WRYZ926

How long have you had your 935G and is it the Plus model? I bought my 935G Plus in November 2023 and it came with the USB-C chargeable battery.

You are correct that the concepts don't change. I am use to working with electronic components for industrial machine controls which work a little different that when in radios. That has tripped me up a little.

A reminder that the Extra question pool changes either next month or July. Wait to buy any Extra study guides until they have been updated. I passed my General test in January and went ahead and took the Extra test. I got 50% on the Extra without even studying for it. I need to start studying again for the Extra.

Baofeng and TYT hand mics have the same issue with the mic hole being too small.

You will definitely do better with a base antenna. Get it as high as you can and also use the best quality coax you can afford. LMR400 or equivalent is the best. Location, terrain, structures, etc will affect how far away you can talk. My antenna is at 18 feet above ground and I talk to guys at 18 miles and 22 miles away on simplex. Their antennas are at 40 feet and 60 feet above ground. We are all using Comet CA-712EFC antennas. All three of us are using the Wouxun KG-1000G as our base stations.

That is a common issue with hand mics, especially the cheaper mics. About the only good mics I have used in the past were the Motorola mics.

The 935G + is a very popular radio. Several of my local club members use the 935G +, including myself. The 20 watt KG-XS20G Plus mobile radio uses basically the same internals and screen as the 935G + and is an excellent 20 watt mobile.

That is definitely a question to ask the repeater owner. Some repeaters will have some form of backup power while others will not. We currently have a backup generator for our three repeaters and are in the process of adding a battery backup system.

I'll stick to blaming turtles and drunk armadillos that drank too much Lone Star beer. Everyone's situation will be different depending on location, terrain, etc. which will affect how many fars they can talk.

Armadillos aren't much better.

I couldn't agree more with that. People can spend a lot of money starting out with GMRS or amateur radio while trying to figure out what they want. And if you are unsure, then start out with a cheaper radio until you figure out what you want.

I won't argue with anyone. Yes Motorola and Kenwood rails are nice and I have used them while in the military and civilian jobs. But most radios on the market now days work just as well for less money. This includes Icom, Yaesu, and Wouxun (for GMRS). And yes I do own and use Icom and Yaesu radios. And the whole argument about Chinese products and/or components is moot since most consumer goods are either made in China or made from Chinese components. This includes everyone's phones, tablets, and computers that they use to post on forums while bashing inferior Chinese products.

Most if not al of us would love to have a real nice radio or two. Some people are on a hamburger budget and some are on a Filet mignon budget. One has to go with what they can afford.

The Wouxun KG-1000G comes with 15 amp fuses. In fact most 50 watt mobile radios come with at least one 15 amp fuse on the power lead. Some will also have a 15 amp fuse on the ground lead.

Radios are like potato chips, you can't just have 1,

Another good choice is a Bridgecom GMRS repeater. You can get a Bridgecom repeater without a duplexer for $1599 or one with a duplexer for $1999. Our club is running a Bridgecom repeater with a separate (and higher quality) duplexer and the system works very well. Another option is to find a used Motorola repeater and have it programmed for GMRS. Dedicated repeaters will be better than trying to use two mobile radios as a repeater. By the time you buy two mobile radios, and a good duplexer, you can buy a dedicated repeater.

One can absolutely run digital and analog on the same repeater as long as everything is setup correctly. This is done all of the time with 70cm repeaters using analog and DMR. Now if the settings are not correct, then the digital side can interfere with the analog side and visa versa.

While the recommendation of getting a good mobile radio is good, go with what you currently own or can afford right now. Many GMRS and amateur radio operators have started out with a 5 watt hand held radio and a magnet mounted antenna. That setup works for short distances on simplex and also works pretty good when using repeaters. A 25 watt amp will work just fine with a 5 watt HT when using a good antenna. @WRQC527 gives a good use case for using a hand held radio and an amp.

Go to menu number 19 to change the color of the WT-LED. It is set to orange by default. Options are: off/red/orange/green. Menu no. 18 changes the TX-LED and menu no. 20 changes the RX-LED. The options are the same for all three. TX-LED is red by default and the TX-LED is green by default. You can set all of them to what you like. I have the RX-LED set to green, TX-LED set to red and the WT-LED set to off.

The speakers work fine on the KG-1000G. A lot will depend on how/where the main body of the radio is mounted. One also has to take in environmental noises too. The built in speakers are fine for the KG-1000G in my office/shack. I did have to go with an external speaker with the KG-1000G in my Ford Escape size the main body is under the driver's seat. The Mic speaker was not loud enough. One word of caution. Don't bother trying to get a Y adaptor and using only one external speaker plugged into both speaker ports. It will cut the volume in half. So if you want to monitor both A and B, you will need two speakers to hear both sides. I like the Icom SP35 speakers and use one for my KG-1000G and one for my TYT TH-7800 in my Escape. They can be found for $35 on Amazon. I know there are cheaper speakers out there but the Icom SP35's work well.

I guess the MXT 575 does not suffer from low power output like the MXT 500 does. My MXT 500 would only put out 35 watts on high power.

I did my research before buying the MXT 500. I compared it with the MXT 575 and went with the MXT500 since it can be programmed and firmware updated with a computer. My family member bought the MXT 575 only to find out that you can't program or update the firmware with a computer. My MT 500 came with older firmware and only had a limited number of memory slots. I had to do the firmware update to open it up to have more memory slots.

The cigarette lighter/charging port will work fine as long as it is a switched circuit. One does not need a lot of amps to active the relay. That is why relays are preferred when adding a high power accessory to vehicles. Your high amp draw circuit goes from the battery in to pin 30 and out on pin 87. Pin 86 can be a low amp circuit since it doesn't take much to close the relay and allow the higher amp draw between pin 30 and 87. You can also add an On/Off switch on the positive switch source (from power to pin 86) if you want. Again this is how high amperage off road lights are commonly wired. And as @Sshannon said,, any automotive 12V relay will work as long as it is rated for the amperage draw of the radio. The Wouxun KG-1000G will draw about 12-14 amps when transmitting on high power. So a 20 amp relay will work if you only want to connect one radio. If you are wanting to install two radios then I would go with a 25 or 30 amp relay.

Here is a basic diagram on how to wire up a 12V relay. So for a radio, you wire the ground lead directly to a chassis ground. The radio's power lead goes to pin 87 on the relay. Run a wire from the relay pin 30 to the battery positive post. Find a switched power source and wire it to the relay pin 86. The relay pin 85 also goes to a chassis ground. The nice thing about relays is that you can use a lower amperage circuit to control the relay. The relay will close when power is applied to pin 86. Using a switched power source to control the relay will cut power to the radio when the vehicle is off. It is recommended to ground accessory, such as radios, directly to a chassis ground for newer vehicles with the auto start/stop system. The reason is due to the battery control module that is connected directly to the battery negative post. Hooking accessory grounds directly to the battery negative post can mess up the Auto Start/Stop system and the Battery Control Module.

The KG-UV9PX very well could be capable of being unlocked. From what I could find, and as @OffRoaderX said, the Wouxun GMRS certified radios are locked down in the firmware. I also haven't found any easy way to unlock/modify any of the Wouxun amateur band mobile radios either. I was surprised on how easy it is to unlock the KG-Q10H hand held and how quickly that information came out.