Lscott

Excluding the specific low cost radios, typically of Chinese manufacture like the 805, Baofengs and their derivatives etc., which HT's from the major manufactures seem to be popular choices to use on the GMRS band? I'm more interested in the use of commercial, LMR (Land Mobile Radio), types. I typically use Kenwood radios because I have the programming cable and accessories for them, and they are mostly interchangeable between the radios. Also I've had very good luck finding the manufacture's programming software, which seems to work up to so far on Windows 10 with no real issues. The radios I do have for use on GMRS are: TK-370G-1 (128 channel, wide and narrow band) TK-3170-K (128 channel, wide and narrow band) TK-3173-K (128 channel, wide and narrow band) TK-3140 (250 channel, wide and narrow band) TK-370-1 (32 channel, wide band only, Chip seems to work OK for this radio to program it) A buddy, licensed GMRS only for the moment, here at work was complaining about his high power Baofeng radio. He felt the receive wasn't working well on it, poor sensitivity. I explained the radio uses a cheap "radio-on-a-chip" design and the poor performance wasn't unexpected. After all what do you expect from a $25 radio? I suggested he get a good used commercial quality radio model I recommended. He picked up a good used TK-3170 which included the antenna, battery pack, speaker microphone and charger package on eBay for $65. I gave him a code plug I built for my radios and the software to get him started. The Baofeng programming cable works just fine on these radios. He immediately commented on the quality of the radio and he doesn't get the interference he experienced frequently with the Baofeng. He travels frequently, mostly driving, for work and I'm sure he is going to be happy with how this radio works compared to the Baofeng.

I've been collecting HT's for the past year or two. If I find a good deal on one I can't help myself. I have enough to equip a small army.

You can try looking here. https://www.repeaterbook.com/gmrs/index.php?state_id=none

Well you'll likely EMP proof in that case as long as you're indoors.

I've had good luck using my old dual band Comet CA-2x4MB, no ground plane required, on the Jeep. On the GMRS frequencies I get 1.3:1 at 462 MHz, 1.05:1 at 464 MHz and 1.5:1 at 468 MHz. On the 2M and 70cm Ham bands the match is good. Surprising it's OK on the 5 MURS frequencies too. I have another one I've used indoors, never been exposed to the outside weather, and performs about the same.

On another note I have heard of Hams building a cross band repeater using a couple HT's and a small duplexer. Fly the drone up really high on field day for some DX contacts. Also ran a power cord up to the drone from the ground to give it more "air time". I think some cell phone companies do this on an emergency basis to restore service at times too.

You would reed a really long mic cable for that. 8-))

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