WRYZ926

The rub is that they charge $900 to repair a $1300 radio (pre tariff price). The bigger issue is that Yaesu knows it is a problem which is most likely caused by them during the manufacturing process. They solder a capacitor in place that is only used to program the USB controller. But Yaesu does not program the chips themselves, they use the factory programming from Silicon Labs. So there is no need for Yaesu to even put that capacitor on the board. Several people that have had their radios repaired by Yaesu for the bad USB port was told directly by the Yaesu repair tech to not use the built in USB port. He told them to use an external sound card instead. This is a common issue with the FTDX10, FTDX101 and FTDX991. I'm really surprised that we haven't started seeing the FT710 have the same issue.

And sometimes a simple fix will cost 2/3 the price of a new radio. Myself and others have ran into that when contacting Yaesu about blown USB ports of the FTDX10, FTDX101, and FTDX991. Yaesu wants to charge $900 to fix a bad USB port. And their fix is to replace the entire board. The chip is a standard run of the mill Silicon Labs USB chip. Yaesu will only repair the blown USB chip one time under warranty and after that they will charge $900. To make it worse, they know it is a defect but won't fix it.

A spectrum analyzer along with a good oscilloscope would be nice to have. But I really would not use either one often enough to justify the cost. I've been wanting a QRP rig for a while and ended up ordering a Xiegu X6200 last week. I've been quite happy with the Xiegu G90 and the X6200 gets good reviews. I looked into the Icom IC-705 and it has VHF and UHF where the X6200 does not. But the IC-705 costs quite a bit more and I can always use a HT for VHF/UHF.

I ended up using some small L brackets to mount my GMRS and 2m/70cm remote heads onto the Lido seat bolt mount. I don't think I would want to mount an entire radio onto the Lido flexible seat bout mounts though.

One of the local club members runs the Anytone AT-D578UV III and he seems pleased with it. He did have Bridgecom change the firmware on it so it will work on GMRS. I don't have enough coffee in me yet this morning, but it seems like Steve or someone else mentioned that they have an Allinco radio and it says Anytone when you first turn it on. And even some of the Yaesu mobile radios are made in China. It's hard to get away from most everything we use being made in China now days. Though I did see where the President removed some or all tariffs on phones and computers.

Plenty of people do pay that and more. Prices go up once you start adding digital modes such as D-Star, DMR, and System Fusion.And being tri-band also increases the price a little. The Anytone AT-D578UV III Plus is a tri band 2m, 1.25m (220), and 70cm radio with DMR. Radios with D-Star or Fusion from Icom and Yaesu are similarly priced .

You will have to ask Baofeng that question. Out of the box they will only work on GMRS channels.

Unfortunately the Bridgecom repeaters do not have that feature. The easy solution for us is to connect the Bridgecom to the Arcom RC-210 controller.

The other issue with the Bridgecom is that the ID cuts anyone off if they are transmitting through the repeater. The easy fix is to use an external controller. That way the ID volume will lower and still allow others to transmit at the same time.

Yes I have watched those videos along with downloading all of the instructions.

We have one RC-210 currently connected to our 2m repeater and an Allstar node and we have been pleased with it. And good to know they work well with Bridgecom repeaters.

We are going to connect our Bridgecom repeater to one of the Arcom RC-210 controllers to take care of the ID issues. We already have two RC-210 controllers at the repeater site and one will have the GMRS and 70cm repeaters connected.

The self fusing rubber tape definitely leaves more glue residue on the surface when removed compared to electrical tape. Here is a good video about wrapping connections. The RIGHT Way to Seal Coax – Lasts for YEARS!

Another option if you need a top quality repeater for mission critical use is to look for a used UHF Motorola Quantar repeater. They can be configured for GMRS and are excellent repeaters. You can find them for around the same price or less than the Baofeng and Bridgecom repeaters. You will definitely need a seperate duplexer with the Quantar which will add to the overall cost.

There is also the Bridgecom BCR-40U that costs the same as the Baofeng repeater. We have been using one for about 1 1/2 years. The downside to the BCR-40U is that it does not transmit the CW ID with PL tones. This means that if you have receive tones set on your radio, you will not hear the repeater ID. Otherwise the repeater works well. We bought our Bridgecom without the builtin duplexer since we had a spare one that is better than the builtin one. Now if I remember correctly the Bridgecom repeaters actually use two Maxon radios inside the case.

Wrapping the connections won't have any effect on the SWR. I wrapped the joint on my CA-712EFC along with the coax connection with Scotch 33 tape a layer of self fusing rubber tape and then another layer of Scotch 33. I tested the SWR before and after wrapping things and didn't notice any difference. Using marine grade heat shrink will work fine too. It's just harder to remove if needed. I use marine grade heat shrink to cover my clamp. on ferrite beads that I use for common mode chokes on the coax near the antenna connections. The main reason I put a layer of Scotch 33 on first is it is easier to get that off of the coax connectors compared to the self fusing rubber tape. And I always seal the joints on the Comet antennas I have even though they do have rubber gaskets. It's better to be safe than sorry.

I agree with @BoxCar, you are going to be hard pressed to find an antenna that will handle that kind of abuse. Something like the Midland ghost or Melowave Shadow might have a better chance of surviving.

Sounds good for me. In reality 0.01 is not going to make any difference in the calculations. That's like arguing over the differences between 20 watts output and 25 watts output.

Well it seems that we are both correct and also both are wrong. I just did a web search and half of the links say 2.14 while the other half say 2.15. Either way 0.01 is not going to make a difference. And yes most manufacturers are optimistic when it comes to claims on antenna gain. This is especially true with hand held and mobile antennas.

I'm definitely not going to argue over 0.01. Plus 2.14 is what comes up most often when searching for the conversion for dBi to dBd.

Just like the unlock code for the KG-935H and KG-Q10H will not work on the KG-935G or KG-Q10G.

Maybe I misunderstood things. When I hear full keyboard like in the thread title, I think of a full QRTY keyboard. And some are talking about a keypad.

I've hurt plenty of feelers when talking about BMW and Mercedes Benz's vehicles. They are the Ford and Chevy of the German auto market. I've seen plenty of beat up and worn out jalopy BMW's and Benz's going down the autobahn at 150+ mph that looked and sounded like they should be in a junk yard. Yeah I'm not impressed by overpriced German engineering. I've also made people cry when their $2000 + custom 1911 jams constantly while my $300 1911 made overseas works like a champ. I've shot those $2000 + pistols and they didn't shoot any better than the $300-$500 pistols from a ransom rest. And don't get me started on the whole "Mil Spec" is best line. I've had to use them $500 hammers while I was in the Army years ago. And the same hammer at that time cost $10 at the local hardware store. The term Mil Spec is over used and also not understood by most outside of the military and contractors. Military specifications is a minimum specification that an item needs to meet. And always made by the lowest bidder that cuts corners where they can after contract approval. It really doesn't matter what type of product we talk about, most things are designed to be thrown away after they stop working no matter the brand name or cost.

The keyboard would be handy for teletype/RTTY modes. But there is no use for them on GMRS other than programming as OffroaderX mentioned.