WRYZ926

I think that the nursing home took the hint and changed to a different channel, I haven't heard them on channel 17 for about a week now. I decided to talk to another guy on channel 17 one day and we are both using 50 watt radios. I'm sure we were blasting their FRS radios.

We have been happy with the RC-210 that is currently controlling our 2m repeater. One of the two controllers will be getting a temperature sensor so we get warnings when the shed gets too hot or too cold. We found out that the Motorola Quantar repeaters do not like the heat. The current controller also monitors our battery backup system and announces when everything is running on battery backup.

I don't care for any repeater doing that. We are going to use an Arcom RC-210 controller for our GMRS and 70cm repeaters. We are going to set the controller to ID every 15 minutes but ONLY when there is actually people using the repeater. I just finished assembling the RC-210 board and am waiting on the case and real time clock. Then it will be time to program it. And we will definitely have the repeater ID since it is open to the public.

At least the nursing home staff has not used any patients names that I have heard.

The local nursing home that is about 600 yards away from me has decided to start using FRS radios. And they picked channel 17. I bet they love it when we talk on the local repeater that uses repeater channel 17. We use both TX and RX tones on the repeater. I kept seeing my signal meter move but wasn't hearing anything. At first I thought maybe there was atmospheric ducting and we were picking up another repeater, That does happen on occasion. But then I switched to channel 17 and heard the nursing home staff. I know they are using FRS since their signal isn't very strong even as close as I am. I've been tempted to call on the radio for a clogged toilet in room 13 but have refrained from doing so for now.

I don't have any experience with the TYT TH-9800 or the Wouxun KG0UV980P. I do have a TYT TH-7800 and TH-8600 dual band radios. Both have worked fine for me and they are easily unlocked. The Won KG-1000G Plus and KG-XS20G Plus have also served me well. I am waiting for the KG-XS20H to come back in stock since it will do 1.25m at 20 watts.

If you can find a single antenna that covers Marine VHF and GMRS then you would only need a single diplexer. It would be no different than how we have our 2m and 70cm repeaters setup.

Diplexers work when using a single antenna with a radio with dual antenna connectors. The Icom IC-9700 is just on example. It has two coax connectors, one for VHF and one for UHF. Most guys will run a single dual band antenna to the radio using a diplexer. Or as Steve was asking, one can use a diplexer to connect two antennas to a single coax connector on the radio. We actually use dual band repeater antennas for our 2m and 70cm repeaters and a single hardline into the building. Then it goes through a diplexer to the two repeaters. That setup has been working great for years now.

You do not need a diplexer or dual antennas on radios that have only one antenna connection and have cross band repeat functions. I use cross band repeat quite often on dual band radios. Just set Side A to the 2M frequency, usually a repeater, and then set Side B to a 70cm frequency that you want to use on your HT. Then go into the radio's menu and turn cross band repeat on.

Thank you for taking the time to do a review. I'm sure it will be helpful for those considering the KG-U980P I have only used Wouxun GMRS certified mobile radios and they work well and are easy to program. I do have the quad band KG-Q10H hand held that covers 2m, 1.25m, 70cm, 6m out of the box. It is unlock able to work on MURS and GMRS. It works well and is the hand held I use most.

I would say it's something in the KG-935 firmware as it doesn't matter if you have the G or H models or if it's the regular or plus models. I can say that the KG-Q10H does not beep when turning on or changing areas when you have the beep turned off in the menu. I don't have a KG-Q10G to test but I am willing to bet it will be the same as the KG-Q10H I checked my KG-XS20G Plus and it does not beep when turning on or changing the area. I checked since the menu and screen are the same as the KG-935G

The KG-935G Plus does the same thing. Mine beeps at startup and when changing the area. And yes the beep is turned off in the menu.

There are few areas where the 1.25m/220 MHz band is pretty active,. But those areas seem few and far between. I can only find one 1.25m repeater here in Missouri and it is permanently linked to a 2m repeater. There are two reasons why the 1.25m band is not more popular. One is that there are only two 50 watt mobile radios available on the market and both are from China. All the tri and quad band radios with 1.25m are limited to 5 or 10 watts max. Wouxun has released their KG-XS20H that is 20 watts on 220 MHz but they are not in stock at this time. The flip side is that the big three aren't interested in making a 1.25m radio with more than 5-10 watts since no one really uses the band and North America is the only market for it. It's a vicious circle. I have found that even expanded metal like what most hitch mounted luggage racks are made of makes a good ground plane for the 2x4SR. I cut down one of these racks to fit the back of my SxS and have the 2x4SR on a Midland mag mount on the rack and it works well. I'm using a 20 watt radio on the SxS.

Yes the Comet 2x4SR will be an improvement if you want multi band use. You are correct that you would not have to change the mag mount to go from the MXT-26 to the 2x4SR. All you have to do is swap them out on your mag mount. I would run the 2x4SR on my Ford Escape all of the time if I didn't have height restrictions to deal with.

I have my KG-1000G and my Icom IC-2730 under the driver's seat with the remote heads on a Lido seat bolt mount. I have to run external speakers if I want to hear either radio clearly. This is in my 2023 Ford Escape. I run the 20 watt Midland SPK100 in my Honda Pioneer 500 UTV.

Stainless steel and aluminum won't interact as much as carbon steel and aluminum will. Though you do take the chance of galvanization anytime you mix any type of steel and aluminum. I use to hate working on vehicles with aluminum rims when previous owners/repair shops would not use anti-seize on the rims. The aluminum rims would seize to the steel if one did not rotate tires on a regular basis.

I had interference issues on 2m when transmitting on 10m when I first installed my Comet GP-9 and my home made 10m inverted v dipole. The 1:1 balun is about 2 feet below the base of the GP-9. I never noticed the issue until I was transmitting on 10m FT8 and talking on the 2m repeater. People told me I had an occasion buzz on my transmission. That only happened when transmitting on 10m FT8 while talking on the 2m repeater. The fix was five clamp on ferrite beads right at the 1:1 balun and I put three on the coax right at the GP-9. Both coax cables run within 2 inches of each other from the mast all the way until they enter the house. 5 clamp on ferrite beads works for the higher HF bands while 7 works better for the lower HF bands.

I run common mode chokes at the antenna feed points and also use clamp on ferrite beads on all coax and computer cables inside my shack. A common mode choke helps keep RF from coming back down the coax into the shack. And that is a must especially on 40m. You can either use a toroid with the proper number of wraps of coax or you can use clamp on ferret beads. You want to use between 5 and 7 clamp on ferrite beads right at the antenna feed point to be effective. Less than 5 ferrite beads will not be very effective. I had a lot of RF issues with my computer when operating on 40M until I put 7 ferrite beads on the coax at the antenna. Another source of interference that is often overlooked is network cables. I kept getting interference on my HF radio until I swapped all of my cheap Cat5 cables for shielded Cat 5 and shielded RJ45 connectors.

Either way, bad things can happen when dissimilar metals are put together and exposed to the environment over time.

I agree, go with the correct radials made from stainless steel. Cheap all-thread will rust and seize in the antenna housing.

I use the Icom SP-35 speaker for my Wouxun KG-1000g and my Icom IC-2730B. You can usually find the SP-35 on Amazon for $35. They are plenty loud. The Wouxun will drive the Icom SP-35 just fine. I normally don't turn the volume up past 5 or 6 on my KG-1000G in the car. A common mistake that some make is trying to use a y adaptor plugged into both speaker ports on the KG-1000G going into 1 speaker. You get an impedance mismatch when trying to run one speaker plugged into both radio speaker ports and the sound level will very low. The only way I have found to run a single speaker is to use a dual mono to stereo y adapter AND a stereo speaker with dual speakers in the housing. A single channel speaker will not work. Now if you need something louder, there are the Midland 20 watt speakers. I have the 20 watt SPK-100 speaker on my SxS and I can hear the radio just fine while cursing down gravel roads at 35 mph. And I don't have to crank the radio volume way up either.

I would at least try to get the antenna up higher than the house if possible. Not everyone can get antennas higher than trees in the area. There are all kinds of options when it comes to antenna masts. A study flag pole will definitely work as will chainlink fence top rail or 1 5/8" fence posts with couplers. Satellite dish/J mounts also work well. Some j mounts are 1 5/8" diameter and can be extended using couplers and 1 5/8" fence posts. Just remember to properly secure any mast with wall clamps and guy wires/ropes, depending on installation, to keep them from falling. I made a mast from 1 5/8" fence posts for my Comet GP-9. I used j mounts for my Comet CA-712EFC and HF cobweb antenna. I used an eight foot piece of 1 5/8" fence post on the j mount to get the cobweb up a little and it is secured with guy ropes.

Don't forget that he has 1998 reasons why Midland and Wouxun radios are total junk. Or are we up to 4995 reasons now.

Again it is going to depend on your location, terrain, amount of trees and buildings, etc. More realistic simplex range for 70cm and GMRS is going to be 2-10 miles, again depending on your surrounding and location. We have guys check into our weekly 2m simplex net from as far away as 55 miles straight line. They definitely are using beam antennas up high on towers and there is a good chance they are also running amplifiers too. I know we do have guys that check into the 2m simplex net that are 40-45 miles away and they are not using any type of amplifier and they are using vertical antennas. Again location and height of the antenna plays a key part on how far one can be heard. My dual band antenna is a GP-9 with the base at 22 feet above the ground. The farthest I have talked to anyone on 70cm or GMRS using my 50 watt mobile radio on a simplex channel/frequency to another using a base station with a vertical antenna at least 30 feet above ground has been about 25 miles. But that is pushing it. I use a short Comet SBB-1 NMO dual band antenna and a short Tram 1174 antenna tuned for GMRS on my Ford Escape. Now talking to someone 18-22 miles from my base radios to their base radios is normally not a problem when using 70cm and GMRS. There are a lot of variables on how far you can get out using VHF/UHF such as type of antenna, antenna height, your location and local terrain, etc. To answer the original question, you won't get out any farther using the 70cm amateur band compared to using GMRS when the radios and antenna setups are the same as far as power output and antenna height.

Yes one can use an amplifier on 2m and 70cm. But comparing apples to apples by using a 50 watt 2m/70cm mobile to using a MGRS 50 watt mobile, then there will not be any difference in the range with 70cm and GMRS.