WRYZ926

I have to agree. I like my Q10H and 935G. I would seriously consider getting the 935H if I didn't already have the Q10H.

Yes a UV-5R works and everyone can afford it. But there are definitely better radios. I have a Baofeng GT-5R along with two UV-5R GMRS radios. I stated out with the GT-5R as my first radio. Now they are regulated to spares to to hand out to others to use. A lot of people have started out with a Baofeng radio and that is a good thing since it allows more to get involved in amateur radio or GMRS for little money. Most will upgrade to a better hand held though. The UV-5R is not the best and is veery susceptible to front end overload.

@WSGJ919 I would still send it back for repair or replacement. While you haven't seen much difference between being heard, you did not mention if that was on simplex or through a repeater. There can and will be a difference when using a repeater. We can always tell when someone talks on our repeater that is using narrow band because they are hard to hear and understand.

Propagation can definitely change between the different seasons. Location and local terrain factors in too. Basically the shorter the wave length is the more vegetation will affect signal propagation. Analog TV stations are another examples. the VHF channels will not be affected as much by foliage compared to the UHF channels. Same goes for two way radios. I have learned to despise cedar and pine trees. They definitely mess with UHF frequencies. I travel down two paved county roads to get to the closest VA hospital. There are plenty of valleys and forested areas. And is some places there are a lot of red cedar trees growing close to the road. I have quite a few spots where I have a hard time getting into the 70cm and GMRS repeaters while I have no problems getting into the 2m repeater.

Here is a video where a guy played with the antenna height on his dual band antenna to find out what worked best for his location. He was in a bit of a hole with lots of trees around. He found that having the antenna up as high as he could get was not the best solution. Nitpicking the Height of My 2m/70cm Base Station Antenna

I always respond to request to use our repeater within a day or two even though it is an open repeater. I haven't had a request go to my spam folder yet when coming from My GMRS. There are two repeaters east of me that are owned by the same person(s). I received permission for one repeater but nothing on the second repeater.

Yes it does. I always forget about that since I hardly ever adjust the squelch. I usually leave the squeal set at 3 on my KG-1000G's which works well for me.

I still am using Wouxun KG-1000G mobiles in my vehicle and as my base station. While I have opened up my dual band radios, I stick with using Part 95 certified GMRS radios for everyday use. It is nice to know that I can use one of my dual band radios in an emergency on amateur bands and GMRS since I am licensed for both. I am restricted to using short antennas on my vehicle and run a Comet SBB1 for 2m/70cm and a Tram-1174 tuned for GMRS. Yes the SBB1 will work on GMRS with a SWR of 1.8 or less but the Tram has an SWR of 1.4 or less.

We are using an Arcom RC-210 controller on our 2m repeater. It is setup with a 5 second squelch tail and a curtesy beep. The time out timer is set to 3 minutes. The way we have the RC-210 setup is that the timer resets right after the curtesy beep. So if you tail gate another person before the curtesy beep then the timer will not reset. The timer will reset if you wait for the curtesy tone and then transmit before the repeater drops out. We are going to set things up the same for our 70cm and GMRS repeaters once we get another Arcom RC-210 controller. I don't care for that setup 100% because too many people like to tailgate which doesn't allow others to get into the repeater without doubling. I do understand why it is done since it is easier on the repeater. I am giving a quick class on repeater etiquette at our monthly meeting this Thursday and will discuss allowing the repeater to drop completely out now and them so others can use the repeater. It can be frustrating at times when you can't get a word in due to the quick keyer's AKA Ricochet Rabbits.

Having a dial to fine tune squelch on GMRS mobiles would be nice. My Icom and TYT dual band mobiles have a dial.

I'll correct that. My typing isn't the best and it doesn't help that auto-correct is always messing with me.

The biggest improvement you can make to your hand held is to use a mobile or base antenna with it. Either way you want to get the antenna as high up as you can. A mobile antenna with a magnet mount stuck onto a pizza pan or 9x13 baking sheet will work well, again get the antenna up in the air. A mobile or base antenna up high will make a big improvement over the best hand held antenna.

The cigarette lighter plug is not that big of a deal and easy to either remove or get an adapter as shown in the above post. A few 20 watt radios from different manufacturers come with the lighter adapter.

It depends on what you are looking for in a radio and where you are going to use it. If having an IP rating for water and dust is important for you then I will suggest the Wouxun KG-XS20G when it comes to 20 watt radios. The KG-XS20G is basically a higher power mobile version of the KG-935G hand held. They both use the same screen and both have the same menu layout. IP rating was important for me since I use radios in my SxS. This could also be a consideration for those that have Jeeps and use them a lot with the top removed.

I did try with and without tones set on my HT and base radio

It really is a shame that no one makes a mobile radio with those features anymore. I have a Quansheng UV-K5 (8) that I installed IJV3 on but I haven't tried the DSB mode yet. I doubt that I will add the extra board for HF though. On subject. As the photos and graphs show, channels 8-14 are in-between the repeater input channels and that is why 8-14 are limited to 0.5 watts. Though my testing has shown that transmitting on channels 8-14 at 4 watts did not cause any issues when I had my base radio on a repeater channel and also on simplex listening on the repeater input frequency. I tested with an unlocked HT set to both narrow and wide band and high power which was 4 watts. I would not suggest doing that with an unlocked radio set at 20 watts or higher. And we have to stick with the designated channels for GMRS since their are other users near the same frequencies that we do not want to interfere with.

That would take an all band all mode radio AKA shack in the box such as the Icom IC-7100 or Yaesu FT-991. Those two radios are capable of FM, AM, and SSB on all of the HF bands, 2m, 6m, and 70cm. They will also do CW and digital modes. I wish Icom, Yaesu, or one of the Chinese manufacturers would make a 2m/70cm mobile radio capable of AM and single side band. As it is you have to look on the used market for a mobile radio with AM and SSD capabilities. Though none of that is applicable to GMRS since it is FM only.

There is nothing wrong with the 935G Plus. The 935G Plus is my goto GMRS HT. And as you found out, your 905 accessories work with the 935G which is a bonus.

I normally run RX tones but will definitely turn them off if I think we are getting some interference on the repeater. I also monitor the repeater input frequency at times. On the hunt for ID10T's. We had an ID10T Tuesday night keying up and making noise on our repeater during our net. The hunt is on.

Plus you will hear people on the repeater's output frequency when they are talking on the corresponding simplex channel. Now if you have receive tones set then you should not hear anyone talking that does not have the same tone set. I will give a perfect example. Our repeater using the repeater channel 17 so the repeater input is 467.600 and the repeater output is 462.600. We have both TX and RX tones set on the repeater. The simplex channel 17 is also 462.600. A group of us were traveling in separate vehicles when one guy asked if the rest of us were hearing the kids on the repeater. The guy hearing the kids did not have the RX tone set on his radio. The kids were on simplex channel 17 and the reason he was hearing them and the rest of us weren't was because he did not have his RX tone turned on.

My brother runs his mobile radios on a 100AH LifePo4 battery. He charges it with a LifePo4 charger plugged into the 120V inverter built into his truck. He does this so that he doesn't have to try and get power wires through the firewall since he does not keep his trucks very long. I've never heard him complain about RF issues with the radios. Definitely get the correct charger for LifePo4 batteries if that is what you are going to use. A standard charger will ruin the battery. And there is a difference between regular lithium batteries and LifePo4 batteries. Note: my brother uses a 100AH battery in the truck since he also uses it for Parks On The Air with his 100 watt Icom IC-7300 HF radio. You can definitely get by with a smaller battery for a 50 watt radio and even smaller one for a 20 watt radio.

Hopefully you get your interference issues figured out. I know RFI can drive a person crazy trying to chase down.

Here is a full list of all the FRS/GMRS channels. https://www.buytwowayradios.com/blog/2022/11/list-of-gmrs-frequencies-and-channels.html?srsltid=AfmBOopMy04seYsWSiiA4DFSusU7BoworzqVnVNJg83cZ5PuwO9Wl5V7

I totally agree and I am glad to see the FCC not reducing his fines. Guys like that make all of us look bad.

Here is a good video about FCC enforcement. Granted the idiot deserves what he gets for interfering with firefighters trying to put out a forest fire. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJZroDsXBrA