amaff

I feel like we're talking past each other. A mobile GMRS radio should never transmit on the interstitial frequencies, *no matter what memory slot they're in*. They can (and should) comply with that by enforcing the rules on those frequencies no matter where in the radio's memory they are. You can 100% comply with the FCC's rules while not arbitrarily blocking out those memory slots. Lots of radios do it.

You can have a radio that works right out of the box (like the aforementioned 905G), but that also allows you to do more or less what you want while following the rules. Just for fun, and to illustrate: I have a repeater channel in memory slot 9, a low power channel in memory slot 11, and a normal 5W GMRS channel in 11. Given Sven's experience, it'd be interesting to know if it allows transmitting on those frequencies, so long as they're not in one of the magical memory spots. Probably not. But it'd be funny

You can transmit on those channels with a handheld, but there are restrictions on power level and bandwidth. The radio doesn't care what memory slot I put those frequencies into, it'll obey the rules. And if I put a frequency that allows 5 watts in memory slot, say, 8, it uses high power. Like Sven said, it's arbitrarily blocking off *memory slots* 8-14, no matter what's actually in those memory slots. You definitely can't transmit on 467.5625 / Ch8 on a GMRS Mobile. But you can't transmit on that frequency whether or not you put it in memory channel 1 or 499. There's not something magical about *memory slots* 8-14. It's the actual frequencies that matter. If wants to put a repeater frequency in one of those memory slots, it not allowing transmit because "it's 8-14" is lazy programming.

Yeah I get that. Radioddity and Wouxun's software is the same. Super annoying. Once it's done, it's done. And it's still easier than doing it all by hand on the face of the radio. But it could so easily be so much better.

Like I said, lazy programming. But yeah if you can just skip memory slots 8-14 and do whatever you want (within The Rules) on the rest of them, seems like it's fairly easily ignorable

better than you'd get from most other 'cheap chinese radio' places. So there's that.

A whole lot of GMRS radios are *extremely* lazily programmed, and heavy-handed in how they allow you to customize them. Other than a couple Wouxun KG-905Gs (which allowed me to program them however I wanted, but enforce the rules on what frequencies can get what power / bandwidth), all my other stuff is unlocked, and I manually program them to the rules so that all my stuff matches and is, technically, more or less, compliant. Even my mobile (DB20-G)... It shouldn't care what frequency you put in a particular memory slot (IE: If you want to program a repeater on memory slot 8, then you should be able to). But plenty of radios really don't like those first 22 (or 30) slots being messed with. The RT95 (Anytone 778) and DB20G (Anytone 779) can, but a quick google unfortunately doesn't come up with much for unlocking or jailbreaking the RA87. And those are 'only' 25 and 20 watt radios, respectively.

TX won't matter on a simplex channel (unless you're trying to talk to someone who's listening for that tone). But yes, unless they're transmitting the tone you put on the RX side, your radio just won't open the speaker, essentially. You can look at it and see that it's receiving, but it won't make it through the radio to the speaker.

That. The only thing that changes for a repeater is *your* transmit frequency (IE: the frequency the repeater is listening on). But it's re-transmitting on your receive frequency. If you don't want to hear 'em, you can put a Rx CTS or DCS tone on your radio on those channels (same way if you have a repeater programmed on one of those channels, you won't hear simplex traffic on that channel unless they are using the same tone as the repeater)

Hilarious. I guess your generation was just born with that knowledge

I think the point being made there is that whether it's on the repeater channel on 22 (call it RPT22 if you wish) or on 'normal' 22, he's getting blown out by static. Which makes sense... the Rx doesn't change on the radio b/w those 2. Have you tried turning the squelch setting all the way up? It's an SOC radio so it probably won't change much, but it's worth a shot. What's the "other" radio you've tried? It may have better filtering on the front end to avoid getting blown out by whatever's causing that interference.

You can REALLY dial in how annoying you want to be with these

You can hear them listening to an open repeater (or even simplex) channel, on 15 thru 22. Then it's a matter of how good your radio's tone scanner is, and if they talk enough for it to figure out what the right tone is. Or you may have a local club w/ that info posted somewhere. As an example, there's a *bunch* of repeaters in Northern Utah that aren't on myGMRS, but they're all listed on the local group's FB page.

Fair, from that picture. 1. yes, and it's literally not a problem. It's got plenty of volume. Most of the time I have it to less than half. And the speaker is mounted under that surface so it's not like it's actually touching the seat. 2. It's not as close as it looks. It's not super clear in the picture but I have the bracket velcroed to the console. So it has the same air-gap to the heat sink as it would mounted to any other surface. So far it's been there a couple months. Maybe I don't spend as much time on the PTT button as others, but even after having a, for me, lengthy conversation, the case was warm but never hot to the touch. Even on high power.

Radioddity's programming software works. It's a little clunky, like a lot of CPSs, and doesn't allow keyboard-shortcut copy and pasting, but will, using a mouse. Annoying, but if you're like me, once you get the thing programmed the cable won't get used again for years. RE mounting it, it's small and light enough that you might be able to get away with some good Velcro...in the space between the center console and the seat.

The TD-H3s have 2 different roger beeps. 1 is a traditional 'melody', the other is like that old Motorola noise. Some radios have a 'Repeater Confirmation' or 'Squelch Tail' setting that will, near as I can tell, make the radio transmit an extremely brief burst of static similar to (but not nearly as ear piercing as) the Motorola sound, that I find less annoying. I have a couple of radios that really make zero sound when you let off the PTT that I have used that option on so there's SOME audible indication, without a full on roger beep.

I run a KG-905G in my race car with a Midland 'ghost' antenna (and a helmet 'headset' setup using semi-custom ear buds and a mic on the chin bar). ...I'm not sure that's what you're going for. For testing, I reached out on a couple local repeaters at 20 and 50 miles. It works at the track pretty well too In the past I ran a Nagoya UT-72G mag-mount on the strip of body work between the rear of the top and the trunk lid, and that worked well too.