WRYZ926

@nokones he did state that he enabled USB programming. Unless the radio is defective then the problem most likely lies either with a bad USB cable, with the computer and/or not selecting the correct communication port number. @WRXJ624 The easiest way to determine the com port number in Windows is to open up Device Manager. Then plug the USB cable into the computer and radio to see what new com port shows up. Once you know the port number, make sure to select the correct port number in the Midland programming software. Another issue might be that the programming software did not install correctly and may need to be uninstalled and then reinstalled. This doesn't happen very often so I would double check what com port number is showing up in Device Manager and/or try a different USB cable.

Many of us have used hand held radios with an external antenna with good results. As others have said, getting the antenna outside of the vehicle is the biggest improvement you can make. Adaptor cables that go from SO239 to SMA are cheap and make connecting an external antenna to most hand held radios easy to do.

Our GMRS repeater is at least 100 miles away from any other repeater that uses the same channel and tones. I am 80 miles away from the other repeater. Normally there is not any issues. But when tropospheric ducting happens, one of the other repeaters can be heard at full strength and will also key up our repeater. I have another GMRS repeater that is 50 miles west of me. On occasion I talk to a guy that lives 150 miles east of me on that repeater that is 50 miles west of me. It's amazing how far you can reach when atmospheric conditions are just right. This goes for any band/frequency from HF all the way up to 900 MHz and higher.

As I mentioned, the only way to use a single speaker with the KG-1000G is to use a female stereo to dual mono male y adaptor AND you must also use a true stereo speaker (with left and right speakers) for it to work. The only speaker I got to work and sound good is my Anker rechargeable stereo speaker. One will need to use a true stereo speaker to get it to work with the KG-1000G and have decent sound. I tried a mono to mono y adaptor. While it did work, the volume was very low due in part to the impedance mismatch. The only other radio that I personally own with duel speaker ports is the Icom IC-2730 and you can run one speaker for both sides on port 1 without any issues.

It has nothing to do with powered versus non powered speakers. It is because you get an impedance mismatch when trying to run just one mono speaker connected to both speaker outputs on the radio. A y adaptor works fine for me but ONLY when using a true stereo speaker with BOTH a left and right speaker. A single speaker will not work when plugged into both speaker jacks on the radio.

This is true. I dd not mention it since he was asking about batteries for a 20 watt radio. The current draw of a 20 watt radio won't exceed the battery output of a 10 amp hour battery. I would not recommend trying to transmit on a 50 watt radio on high power. You will be at or above the 10 amps of the battery as most 50 watt radios draw 12-14 amps on transmit at high power. Some will draw 8 or 10 amps but why push one's luck. I will recommend a 40 or 50 amp hour battery for a 50 watt radio if you want it to last very long. The more one transmits the quicker the battery will discharge. People that do Parks On The Air with QRP radios with 5-10 watts output power will run smaller batteries but those don't last very long even then.

It all depends on how long you want to use the radio before having to recharge the battery. How much you transmit will also determine what size battery you will need. I would start out with a minimum of a 10 amp hour LifPo 4 battery. That will last you from 5-6 hours or longer depending on how much you transmit on 20 watts.

Don't waste your time or money on that cable as it won't work. I have tried mono to mon splitters and mono to stereo splitters, none of them will work with a standard mono speaker. The only way to get it to work is to use a mono to stereo splitter AND a true stereo speaker (with left and right speakers). See my earlier posts above.

They definitely gave you the wrong information. They gave you the offset for VHF repeaters which is 0.600 MHz. And that is why you came up with 463.300 MHz The correct offset for GMRS is 5.000 MHz which will give you the correct offset frequency of 467.700 MHz. GMRS repeater channels always use a positive offset of 5 MHz. Your radio will transmit on 467.700 and receive on 462.700. The repeater will transmit on 462.700 and receive on 467.700

I'll add to what Steve posted. Here is a link showing the only authorized channels for GMRS. https://www.buytwowayradios.com/blog/2022/11/list-of-gmrs-frequencies-and-channels.html You can't just pick any frequency between 462 MHz and 467 MHz and use them on GMRS. You have to stick with the designated channels. Midland radios will not transmit on anything other than designated GMRS channels. I have yet to see anyone hack a Midland radio.

We transmitted into dummy loads as part of a test of our emergency communications trailer. So unless someone was really close to the trailer, no one heard us when transmitting into a dummy load.

Yes it will work. The issue is that the FCC doesn't allow cross band repeating or linking different services. While your GMRS call sign gives you privileges on GMRS channels they don't give you privileges on the amateur bands. And an amateur license does not give you privileges on GMRS. It doesn't matter if you have both licenses or not. We tested some dual band amateur mobile radios with cross band repeat that were MARS Modded and yes you can cross band from GRMS to 2m. I don't suggest doing it though. You will get the attention of the sad hams and sad GMRS curmudgeons really quick by doing this. And again not permissible by the FCC.

The Comet 2x4SR definitely does better with a good ground plane underneath. I have one mounted on a small metal plate that is bolted down to an expanded metal rack on my SxS and another mounted on the center of the cab roof on my 2010 Ford F150 Super cab. I get an SWR of 1.8 and below on 2m, 1.25m, MURS, 70cm, and GMRS with both setups. It's hard to find a good spot with a large enough surface for a good ground plane on a Jeep Wrangler. Going with an antenna that doesn't require a ground plane will work better.

GMRS Live is a variant of AllStar Link. Both use the Asterisk Server.

I know that Colorado has their GMRS Channel 3 program. I don't know if any other state has adopted that plan or not. I know there was talk about trying to make that a nation wide program. One problem is getting everyone to recognize such a program and then use designated channel/frequency only for emergencies. A prime example is CB Chanel 9 which was the defacto emergency channel for a long time. You will hear all kinds of conversations on Channel 9 now days to the point it would be useless as an emergency channel.