Lscott

No, but when I took driver's ED the instructor told us about a girl driving the car once. They were doing some real on the road practice. The instructor told her to make a left turn off the side street into the school's parking lot. She grabbed the shift lever on the right side of the steering column and flipped it all the way up. The transmission didn't like it much.

Did you know that many young people can't read the time on an analog clock with the moving hands either.

Sounds like a fairly robust fault tolerant system. Has it been actually stress tested to verify it stays functional?

Wait till the system fails due to flooding since it's likely the critical lines are ground based. Then they'll start thinking about the microwave links again. A buddy, whose a radio tech for a local city's transportation department, is working on installing a backup radio system on the city buses since they've had the cellar based communication system fail one too many times.

You ever watch a Gen Z try to use one? They stick their fingers in the holes in the dial to press the numbers thinking they're buttons.

That is a VERY extensive network. I wonder if there is any linking between that network and the NXDN one?

Looks like Hurricane Milton is headed for central West Florida. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/weather/2024/10/07/hurricane-milton-tracker-path-spaghetti-models/75551975007/ That area is well covered by an extensive Ham NXDN digital network. https://ni4ce.org/nxdn-digital-communications/ Some good used NXDN digital equipment examples: https://forums.mygmrs.com/gallery/image/418-nx-320jpeg/?context=new https://forums.mygmrs.com/gallery/image/290-nx-1300duk5/?context=new https://forums.mygmrs.com/gallery/image/251-nx-300jpg/?context=new https://forums.mygmrs.com/gallery/image/250-nx-820ghjpg/?context=new

No phone numbers to remember either.

And remember when people laugh at you when you mention having a two-way radio for emergency communication when cell phones are so much more convenient.

It's a good antenna. Yes it's on the large side. I did an SWR scan with it on a tri-magnet mount on a sheet metal ground plane for testing. The SWR was reasonable over most of the Ham VHF/UHF range. On VHF MURS it was really good. On UHF GMRS it was under 2:1 on the repeater end and around 1.5:1 to 1.6:1 on the 462 end. Most radios are fine with SWR's of 2:1 or less so it should be OK. Using a different mount type might improve the SWR. https://forums.mygmrs.com/gallery/image/268-ca-2x4sr/?context=new I would recommend getting the optional spring bottom section. https://cometantenna.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/CA-SPR-instructions-x-1.pdf That way if the antenna wacks something it won't rip up the roof using a through hole NMO mount or damage the antenna. For an emergency backup antenna you can also get a cheap 1/4 wave. Those are about 6 to 7 inches tall. Good for urban application getting into local repeaters and not having to worry about low clearances such as drive through windows and garages. https://www.amazon.com/Antenna-410-490Mhz-Motorola-Kenwood-Blackbox/dp/B00L9D2N6Q You can also make your own using some parts found at local Ham flea markets. https://forums.mygmrs.com/gallery/image/338-cheap-14-wave-gmrs-antenna/?context=new

The RDM models seem to be the favorite at Walmart. When traveling do you use an external antenna? There is a dual band magnet mount specifiy for MURS and GMRS. https://dpdproductions.com/products/dual-band-gmrs-murs-mobile-antenna If you use a duplexer, some adapters and a couple of short jumper cables, you can have both a MURS and a GMRS radio connected to the above antenna at the same time. The duplexer will isolate the two radios so they won’t get damaged during transmission. https://www.dxengineering.com/parts/cma-cf-4160j

Now if it was a TK-2302 that would be the VHF version. The band split on those is 136 to 174. It could be programmed for the 5 license free MURS channels and RX only on the 7 NOAA weather channels. Good for hiking and camping.

If it’s a TK-3302 then that’s a UHF band radio. Look at the downloaded brochure. It’s clearly identified. I see sellers getting this mixed up all the time. The deal with “for parts or not working” means they haven’t tested the radios and can’t say in the ad the radios work. That’s basically an eBay requirement thing. Likely some or all of them work.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/286079880475?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=wblQe9xfQCm&sssrc=4429486&ssuid=j_t98fioS_6&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY

One interesting "feature" with Kenwood radios is you can "push" them a bit beyond their official band split. When you try to enter a out of band split frequency you'll get a warning popup. Just click OK and it will take the entry. Doesn't mean the radio will work there. It depends on the range of the VCO and and the PLL can lock. It likely varies by radio so you have to try it and see. If not you get an error tone out of the radio's speaker. My 128 channel TK-3170's, lower end is 450 MHz, and I have a bunch of Ham 70cm repeaters in them. The radios work. I tried some of the simple 16 channel Kenwood radios with the lower band split of 450MHz. About the lowest frequency the PLL would lock was around 435MHz. Plenty for the repeater section of the band and the upper simplex section too. I have noticed that many of the older Kenwood digital radios had band splits of 400 to 470 MHz. Perfect for Ham and GMRS. If I see any used for a decent price in that range I'll consider a purchase.

I believe that's for multi tone signaling. I wouldn't select it since it's never used in GMRS or Ham from what I've seen by me. For Kenwood it's their "FleetSYNC" or MDC-1200 signaling I think.

Have fun. If you have any questions I can install the software here and look at the code plug if necessary.

Hopefully it's not password locked. I've read where this is done by unscrupulous radio shops to lock the customer, who owns the radio BTW, into going back to them for any changes. The 16 channel radios are great to give to people who are radio phobic or are likely to just start pressing buttons at random. These are almost impossible to screw up. I remember buying a used TK-3160 or TK-3260 radio that looked exactly like the one you're trying to program. The radio channel select knob couldn't be turned. At first I thought the selector was shot so I used some channel locks to try and turn it. Had nothing to lose at this point. Turned out the channel select knob was SUPER GLUED so it couldn't be turned!!! Stupid part was it had been glued to a position where the channel wasn't programmed so the radio wouldn't work. I found out only one channel was programmed when I read the radio later. I some how think it was done by whoever used it because they had a bug about something and wanted to sabotage the radio without it looking like it was deliberately vandalized. There was NO hint of any glue showing so whoever did it was VERY careful. You never know what you'll likely find when buying used radios.

The "K" means its a North American market code. Without it it should work just fine. Hopefully the ding-dong who programmed the radio didn't use read/write passwords, particularly the write one. That will stop you from writing a new code plug to the radio. In that case you have to find a "engineer" key and reinstall the software using it. That unlocks the password reset function in the programming software.

If it's a TK-3302UK radio the attached software should work. Unzip the file and copy the contents for disks 1 through 4 to an empty folder. All the files must be in that folder. Then run the "setup.exe" file to install. Use the install key found in "SeriaL.txt" file. KPG-119D V2.00.zip Brochure-TK-2302_3302.pdf

You both did a good job.

One could go through the numbers just to see the differences. I did some simple calculations for the setup on my car. Mazda 2023 CX-5 Antenna System Analysis Rev 8.pdf Not the best case but I was limited in the cable size and lengths. The reduction from the best case wasn’t that severe, about a 12% calculated range loss if it was only a ERP power limitation. Likely not noticeable in practice.

Nice touch with the loop around the rubber grommet. It loops over the top, around the bottom, then up a bit to feed through. The water should drip off the cable at the bottom part of the loop. These are the kind of details many people miss. That will work well to keep the water from wicking along the surface of the cable into the hole in the grommet.

I remember that! I couldn’t believe the news talking heads didn’t figure it out before airing the story. Talk about stupid.