TNFrank

Don't they have special designations for each Park? It's not just GPS coordinators is it?

I did look this mobile up on CHIRP so it's listed and should be easy to program. I can even set it up at home so my wife can to "talk" to the BTech 20v2 GMRS in my truck if we ever have cell service go out. I'd like to try some 2M POTA if I can find a book with all the location coordinates in it so I'll know where I'm TX'ing from and where I'm getting the RX from.

I think I kind of did too, just wanted to bounce the idea off of the group for confrontation.

I'll be getting credit for the DMR radio I returned so I'm kicking around 2 possibilities to use it on. 1)Retevis RA89 HT. OR Retevis RT95 Mobile. I have quite a few HT's already but nothing with an IP67 rating so the RA89 would be a good outdoors radio because of the waterproof rating. The RT95 can be used with my solar power station and Yagi antenna as a Base/Mobile(think POTA)radio that'll give me 20+Watts on 2M/70cm and even GMRS in Mode2 so I could TX further than the 8-11w HT's I have. Plus, when funds allow I can set up a nice Base Station antenna at the house to get up in the air more. The mobile set-up would cost more and while portable it'd not be as portable as an HT. Still, it would be a step up over all the HT's I have and help me get to the next level in my GMRS/HAM journey. So, what do ya'll think,another HT or step up to a Mobile/Base Station rig?

I'm running MX-Linux, 23.3 which is a Debian based Distro with the KDE Desktop environment. I've been on it for a few years now and it's the longest I've stuck with a Distro because it's been rock solid stable, the desktop environment is light weight and looks and works well and I can update my entire system with a couple simple commands in the Terminal. I'm sure it all had something to do with the way Linux handles devices vs the way an actual Windows install handles things.

I downloaded a copy of Win10 and tried to install it in VirtualBox but VB couldn't read the activation code so it wouldn't install. It has been exhausting, I get excited about DMR only to be let down by CPS's that won't play nice with WINE. I've not had that problem with any of the CPS programs for the analog radios I have.

Analog really wasn't that hard to program WHEN the radio would connect to the radio. The DMR part does require a bit of a learning curve though. I had such high hopes for the RT3S but if I can't connect yo the computer then I can't program it.

That's it, I give up. I'm not going to worry about DMR as cool as it sounded. It's just too much hassle trying to get my computer to "read" the dang radio. I'll stick with Analog and be happy I have it.

I'm having the same issue with the RT3S as I did with the DM-1701, no way to select the COM port so it won't "read" the radio. It says usb my be unplugged or in use. I've unplugged everything but my mouse and keyboard so there's only 2 things plugged into usb. I'm going to try downloading a .iso of Win10 and run it in VirtualBox to see if it'll "see" the radio there. If I can't get it working then I'm just going to give up on DMR. It really sucks that the CPS software doesn't work better or isn't set up better so as to let us select a COM port. None of my Analog radios give me this many problems.

Length, SWR and how high you can get the antenna will all add range.

I'm running MX-Linux 23.3 based on Debian. Ubuntu and Mint are both offshoots of Debian. I'm using WINE to run my CPS programs and they pretty much work without issue. You should be able to find WINE, WINE Tricks and Play on Linux in the Repos of your Distro. Once you get that installed it's just a matter of making the .exe file executable in the permissions then you can open with WINE and either run it or install it.

That radio has SMA Male in the radio so you'll need SMA Female to BNC Female for it. Then which ever antennas you'd want to use. I have the stubby on my work radio but can quickly change to the 771 length antenna when I need more range and I don't have to ware out the threads in the radio. Like I said, I wish I'd have done this from the start, it really makes antenna changes a breeze.

Depends on the antenna connection on your radio(SMA Female(most common) or SMA Male(less common)) then you just get a BNC Male antenna to connect to the BNC Female connector. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FD3BSMSK?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title&th=1 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00CVQL14A?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01N5Y8H9L?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title&th=1 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B085MDL66C?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0F9FB4J3D?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title&th=1

I just recently did the sma to bnc adapter trick. Makes it a breeze to change antennas and I can hook up my radio to my 9db Yagi easily too. I wished I'd done this sooner before I bought all the sma female antennas.

They look like a clone of the AT-D168UV. Probably made by the same factory and rebranded with a different name at a lower price. I ordered the RT3S because it was closer to my budget. After I get used to programming DMR I'll probably order a second radio, maybe at a higher price point but hopefully the RT3S will be a good starter radio to learn on.