TrikeRadio

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It looks like there are several wide coverage GMRS repeaters in the area near you. yes, Go look on the repeaters map on this website. I sees at least three or four and they all appear to be open repeaters - free to use.

You would need to reset it to GMRS mode before you can transmit on GMRS. (in HAM mode if you enter GMRS frequencies/channels it will not allow transmit on GMRS. To reset a TID Radio H3 to GMRS mode, 1. turn the radio off, then hold down both the Top PTT button and the star button while turning the radio on 2. this will bring up a menu where you can select "GMRS" mode 3. and confirm the change by pressing the blue "yes" button, causing the radio to reboot in GMRS mode The radio will reset to GMRS mode, and it should have all GMRS channels already programed in it ready to use. you don't need to update firmware... just follow above procedure. One other thing to figure out. if you bought the HAM version, thenn the antennas you got may not be ideal for GMRS. but that is ok, the stock antennas are not the best anyway. Order a GMRS specific antenna like a Nagoya 771G, or a 701G... or there are many other good GMRS specifically tuned antennas. Even the Tidradio 771G is very good. (but the 771s are longer than the stock anteannas.

Rich, I see you posted this as a GUEST account rather than your user account. Did you submit the request while using the logged in user account I assume?

Hi Rich, I am sure the admins will get on it soon. I'll check with some of the club leaders to see if they have seen your request yet. Welcome to the club (When they get you signed in) ... good group of people and worth the wait. Hope to hear you on the air with us soon. Glenn "579"

I looked at the DB20G.. but decided to go with the DB25G ... smaller, more power, more channel slots to display on the screen, and the 25 is supported by Chirp but the 20 is not for some reason.

Congratulations! I have only been into GMRS for hte past 6 months and have considered going for a Ham ticket too... but have just been waiting to feel more comfortable with what I am doing now. Thanks for the inspiration. That is pretty cool. Will keep it in mind. I am very local in Central OC. I listen only to some of the PAPA system on their nets and have been pretty intrigued listening in. I know there is a repeater in their system up in the central valley too... and my parents live up that way so that intrigues me.. the idea of being able to communicate that far north on a repeater system form home!

Yes, sounds like you are struggling with the exact issue I have, that is for sure. I would be happy if they could do one or more of the following: 1. Make it NOT detect activity if the CTCSS squelch DOES NOT MATCH. (which causes it to stop monitoring the other channels) (ignore the squelched activity!) 2. Don't auto-move the channel selector to the detected activity channel (just highlight it and play the audio if it has proper CTCSS and leave my selected channel where it is!) (or at least give us an option in the settings to turn off the auto-select of the channels) 3. Give us a single key press option on the handset to toggle on or off the TMR seting easily and quickly. 4. Change the TMR options so the "MAIN Frequency" (M+B+C+D for instance) actually makes activity on main take priority and overrides activity on others. ( or even let us set priority 1 2 3 4 of the channel priority. ) 5. Or at the very least give us a way to set the timeout of how long the selected standby channel is selected after transmission before it pops back to the Main frequency! It just seems like someone did not think though how this TMR setting would actually work in real life use. The big selling point that is can monitor four channels is kinda useless if they cant let us overcome some of these issues. I mean, I know that this is not a superheterodyne, multi receiver expensive radio... but a few simple options would make it so much better.

Crickets.... Bump

The RX only on channels 55 and above (in GMRS mode only) is not actually in the manual at all. But it is a thing that I and others have confirmed. Again it is only in the GMRS mode that it locks you out of transmitting in 55-199.

This is also very possible. Open RX would mean he hears everything on the frequency regardless of tones used.

I believe It is possible if someone is listening to a legitimate transmission coming out of your repeater (a correctly matching tone opened the repeater's squelch) ...if a stronger transmission signal comes in on the same frequency -- even having a different tone -- there can be a delay in detection of the tone and that signal from the other repeater or even a strong simplex station nearby can piggyback on the opened squelch and break in on your repeater... or on the receiving station (your bother's) temporarily, until the radio squelch recognizes the tone and cuts if off.

Does anyone who owns a DB25 or DB25-G have any input, suggestions, or answers to any of the questions I posed in the above comment? Thanks in advance.

Yes, it is normal. it is the "breath" function in your menu.... it flashes to let you know it is still on when the display goes to sleep to save power. you can set how often it flashes in the options.

I think I understand the "TMR" setting options... but have found one thing kind of annoying: (When you have it on ANY of the multi channel monitoring settings other than "OFF") -- an example: Let's say you have your TMR option set to "A+B+C+D" ... or even "M+B+C+D" ... and you have your A channel currently selected on the display... you also have a repeater on the B channel slot, let's say it is on .700 with a RX CTCSS and TX CTCSS tone... When activity on that frequency in B which does not match your RX CTCSS tone comes in, it will CORRECTLY NOT OPEN SQUELCH, and you don't hear it (that is good) -- but the annoying part is that it moves the selector to that channel B slot automatically and shows activity there (coming from some OTHER repeater on .700 with a different tone) ... but while that activity that you are not hearing is active, YOU CAN'T MOVE THE SELECTOR UP OR DOWN to another slot to Transmit on A for instance. It will just keep automatically moving the selector back to B until that squelched activity is over. You also can't easily change the channel in that B slot that is actively selecting because of the squelched activity to another channel/frequency slot (like C,D or A) because between key presses trying to type in another channel... it will re-select the active channel (B in this example) and effectively cancel out what you were trying to enter. The only way to stop this, and allow you to move the selector back up to A so you can transmit there while B is auto selecting because of the squelched activity... is to hit the menu button, hit zero to go to the TMR settings again, push menu again to edit it, hit zero again to turn it off, and hit menu again to set it... then of course hit Exit (#) to get out of the settings menu and then switch your selector to A... Not only is that a PITA and a LOT of steps, you just turned off all monitoring of the other channel slots and puts you back to monitoring only the one channel you have selected on A! So, if after you complete transmitting on A, you want to again monitor all the others, you have to go back into the menu and re-enable the TMR settings... and back into the same dilemma if any squelched activity comes on at B! A few solutions that would be nice... 1. Is there a way to stop the auto-moving of the selector to a channel with activity? 2. Is there a way to make it NOT select or even show activity on a channel slot that is PURPOSELY SQUELCHED OUT so it does not select the activity (maybe just shows it as green when there is squelched activity but don't select it and let you move the selector yourself? Thanks if anyone has any ides or answers. Maybe I missed something in the settings to do this?

This really makes me want to try it... I can just hear the police dispatcher, "Your what is being interfered with?"

Thanks for this thread. I was unsure where this setting was too. I just got a DB25G and yeah, the manual is less than ideal and a bit cryptic... but this helped point me in the right direction to find those options. It does seem like some of the listed options in the manual can't be programmed or are listed with different names in CHIRP. Maybe they skipped some of them? I haven't tried the propitiatory software for it.

the RX only above channel slot 54 applies only when the radio is operating in GMRS mode. if you are in the unlocked "Normal" mode... there are no restrictions. I am not sure if there are any similar restrictions in HAM mode.

I don't think you can set channel "B" ( I assume you mean the lower channel on teh display?) to always be RX only. setting individual channel memory slots up to be RX only is possible (if you place them in slots above 54 (on the GMRS MODE) they will always be RX only. Also non-GMRS frequencies that you enter while in GMRS mode will also be RX only. but there is no way to make a saved channel that will transmit to be RX only just because it is in the lower of the two displayed channels. That is not the function of the A and B display.