WRYZ926

The HF bands have been bad for the last few weeks, especially 10m and 12m. I've only used 6m on SSB and digital modes as my antenna is not resonant in the FM portion of the band. There is only one 6m FM repeater in Missouri and its status is in limbo right now.

GMRS users would be secondary to the US military on 46/49 MHz just like amateur radio is secondary on the 6m band. The US military still uses 30 MHz through 88 MHz for VHF FM radios such as the SINCGARS radios. I can see 46/49 MHz being used to link GMRS repeaters. I know its common to use 1.25m/220 MHz repeaters to link 2m repeaters.

You should be able to change the tones for the repeater channels. I'm not familiar with the DB40-G so I don't know if they are listed as CH 23-30 or RPT 15-22. Either way there should not be any reason why you can't add tones to the pre programmed repeater channels. Now as far as why the first 30 channels are locked, some manufacturers do that since GMRS is channelized. And if you can't add/change the tones for the pre-programmed repeater channels, then just add channels above 30 to what ever settings you want. PS: Ignore Negative Nancy, he is off his meds again.

The Missouri Highway Patrol stopped monitoring channels 9 and 19 about 20-25 years ago. Plus channel 9 is pretty much useless with all the ID10T's running amplifiers with the CB radios. I hear at least one station from Puerto Rico blasting away on channel 9 all of the time. He sounds like he is sitting right next to me. And not too many truckers use CBs anymore. What traffic you do hear is not something I would want women and children to hear. When I do listen to CB channels, its usually some ID10T showing his lack of intelligence or guys chasing skip. GMRS is not just for talking to family and friends. You can use it for what ever reasons you want as long as you are not breaking any rules/regulations and you are not causing interference with others.

@GreggInFL and @SteveShannon you two better throw your radios directly into the trash since they won't get 200 + miles of FARz. I can't help with GMRS nets in Florida. We have a monthly net on our GMRS repeater for those that want to participate. And for those that do not want to participate, that's fine too, their choice. A net is a good way to periodically test your equipment and make sure everything is working. I hope we never have to use any of our repeaters in an actual emergency but knowing that we can in nice.

A lot of the GMRS repeaters here in Missouri that are along major US highways/interstates use the Travel Tone of 141.3. It's a different story once you get into the St Louis and Kansas City areas. As Mark and WRUE951 stated, there is not an official travel channel per se. No channels were ever fully adopted for that use on GMRS. You can monitor channel 20 if you want or you can scan the simplex channels while traveling. You can also just program extra repeater channels with the tones set to 141.3. And just ignore Negative Nancy and all of his negative vibes. He is either off his meds or needs to go seek professional help.

Goldstone has us all beat, including MR 250 Miles, on how many FARz they get. I found out the hard way about the extra security on the Goldstones portion of base. I'm just glad security decided to ask me why I was there first since they did have loaded M2's pointed at me. They escorted me back onto Ft Irwin proper. All of the live fire ranges are on the opposite side of the base (north side) from Goldstone. The rotational (training) units use to deploy live mines back in the 1990's, but they were the type that were either command detonated or self detonated after a certain time period. FT Irwin shares its western part of the northern border with China Lake Navel Weapons Testing. We had a couple of Navy cruise missiles that were misguided and landed on Ft Irwin. Luckily no one was on the live fire ranges at the time. The northeast corner of Ft Irwin meets up with the Southwest corner of Death Valley National Park. The winds would blow from Death Valley onto Ft Irwin during the summer. The live fire ranges were always at least 10 degrees hotter than main base.

The Bridgecom repeaters do not transmit the CW ID using tones at all. So the only way one will hear the ID is if they have their RX tones turned off. But there is quite a bit of traffic on simplex that none of us want to hear so we all use RX tones. The Arcom RC-210 will take care of that and allow us to transmit the ID with tones enabled. Plus it allows us to do so much more than just run the ID.

I left Ft Irwin in 1996 so my memory is not the best. The turn off for Goldstone was right after you went through the gate which was after you passed the painted rocks.

Gold Stone is actually inside of Ft Irwin and has been for a long time. I know that there are certain areas around Goldstone that even military personnel are restricted from. I was stationed at NTC in 95-96. One of my first vehicle recovery missions was to the southwest side of base and I accidentally crossed over into the Goldstone area and was met by armed HMMV's with M2's pointed at me. The guards wore solid tan uniforms and no rank or insignia. I was promptly escorted back to the actual training area.

We had to use repeaters setup on the top of the Granite Mountains at the National Training Center/Ft Irwin, Ca. Otherwise our hand held radios would not reach the main base. And we still has plenty of dead zones. especially on the northern part of the training are where all of the live fire ranges were. We used commercial radios for the Observer/Controller groups and associated maintenance personnel. The live fire ranges were on the north side of the Granite Mountains while the rest of the base was south. And there were still plenty of dead spots on the main training area, especially in certain spots in the John Wayne Hills and along the Whale. My point is that not every spot in the desert is wide open. We definitely did not have to worry about foliage interference. But there was plenty of terrain features that caused issues.

But yet in parts of the country you will be lucky to get 50 miles even when the repeater antenna is at 450 feet above ground. Some areas are lucky to see a 20 mile range with antennas on mountain tops. Foliage has a big effect on UHF. When one talks about the Appalachians, Smokey Mountains, Ozark mountains, etc, there are no tree lines to get above. There are also no large flat and open areas like out west. And most lakes, outside of the Great Lakes, are smaller and surrounded by forested hills. Our GMRS repeater antennas are on the same tower as our 2m and 70cm repeaters antennas. The radio tower is on one of the highest points in the immediate area. The GMRS antennas are at 400 ft above ground and the 2m/70cm antennas are at 900 ft above ground. We only get about a 35 mile radius of coverage from our GMRS and 70cm repeaters with plenty of dead spots due to local terrain and forested areas. The 2m repeater has a 80-95 mile radius of coverage. And just because radio A can hear radio B doesn't mean that radio B can hear radio A. There are plenty of variables involved.

Negative Nancy AKA REEH-TARD, aka Mr 250 miles needs some serious professional medical help! @BobDiamond glad you figured it out and I'm sure ShowMeCables will take care of things for you.

WOW! someone's off their meds again. @marcspaz gave good advice.

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