WSDA306

They are all pretty new, bought them recently. The Zastone X6 is the oldest, got it before Covid, maybe even 2 years before covid so not exactly sure on that one. But I never used it as I read it wasnt in scope because of the 3 watt output. But I like the audio quality so much and the clarity I decided to buy a few newer ones to see how they were.

I also cant hear anything on this stream but I am curious why looking at the Activity log there are zero nodes or networks in my current state which is Alabama.

All of my FRS radios are programmed with these exact same settings in Chirp. Except for the TD-M11 which has 22 channels, and the only reason really I did this is so they could all talk to my GMRS radio. I figured, if I ever needed to hand out some radios to "some people" on a road trip, or camping, that are not in my family, I could give them one of these. But they did not come this way. And my GMRS is programmed like this although I have some other frequencies in higher channels that are simply for listening that are HAM. Thanks for the detailed reply.

I dont think so, until I bought my GMRS TD-H3 all of the radios I had purchased were from different sellers on Amazon, and my first walkie/talkie was the zastone X6 which was and still is a bit illegal because it transmits using 3 Watts, but the others are within the proper wattage, but they all including the Retevis had 16 channels but weird frequencies. The TidRadio M11 had 22 channels and the frequencies were mostly correct from what I remember. The FCC lists 22 channels for FRS, but a lot of these radios I had only do 16, in fact all of them except for the TD-M11 which has 22. Now, I dont know if it will even let me program in the other channels that are in that 22 channel/freq list posted by the FCC. I doubt it because the channel has a voice prompt that goes with it, and I think the voice is only recorded by the China boys to go up to 16 so I doubt I can add more channels to make up the 22. https://www.fcc.gov/wireless/bureau-divisions/mobility-division/family-radio-service-frs (click on the data tab) Thanks for the detailed response though.

Good to know. I should have figured that out just looking at the chart, but makes sense.

Few observations/questions about programming my GMRS and FRS radios. A. May be a dumb question but, why do all the radio manufacturers put freq 462.5500 as channel 15 since its a lower freq than 462.5625 (channel 1). Seems like it should be channel 1, Same for every channel after that freq 16-22. B. In programming my radios, I have 4 different brands of FRS (16 channel, essentially the same radio, Zastone X6, Retevis R22, Baofang T20) + TidRadio M11 22ch. And also my TD-H3 which is GMRS. The reason, these china radios all come preprogrammed with the wrong frequencies, and I want them all to be able to talk to each other. I have programmed them all and they all now talk to each other but Im not sure exactly what this NFM/FM is. I put all of the FRS radios as NFM like this chart shows, and my GMRS as either FM or NFM. C. Also looking at this chart, it seems the FCC decided not to give GMRS it's own frequency space, essentially it's the same as FRS, so the only thing you get by purchasing a GMRS license is the ability to broadcast in higher power and connect to a repeater? D. The FCC page says that the authorized bandwidth for GMRS is either 12.5 or 20Khz. However when I read in the data for my GMRS radio into Chirp, there is no setting for the bandwidth. Is this set automatically?

Actually I remember what it was I was looking at now. It's on the chirp home page, if you search TD-H3, there are people posting comments, some of them address the changes and also the issues. I realize though that this is not the place where the actual firmware is updated but some of these people are in direct communication with TidRadio and they have some info about what changed. https://chirpmyradio.com/projects/chirp/search?utf8=✓&scope=&issues=1&q=TD-H3&wiki_pages=1&issues=1&changesets=1

I found one somewhere, a page where people had access to the code and were making suggestions but now I cant find it. But thanks, yes, I've watched every video including those you just posted on Youtube. But I keep checking Youtube also.

Is there a page somewhere that shows what the updates are for the firmware versions, using the GMRS version myself but Im curious it seems everywhere I look there is no mention of this. I've kept my radios up to date with the latest firmware but I have no idea what is being fixed. Also, I am curious about picking up CB chatter, I cant seem to hear anything but static on any of the CB frequencies, not matter what antenna I use. Would specifically like to listen to channel 19 when I am traveling.

I checked it out, thats a nice tool, and it does show me where I can reach that tower quite well.

Thanks, I'll check it out.

Sorry, been busy and havent had time to get back on this forum, Im on the edge of Meridianville and Huntsville Al. Unfortunately although I love my new house, I picked a location that was in an area that has a large deadzone from the nearest repeater. I did drive over close to this repeater the other day and got a response back, when I keyed up but yeah, I think there are mountains blocking it to my house.

"Might not actually be on the repeater. " - Yes, I was considering that. it could have just been someone driving by where I live. Also, have another question though regarding repeaters, Im guessing it is true that just because a repeater reaches me doesnt actually mean that I am close enough to it. Is that correct? Which would mean I have to be pretty much within a mile or so of any repeater to TX to it from my handheld. Or is that not correct. It seems if that were the case then you could never talk to anyone through a repeater unless you were both within a couple of miles, not because the repeater cant reach but because the handhelds being used cant actually transmit that far.

So I heard a conversation happening on my TD-H3 today while I was doing a scan, nice people girl and a guy, the channel showed as 30, RPT 8 (default GMRS channel). I have looked up all the repeaters in my area and there are only a few. I live in a fairly decent sized city. 500K population in the metro area. 200K in the city itself. Unfortunately all of the repeaters in my vicinity that are listed although their power/distance show me to be well within range, there is a lot of hills and small mountains that block the signal to my house from the one repeater that is closest. However Im curious, given that I heard some chatter on this repeater Im wondering how I would find out about it, I looked it up, that freq for my city and it basically found an old post saying it was run by an angry guy that would cuss anyone out on the air tell people to get off his repeater. This repeater, sounds like it would work for me since it's the first one in my area that I found that I heard chatter on. Also, that post about that guy was from 8 years ago so I doubt it's the same guy. So Im wondering should I just try using it and see what happens. I actually got permission to use one repeater in my area, then found out I wasnt in a direct line of sight to it even though it's not that far.

The radio I am using is the TD-H3, it will let you listen to pretty much any frequency outside of GMRS and add it to your custom channel positions. Except for 31-54 apparently. Any channels that are not GMRS specific I only listen to. Trying to get a sense of what is happening in this area on radio chatter and unfortunately, even though I live in a fairly decent size city, there is almost no GMRS talk going on. And the stuff that there is is mostly people actually exchanging information about whatever it is they are doing which usually isnt anything I want to hear. So I put in HAM channels into my chirp list so I can hear some of the net groups in the area.