Lscott

I second berkinet's points. The fastest way to get the attention of the local FCC is running high power on the 0.5 watt FRS frequencies. When they can hear you 10 miles away with full quieting they'll know something isn't right. You'll know when you've been found out when the knock on the front door occurs with the black SUV parked out front.

Have you considered a ground mounted push-up mast? If you don’t use the radio often you leave it down when not operating. https://mfjenterprises.com/products/mfj-1906hd

This just came out on YouTube, a review of GMRS hand held radios. https://youtu.be/TYUZJUhVCuk

That's why I recommend people use the official manufacture's software, at least for the commercial radios, since Chirp doesn't cover many of the features the radios offer. For other radios it's just plain buggy. I tried it with a Kenwood TK-270G and TK-370G radios. No good. Channels wouldn't program or disappear when trying to use the zone feature. The import function didn't work etc. As far as I know it's still broken.

Well on the antenna side for the mobile you can look at the following: https://cometantenna.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/CA-2x4SR.pdf I have a buddy at work with one installed on his pickup truck. The SWR is under 2:1 where he operates on GMRS when I checked it for him. The match is better towards the Ham band on 70cm. On VHF the match is really good on the Ham 2M band and on the 5 MURS channels. The trick with this antenna is it needs a really good ground plane since it's a 5/8 wave design. If you don't want to go that route then get a good Ham dual band antenna and a cheap simple 1/4 wave for GMRS. A 1/4 wave GMRS antenna is about 6 inches tall. By the way 1/4 wave antennas have a wide bandwidth and the radiation pattern is much broader giving better coverage when in hilly terrain. Some people go with a 1/4 wave for GMRS for just that reason.

Me, I got into GMRS after having my Ham license for some years because it was “there”. It’s another means of communications. Now I find it easier to get people interested in radio if they don’t need to “take a test”. Later some change their mind and want to get their Ham license so taking the Tech Class exam isn’t so intimidating and there is a motivation to do more than talk on a few channels on a UHF only radio. I have a buddy at work who got his Tech license after talking to him about it for a while. Another buddy at work has his GMRS license. I can talk to either one but they can’t really to each other except on the CB. Now the Ham buddy is looking at getting the GMRS license too. The GMRS buddy is still thinking about getting his Tech license. Then we all can sit around and talk on the CB. 8-(

I use my CCR at work as a cheap scanner. In the industrial park some businesses cheap out using FRS radios for their shop maintenance staff. A few things I heard would have been better said in private. Spending few extra bucks on the radios with some measure of builtin security would keep busybodies like me hearing what is going on. I guess people get a radio, and never gave it much thought, where one mouth is doing the talking and 100 ears all over the area are hearing every thing said.

If you do go ahead and take the radio you can find the documentation at the link below. http://manuals.repeater-builder.com/Kenwood/kenwood.html You'll have to scroll down a ways to find it. Look for file names like this for example: nx/NX-820/NX-820H(G) Revised_B53-7033-10.pdf I believe the programming software you need is KPG-141D. You would like to get the most recent version. Download a copy here: http://leon880314.com/software-de-programacion-para-radio-kenwood-kpg-141d/ https://hamfiles.co.uk/index.php?page=downloads&type=entry&id=radio-programming%2Fkpg-141-d-prpgramming_2 Or you can buy it from a place like this: https://www.ameradio.com/product/100727/description.html

That may not be possible. Frequently towers on the AM broadcast band “are the antenna” because the frequency is so low. The towers can be a 1/4 wave tall. For example an AM station on 1000Kz a 1/4 wave antenna is about 246 feet tall. Attaching anything to the tower would disturb the functioning to some degree or another. And that’s neglecting the high power RF from the tower coupling into the UHF antenna.

Some of the Kenwood NX series radios will do both analog and digital. The digital part is NXDN, mostly used by railroads with smaller number used by businesses. A few areas in the US see some use of NXDN on the Ham bands. Note that any type of digital voice on GMRS is prohibited by the FCC so only the analog part is of any use. I picked up a Kenwood NX-340U, analog/NXDN, real cheap off of eBay but haven’t done much with it yet. Also got a Kenwood TK-D340 as well that does analog/DMR.

Some of the old Kenwood radios are Part 95 certified. I have the TK-370G-1, TK-3170-K and the TK-3140. All 128 channel UHF radios. While the official lower frequency range is 450MHz on the ones useful for GMRS I’ve used them down to 440MHz or so making them usable on the simplex and repeater section of the Ham 70cm band if that’s of any interest.

It figures. I looked at the wrong radio programming software so what I said in the prior post was wrong. What I wrote in the prior post was for a different radio. I must have around 8 to 10 different model Kenwood radios and the software looks similar, easy to make a mistake. For the TK-3170 the software I used is KPG-101D Version 2.40. In the top menu bar navigate from "Edit" -> "Optional Features" ->"Conventional". You'll see a table that will hold up to 40 tones on the last page. If you click the "Standard QT" button on the lower right the table will be auto filled with the standard tones, both encode and decode. If you don't want the decode tones then you have to click each one and select "none". I don't use the decode tones so I don't care what the repeater outputs or passes through or not. Carrier squelch works just fine for RX on repeaters. Next program one of the side keys or front side function keys for "OST", operator selectable tone. When you press that key you should be able to scroll through the list of tones you entered in to the table. On my radios I assigned it to the "AUX" key on the side of the radio. I hope this clears up the confusion due to my mistake.

Thanks for the history lesson. Learned a bit more about where some of the radio technology came from and why. Just proves there is always something more to learn out there.

I just checked eBay for the DLR1060 6 channel model. Most were very expensive but two were reasonably priced, $50 and $70. I looked quickly at the Moto site for info. You’re right the DLR series is about as basic as you can get.

That was a very nice write on those radios. Your comments about how they out perform typical FRS/GMRS radios in tight quarters is worth noting. That could help somebody who needs a better solution. The experience on a cruise ship with FRS radios is something I’ve read from time to time as being poor, so these radios would be the solution, but not cheap. For me the main point was at the very end, the part where the radios will not interoperate with non-Moto models. That ends any idea I had of scouting out one to experiment with, not to mention the cost.

You should be able to set the tones in the 3170. In the software look for "Operator Selectable Tones". That should pop up a window that lets you enter up to 16 tones, yes it allows split tones too for each entry. Yeah, its a bit limiting but better than nothing. Pick the ones that are fairly common. Normally I never enter a decode tone in my radios so I don't care if the repeater uses the same one as the RX, a different one or none at all on the TX output. Next program one of the side keys or front side function keys for "Operator Selectable Tones". When you press that key you should be able to scroll through the list of tones you entered in to the table. The radios can be modified for FPP, remove a surface mount part and check the box in the software, but you need the full numeric keypad for that. Those radios are not easy to find. When you do they are pricey even used. The most common ones have just the front panel function keys. When I looked at all of the crazy button press combinations, twisting the selector knob on top, for FPP I quickly concluded it was easier to leave he radio as is and just use the software.

Here is a link where somebody tried doing some measurements. It’s worthwhile reading to get an idea what’s involved and the pitfalls too. https://www.hamradio.me/antennas/ht-antenna-comparisons.html

As others have pointed out trying to measure the SWR of the type of antenna that mounts on a hand held radio is difficult at best. I’ve personally have tried nearly a dozen different types. Changing the test setup resulted in wide variations in the measure SWR. In the end about the only thing I could reasonably conclude is antenna “x” seemed better than antenna “y” under the same conditions, which may not translate in to how the radio sees it when installed. I know some of the commercial radios I have use “hybrid power modules” for the output stage. I looked at the data-sheet for a few and saw they were specified to work with an SWR up to 20:1 for one model if I remember right. You could key the radio up briefly with no antenna and likely not blow out the power stage! Hand held radios have to work in many different environments, in your hand speaking into the mic, hanging on a belt with the antenna basically against the body etc. All of which drastically changes the SWR and the radio has to work. If you get a name brand antenna, yeah there are counterfeits mainly from China, I wouldn’t worry too much about it. The only test that has any real validity when measuring hand held radio antennas is the field strength. Some antennas are very inefficient wasting most of the power from the transmitter. Some of the frequently called “rubber duck” antennas, the short semi-flexible rubber coated ones, have been measure with as much as a negative 5db gain, which translates in to roughly 2/3 of you transmitter power wasted in the antenna. That’s why most people look for a “better” antenna for their radio.

Since it's a fiberglass body you need an antenna that doesn't require a ground plane. I would also guess you don't want to drill any holes in the body either. The through the glass antennas that a few people I know that tried them weren't happy with the results. One thing I have seen done is a trailer hitch antenna mount, assuming you have one. The links give you some ideas. https://www.dxengineering.com/search/product-line/mfj-trailer-hitch-antenna-mounts?autoview=SKU&sortby=Default&sortorder=Ascending https://www.eham.net/article/38039 Also a few people bolted a bracket to the frame under the vehicle that sticks out on the side. The antenna mounts on that using a small mast. Some more ideas to look at. https://www.eham.net/article/28807

I've used WINE on Linux several times with various software, mostly CAD related. The results have been mostly works to complete failure. Personally I've been watching this project over the years. It's an open source clone of Windows. When it gets to the beta testing phase then things get interesting. https://reactos.org/ berkinet's suggestion is good, trying VirtualBox. I have two VM'm running on a Win 7 Pro machine with 16GB or RAM. One is OpenSuse Leap and a Win XP Pro one. Both work well and show up on the network as if they were real computers with their own IP addresses etc. I can access them locally or from another computer using Windows Remote Terminal app. https://www.virtualbox.org/ Also you should have the ability to install the native virtual machine subsystem included with just about every major Linux distro out there. Then install a copy of Windows. You can get a functioning version here. https://winworldpc.com/product/windows-nt-2000/final Windows 2000 should have no issues running the radio programming software.

I would assume they are not compatible with other manufacture's FHSS radios. If that's the case then one is locked into only buying Moto equipment. Not a good situation.

There are other interesting oddball radio services out there that people are not aware of. For example there are license free 900MHz radios. Some of those radios are not cheap either. Might be fun to play with a few but not at $300+ per unit. https://www.amazon.com/Motorola-DTR700-900MHZ-Licence-Digital/dp/B07PM684WN https://www.motorolasolutions.com/en_us/products/two-way-radios/commercial-business-two-way-radio-systems/on-site-business-radios/dtr-series/dtr700.html#tabproductinfo

I’m curious how many of these radios have shown up in the US by people coming for business or vacations. The PMR446 and dPMR446 radios would end up on the Ham 70cm band. The German FreeNet radios are just above the Ham 2M band. And the radios from Singapore operate between the Ham 1.25M band and the military frequencies around 300MHz. Traveling in the western part of Canada in the back woods using the VHF resource road frequencies seems mandatory. The frequencies are posted which ones to use on the roads. A comment in the article about modified VHF radios, I assume Ham gear, is typically used. https://radiofreeq.wordpress.com/2018/08/30/canada-vhf-ladd-channel-list/#more-1675 If those frequencies are used in Canada there is a chance they could be used in the US as well. I wonder if anybody had monitored communications on those frequencies that didn’t sound like business, public safety etc.

Other countries have their versions of VHF and UHF radio services. Anybody bump into them being used in the US or had experience using them? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PMR446 https://radioaficion.com/news/new-channels-pmr446/ https://www.hfunderground.com/wiki/index.php/245_MHz_VHF_CB https://www.hfunderground.com/wiki/index.php/Freenet https://radiofreeq.wordpress.com/2018/08/30/canada-vhf-ladd-channel-list/#more-1675

I've done the same thing a few times at another mall close to where I lived before I moved a few years ago. I heard all sorts of crap there from hookers hanging out by the coffee shop inside, one guy brought his gun in once, fights in the food court, mall security kicked out a guy driving through the lot with a license plate scanner looking for cars on a list to repo, a couple doing their "thing" in the back seat etc. I monitor that mall typically all day at work. I have the radio setup on top of the computer with a coax running to a simple 1/4 ground plane built out of a BNC PCB socket and some stiff bus wire. That's on top of my bookcase, better range and the rubber duck antennas the radios come with normally are poor performers. At least that's one thing those CCR's are good for, they make decent super cheap scanners if what you are monitoring is fairly close. Scan speed sucks, but I'm not scanning that many frequencies anyway so it's not too bad. I already had to replaced the battery pack on it because I cycled it to death using the radio 5 days a week scanning. The radio by the way is a BTECH tribander HT.