finding anything to scare us with but God bless them, they're trying.

please remember that there is no such thing as a "small hurricane" and that even "only" a tropical storm can be very dangerous, so don't let your guard down (trust this Floridian who weathered 8 hurricanes and too many storms to count!).  Also, please remember that most people die *after* the storms.  And we all know that anything named "Hillary" is infinitely evil, right? 🙂
Good luck and God Bless.

If you are in Southern California you can hear info on the tropical storm coming on the NOAA channels. A first for California. I am picking up info at 162.400 and 162.475 north of Santa Barbara.

Water coming down strong,, had to sand bag the back side of our house to keep water from breaching inside..  And this is just the beginning for us...... GMRS band pretty busy today..  I hope you all are staying safe  

You should be able to listen to your emergency frequencies as long as they are within the freq-range that the 935 can pick up, and are analog signals.

If I remember correctly the city of Santa Clarita doesn't have a police department. They have a Los Angelas County Sheriff's Department substation there, Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff's Station. If it is still that way then their radios are above 480.0000 MHz which puts them out of the range of the KG-935G Plus. Hopefully someone can give you a more up to date answer. The KG-935G Plus is a fun radio either way.

@rdunajewski Another seven duplicates posted. This time from WRYH413.  

This has become so common.  Others who have done this said it was by mistake. I wonder if there is a way to fix this problem? Add a pop up when posting a repeater that request verification of ownership? Enter password to verify you own this repeater? Changing the phrase “my repeaters” to “repeaters I own”?  I am not a coder so I have no knowledge of the best way to fix this but it seems like it is worth a look. 

Rather than deleting it, why not tell us how you solved it so others benefit also?

Take that one step further and right click on your distance line and choose 'Elevation Profile'..... Good for line of sight searching..  BTW,, i believe this only works in the GoogleEarth desktop version.    

To follow up, I got the radio working.

I emailed back and forth with Buy Two Way Radios and eventually sent it back for an RMA. I spoke with their engineer on the phone while they had it and he was able to connect to repeaters without issue, so they sent the radio back. I received it yesterday. I got it all setup and I still could not connect to the repeater I wanted.

I started to think to myself. I could connect to the repeater with my KG935G+ and it's only a 5watt handheld radio. So, the only thing I never tried before was turning the power output down on the KG1000G+. I changed it from high power to medium power (which is 20watts) and low and behold, it connected!

I spoke with another operator; he told me it sounded great, a full 5x5. So, every other configuration setting I had was correct, I feel better about that.
We did net check-ins a little later on and I mentioned my success and what I had changed, and another operator said he had experienced the same issue once before with a Motorola radio he owned. 

Can anyone explain, why lowering the power output of my radio would have made a difference? I'm just curious.

I dont know if they have SAR/Anyone always listening, I'll leave that up to a local to answer, but I can tell you that unless you have good line-of-sight to whoever is monitoring, or the repeater they are monitoring, it wont matter.

IMO, your best option is to not go alone and take a reliable source of communication like a Garmin InReach Sat-communicator, or a new iPhone with satellite connectivity..
Otherwise, unless you have someone waiting & listening for you, and you KNOW that your radio will reach them from wherever you may be (which is doubtful), you do not have a reliable means to call for help.. Or Pizza..
Source: I have done a bit of high-temperature, long-range hiking in the desert
 

The software is free and the cable comes with the radio at no extra charge.

Lol yes it's a mystery to me why CB keydown contests are a thing. But hey maybe that's what's missing from GMRS. 

You have a ground floor unit or a multilevel unit building? If you have a top floor unit up several levels all you need do is clear the roof line. That’s effectively a small tower, better than what a lot of other people have.

V/M and Main move the cursor and up and down change the selection of the field the cursor is at if I remember right. Though I don't think you can move to highlight the firmware version on that particular screen, but I also haven't tried.

That’s the correct screen. Now just change the mode. I think it’s the up and down arrows but I don’t remember for sure. 

@WRQC527 Is that the Mystery Machine? 

@WRQC527 Is that the Mystery Machine? 

I got to do a range test today and I am very impressed. In an area I typically get about 5 miles of simplex range with a 50w VHF or UHF radio (Ham and GMRS) I was able to have a conversation at 14 miles apart, while moving. 
 
One of my friends who also has a good AM/FM CB and a good antenna setup were able to run a test while driving in Norther Virginia. I have to say, 14 miles for both AM and FM is fantastic around hear.
 
The furthest I have ever talked on a CB on the local level was 26 miles, using a 104" (1/4 wave) steel whip antenna and 12.5w peak. 
 
This 14 mile contact was using 3.5w and a 86" Diamond HF10CL antenna, which isn't as good of a performer as a 1/4 wave would be... but it's pretty darn good. Much better than if I tried a 3 foot or 4 foot Firestik, I'm sure.
 
This radio seems like a win for a compact FM CB. 

Are you using a repeater channel or are you on a simplex channel? Repeater channels usually have a R after the number,

Ohh yeah, I forgot to mention that.  I agree with WRQG411 on the Midland PL259 mount / cable.  I was able hide the cable in the gap between the frame and the fender cover fabric.  Just loosen the bolts holding the top on and shove the cable behind them.  From there you can run the same line down until you reach the rear floor mat.