Lscott

That's true, but they still must have a valid US mail address on file in the ULS. That could be nothing more than a P.O. box here.

I would tend to agree. If the Canadians do end up trying to use the repeater as long as they act responsibly I would just let it be. It's up to their government to enforce their rules.

This is a bit of a off beat topic. In the past week or so a new GMRS repeater went operational. https://mygmrs.com/repeater/6815 As you can see it has wide coverage zone, including the Windsor Canada area. The issue here are the Canadians also have a GMRS service, BUT it's unlicensed and they have NO access to repeaters. If you read the rules it's more like our FRS service. With the coverage zone of the US repeater reaching most of the city of Windsor Canada sooner or later I expect some stations from the Canadian side will try to access the repeater. They would have to use non Industry Canada approved radios to do this. My questions are several. First, if this does occur will the Canadian government go after the stations in Canada, or just ignore it since it's not really their problem? After all the repeater is in the US. Second, do we as legal GMRS operators in the US allow it and even engage in communications with Canadians? To facilitate their use what do we do if anything when a Canadian station tries to spoof a US call sign in an attempt to make it appear the communications are on the US side? Third, as legal GMRS operators in the US when in Canada do we bet against the house and try to use the repeater too? There is no cross licensing agreement for GMRS with Canada, there is one for Ham Radio, since their service is unlicensed. I'm pretty sure what the legal answers are, but from a piratical point of view what do you think?

I'm getting more truckers are using their cell phones instead. So what do they do when out of range of a cell tower?

A Bird watt meter is one of the items on my bucket list of test equipment to buy. So far all the ones I've seen are either beat to crap, priced way too high or have the crummy SO-239 connectors. I know they can be changed out but why bother if I can get one with "N" type already installed. I'm interested in the power meter because the Ham grade ones I don't trust to be all that accurate. With the low power slugs, like a 5 watt one for HT's, for the Bird even a 5% full scale error isn't that bad. A 10% error, of full scale reading, on a 20 watt scale for a Ham grade power meter is 2 watts. That's nowhere near good enough when you're checking a 4/5 watt HT. https://birdrf.com/Products/Test and Measurement/RF-Power-Meters/Wattmeters-Line-Sections/RF-Wattmeters/43_General-Purpose-Wattmeter.aspx

The little buggers are like dandelions. You get get the first one, then another, before you know it you have a big collection of them all over the place.

And if you asked if he had any "Dave Made" he likely would have asked you how many watts.?

There are some set screws where the bottom element slides into the base. Just loosen those and slide the entire antenna down a bit to raise the frequency. DON'T mess with any of the other elements. I've ran some SWR sweeps on the one I have and a buddy with one on a lip mount for the hood on his pickup truck. The match can vary significantly with the mount type and location. I would be VERY suspicious of the SWR reading changing with power level, it shouldn't. That could be due to the output of the radio generating a lot of harmonics at the higher power, or the SWR meter itself isn't functioning right. I would recommend you try another SWR meter, another manufacture if possible, and see if you get the same behavior. As a side note this issue,with changing SWR reading with power level, is something I've read about online from other people who have this model.

I once saw an old tube tester in a wood case at the Salvation Army store near my house for about $17. Went back the next day and it was already gone. I guess it's in somebody else's antique electronics collection now, or on eBay selling for $150.

Looks like the popularity of GMRS has picked up around the Detroit area here. We have several more open repeaters go active, some with large coverage zones, 20 to 25 mile radius. I'm curious with GMRS gaining traction with the general public how are the over-the-road truckers doing with it if anything? I don't expect to see 11-meter CB going away for a long time, if ever, but maybe more truckers installing two radios, CB and GMRS. The antennas are small and allowing to legally run 50 watts on the main channels with access to repeaters it could be attractive.

That might be a better choice for the moment. Get a cheap GMRS specific radio and experiment with programming it. Once you feel comfortable with the basic concepts then you can move up to a commercial type radio. That’s what many people do. The commercial radios have a significant learning curve if you never programed one before. They have a multitude of options that you may or may not want or need. Trying to figure it all out from scratch is not for everybody. It took me a while even through I had done Ham specific radios before. The commercial radios were different enough I spent some time reading the help files in the programming software and experimenting. If all you want is just a plug and play radio then having a radio shop program it is the way to go. However if you’re the type that wants to get your head wrapped around the idea there is nothing like trying it yourself. Of course you’ll make mistakes, but hey if you didn’t you likely won’t learn anything.

If it isn't from an authorized dealer or the manufacture then it's pirated software. The Kenwood stuff isn't too hard to find from various sites without somebody trying to make money off of selling the software they likely got for free elsewhere. You'll have to look around for it. There is one source where a "Ham friendly" dealer doesn't seem to have a problem supplying older versions of Kenwood software if you ask nicely. There is also a lot available in the files section. You do have to register to join the group and there is no cost involved either. You'll likely will need to register first before the following link will work. https://groups.io/g/radioprogramming/files Sample screen shot of top level folders for the above.

I have mostly Kenwood stuff. For the most part finding the programming software for the older radios wasn't overly difficult. I've had much better luck with Kenwood verses Motorola. I have a few Motorola radios. It took a bit of searching but I did find the version of the software I needed. The ones I have are more "picky" about building the code plugs. If the version of the radio's firmware changes most likely the the code plug will as well meaning you to have to rebuild it. With Kenwood that seems to be rather rare. Also some of the really old radios you absolutely will require a computer running DOS to load, run and program the radios. I would avoid those. There are several issues with buying used commercial radios. One you're never sure if the radio works. If it looks beat to crap be careful. Even very good looking radios may have failed the output stage resulting in little to no power on TX. I've also had a few with nasty audio issues on RX. Make sure the seller has a return option. A few had even the center pin in the antenna socket busted out. Look over all of the photos VERY closely. Second double check the frequency range of the radio! UHF radios come in a number of frequency ranges. You might find one at a good price but it only covers 400 MHz to 430 MHz, or something like 470 MHz to 520 MHz, as examples, useless for Ham and GMRS. I've seen a lot of sellers get the description wrong. Don't rely on it. The best way to check is look at the photos and get the FCC ID. There are places on the Internet where you can look it up which will show you the FCC "Grant" showing the tested power levels and frequency ranges. Third, another reason to check the FCC ID, a few sellers are trying to dump non US/North American radios, which may not even have the ID! Trying to find software for a non US radio has proven hard to find. If the seller can't or won't show you the tags on the back of the radio showing the FCC ID, serial number and model type stay away from it. I've seen one where the serial number part of the tag was obviously removed, Dah, I wonder why!? Last, and this is a big one, be absolutely sure the radio does NOT have any passwords set!!! There are typically two, one prevents the programming software from reading out the contents, not a big problem, and the second is the write password. It's the write password that will completely block you from ever reprogramming the radio. In that case you have an expensive brick. To guard against this again make sure the seller has a money back policy in this case. Finding the special "Engineer" version of the programming software, which normally only the dealer or the service depot has, may not be easy to find and is some cases not available PERIOD.

Thanks for the measurements. Too bad the antenna isn't that great on the Ham 70cm band, but then it wasn't designed for it either. It's a bonus that it works as well as it does on 2M.

Another one. KG-UVD1 Service Manual.pdf

I’ve found a few over the years. Or sure how accurate they are. SCHEMATIC Baofeng UV-5R.pdf TH-9800 Schematics.pdf PCB Layout.pdf

I’ve heard they are wide banded and popular with scanner users. This is the first I’ve seen an SWR sweep of one.

I would be interested in seeing them. Sometimes antennas perform better than the manufacture's specifications.

Do you have any reliable SWR measurements you made for the various bands/frequencies used?

Welcome to the club!

Kenwood radios can be setup for wide or narrow band. That is based on which version of the software is used to program a particular radio. The older radios had software that allowed one to select either wide or narrow band. Nothing special was required other than a valid installation key. Newer radios it's more complicated. There are so-called "Engineer's" keys used to install the software that allows, among other things like password removal, to select wide or narrow band. Newer version of the software Kenwood has disabled the use of the Engineer's keys. For those if you search around there are "wide band" keys used during software installation that allows wide and narrow band. You can likely order, buy, the key from a Kenwood dealer along with the software. For some of the radios there are cracked or "Lab" versions that allow even more features than even the Engineer's keys allowed. Anything preceded by an asterisk is a special cracked feature that was enabled. For example in the sample photos I show what one can do. I even used it to recover the trunking system info from a used NX-200 VHF NXDN digital radio I purchased from eBay using the service function. This is something you should NOT be able to do without getting a "System Key File" from the owner of the trunking system! On another site forum a repeater owner said it wasn't possible when somebody asked. I posted the same photo there too.

Just looked. I think this is what you want to use. https://www.winhelponline.com/blog/view-winhelp-hlp-files-windows-10-with-winhlp32-exe/

I forget where but there is a file you can down load from Microsoft that allows you to open and read the old type help files. Just note even with the utility you can’t directly open the help file from within the radio programming application. I ended up just creating a link to the help file itself and setup Windows to use the utility to open it.

I would leave it alone. To trim a dual band antenna for another frequency involves more that just shorting the radials. I would recommend you look for a GMRS specific base antenna. Members here have some very good recommendations they can offer.