SvenMarbles

It is.. I just wish I knew this before I spent 45 minutes punching in all my stuff that I like to have . And with this Retevis software it doesn’t let you “insert blank row below” like chirp. So basically everything south of channel 8 needs to be tediously re-typed in…

Yeah it makes sense. “It satisfied the part 95 requirement”.. So it is so.. Now obviously I can stick “GMRS Channel 8” on memory channel 15 and blast 40 watts on it… But,.. like you said, it was a measure that satisfied the FCC requirements to get the cert.

I understand ALL of that. My point was that it’s MEMORY channel 8-14 that are locked. So regardless of how I choose to program the radio, perhaps with repeater channels on the first 5 and then GMRS simplexes 1-22 from memory channels 6 and down. It locks out TX on the memory channels 8-14 even though there are different “channels” on them now.

I actually really like this radio. Aside from this quirk, I don’t have any other complaints so far. I just got annoyed by this after completing my whole little custom programming session, and learned it after the fact and have this whole chunk of frequencies in the middle of my memories that I can’t transmit on.. The solution is pretty simple, I just will skip over programming 8-14 entirely . Turning the knob will just go from 7 to 15, and I alpha tag what the channel is anyway since I don’t put FRS/GMRS 1 at channel 1. I just have to re-do my programming is all.. I was going to do a review of this radio in the Reviews forum in another day or so, and it’s shaping up to be a positive one. Dumb issues like this, and only having 6 characters for alpha aside. It’s a radio that radios good. It’s a 40 watter that puts 40 watts on the meter, on the dot. Super loud speaker, and “loud full quieting” reports from my end on my radio checks.. Built super well. It’s a hunk of steel. Good mic, tactile ptt click. Doesn’t feel cheap.

I watch his videos. The smarmy shtick gets a little tiresome but he’s usually pretty well on top of the new radio releases and is among the first to get hands on videos of them uploaded. He’s not everyone’s favorite flavor but he’s pretty much the only GMRS specific “unboxer/reviewer guy” we’ve got. He’s also useful for people brand new to radio trying to get into GMRS. Laying things out in a straightforward way and not over complicating things, or as he would say “to avoid confukulation”. Because it is true that ham guys will often respond to questions about radio with completely convoluted jargon, more for self serving purposes than to actually help someone have an answer to a question. He lurks this forum BTW and is probably reading this topic and chuckling .

I recently purchased a Retevis RA87. Typically when I get a radio that already has all of those pre-programmed channels, I’ll connect it with the programming software and more or less wipe those and organize my channels and frequencies the way I like and alpha tag things etc.. I’ll make the first 5 or 6 channel memories as my local repeaters, and then have the 1-22 standard channel plan following that. The problem is that on the RA87, it appears that the channels 8-14 will not allow you to key up REGARDLESS of what frequencies you’ve programmed into them. I understand about the thing of mobiles supposing to have these channels locked per part 95. But the programming software is such that it seems to provide the ability to be able to have your memory channels be what you’d like, yet it maintains the TX lock out on 8-14. So why even provide the apparent option to be able to reprogram the frequencies in the channels? If it’s going to hard-lock out those channel spots for TX no matter what… The RA87 doesn’t currently have Chirp support and the Retevis software does work FINE, but there doesn’t appear to be any sort of work around for this issue in any of the menus.. Anyone else experience this or know a work around? I suppose I’ll just put it back the way it comes and use it that way, but it seems odd that it would provide for a customization that is completely in conflict to some type of baked-in lock out on the radio..

We’ll see. I got it at a sale price. Mine would be indoors at a desk.

I’m just curious if anyone here has an RA87 and have used it for a while, and what you might think of it.

So you have to defeat a little bit of glue.. I see what they did there The whole nod to the customers' desire to do more than what the FCC allows is nothing new. Mars Mods are often, "hey just snip this jumper wire that for some arbitrary reason is just readily accessible to snip".... Since the CB radio times..

Just have other radios that do other things. It’s fun to get new radios anyway .

Another thing to consider though, and this isn't meant to be a rebuke to what you're talking about, because I agree with all of that. but when people discuss "dirty RF output" or spurs on harmonics, it's not always in the context that they're being good natured for cleanliness of the RF spectrum. If your radio has an output rating of 10 watts lets say,.. You'll put it on a meter, and sure enough you get 9.8-10 watts. Checks out,.. That meter detected a NET output wattage squirting out of the antenna hole.. But if you've got a dirty radio, it may be the case that some substantial portion of that RF output isn't even on the desired frequency. It takes wattage to power those harmonics as well,... So for selfish reasons, you may not want a dirty RF emitting radio because your effective radiating wattage might be inefficient. You might be getting 70% power where you want it, and 30% on spurs many harmonics up and down the spectrum..

People really need to wake up and start checking our governments. Let me ask this,.. Was there some sort of insane uptick in ham radio related driving accidents? I'm going to speculate that there wasn't... So why is it that the state of Pennsylvania feels compelled to just decide to impose a seemingly punitive law upon the people? I feel like we're just too many generations of people removed from the times when people conceptualized and understood the proper dynamic of government and the citizenry who ALLOW it. We're not just supposed to be a ruled people. We're not supposed to just live and accept the rules that mom and dad politicians make for us. These sorts of laws for "the good of public safety" should generally be a consensus (more people than not) agreement by the citizenry and the governing bodies that we both fund and give/entrust the authority to govern with. Any time some thing of this type comes about, ask yourself this question. "If this issue went to referendum, would The People sign off and agree to this?'. If you really feel like that's a no, then the government are acting as criminals and intervention is necessary.

I’ve made this heavy oak base for mine with some silicone grippy tape in the inset. The radio sits still on my desk with the antenna coax connected and while tuning.

Visit https://belrig.by/ There are weird obstacles with making payment because some banks wont remit into Belarus because of the Russia stuff, and Belarus is a chrony state of the RF. Chase will. I've bought two and "middled" for a couple of other people who wanted one. Do a google and youtube deep dive on the Belka DX or "Belka Radio".. It's the thing.. With today's exchange rate they're only $144

No there's no internet involved. it does all of it's own radio-ing lol. It can just also be connected to a PC and be controlled that way,.. even one not connected to the internet. But you definitely don't even need to work out using it that way. Turn it on and use it. It tunes SSB as good as a $1,000 communications receiver.

So I play with shortwaves, even more-so than I play with GMRS stuff. If I would recommend 1 thing, it would be to get a Belka. It’s that tiny black radio on the upper right of my photo. I know that it seems impossibly small to be anything good. It’s the best radio pictured there.. It can do it because it’s a self contained SDR radio. You can spin the dial right on the unit itself and tune things, or it plugs into a PC with IQ output and can be used with software. It’s the modern best of all things. The maker of these is in Belarus and you have to have it ordered from there. They’re a bit rare to get in the United States, but it’s very doable. I have 2. The one you see and one boxed and put away to be sure I’m never without one. They’re less than $200.

If your budget is 1,200-1,500 you should definitely go with ham gear. TCP or whatever his name is, is right. Get a nice Yaesu HF rig.

That’s ridiculous. Please don’t be a state to set this precedent..

Gilles is always going to give you the straight dope on shortwave radios.

SWL/HF monitoring is an adjacent hobby of mine. Let's set some parameters. Budget? Do you only want a newly manufactured radio? Do you want sideband? (be able to tune HF hams, military, and utility) Do you need it to be a tabletop or is a portable form factor ok? Add me to the "don't buy the Eton 750" camp. It's a big plastic box for no reason with the guts of much less expensive portable radio inside. You're paying for the garish plastic injection molded aesthetic. A Tecsun 501 for example is a superior radio to that for about $150 less. My radios pictured below. They are what I consider to be the best of each respective type/category.

I need to get that MFJ 1886 loop before they go away!

You'd think you would get some sort of piece of paper in the mail afterwards, but nothing of the sort came for me.. Just kept checking in on that broken website until it listed a call sign.

Weird…

I left my goat rope at your mom's house..

If you buy the $18 Baofeng and it does exactly what you hoped it did, there's definite case to be made that it is in fact the "best" GMRS radio.