amaff

Remember that the repeater outputs are the same as simplex channels 15-22. If you have your radio set to, say, Repeater 16, and it's listening for tone 67.0. If someone is nearby is transmitting on simplex 16 and transmitting the same tone, your will hear that transmission. IE: they're almost certainly not actually using the repeater. (also, a side tone and privacy tones / codes are different things) (edited for clarity because even I couldn't figure out wtf I had written... I knew what I was trying to say, but what I wrote was nonsense )

I must not have had enough coffee yet. Is today April 1st?

The DB-20G and the DB-25G are different radios, FYI. Pretty different features sets and form factor. The 20G is based on the AnyTone AT779uv. The DB25G (and amateur DB25) seem to be their own thing.

North GA Repeater Network strikes again

100%. I don't know why it's not advertised (a lot of other radios will say "22 GMRS channels + 8 repeater channels + 8 (or however many) DIY channels". Which is just as annoying, but at least they say it up front. Not that I'm aware of. My KG-905Gs let you put whatever GRMS frequency you want in whatever memory slot you want, and the radios enforce the rules from there.

Ah. I'd forgotten about those. The only GMRS HTs with more disrespectful pricing than Midland So, 1 (very expensive) example.

Help me out here. On 1 hand, "one must only transmit on type accepted radios OR ELSE!" But on the other hand, chinese radios suck and are bad and no one should use them So...what GMRS radios are out there that are type accepted, and not Chinese? Because by your logic (CCRs bad, non-type-accepted bad), it sounds like no one should be using GMRS period.

That sounds like a problem on some of the other people's end. Bad position / line of site to the repeater, incorrect settings on their radios, etc. If you're hitting the repeater and it's re-transmitting it and others can hear you, your radio's doing what it's supposed to. Nothing on your radio that I'm aware of will make it only audible to some and not others on a GMRS repeater.

I'm not aware of any that *don't* have that ability.

Totally fair criticisms there. Not even being able to copy & paste lines like any other 'spreadsheet' type program is really dumb. The software is pretty clunky... it does the job, but there's no reason for it to be that annoying to use. I don't have a ton of experience with a lot of different "CCR" programming software, but in my two data points, it seems to be a thing. Wouxun's is equally bad for my 905Gs.

Disable the Rx tone is troubleshooting step #1. It's not necessary for using the repeater (but for filtering out, ideally, non-repeater traffic on your radio's end). But if it's set wrong for some reason, it'll also filter out your repeater.

It's known. And dumb, but it's how the radio is. You're only allowed that handful of 'DIY' GMRS channels.

I've used my BTech cable to program Wouxuns and TD-H3s. I've use my Wouxun cable to program Fengs... you get the idea. Unless it's a radio with a different port configuration, it'll probably work. The place you may have compatibility issues is the Windows driver more than on the radios. In my experience, the BTech tends to *just work* while others tend to have problems from time to time, depending on what computer they're plugged into.

I do.

....where?

Sounds like pretty normal narrowband vs wideband operations, honestly. If you're not up for changing to a radio that'll do wideband, next time you can ask your BTech friend to swap over to narrowband (since you can't switch to wide) and they'll play more nicely together.

Quitter!

Pretty much this. You've got to try pretty hard to actually get into real trouble with the FCC. And even then...

All of mine that can be unlocked are (well, they're ham / GMRS radios that are unlocked) because most of the cheap radios' software is really restrictive. They're unlocked so I can configure them how I want. Following all the GMRS rules (my mobile won't transmit on 8-14, for example, and runs 5W on 1-7, etc), but I can put the channels I want where I want in the radio's memory.

A lot of folks use Ham radios. A lot use commercial / LMR UHF radios. I often joke that "How do you know if someone's using a Motorola? Don't worry, they'll tell you."

It's not a "GMRS Radio" thing, it's a "Baofeng quality control" thing. Some are great. Some are less good, and you never know which one you're going to get. Your expectations aren't wrong about GMRS in general. But you might have gotten a pair from a bad batch, unfortunately.

I guess these are fake then

So that's what? Just a CR then? Because while not cheap, those are made in China.

Another DB20-g user here. It's not perfect, but for <$100 it's hard to beat. More money to spend on a good antenna mount and antenna. And it meets your brief. Will receive NOAA radio, dual band listening (...unless you unlock it). And like WRUQ357 said, it's as easy as changing to a repeater channel and setting the tones. You can even program in channel names from the face of the radio (ie: without plugging in a computer) if you want. My only real complaint is, like many cheaper GMRS radios, it's super restrictive on what it'll allow you to program (ie: it wants the channels in very specific places. Channel 1 goes in memory slot 1, etc) and it only has 8 or 9 'extra' repeater channels. But that can be... fixed (see above). Something to note: The Retevis flavor of this same radio (they're both basically Anytone 779UVs with different stickers on them. My DB20-G even said "ANYTONE" on the power up message when I first got it) does *not* come with a programming cable, that I've seen. The Radioddity does. So if that's something you want, keep that in mind. You can buy the cable for a few bucks, but Amazon shows the Radioddity $10 cheaper than the Retevis that doesn't come with it. There are some programming quirks (and the manual sucks) but there's plenty of info out there, including on this site, with user guides. TLDR: Not the best radio, but does what you want for relatively little $.