Lscott

https://www.curbsideclassic.com/automotive-histories/automotive-history-the-1977-oldsmobile-chevrolet-engine-scandal/

I have the Btech version which I use as a cheap scanner at the office. It's OK. Another CCR, Cheap Chinese Radio, is the TYT TH-350 tri-band. For $70 I think it's better than the UV5R-X3 and Btech copy. I use one at home as a cheap scanner. One thing about the radios is the back light. It's so bright you can use it as a flashlight, and it's NOT adjustable in brightness. https://www.buytwowayradios.com/tyt-th-350.html If I were to recommend a CCR for a new Ham it would be the TH-350. Once you get settled and have a better idea of what you want and operate you can start looking at the more expensive stuff. Many people here use older, and new, commercial radios. My self I have a lot of used Kenwood analog and analog/digital mode portable radios. Those by the way are usually single band radios. There is a way to run multiple "RF Decks" using a single control. There is a thread here for one such mobile install, neat and impressive. https://forums.mygmrs.com/topic/5521-new-install-dual-astro-xtl5000-vhf-uhf-110w/#comment-55274 If you're looking at any of the digital voice modes, System Fusion and D-Star, they are Amateur only modes. The other main digital modes are DMR, NXDN and P25 are typically commercial voice modes and are also found on the Amateur bands. In particular DMR is popular followed by P25 then NXDN. DMR radios can be found in both Amateur and commercial model radios. The DMR and NXDN radios are usually reasonably priced if you shop around. There are no Amateur type radios for P25 and NXDN so your only choice is new/used commercial radios. P25 radios you'll likely get raped on the price, but some good deals do show up occasionally. The usual manufactures you'll see for commercial radios are primarily Motorola, JVCKenwood (EF Johnson - Viking - Kenwood) and Icom followed by Vertex, Hytera and Harris. I'm sure I missed a few others. With some of the manufactures being purchased by others, with name changes at times, it sort of hard to keep straight who is who without a score card.

You should check the match on it before running high power. While you can hit a remote repeater OK on 2M the antenna is trimmed for the MURS band on VHF. The antenna would be too short. A high SWR could cause overheating and final amplifier stage failure. Many radios recommend the SWR not to exceed 2:1, which if they have a protection circuit will reduce output power to save the finals above that limit.

I wonder if anyone else has run any scans of the one they have.

The antennas are hand built. You might have got one that was better constructed. Also the connectors on the end can influence the results too. I have two of these antennas, both dual band. One is cut for MURS/GMRS and the other is for 2M/70cm. I forget which connector is on which antenna. One had a PL-259 plug while the other one had an "N" connector. I might take some time to re-scan the MURS/GMRS version. I've attached the scans I did for the 2M/70cm version. I found some scans, the photos are poor quality, the builder posted on his web site. They are for the Ham bands. The best I can see it the UHF scan shows an SWR of 1.82(?) at 439MHz and 1.34(?) at 450MHz. N9TAX-2M-70CM-VHF Scan.pdf N9TAX-2M-70CM-UHF Scan.pdf

The antenna is screwed into a really short UHF barrel adapter and the other end has a length of RG-8 coax coiled up then reduced to a short run of RG-58. The whole thing is attached to a sawed off clothing display rack I found in the trash. A stainless steel hose clamp is used to hold it on the end of the tube along with 4 brass rods, about 1/16 inch diameter and approximately 19 inches long, bent down at roughly a 45 degree angle for a ground plane.

I discovered the antenna is sensitive to the mounting location and type of mount. I've attached a zip file of some other tests I did with different mounting locations and types of mounts, like magnet - ground radials etc. This was one of the better mounts and location in a home office setting inside a room. https://forums.mygmrs.com/gallery/image/268-ca-2x4sr/ CA-2x4SR Antenna Tests.zip

I've done an SWR scan of the dual band, MURS and GMRS, version I have. The testing was done with the antenna hanging by a non-conductive cord. These antennas are not that broad-banded. https://forums.mygmrs.com/gallery/image/284-n9tax-murs-gmrs-scansjpg/

I recommended one of these to a work buddy for GMRS. He mounted it on the driver's side fender of a pickup truck near the roof pillar. The match was reasonably good on the UHF GMRS frequencies. I've attached the scans I did with it mounted on his truck. Being a 5/8 wave antenna it needs a GOOD ground plane to give acceptable SWR across it's operational range. Antenna Scan Results (CA-2x4SR VHF TRUNK LIP MOUNT).pdf Antenna Scan Results (CA-2x4SR UHF TRUNK LIP MOUNT).pdf

I tested a Diamond CSB7900 and the match wasn't that good. A Diamond SG7500A tested OK on the Ham bands but not good for MURS or GMRS. Maybe with some tweaking It might work. https://forums.mygmrs.com/gallery/image/283-sg7500a-swr-scans-2jpg/ The only antenna I have that works great on Ham, MURS and GMRS is my old trusty Comet CA-2x4MB. Unfortunately they don't make them any more. I have two, one is new in the original packaging. The other one the fold over spring is shot so I have the antenna is permanently fixed in the upright position. Otherwise it still works fine, but it's a huge monster, about 5 feet tall. https://forums.mygmrs.com/gallery/image/282-ca-2x4mb-scansjpg/ https://forums.mygmrs.com/gallery/image/259-ca-2x4mb-jeepjpg/

Most of my stuff is Kenwood. As far as I know only the new NX-5000 series supports P25 Phase 2. All their older radios are Phase 1, including the few I have. No upgrade to Phase 2 that I know of. If somebody wants Phase 2 they have to dump their their old radios. The feature license key to enable P25 on the new radios is almost $600! It doesn’t matter if it’s an HT or mobile, same price. For DMR or NXDN conventional it’s about $40. Yeah, dirt cheap. Trunking is another feature key add-on. The price list attached is for the HT.

Unfortunately the typical user thinks that a licensed frequency grants them exclusive use of a frequency. That might be how it was explained to them when they got the radios. Some will be receptive to an explanation. Others, unfortunately, will tell you to go bugger off and quit using "their" frequency/channel. Their learning experience will be longer and more stressful.

I've given up on that. Ask five people and get five different responses. Most people will recognize the model number. Mentioning the manufacture doesn't convey much information.

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

?

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.