Lscott

When I lived in an apartment years ago I went trash picking around the complex. Surprising how many computers you find that were fully functional and still had stuff on the hard drives! Used parts from some to upgrade others, mostly memory, and sometimes got a new cheap hard drive. Lot of PIII’s, Celerons and a few P4’s. Speed from a few hundred MHz up to a GHz. I loaded various versions of Linux, mostly Fedora at the time, to run on them. I stuck them on my network and let them run 24/7 until they died. Then just built new ones out of the old ones I find.

Also congratulations on passing your extra exam. When the Morse code requirement was dropped I went for the General and the Extra at the same test session and passed. I did get dirty looks from one of the VE's, must have been in his 80's, as I walked out. Oh well.

You sure the "B" key even works? You might have a bad keypad. Try assigning a different function to the "B" key and see if that works. Also what settings do you have under "Optional Features 1" and "Optional Features 2"? I don't have this radio myself but I do have the software installed on my computer. I was helping somebody else out a long while back.

Looks like you have the non MPT model. MTP is a trunking format. The specifications you linked to mentions zones so you might be in luck after all.

I think he’s stuck with the 8180. I just looked for the specifications. https://pdfs.kenwoodproducts.com/28/TK-7180&8180MPTBrochure.pdf

This is why with my Kenwood commercial radios I have two zones, banks, one where all the channels are wide band for GMRS and the other for narrow band for FRS. That was the simple solution for me. If you can’t do this with the popular 805’s, 905’s or 935’s and various GMRS specific mobiles maybe it’s time to look at a good clean commercial radio from Motorola, Kenwood, Icom etc. that has the ability to do it. The radio I frequently carry around for Ham and GMRS/FRS is the TK-3170. I have 6 to 7 zones of channels programmed in it depending on what service I’m operating under and bandwidth. https://pdfs.kenwoodproducts.com/9/TK-2170&3170Brochure.pdf

This is a point that doesn’t get addressed much if at all when recommending a radio. Seems most people focus on the number of memories, can it do spilt tones, does it have repeater access etc. If commonly used features can’t be accessed or changed through the radio’s keypad that might result in the radio being in a practical sense useless. For example I have some very good 16 channel Kenwood LMR radios, but there is noway to change squelch level except through the programming software. I had to pick a level that works for most cases and live with the fact in a low noise environment there will be stations I can’t hear.

Yeah, they might change their mind and leave it $70 since people are paying it and make it official.

That sucks. Some of my favorite Kenwood LMR HT’s I can assign the function OST, operator selectable tone, to it. The programming software allows me to enter about 38 to 40 tones in a table that you can select from using the OST function.

The high gain antenna would be nice BUT the match sucks. That’s leaves the lower gain one. Since this is for a dedicated application, repeater, I wouldn’t worry about the SWR on the 467.xxx frequencies since these are all inputs, you’re not TX’ing on them. The lower SWR on the 462.xxx frequencies is what you need to be watching since those are the repeater outputs.

Unless you need to change the channel parameter(s) because of frequent traveling out of the area then FPP would be an advantage. However if you you the radio in the same general area mostly, if not, all the time then FPP is of very limited value. My Kenwood LMR radios I haven't really found a need to change the programming once it's done except for adding in a new repeater that comes on-line in the area. The only items I seem to have the need to change are tones (almost never), channels scanned (add or delete), power level, zone and squelch level. All of these I have programmed a function key on the front or side panel to do. Most of my radios don't even have a DTMF keypad and I don't miss it.

What is the goal? You want one antenna for Ham and GMRS or just one of the two?

Those are interstitial channels that sit between the main high power repeater output channels. That has the potential to cause interference to them. The low power is intended to minimize it. For example channel 1, 462.5625 MHz, sits between channel 15, 462.5500 MHz, and channel 16, 462.5750 MHz. If you check the remaining channels 2-7 you'll see a similar situation. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Mobile_Radio_Service

Yes, there is that pesky Line-A, and a Line-C too. There are people who have no experience with two way radios of any kind and likely have no idea what channel 19 is and what service. Using the same channel on GMRS as on CB only makes sense if you have knowledge of CB radio. That's likely why people are coming to this forum asking what is the GMRS road channel, they have little to no prior experience. Some have even suggested using channel 16, 4 x 4 = 16 because you're driving a 4-wheel drive, as a logical reason. By the way 16 is the VHF marine emergency call channel too. I'm sure others can cook up other "logical" reasons to pick a different channel.

Since the radio spectrum is controlled by the FCC, through an act of Congress, that would be under Federal Control. So how would a local PD think they can get away with enforcing a law, FCC regulation, they don't have any statuary power to be involved enforcing? It would be like the local PD demanding to see your Ham and or GMRS license. As far as I know they only person you must show it to is a official of the FCC with proper identification being shown.

That would be a good idea for the IRS to try, pay your income tax once. Likely won't happen. The government is addicted to tax money or fees, never seems to get enough of it, always wants more.

I have the original FT-817 version. It's modifier for expanded frequency coverage. I carried it around for a while out on the road for company business many years back. I would ask for a hotel room on the top floor if possible. At the time all I had was a Tech Class license so my contacts were sort of local but made some decent ones on 2 meter sideband out from 50 to 80 miles at times. I used a small Ho_loop mounted on a camera tripod, short length of RG-58 coax using BNC connectors. https://www.m2inc.com/FG2MHOLOOP For 6 meters I had a telescoping whip, like on the old TV rabbit ear antennas, mounted on a plate with wire radials for a ground plane. The photo shows a Comet UHV-4 quad band antenna installed on the plate. I have several different length wires for the ground radials depending on the band being used. https://cometantenna.com/amateur-radio/mobile-antennas/ma-multi-band-hfvhfuhf/ The main negative point with the FT-817 and 818 is the tuning range. It won't go above 154 MHz so no NOAA weather RX.

Have you looked at the FT818? https://www.dxengineering.com/parts/ysu-ft-818

Marc, all opinions are welcomed. I think the main point about your experience is VHF radio is great, BUT it’s line-of-sight so if you’re out of range you’re basically screwed. UHF radio is no different. At 20 miles that’s a lot of distance to cover. Thinking about it I’m surprised that nobody came looking for you after a day not reporting back in. At least you didn’t mention it. In an emergency people should try to keep track of each other in their group. At least checkin with others and if you don’t hear anything a plan to find out why.

TETRA is a 4 slot TDMA so it can do 4 effective 6.25KHz channels on a 25KHz wide one.

NXDN and P25 both use the AMBE+2 codec so If you like how NXDN sounds it should be the same audio quality on P25.

I believe P25 Phase 2 is TDMA for trunking systems only. I don't believe it is used for any simplex communications. That is fine with me since the two radios I have are Phase 1 only and my use would be on Ham radio. With luck the public safety agencies will all switch to Phase 2 and dump their Phase 1 radios. The old Phase 1 radios may show up more frequently on the used market for reasonable prices. I've also seen a few references on RadioReference.com where NXDN was used by a few schools. For DMR, sooner or later I think we'll see it as a legal mode on GMRS. A close relative to DMR is TETRA. I don't think that's used anyplace in the US. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terrestrial_Trunked_Radio

As a general procedure I don't use RX tones, including with repeaters, except in VERY rare cases. If you're open to hearing all traffic on the frequency mysterious interference may turn out to be simply other activity on the frequency you didn't hear due to the tone being used.

True. The thread is getting away from the original goal. I think what is valuable is what people really did during an emergency that worked or didn't work. I specifically mentioned GMRS but it doesn't have to be strictly about it. I put it in the header since this is primary a GMRS forum so I figured it's more likely people will have experiences to share and recommendations on what if anything they would do different next time around. Cell service may not always be available so using a two-way radio is the next best option. However I don't want to give people the idea if cell service is working to ignore it in preference to using their radio. We have to be practical. For example Marc's story about be stranded 20 miles out at sea on a sand bar with a dead boat. It's fortunate he made a contact on his marine radio and got help. But lets say he had a sat-phone. He could have had help likely in a few hours.

Interesting. I was totally unaware that such a thing existed, radio silence periods. Thanks.