amaff

No, but I did agree to follow a set of rules and generally speaking I like to stick to that unless there's a real good reason not to.

Or you can do what I do I have 8-14 programmed in with transmit off selected...but know that it can be enabled pretty quickly through the menu in a pinch

That's awesome, but at 30% the cost of the radio, hard to justify. Probably a lot easier to justify if you have multiple (or are constantly playing with the programming)

I also can't speak to "the best", but of the radios in that range I've tried. I pretty much agree with @SvenMarbles's review. It pretty much just does everything most of us want it to do (and in many cases a decent chunk more).

My kids got in the habit of asking complete nonsense "what if" questions for fun. We started replying with "OH MY GOD WHAT IF!?" in an extremely exaggerated way that quickly nipped that in the bud. Which is pretty much my feeling about this thread. If you don't want people using your call sign don't let them. "You" (Royal You, not you WCR725) have no real control over what other people do in their lives anyway, nor should you, so...who cares if some schmoe down the road lets his neighbor use his callsign?

I'm pretty sure Kenwood would say "That's weird, we don't make GMRS radios."

Basically this. I don't know how easy it is to enable or disable Tx on those, but on the DB-20G it's a menu option on the face of the radio. So I have 8-14 Tx disabled but with the option to switch them on if, for some reason, that ends up being necessary.

Derp. Forgot the RO software is windows only.

Will it work with the Radioddity software?

Did you set the software Model Information (to the left of Edit there at the top) to match the mode the radio is set in?

There's a few different frequency range options it has available. The most wide open one will allow transmit on GMRS, yes. It's been a while since I've looked at the options but I believe the GMRS and the 'full' unlock are the only ones that allow it. EDIT: Modes: GMRS Europe (EU Amateur bands, I'd imagine, but I haven't investigated it at all) 136-174, 400-470 <==widest open 144-148, 420-450

I'm so glad this is in the Technical Discussion area. Because now not only will this inevitably devolve into nonsense, but it'll also be really inconvenient to try and follow Man's getting into Meemaw's Christmas Nog EARLY!

Thankfully these are pretty inexpensive

I had the BTech GMRS version of this radio and...yeah. That matches up with my experiences pretty well. Tho mine stopped receiving anything. I really wanted to like the 'everything in the handset' concept. And, as a concept, I do. But this implementation is trash, unfortunately, for so many reasons.

Many FRS (and heck even some GMRS) radios have pre-set tones on every channel (cough cough Retevis...). They likely don't know they're there or care, because all their radios talk to each other and they can't hear other people stepping on them.

Woah, they're using 50 watt radios? Impressive! ...or are they on 2 watt FRS radios and just happen to be close to you

Yeah, you broke rule #1: don't be an asshole. What purpose would that serve? So you like it now? One minute you're trying to scare them off their radios, the next it's fun to listen to them?

I normally wouldn't say anything, but since this is a 'recommend a radio' thread: This looks to be the same hardware as the BTech GMRS-20V2. I had one for about a week... one of the worst experiences I've had with a radio. I hope yours is better than mine, but even if it didn't stop receiving entirely within a week (which mine did), the interface on the mic is not great. Having to open squelch to change the volume, at least on the BTech, was really annoying. And even at near full volume the speaker was no good. Maybe mine was a one off and others love theirs, but I can't recommend this one at all.

If meth's illegal, how's my local drug dealer still in business?

I didn't even address that, but man...what? Legitimately one of the dumber things I've read on here, and that's saying something.

This may be difficult to read, but other people ARE allowed to make choices that are different from the ones you'd make. No one's ever bought the right radio for you. Now someone's bought the wrong vehicle? C'mon man.

He is a master baiter.

Yeah, I think we're talking past each other. My understanding is that it would time out, then you'd have to come off of the PTT for a few seconds, then key back down. Not that it would pick back up transmitting if you never took your finger off the button. Your experience is what I'd expect it to do.

-Are you trying it with a USB-C cable, or the K1 connector? -Are you running it in Administrator mode?