Lscott

Kay-Gee-Dash-Nine-Three-Five-Gee. ?

Since you can't recall it's just speculation they might have been licensed to use that frequency at the time. I remember having an on-air disagreement with a person using a radio at the now de-funked Troys-R-Us store a mile or so from my old apartment on the MURS service. They said it was a licensed "Private" 900MHz frequency and I had to get off the air. Dah!! 900MHz? They were smoking something. I informed them it wasn't 900MHz, it's a VHF frequency now a part of the MURS service and is shared between users, then bluntly told them I wasn't leaving the frequency. I wasn't interfering with their communications, they apparently didn't like the idea they had to share it. I'm sure there are many other cases where old business users still think they have exclusive use of a particular frequency. For example the local mall by me is still routinely operating under GMRS, they have a repeater in operation (462.575/467.575), but their license expired years ago. They continue to operate unlicensed to this day. Since it expired they can't get it renewed for business use. See attached files from the FCC database. Before anyone gets tied up in a knot I would recommend researching the business/frequency first to see if they are in fact licensed. There could be a few legitimately grandfathered licensed users out there. Lakeside Mall KAB1523 GMRS - Admin.pdf Lakeside Mall KAB1523 GMRS - Main.pdf

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I'm hoping as more systems switch over to Phase 2 for trunking the older Phase 1 radios will show up on the used market for reasonable prices. The Phase 1 radios are great for Ham use, simplex and conventional repeater operations. So far the Phase 1 radios I'm interested in are still selling used for a premium. The NXDN and DMR radios are generally selling for lower prices.

Back at that time the rules were different. It was possible for businesses to get a license for a frequency. Second the FCC F'd up and allowed the sale of combination FRS/GMRS radios too. The manufactures did put a very helpful note in the box warning users that some of the channels, those above 14, were for licensed GMRS use only. Almost universal nobody read that, or if they did, just ignored it. You might have found yourself operating on a frequency you weren't licensed to use in which case being told to leave wouldn't have been unexpected.

The answer hinges on exactly what you mean by the above. It could be anything from low audio volume to a lot of white noise/static on your signal. The remedy depends on the symptom. Since you are zeroing in on procuring a mobile radio to shuttle between the vehicle and house you can try that and see what improvement if any you get. With 25 feet of RG-8X coax you're losing about 3.65 db, 57% of your transmitter power at 467MHz, based on a chart I have for coax cable types in just the cable run.

I suspect C152 was removed because it failed at some point, likely shorted, blowing the in-line power fuse. Running off a regulated supply it might not matter so whoever did it just didn't bother to replace it. Just a guess here. I haven't screwed around with the programming software but the power switch thing might be a programmable option to keep the radio on whenever the vehicle is running, turns off when the vehicle is off thus nothing for the operator to forget, like turning off the radio thus draining the battery. tk-880h-svc-man.pdf

Unless I'm mistaken I don't know of any Ham repeater systems that use trunking and I believe Phase 2 is only for trunking systems so it's not an advantage on Ham bands. I'm not sure but I thought I read, a long while back, where it was discussed extending the P25 TDMA to conventional operation too. I asked about the encryption since my NX-200, NX-300 and the TK-5220, TK-5320 has an optional AES/DES module available for them, which is expensive. The NX-1300DUK is only available with ARC4 as a feature license upgrade, no AES or DES. I haven't had the luck of getting a used radio with one of the modules in it yet. If any had one the owner took it out before selling the radio. I'm sort of surprised the Motorola radios seems to show up with the feature from time to time.

The other thing I noticed is the radio uses the older IMBE codec, which I think was the standard at the time for P25. I think the newer AMBE+2 is compatible with it. I have a few TK-5220's and TK-5320's that use the newer codec. Have you experienced any issues with communicating between radios using the two?

I see the radios are analog/P25. Is there any significant P25 activity around your area? The radios also have various encryption modes. Are any of those active in the two you have? Astro XTL5000.pdf

You can save yourself some trouble by testing indoors if you have a magnet mount. Stick it on a good ground plane away from things by several feet. I keep a sheet of duct work sheet metal in the basement for testing small VHF and UHF antennas.

If you can't find it take the radio to a local home improvement, try Home Depot or Lowes. They have a good selection of fastener hardware, many in metric. If it looks like it might fit try one out in the radio to see if it screws in without jamming. If it does and it's a bit too long you can sand/grind off the excess length.

Tiny screws you drop on the floor almost always seem to roll under the table, chair or cabinet where you can't reach it. And if the part is plastic you typically step on it first, then it breaks and that's when you find it, under your foot.

Here is some material to look over. Lightning Protection Grounding Solutions for Communication Sites.pdf Grounding Tips for the Shack.pdf

Short answer most likely yes, with a duplexer. For more info on repeater building go to the link below. https://www.repeater-builder.com/rbtip/index.html

I paid $400 for the radio. I seriously doubt Kenwood hasn’t included software development cost in that. They also charge for feature licensing too. That I understand. I specifically paid to have the DMR function enabled when I purchased the radio. The price was reasonable. I’m also considering getting the ARC4 encryption feature too. That involves screwing around with Kenwood’s license management software, which just so happens to ALSO requires a license key to enable!!! It uses the same Internet based licensed server BS the radio programming software requires. Gee? Really? Fortunately the license keys are free, and are targeted for dealer’s use. Kenwood doesn’t want users to be upgrading their radios either. I had a Ham radio friendly dealer send me a license manager key good for 10 installs. He also will sell the feature license keys to the radio user too. I got a quote on what those would cost.

I guess you didn't read my post carefully enough. It's not the cost that's an issue, it's the usability. I've read about too many horror stories where people have paid their money, had a hard drive crash and lost the software and no means to deactivate the license since that required a functioning hard drive. Apparently this even happen to one person and it was the radio programming software that crashed and somehow wiped out the license authorization. Trying to get Kenwood to reissue a license or simply deactivate it on their end was nearly impossible and for some it was. They had to spend another $150 more or less to get their software to work again. The hassle and expense is entirely due to Kenwood's licensing. I'm not going to deal with that. If all they were worried about was recouping their cost for development then just roll it into the cost of the radios sold and give the programming software away. They do it for the Ham stuff. However this isn't their goal. What they want to do is force end users to their dealer network for tech support and radio programming. Makes the dealers happy, more business means more money for them. In fact some unscrupulous dealers will program radios with read and write passwords and keep those secret knowing that if the owner of those radios ever got the programming software there would be noway they could make changes to the programming. Of course somebody will point out it's to prevent the owner from unauthorized changes, well they own the radio, it's their license, they screw up it's their fine to pay the FCC. The dealer is not an enforcement arm of the FCC. There are other forums where it's a frequent occurrence for people to ask for software cracks/patches/engineering keys to remove these passwords. Myself I ended up with several used radios in just this condition. In one case I spent over a month searching for a patched version of the programming software to unlock the radio. I ended up buying it from a source in Mexico of all places.

I've read comments where experienced radio tech's strongly recommend to stay away from Nickel or Chrome plated connectors and use only Silver plated type. The claim made is a film will form on the surface which has some rectification properties like a diode. The partly rectified RF is rich in harmonics causing all sorts of issues on RX and TX. I've also read about harmonic problems being traced to plain old rust on antenna towers for the same reason. The last bit was used to advantage during WWII for the Foxhole Radios. The blue coating on the razor blade is really a type of iron oxide coating. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foxhole_radio

Lesson number one. Research the radio before you spend your money!!! That means does it have the features you want? Do you just want the radio for GMRS or does it need to cover the Ham UHF band too? Can you buy replacement battery packs for it, are chargers available, can you get the programming software and cables? If it breaks can you get it repaired and at what expense? Are accessories like antennas, belt clips, external speaker microphones available? And finally can you get copies of the documentation for the radio like user manuals and service manuals? For some people they want a radio that is FCC certified to operate on GMRS. Not all radios that can be programmed for GMRS have that. That requires checking the FCC ID on the radio in the FCC's database to check which "Parts" it has been certified to operate under. Some have the required Part 95 certification, most have at least Part 90 which is only good for the commercial frequency band. However many people use Part 90 radios, and so far the FCC doesn't seem to bother them, but it's not a guarantee. For example I'm mainly a Kenwood radio guy, nothing wrong with Motorola I have a few XPR6550's, and some cheap Chinese radios, but Kenwood is what I prefer. https://forums.mygmrs.com/gallery/image/261-e451d5e2-f358-40dd-95a1-af106f7e8584jpeg/ Kenwood has a new series of commercial radios out, NX-1000's, NX-3000's and NX-5000's. All very nice radios. The kicker is the programming software. It requires an Internet connection to their license server, the software is locked to one PC at a time, unless you deactivate it and transfer the license. Then there is the hassle of getting the software. Kenwood is targeting the programming and support to their dealer network. Trying to find a dealer that will sell you the software and license, which is $155 a pop, isn't easy unless you "know somebody" and there are a few out there. Due to the software licensing issue I had ZERO interest in looking at new or used models of the above. That is until somebody cracked the software for the NX-1000 series. Now I have one because I can get the software and installed it on several computers I use without the licensing crap to deal with. https://forums.mygmrs.com/gallery/image/290-nx-1300duk5/

Wait until they setup shop on your favorite repeater's output frequency and the kids are only a few houses away.

That's half duplex operation. Using two separate radios it's possible. For GMRS the mobile "receiver" radio would be set to one of the simplex channels. The audio output would be connected to the higher power mobile radio set to transmit on the remote repeater's input frequency. As you mentioned the output of the remote repeater would be received directly by the handheld radio. The handheld radio must have ability to be programmed for arbitrary split frequency operation. May of the GMRS specific radios have the frequency split "built in" and only setup for the main repeater channels, which won't work in this case. You would still need a cavity duplex type filter the same as any other repeater. There are low power ones that would likely work and are tuned by the supplier at purchase. One would end up paying around $100 to $150 depending on model. https://www.409shop.com/409shop_auctionsearch1.php?userid=100556 Also some type of "controller" would be required to couple the audio from one radio to the other and key it up. One of the Surecom models would likely work. https://www.409shop.com/409shop_shopcat.php?&usercat=4934&parentid=4934 The advantage to the half duplex idea, if the owner is the only one using it, no ID is required. Every time the handheld radio user ID's the mobile transmitter ID's too. This would NOT be true if it was a full duplex system communicating with a remote repeater. The last point is one of the major issues with full duplex mobile repeaters. It's also a sticking point for Hams using full duplex cross band repeat mode on their mobile radio, which typically don't have a self ID function. Many do it, but it's not strictly legal.

For those that want a PDF version see attached file. DPL _ DCS Squelch System.pdf

Is that repeater going to be moved to another site?

Thanks for the link. It was a long but very detailed explanation of DCS codes. I’ll have to print it to a PDF file and save it in my electronic document library.

That's about what I just paid for a NX-1300AUK5 with the DMR feature license added to it. It's now effectively an NX-1300DUK5. All the vendor had in stock were the analog only versions so I got the DMR upgrade feature license, which was fairly cheap. I don't need the NXDN feature license since I have a good collection of NX-200's and NX-300's already. https://forums.mygmrs.com/gallery/image/290-nx-1300duk5/ I'm thinking about spending the $40 more or less to get the ARC4 enhanced encryption feature license, only good for DMR. That would make the radio so it's comparable with Motorola radios using the basic encryption also on DMR. The basic model might be more along the lines of what they need. It seems that's the most popular model since it's cheaper.