bpendleton

Still have the RT97. Still works. Small, pre-fabbed portable repeater that I ordered pre-programmed to GMRS. Since there's no ID board (and no trivial way to attach one), it's basically a single-license (eg, family) repeater, and I use it as such. Works fine.

Jumping in: I ordered an RT-97 programmed for GMRS. It just got here, so I haven't tested it out very thoroughly (I also just moved into a new house, so I'm still setting up *everything*). But I can confirm it works for GMRS. Plugged it in, set it up with the pre-programmed CTCSS codes into a pair of my GMRS-V1s, and had a repeater online in about 10m. I haven't even unpacked the computer that will let me reprogram the CTCSS codes - I spent more time trying to figure out what codes they'd put in than anything else. More when I have more time to put it through its paces.

Sorry, forgot to come back. The Amazon listing advertises them as 2W. From the settings that come out in CHIRP when you download its settings, it appears to be using wideband and 2w on all of the channels (all of which are the 2w FRS/GMRS shared channels under the latest regs). Otherwise, the programming software doesn't appear to be locked down, but I haven't tried setting any channels that aren't in GMRS yet, either. I've had no problems using repeaters, except for the fact you have to program them first for each one, which is a bit of a drag.

Retevis sells the KD-C1 as the RT22, which comes with an FCC number on the sticker, and claims to be part 95 on their Amazon listing. The default channels on the ones I got all correspond to non-repeater GMRS-only frequencies, too. I think it's low-power setting is 1 watts, so they avoid out-of-box violations by avoiding the low power FRS frequencies entirely. I was able to program one and successfully used it to reach a local repeater last night, using CHIRP on Linux (running on a Raspberry Pi). So, however they got their cert, it's definitely still possible to re-program. I haven't specifically tried to set it on any non-GMRS frequencies, though, so maybe there is a sneaky lockout in there somewhere.