Lscott

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.

I guessed as much after watching it. It's still funny. I can believe the dim wits at CNN however would have reported the story if it was "leaked" to them with out "Fact Checking" it first.

More like CNN’s credibility just exploded. I can see them being this stupid and air something like this.

That’s a reasonable price compared to the DB-420.

A buddy at my Thursday night coffee group was looking at prices for a high gain commercial grade repeater antenna for his Ham setup at a school. Not cheap. https://www.commscope.com/globalassets/digizuite/262263-p360-db420-b-external.pdf

Could be that somebody found a stash of NOS, new old stock, radios and sold them cheap. So it could still be the real product. Stuff like this shows up frequently on the Internet for sale. The two dPMR Icom radios I just purchased were exactly that, NOS. https://www.ebay.com/itm/176042045136?_trkparms=amclksrc%3DITM%26aid%3D777008%26algo%3DPERSONAL.TOPIC%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D273572%26meid%3Dfe82695556ef49c49ba4de76ff1ad7d7%26pid%3D101949%26rk%3D1%26rkt%3D1%26itm%3D176042045136%26pmt%3D0%26noa%3D1%26pg%3D4375194%26algv%3DRecentlyViewedItemsV2WithMLRV6RankerPricelessTop30Features%26brand%3DIcom&_trksid=p4375194.c101949.m162918&_trkparms=parentrq%3A0b1caf4e1920aab15d09d582ffffdf46|pageci%3A2410f570-76a4-11ef-a163-4a97914dfa9b|iid%3A1|vlpname%3Avlp_homepage So if these are really clone rip-offs of Icom's design, as was suggested, have these shown up anywhere else in the world? Last possibility is the Israelis had a stock of these in a warehouse they were never going to use and heard that Hezbollah was in the market for buying cheap two-way radios. So, they doctored them up a bit and sold them through a middle man to hide the source.

PETN - Its Discovery and Properties The high explosive pentaerythritol tetranitrate was first synthesized in 1894 at the Rheinish-Westfälische Sprengstoff Company in Germany by a chemist researching the nitration process of pentaerythritol in a high concentrationof nitric acid. The resulting explosive was collected, tested, and found to have a very fast rate of detonation, high density, and good chemical stability, making it an ideal substance for military use. Unfortunately, at that time there was no means available to mass-produce the raw ingredient pentaerythritol. PETN thus remained a laboratory interest until World War II, when it was used in ammunition, bombs, and other fragmention devices. During this time, Germany produced as much as 1,440 tons of PETN per month, with the USA and the USSR following suit. Still manufactured on a large scale, PETN remains one of the most powerful conventional explosives ever developed, rivaled only by HMX and RDX. The military, as might be expected, is the largest user of PETN, with annual purchasing well over 2,000 tons. Nonmilitary use is primarily limited to demolition work and as a booster material for secondary explosives such as ANFO, dynamite, etc.

They're nice but finding the software for them is a bit harder than I've experienced for Kenwood. Maybe I'm biased since I have a pile of Kenwood radios and a huge collection of the programming software. I have picked up a few Icom radios. Reason why I did is they were available and dPMR digital enabled, which is a mode I was looking for. I just ordered a second UHF model from the same seller last night so I'll have at least two identical radios on UHF and one for VHF. https://forums.mygmrs.com/gallery/image/500-ic-f3162dt-front-and-back-sidepng/?context=new

Oops. I just purchased a second Icom from a seller in the Middle East. Now at least I have two identical radios. The digital mode is almost unheard of here. It’s widely used in Europe. https://forums.mygmrs.com/gallery/image/500-ic-f3162dt-front-and-back-sidepng/