Jones

Many of us here are hams.  We have a ham radio section on this forum: https://forums.mygmrs.com/forum/10-amateur-radio-ham/
 
We will be happy to answer your questions.
 
Some here will be happy to give you advice, even if you DON'T want it. hahaha
 
Seriously, we are here to help.

Just another clarification for those not already in-the-know... TA stands for "Talk Around", which talks "around" the repeater, in other words, simplex on the repeater output frequency.  If you set up channels 15-22 all as +5MHz repeater channels, then pushing the TA button makes them all simplex channels for talking radio-to-radio directly.
 
Set up the 16th channel for whatever repeater you will normally be using that might have a non-standard tone set.

Many of us here are hams.  We have a ham radio section on this forum: https://forums.mygmrs.com/forum/10-amateur-radio-ham/
 
We will be happy to answer your questions.
 
Some here will be happy to give you advice, even if you DON'T want it. hahaha
 
Seriously, we are here to help.

Kenwood has it's own quick connect on the radio, however many of us in GMRS, and almost everyone in ham is using the 15/30/45 Powerpole connectors from Anderson.
 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anderson_Powerpole

Seems that the CCR companies did a lot of Kenwood copying haha.  The Btech UV series radios use a very Kenwood handmic for instance.

Very true, but the OP was posted in the Amateur Radio (Ham) section of the forums.

Either one will be a great radio for you, and either will KILL a Midland micro-mobile.  I think the 880 series is a few years newer than the 860 series.  The 880 series had a better alpha-numeric display also.  You really can't go wrong with either Kenwood option.
 
Another difference between my 862s and my 880-885s... the 862s have a 6-pin mic connector and use the 6-pin programming cable.  The 880 and 885s I have use an 8-pin mic and programming cable.
 
  --  Dirty Little Secret 1 --  The 880-885 Kenwoods use the same programming cable as the popular CCR called the VV-898.
  --  Dirty Little Secret 2 --  You can use the 6-pin Kenwood programming cable with the 880 and 885.  Just center it up and plug it right in to the 8-pin socket.  The middle pins are the same on the 6 and 8 pin plugs, and the outside 2 pins on the 880-885 are not used for programming.

Either one will be a great radio for you, and either will KILL a Midland micro-mobile.  I think the 880 series is a few years newer than the 860 series.  The 880 series had a better alpha-numeric display also.  You really can't go wrong with either Kenwood option.
 
Another difference between my 862s and my 880-885s... the 862s have a 6-pin mic connector and use the 6-pin programming cable.  The 880 and 885s I have use an 8-pin mic and programming cable.
 
  --  Dirty Little Secret 1 --  The 880-885 Kenwoods use the same programming cable as the popular CCR called the VV-898.
  --  Dirty Little Secret 2 --  You can use the 6-pin Kenwood programming cable with the 880 and 885.  Just center it up and plug it right in to the 8-pin socket.  The middle pins are the same on the 6 and 8 pin plugs, and the outside 2 pins on the 880-885 are not used for programming.

Thanks for the heads up.  I'll check out 10 later today.  I usually hang out around 28.450USB, or 29.000AM.

Very true, but the OP was posted in the Amateur Radio (Ham) section of the forums.

Very true, but the OP was posted in the Amateur Radio (Ham) section of the forums.

I hear DTMF tones all over Nebraska on MURS.  I looked into it a year ago, and found out that several farms in the area use MURS for a remote monitoring and telemetry system for their crop irrigation systems and water wells.  There is also at least one company making MURS remote alarm systems for farm buildings and gates.
 
MURS is legal for all of those kinds of things, so that's likely what you're hearing.
 
Most people using MURS for these types of operations do not even know what frequency or band they are using.  All they know is that they purchased this wireless thing that lets them know back home when someone opens the pasture gate, and they have another wireless thing that tells them how many gallons per minute the pump is flowing.

I hear DTMF tones all over Nebraska on MURS.  I looked into it a year ago, and found out that several farms in the area use MURS for a remote monitoring and telemetry system for their crop irrigation systems and water wells.  There is also at least one company making MURS remote alarm systems for farm buildings and gates.
 
MURS is legal for all of those kinds of things, so that's likely what you're hearing.
 
Most people using MURS for these types of operations do not even know what frequency or band they are using.  All they know is that they purchased this wireless thing that lets them know back home when someone opens the pasture gate, and they have another wireless thing that tells them how many gallons per minute the pump is flowing.

I hear DTMF tones all over Nebraska on MURS.  I looked into it a year ago, and found out that several farms in the area use MURS for a remote monitoring and telemetry system for their crop irrigation systems and water wells.  There is also at least one company making MURS remote alarm systems for farm buildings and gates.
 
MURS is legal for all of those kinds of things, so that's likely what you're hearing.
 
Most people using MURS for these types of operations do not even know what frequency or band they are using.  All they know is that they purchased this wireless thing that lets them know back home when someone opens the pasture gate, and they have another wireless thing that tells them how many gallons per minute the pump is flowing.

I hear DTMF tones all over Nebraska on MURS.  I looked into it a year ago, and found out that several farms in the area use MURS for a remote monitoring and telemetry system for their crop irrigation systems and water wells.  There is also at least one company making MURS remote alarm systems for farm buildings and gates.
 
MURS is legal for all of those kinds of things, so that's likely what you're hearing.
 
Most people using MURS for these types of operations do not even know what frequency or band they are using.  All they know is that they purchased this wireless thing that lets them know back home when someone opens the pasture gate, and they have another wireless thing that tells them how many gallons per minute the pump is flowing.

I hear DTMF tones all over Nebraska on MURS.  I looked into it a year ago, and found out that several farms in the area use MURS for a remote monitoring and telemetry system for their crop irrigation systems and water wells.  There is also at least one company making MURS remote alarm systems for farm buildings and gates.
 
MURS is legal for all of those kinds of things, so that's likely what you're hearing.
 
Most people using MURS for these types of operations do not even know what frequency or band they are using.  All they know is that they purchased this wireless thing that lets them know back home when someone opens the pasture gate, and they have another wireless thing that tells them how many gallons per minute the pump is flowing.

I have a couple of 862G Kenwoods, and they are great.  I assume the 863 is about the same, but 256 channels instead of just 8 like mine have.

I laughed pretty hard when I read this line. Mostly because the same guys I heard say that, are sitting on one HF frequency, talking to the same 3 guys all day, for 20 years.  AND, they only ID maybe once every 2 hours and God forbid someone is on the air, tying up "their frequency" when they what to get online and BS for 5 hours.

I was thinking that was too big to fit anywhere in my car, but then I drive a Nissan Juke.  I don't have room for a cigar box.
 
Also, I wasn't thinking about the noise in between the GMRS split, but you're right.  For instance, that MED-9 repeater that I had to fight with on the 444.475 tower.  That is just above GMRS, at 462.950/467.950.  I guess the only way to filter that might be with additional P/R cavity filters, and those add more loss per each can.  These Olds filters could certainly be designed to block out all of the other business and public safety stuff in the 450-460 MHz and 470-512 MHz ranges, as well as all that UHF TV stuff near you.  Once you lower that noise, the other stuff in-band around 463-465 might not bother you as much.
 
Also, the fairly wide bandwidth is a feature of these Olds filters. The ham version allows you to work the whole 430-449 range without having to worry about re-tuning anything.

My chrome colored pointed hat is on, and I have my noise toys. HONK!! HONK!! rattle-rattle-rattle-HONK!-rattle-rattle. Happy New Year!
 
Oye Pablo! Mas Cerveza por favor!

My chrome colored pointed hat is on, and I have my noise toys. HONK!! HONK!! rattle-rattle-rattle-HONK!-rattle-rattle. Happy New Year!
 
Oye Pablo! Mas Cerveza por favor!

I just received mine and have had it a couple of days. Have compared it to the BTech GMRS-v1. This radio blows it away. RF performance is amazing and I can hit all of my local repeaters from inside my house. One of them almost 30 miles away. The circuitry is way superior to the radio on a chip unit. Wish the buttons were rubber instead of hard plastic. Screen viewing angle isn’t that great either. But the little cosmetic flaws aside it’s RF performance justifies the cost completely.

This is most likely a repeater site ID'ing - while repeaters on GMRS are not required to identify themselves at regular intervals like other radio services, many do this as a courtesy to let other users know that there is an active repeater on that channel/frequency.
 
 
The "travel tone" refers to 141.3 Hz, which is commonly used by GMRS operators on repeaters and/or simplex.  Here are some relevant links that explain in further detail:
 
Continuous Tone-Coded Squelch System
Digital Code Squelch (DCS)
CTCSS and DCS Tones -- What's the difference?

I was thinking that was too big to fit anywhere in my car, but then I drive a Nissan Juke.  I don't have room for a cigar box.
 
Also, I wasn't thinking about the noise in between the GMRS split, but you're right.  For instance, that MED-9 repeater that I had to fight with on the 444.475 tower.  That is just above GMRS, at 462.950/467.950.  I guess the only way to filter that might be with additional P/R cavity filters, and those add more loss per each can.  These Olds filters could certainly be designed to block out all of the other business and public safety stuff in the 450-460 MHz and 470-512 MHz ranges, as well as all that UHF TV stuff near you.  Once you lower that noise, the other stuff in-band around 463-465 might not bother you as much.
 
Also, the fairly wide bandwidth is a feature of these Olds filters. The ham version allows you to work the whole 430-449 range without having to worry about re-tuning anything.

I don't see any reason why they wouldn't work in a mobile installation, other than size restraints.  The UHF one is about as big as a cigar box, but if you have room to stow it, it should certainly work.  Of course, you wouldn't want to use one of these on a dual-band radio, unless you have split UHF/VHF transmit ports, and split antennas.
 
I think they would really shine in a mobile installation (or base station) where you had a 70cm Ham rig, and a separate GMRS rig, with close-mounted antennas.  If you have one of these tuned filters on each radio, you should be able to transmit on GMRS without blanking out your 70cm rig, and vice-versa.