WRXR255

Was interested in the GRMS specific UV-5G+, and went poking around Amazon yesterday. So, sounded like something to get to "upgrade" from my bagfull of UV-5R's. BF-F8+'s, and UV-5X3's. Around 35 dollhairs its a darn cheap HT, but poking around more I discovered what appeared to be the same radio, the AR-5RM, at 28 dollhairs. Best I can tell its basically the same radio but its "unlocked", as the term goes. So, ordered it yesterday and was on my doorstep today, and for a update of basically the UV-5R, i am liking it. One weirdness is CHIRP, and have the latest version but the 5RM coding is still experimental, so its to be expected i guess. Radio has 999 channels, but in a change from any BoofWangs i know to date is its memory slots start at 1 instead of 0, but has 1000 positions showing on download. I can save to slot 1000, upload it fine, but it of course just ignores it if i try to scroll through it on the radio after upload. Can save the file fine to open up with CHIRP, but it will actually tell me its wrong if i try to export it as a CSV. Otherwise until CHIRP gets the coding for this out of experimental, and it works and im not bashing CHIRP, im liking it.

At the bottom of the listing it has this note - not sure if it matters here but for that repeater it says: " For all to enjoy. Have Fun and Be Respectful We will be adding Traveler Tones (141.3) " Make a duplicate channel and try it with those tones. Won't hurt to try.

Yeah, but I did find the manual online so I hope its settable. Its a funky radio for sure. Those tiny buttons, Arr!

My display has no "." so its showing 28300 kHz... I screwed up the MHz / KHz its showing - dont have my glasses right now.

At least that gives you an adjustable stepping ability. My County Comm GP-5/SSB receiver has only two modes I can figure out. Turn the tuning wheel fast, it advances 5 Mhz, slow turn its 1Mhz. and no way to direct input a freq. I need to dig online and find the manual though, I might be wrong. .

That is an important and helpful tool, but the Hat Trick is how do you find the lat/long and antenna height of say, the repeater your looking at?

We seem to have a good ratio of GMRS to HAM repeaters around here, but my side monitoring of the HAM repeaters shows much much more chatter on the GMRS side. Albeit, hearing "BR549, monitoring" 10 times in two minutes and keeps stepping on the repeaters timed ident, so it has to try again, only to not be given enough time to finish its morse ident before its stepped on again... Heaven forbid you talk to him, your going to hear the same story - whether you heard it before or not, about how hes new to GMRS and its his XXth day on it, and he was a HAM for 20 years, so - busier, but worthwhile chatter in a lot of cases, not so much.

That makes perfect sense.

Seems like the stock antennas on the budget radios are hit or miss. I think perhaps the QA on the cheap antennas is probably the lowest they let slide by. Last order of UV-5R radios I got (4), were identical, but one of the antennas was completely dead. Not a problem for me, I usually spend the money as well and get some decent quality but on a budget Nagoyas (701G) and they in comparison to stock, cannot be touched in my testing.

I used a Lido cup holder mount, and have tried to think about how its angled so no direct sun.

The lady on top looks horrified, so im not sure its good.

And they still had the scary bayonet lug on them!

Duh! moment here. I need to look that up.

Since I have newly installed my mobile in the car with a nice mount that puts it right where I need it and summertime for us is fast approaching, what are the thoughts on keeping it from possibly getting toasted from the interior heat on a hot sunny day while parked? Carport/garage is not an option for me. I know the sunshades for the windscreen helps, but any other tips? My radio is a one piece Btech UV-25x4, so no remote head on it.

I remember when I could get a 20rd box of the chinese semi corrosive primer stuff for my SK for $1.99... Any radio is a good radio if its all you have, but the longevity / durability of the UV-5R on his kit will probably be next to Nil over a short "combat engagement" time frame.

We as mere mortals cannot tell, but both of them might be girls or boys?

Did you set the (probably) +5 offset to 462.675?

Do a search for "boofwang" on YouTube and check out the first link.

In general discussion, hope it is not too general for its forum space but I was wondering if folks would not mind sharing what drew you into two way radio. I got my first Baofeng in April of 2014 from Amazon. At that time it was around 35 - 40 dollars US. Way way before that, growing up in the rural Appalachians in coal mining country, everyone had a CB. You needed it. With the roads and switchbacks winding through the hills made of a two lane road, and a tight turn with a truck loaded with coal will need both lanes to make the switchback, having a warning while in your car when you are getting near and hear - Coming down Bold Gap road at Red rock curve, loaded - You know to stop and let him make the curve that all had a name, and you knew the ones you were close to. My dad owned a small coal trucking business so I was keenly aware of how it worked. In High School, even though we had no idea it had a name, my friends and I would spend weekend nights bored and basically do a "redneck foxhunt", if i were to try to pen a name to it today. Someone was the hiding one, and they would try to find a place in town to hide and park and wait. We would talk back and forth on the radio, and try to suss out where they were parked while driving around and looking for them. I did a trick i figured out by accident that if they were really close to my spot, I would go up or down one channel and call em back. They usually would receive me being so close, but it sounded like I was on the other side of town, and they would head off that way. Anyway, the boofwang i got because where i worked having one was helpful, but only the chosen ones had one of the company Motorolas as there were only so many to go around. i figured out the freq, programmed it in, but no go. Figured out they were using a digital squelch and found out even this cheap chineseium radio could scan and figure that one out. The occasional chaos I would do to my co workers on my lunch breaks sitting in my car because of that is a tale for another day.

I went with a Lido that looks similar at the same price point. It does not have two arms like that one, but the single will work for me better on the placement and angle I want it at. Mainly out of the way of the shifter, but also won't be in the way or constantly being hit or bumped from whomever is riding shotgun. Supposed to be here tomorrow.

I know from my reading through this thread, that the best cable to get for GMRS is LMR 400, but what about KMR 400? I know nothing about this but learning as I am thinking about repurposing a mag mount from a mobile as I have a new antenna for that, and using the old as a base antenna. Heres what I saw on amazon, but the description... Not sure its a good idea to use the antenna analy.. 8-P

Lost to time, that and this... but i wouldve been laughing inside if i had a WKRPxxx callsign.

You werent even offered that year of free credit monitoring? Thats crap monitoring, but they dont even throw that steaming pile at you anymore just proves that they dont care, IMHO.

Not just saving on packaging, but probably the same antenna as well, just tuned for what you ordered perhaps?

One note on the NOAA weather radio stuff... There is no official "channel" name/number/designation. NOAA just has these as a frequency for each. If its preprogrammed and not changeable by the radio Manufacturer by you, they can and do call them whatever they want. WX 1 on one brand, with the same freq. on another it might be hard coded in as NOAA 3, for example.