WRDJ205

Funny that you mention this bc we had a set of 4 Midland 1050’s (maybe) used at a rural property. They worked well enough but could not quite cover the whole place. I think all of them had the batteries replaced at least once. They do have the weather alerts and they are the reason I’m familiar with the feature. The only drawbacks I found were that when on Wx alert mode, the battery life was poor and the limited coverage (I think they were <2 watt with a 2-3” antenna). Oh, and they’re camo so when they get dropped from an atv, tractor, or pocket they’re hard to find (we’re down to 2 of 4). For FRS they have been pretty good. I’m looking to get a pair of GMRS radios to keep around the house. But, you make a good point and I should dig into the GMRS Midland’s.

Um, yea, i was looking to see if those were still some of the better options out there or if there was anything better.

"it was you...i learned it by watching you alright"

I have recently come to appreciate NOAA weather alerts coming to my HT. I’m also looking to move up in my radio selection and I think this might be a good time to upgrade. i’ve watched a lot of YouTube videos and did some research but most of the information is 2 to 3 years old. What would be some recommendations for an GMRS HT that is somewhat water resistant and has the ability to receive NOAA weather alerts? BTECH GMRS PRO and Wouxun 935 plus seem to show promise.

I can confirm that during hurricanes, the same thing happens.

Maybe try it with a Baofeng?

Over the weekend my son’s phone was dead so he put in his Sonic order to me over the repeater. Oh well….

You may want to do spend a little time watching some videos and researching on this site before making another purchase. Learn how to program repeaters and what limits you might be on the radios.

I also recommend not passing over some of the Baoefeng options. The GM-5RH has a lot of the features that you’re looking for. But the Wouxun HTs might be better if you want more mid-tier.

It was very brief but I got the same thing accessing on an iPhone this morning.

I realize that’s several things different. To make sure it wasn’t an anomaly I took it all apart and reassembled and it worked again. There is an appreciable delay in the transmit (a couple of seconds) but if you wait it out it does work. Another change was in the transmission time. With the connector box cable there must be something that recognizes transmission. If you aren’t talking it stops transmission. Almost like a VOX on the radio would work. I think that was also throwing me off before. So for now, I have all the working components with the main parts being the duplexer (tuned for multiple pairs) and the two H3 radios connected using the connector box cable. I was hoping to get closer to the RT97S power >5W but with the H3 HTs it seems like 3W is going to be the top end.

I agree with @dosw keeping it under $100 is going to be a challenge. I did a test recently using a j-pole antenna that i purchased online for ~$39 using both RG8X (~$40) vs. LMR 400 (~$130). It was very surprising to me the difference in power loss between the two cables. If you could put you budget closer to $150 it gives you a few more options. Alternatively, the mag base options from Midland work pretty well for a budget of just under $100 if you could use a ground plane.

Found a combination that works using the Tidradios. I’m not sure what was done differently other than using the H3 radios and trying a different frequency and the connection box. Even with the duplexer they’re putting out about 3W out of the duplexer to the mag base antenna. As a test I put the Boafeng in the exact same configuration. I could only get them to work on the .600 pair. But they were pushing closer to 5W out.

I'm now leaning more to a connector problem (either the direct wire or the connector box (shown in a prev post)) coupled with a possible duplexer problem. I've swapped btwn 2 cords and the connector box, all combinations of 6 different radios (from 2 different man'f), high side/low side connections on the duplexer, antenna combinations, frequency pairs, etc. I can still get a receive and transmit using either the cords or the connector box (this box only works with H3's) when not connected to the duplexer. Using the connector box, the transmit radio does key up on today's trials but it doesn't stay in transmit long enough to actually say anything. I am still open to new thoughts or ideas and will give it some more thought over the weekend. I don't have an issue hooking things up and doing some basic troubleshooting, but I'm out of my element and don't have the tools to troubleshoot much further.

A lot of these complications are likely related to privacy tones or something similar. I have radios from several different companies and have not had any issues. (Wouxun, Tidradio, Motorola, and yes, too many Baofengs)