Lscott

If you can find the detailed specifications for the radio look at the receiver section. If the type is stated as “direct conversion” the odds are very high it’s a cheap “radio on a chip” type design.

Interesting point about who owns the system and has the right to shut it down. One has to wonder where else kill switches are installed and who has their finger on the button.

I think that was the time where the government shut down cell phone service for several hours?

I think that was the time where the government shut down cell phone service for several hours?

For quickly planed events, or just a spontaneous group gathering, it's likely true. I agree with the comment for the more organized groups. The frequencies used I doubt would change that much, would have to reprogram a lot of radios which isn't practical when people need to be deployed quickly. What would be hard is figuring out their "com sec" protocols. That can be quickly changed by just handing out the radios with a sheet listing the special codes used at the last minute. With that said there are likely elements who are technically competent, various radio hobby orientated individuals, who could show up with the appropriate equipment and have no affiliation to any organized group. As pointed out the UV-5R is readily available and still very cheap. It wouldn't be a budget buster for somebody to keep a handful of these at the ready, per-programmed, show up at the event and pass them out to selected people. The positive point is those radios don't use any form of voice encryption or scrambling. So using a scanning type radio, likely easier done with an SDR dongle which can watch a wide chunk of spectrum, so when strong pips shows up zero in and see what can be heard. Might get lucky.

People are cheap. I guess if you wanted a radio for a specific use and have no interest in radio as a hobby you would buy the cheapest thing that does the job. The strange thing is these radios are cheaper than the bubble pack FRS radios, in a dollar per radio sense, in most cases.

Looks like a nice radio. What I like about it is the receiver is a true superheterodyne design. I haven't been impressed with the performance of the cheaper "radio on a chip" types that all seem to use the ubiquitous RDA1846S, or some variant of it. You get what you pay for. The D878-UV analog/DMR radio, which isn't cheap, I think uses the chip but seems to perform better than I would expect. I think the design uses a tracking filter on the receiver front end to help eliminate the nasty image responses you get with the radio on a chip design.

I got "back" into GMRS when the FCC changed the fee to something more reasonable and the extended the license term to 10 years. I was licensed before and let it expire, 5 year license term and around $100 was a bit much. Now if I ever need to keep in contact with a family member all I have to do is hand them a programed radio and some simple instructions. I also have some friends who so far have not been licensed for Ham radio, due to COVID-19 no test sessions or too busy to study for the Ham test, but filling out a form and paying the $70 was a easy. GMRS is the only way I can talk to them by radio currently.

The first point is one of the reasons why the FCC started clamping down on the cheap Chinese radios. I had a buddy that was fooling around like that with one. I got him to test for and received his Ham Tech Class license. He's having a lot of fun now, getting into the digital voice modes and hot spots. I'm only aware of a few radios older radios that have any kind of scrambler function. Many of the older FRS radios used simple voice inversion. I believe the FCC put an end to that with the rule revisions in 2017 which became effective in 2018. I know of several current higher end Chinese radios that will do digital encryption since they are both analog and digital (DMR). Several of the older Kenwood LMR analog radios have either built in simple voice inversion or the user can install a more advanced voice encryption module. I have a few of those old radios, used off of eBay of course without that option. You wouldn't believe what those boards cost. I checked in case I ever ended up with a used radio that had one installed. You never know. https://www.ameradio.com/product/512172/description.html (Just one of the several types they sell) The PDF files have some interesting info on the modules. On your last point that does bring up another question. Has anybody seen what kind of radios are being used? Apparently the link in my first post seems to show the cheap UV-5R is widely used. The article is an old one so I would guess some other make and model has taken its place.

The point is well taken. The info is just for general information and monitoring. After seeing photos of people carrying around what is obviously two-way radios I got curious if anybody happened to pick up the communications. There were a few protests by me and all I heard were comments by the mall security guards since some of the protesters had used it for parking.

I’ve noted more protesters are carrying two-way radios. Anybody have an idea what frequencies seem to be the favorite ones used? The Baofeng UV-5R looks looks it’s the go to radio recommend by many prepper and militia groups. Poor choice IMO. https://radiofreeq.wordpress.com/2016/01/19/militia-radio-frequencies/ I’m guessing most of the radios are the cheap Chinese ones since you program them for operation outside of the Hams bands with requiring modifications. They can be easily programmed for the public service frequencies which likely accounts for the reports of police radio communications being jammed in some cases.

Humm... That makes all the difference. Given the costs you mention it does explain why businesses are jumping on the free radio services. I knew there were some costs but had no idea it was that expensive. Given the numbers above isn’t the likely outcome FRS and MURS will become primarily an unlicensed business radio service?

I should have been more specific. FCC will not issue a new GMRS license to a business. If the owner and his employees have their own that’s OK as you correctly pointed out. Then each person can use the service under their individual license of course. What I was trying to get across if enough businesses end up using MURS that would likely crowd out those who want to use it for personal use. There are only 5 channels after all. If a business really needs radio communications I think there are better choices, such as getting licensed and one or more frequencies assigned for their use by the FCC. Around me there are a significant number of businesses using FRS radios, which seems to be on the increase. Mostly the old 1/2 watts models. Fortunately those don’t travel that far. The newer radios at 2 watts are more of a problem. Given that MURS allows up to 2 watts it won’t take many frequent users to occupy those 5 channels, and for some distance as well. Which gets me back to the topic of just how popular is MURS? From some of the posts, and my monitoring in my area, it hasn’t caught on with that many users yet.

Exactly my point!

Oops pasted in the wrong link for the Kenwood brochure with the radio info. This should be the right one. http://www.lauttamus.com/_pdf/TwoWayRadio/Kenwood/tk-270g-370g.pdf

In the way of hand held radios I've used the TK-370-K, TK-370G-1 and the TK-3160. Generally the 450 MHz to 470 MHz frequency split versions can go outside of the official range by 10 MHz or so. My favorite is the TK-370G-1 model. By the way it's also Part 95 certified so there is no question it's legal to use on GMRS. It's found on Ebay for a reasonable price if you look carefully. Batteries and antennas are readily available if the one you want doesn't have it. It can use the cheap Baofeng type speaker mics, head sets, antennas (yes they use the reverse SMA type on these radios just like the Chinese) and programming cable. https://forums.mygmrs.com/topic/2022-kenwood-lmr-for-ham/ I've also had good luck with the TK-270G-1 VHF version for 2 meters. Both radios are bigger than most of the newer compact radios, heavier but built like a tank. If you get one be sure you get a charger with it if not look for the KSC-16. I've had good luck finding the programming software for it, KPG-56D. Forget using Chirp. I've never had a version of it that didn't mess up trying to enter frequencies in to it for the "G" versions. For the simple TK-370-K it seems to work OK.

IMO business use should be prohibited. That's done for GMRS currently. There should be plenty of UHF business exclusive frequencies available for licensed use. With only 5 MURS channels it won't take much business traffic to make them unattractive for private individual voice communications. If businesses say that UHF is too congested for licensed UHF frequency and that's why they use MURS on VHF perhaps the crap below is one reason. I just can't understand why a business like a shopping mall needs to run a 35 watt repeater. It's only used by the mall security detail. https://wireless2.fcc.gov/UlsApp/UlsSearch/licenseFreqSum.jsp?licKey=3354643 I'm about 5 miles away per Google Maps and I pick them up clear as a bell using a simple HT on a table top in my house. Does everybody in a 5 plus mile radius really needs to hear them chasing shoplifters out the door and through the parking lot?

It seems to be a shame MURS doesn’t get more use by private individuals. You get to run 2 watts, like FRS which also doesn’t require a license, and external antennas which are not allowed on FRS. In fact any legal FRS certified radio the antennas can’t be removed. I’ve run across dual band mobile antennas specifically tuned for MURS and GMRS. Used with a cheap duplexer one can operate a MURS radio and a GMRS radio, if you’re licensed. The radios can be operated one at a time or at the same time with the duplexer providing the isolation between the radios. The duplexers are cheap costing as little as $30 not counting adapters and patch cables.

I'll guess the usual suspects are about as light and cheap you'll find, GMRS-VI and the TR-505G. https://powerwerx.com/tera-tr505-gmrs-recreational-handheld-radio The BTECH you already have. I would suggest you just get anther one, they're fairly cheap. That way all the accessories are interchangeable, external speaker microphones, antennas, battery packs, mobile battery eliminators, programming cable etc. Then you only have to deal with one programming cable and software. You can make one code plug, radio memory file, and use it on both radios unchanged. Trying to keep two different radio's code plugs compatible is a bit of a pain. Been there done that many times. Finally you only need to learn one radio, not two, and the various menu items and settings. You also don't have to worry about which radio you grabbed and trying to remember how to use it later if that's not the usual one you carry around. On the last point I typically keep all my radio manuals in PDF format and loaded on the smart phone. If I need to use a feature I can't remember to access or setup the manual is right there.

Other than a few local businesses, seldom heard, I almost never hear the frequencies used for voice communications by private individuals. There are a number of old Part 90 radios that predate the creation of MURS so they could be used, grandfathered in, and a number of new radios that are reasonably priced and Part 95 certified for it. So the question is just how many people really use it other than businesses or for a wireless intercom/data applications?

If you do a lot of bike riding a good mobile bike setup could be in order. https://www.dxzone.com/catalog/Operating_Modes/Mobile/Bicycle/ A lot of examples can be found from simple setups to the complex with batteries, solar panels and power amps.

If it is configurable the Kenwood software will let you change it. I think on some of my portables I have that option in one of the menu tabs. The reason why it is an option is so a user doesn’t accidentally turn the volume control all the way down thus missing messages. Setting a min volume level prevents that from happening. With a radio hanging on a belt its easy twist the volume knob and not realize it. At least for the channel selector it has detents so that’s less likely to happen.

Does the radio programming software help file give any clues? Other radio manufacturers offer a similar feature. It typically works using a proprietary signaling method. For example one manufacturer let’s users program in a multi digit DTMF code, like a touch tone telephone number, and only radios with a matching code will open the squelch so you can hear the audio. All other radios the audio will remain muted. Some others use two-tone or five-tone signaling. I think Motorola uses their own proprietary system MDC. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selective_calling

I would recommend you use the official Kenwood software to program the radio. I’ve had problems with Chirp and the TK-270G/370G wide/narrow band 128 channel radios, VHF and UHF. For the older TK-370 wide band only 32 channel radio it seems to work OK. Reporting Chirp bugs is fine, just don’t hold your breath waiting for them to get fixed. Seems some never do get addressed. One of the main problems with Chirp is not all of the radio’s features are accessible. That’s why the manufacturers software is necessary. Before I even consider buying a used radio I’ll search for a downloadable version of the programming software. Second is getting the programming cable. If I can’t get both I won’t buy the radio. I don’t know about other people but I’ve had much better luck finding the above for Kenwood radios verses Motorola radios.

Nice article. One needs to understand there are several different Lithium battery chemistries which was not made clear. Some are a bit dangerous and can become unstable under certain conditions. The worse is Lithium-Ion. Lithium-Ion has one of the highest energy densities and why its used in EV battery packs. The protection and monitoring systems built into them is extensive. The other chemistry is Lithium-Polymer which sees use in flying drones where you need the most power and energy storage with the least weight. Those people have to be careful as there have been fires from battery failures. The reason why Lithium Iron Phosphate is the recommended chemistry is due to it's very high stability. The down side is the energy density, watt-hours per unit volume or watt-hours per unit weight, is a bit lower than for the other types but still much higher than for Lead Acid batteries. Over all for portable use its a good trade off.