WSAA635

Used the credit from the Radtel RT-470x to order another V2. The one I have seems like a pretty solid unit and my plans were to have 2 for my "working" radios. I actually picked up a fast food place about a mile and a half away on 462.390MHz yesterday. I think for a basic GMRS radio the V2 is good choice. Still need to figure out which "high end" radio I'm going to get. Maybe a Wouxun 935G since it's supported in my CHIRP Legacy flatpak I have installed. Might even go with the 935G Plus if I knew it would work with the standard 935G program.

Well, it's going back. Even though it's "technically" CHIRP compatible it's not listed in the version of CHIRP that I'm running and it's WAY too complicated to program by hand. I'll find something else with airbands that'll work with my version of CHIRP.

Just for grins I went ahead and ordered the Radtel RT-470X. I figure for $36 bucks it'd be worth getting to mess around with and to use as a truck radio. Plus it covers so many different bands that it'll let me see if I'm actually interested in a multi-band radio or if I should just get a really good dual or tri band radio. I hope to do some reviews for my YouTube channel on both it and the BTech V2 if I can stop procrastinating.

That reminds me of a saying we have in the South. "Some folks could break a crowbar in a sandbox." I've watched a lot of Randy's vids on YouTube and Wouxun seems to be a pretty solid radio for the most part. At least I'm convinced enough that my "Good" radio will be a Wouxun. P.S. I'm also 62. LOL

LOL, Randy actually did a YouTube video on how most radios are made in China. If you go with something made in Japan you'll pay a lot more. I'm 99% going to go with Wouxun because they have a good Rep for being a good radio.

Ahh, well, that kills the deal for me. I'll just stick with Wouxun then. Thanks

Way too much to read through, couldn't make heads or tails of it. Seems like the should call it the "Lack of Privacy Act", LOL. Thanks for the link though.

Legality aside, the Radtel RT 470 looks to have all the bands as the Wouxun KG-UV9G Pro and at 1/3 the price. I fully understand that it's SOC and not SuperHet so selectivity would probably not be as good BUT for an inexpensive "do it all" radio I think it might be good enough. Does anyone have one or know of anyone who does? If it turns out folks have had decent luck with them it might be a cheaper alternative for me and I could get 2 and still have money left over for some decent antennas.

We live in a subdivision so we already have to walk over to our group of mailboxes the way it is, not going to pay for a P.O.Box that'd be miles away. I just don't think the FCC should put the street address. I'm fine with city and state. I just don't see why they feel the need to make the street address public.

My wife and I have used FR24 to watch the flights of our kids and grandkids fly in. We've actually followed the radar to the point where we can go outside and see the plane fly by.

Why does the FCC allow people to see name and address with the call sign look up? It seems to me it's a violation of personal privacy. I know a governor got in trouble for releasing the names and addresses of CCW holders so how can the FCC get away with it. They could at the very least block your home address and just show name and maybe city and state but the home address shouldn't be posted. What do y'all think? How can we make them change this?

I have the local DPS channels programed into my radio to monitor and I also have an app called FlightRadar24 on my phone and sometimes I can catch a Police Helio on FR24 and hear the radio traffic on my radio. It's pretty cool to "see" the helicopter AND hear what there doing. If you get bored give it a try sometime.

I've played around with SDR using a RTL2832U dongle that I got from the Hak5 shop years ago and Gqrx on my Linux Box. I think my main drawback is not having a very good antenna. Other than that they are a lot of fun to play around with. In fact, pulling out the SDR and trying to listen to stuff got me thinking about Amateur Radio which lead to GMRS a couple weeks ago and here I am now, LOL.

For a short antenna do these work as well as something like the Nagoya 771G or similar or do you get a bit more range with the longer antennas? Thanks in advance for any info.

I had a Baofeng UV-5R8W and used the standard UV-5R to access the radio. It wasn't perfect(no low, med. high for TX) but it was close enough to work to get channels programed. Now before I buy a radio I check to see if my version of CHIRP supports it or if there's something close. My plans are to get a Wouxun KG-UV9G Pro or UV9GX and from what I've read any of the UV9 radios should work and CHIRP has a UV9D Pro that I plan on using to access my radio. I look for updates every couple of days(easy to do in a Debian Linux based system, just drop a terminal and type "flatpak update" and hit enter) and it'll look for any new updates. If you have an older laptop or desktop sitting around collecting dust or running an older non-supported version of Windoze look up how to make a Live USB and do a Linux install then use that as your CHIRP computer for your radios. JMHO, YMMV.

99% of the time I charge from solar since we get a good amount of sun year round here in AZ. I highly recommended the 36v/200w Edostory solar panel for the Pecron because in my observation it can be picky on the lower power solar input. Pecron makes some solid no frills units.

HoboTech has a good YouTube channel where he tests a lot of different solar power stations. If I recall the Pecron was a bit slow to use as a UPS. I have(and did a review)a Pecron E600LFP and for the money it'd just about the best "bang for the buck" power station you can get. 1200 Watts, 614Wh battery and it'll take up to 400 Watts of solar. See my video on my YouTube channel for more info @ TN.Frank.

I think sticking with something that's GMRS out of the box will just make life easier. Not that I don't like to tinker, I'd just rather have things set up already. I can tweak the installed channels as needed. So, for now(subject to change)the KG-UV9G Pro looks like the one I'll get.

I've given the KG-935G Plus a close look but I don't think it'll do Airband. The one that I'm really looking at is the KG-UV9G Pro which will keep me GMRS Legal and it does ALL the stuff I want to scan for including Airband and 800MHz. Better Safe Radio has them on sale for $168.00 which is a pretty good deal and well under the $200 that I planned for. Also, unlike the KG-935G Plus the KG-UV9G Pro is a SuperHetrodyne radio which is suppose to make a bit of a difference in selectivity. Still have 9 days until my Crypto unbonds so I just hope that they're still on sale by then.

Not interested in getting a scanner. I want more functionality I.E., being able to not only scan channels I'm interested in but also being able to talk on GMRS channels. Looks like the KG-UV9P can be easily "unlocked" in CHIRP to transmit on GMRS and the price is less then the Q10H with the same number of channels I'll be able to scan.

Not going to get a HAM license, I do have my GMRS license and that's the freq. I'll talk on. Main use is communication while dove hunting with my grandson, talking to friends in the neighborhood and keeping in touch while hiking or camping. Secondary use will be scanning local LE/EMS, Air Traffic from Luke AFB/Glendale and Goodyear Airports. Also NOAA Weather. A HAM version of a GMRS would be ok IF it can be easily unlocked to allow TX on GMRS especially if I'll get a few more Watts of TX power so that I could hit some near by repeaters. Wouxun seems to make some solid radios and so far the KG-935G Plus and KG-Q10G/H seems to be the top 2 on my list. Like I said, I'll get another BTech GMRS V2 so I'll have a less expensive pair for hunting/camping/hiking use and then 1 of the 2 above for a higher end option. I hope this clears things up a bit.

Ok,so it looks like it's coming down to 3 (baring more info on something else), All are Wouxun. Starting from lower price to higher price. KG-UV9P-$150 KG-935G Plus-$170 KG-Q10H-$220 I'm also going to pick up another BTech GMRS V2 so I'll have a pair of them for general use.

And now I've looked at some info on the KG-UV9P and for $150 on buytwowayradios and 8 Watts it looks pretty good.

I've kind of narrowed it down to 3, BTech GMRS Pro(only issue is no keyboard but has an app I can use with my phone) the Wouxun UV8H(I can unlock it for GMRS use) which does have the keyboard but no app. and the KG-935G Plus. All are under $170 and both get pretty good reviews. I'm sure either one would give years of service. P.S. The KG-Q10H may be an option depending on weather my crypto pumps or not. Money will be the final factor.

Been watching some reviews and wow, pretty awesome radio. It may be worth spending a little more to get it. Seems like a "ONE RADIO TO RULE THEM ALL." kind of deal.