Ian
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Posts posted by Ian
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I think the only think keeping it from getting a part95E cert is the scrambler. Otherwise its no different than some of the other part 95 radios I have.
Easily disabled in firmware. Got potential.
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"The FCC when they approve a cell tower and a cell provider a license, require them to install and maintain a GMRS repeater." Would never every happen. I remember a group of hams who said the same thing about ham radio repeaters to help with RACES/ARES/Skywarn. If cell companies and the FCC weren't willing to work with emergency communications groups (Who by the way, often help those company's by setting up portable cell repeaters) they sure as heck wouldn't want to pay for and maintain GMRS repeaters that could be used by anyone, anywhere, anytime, while being liable for any issues that could come from such operations. The only way they would allow it would be if it was a pay-to-use system which is not allowed by FCC rules.
We'd have to rename it something like "guaranteed minimum radio service." :-P
I've had the same fantasy, but I'm not going to get emotionally involved without a path to agitating for the cause.
Edit: Anonymous delivers, and so do I: https://www.retevis.com/handheld-gmrs-two-way-radio-rt76
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They must have changed it since I posted it as none of that info was there, In fact they had claimed it was 3W output at the time while the picture and their ad showed 8W (The pic still says 8W on it). Thanks for finding the data on them though
Well, they're lying to someone, at this point.
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Update 1: This thing does't seem to have a scan function.
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More's the pity, it's a good looking radio. Reminds me pleasantly of the Xiaomi Mijia handies.
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Just got mine due to the plague. (It's not a long story, but...) First impression: I like it. The orange accents are happy looking, ad the PTT is pleasantly tactile and clicky. The rubber over the headset jack isn't silicone, and won't last forever, but it's held on by a screw and won't be hard to replace... if there are spare parts in ten years. Body is cast aluminum inside. Not very heavy, feels cheap... and then you realize it's got no chassis flex, and it just feels light.
But mostly? This thing's a chonker. Front to back, this is almost 50% thicker than a GD77s. Could be close to an inch and a half thick, but thankfully the edges are rounded. Flashed a codeplug with some local repeaters, and sensible tone codes on the simplex channels, and I'll play with it in a while, but the human factors are fine so far.
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Scientists Create Quantum Sensor That Covers Entire Radio Frequency Spectrum
You heard it here first, folks. (Maybe!). True DC-to-daylight performance is available for the first time in history. The prototype has been tested from 0 - 10^12 Hz.
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Actually, this is relevant here.
https://www.retevis.com/shop/Mobile-GMRS-repeater-RT97-Handheld-GMR-Radio-RT76/
Throw that on a hill with a solar panel, battery, and antenna, and you're in business.
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https://www.retevis.com/shop/Mobile-GMRS-repeater-RT97-Handheld-GMR-Radio-RT76/
Two handhelds and a repeater for $457. Be still my heart!
I think I could use like four of these things, including one for the truck.
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My personal use-case is mostly caravanning, much like what CB would be used for in decades past. Just this last weekend, I had an hour-long conversation while driving on 22-22 (channel 22, 141.3)
I also plug radios into my hearing protection when doing something loud ever since a couple hurricanes ago (chainsaws are loud!).
But generally, lately, I favor FRS radios for the occasional around-the-house or around-the-store thing now, because they're smaller and easier to carry than GMRS or MURS radios I own.
One of these days, I'm putting up a Ventenna and setting up a home base radio doing 40-50 watts and/or a garage repeater, but that's pretty niche utility for me; scanning on handhelds produces basically no traffic around here, and I'm not super hopeful of reaching my neighbors.
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Not yet. Enjoying my MXT-275 in spite of that, though.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VDBrXb44fBc
Trying for an install like this.
Edit: Already bought the parts, just holding out for an antenna I like. The original plan for a fender-mounted Sti-Co covert antenna is on hold pending saving up about $400, and an RF safety evaluation because being in the same plane with 50 watts and a high-gain antenna gives me pause. Yes, the 275 only does 15 watts, but I'm not willing to limit myself to 15 watts in the long term. Now I'm looking at a Meso Customs brake light with NMO mount. Better visibility, AND no new holes in the hullmetal!
Downside is it costs $290. Upside is that it frees me from spending $317 for the covert antenna, or that I could save that for a CB mount at some point in the future.Edit: Hm. A $290 mount and antenna cost about the same as the $317 Sti-Co antenna, come to think of it.
- marcspaz and rdunajewski
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Dunno, but if not it should. The technology exists.
I was sort of imagining a civilianized version of the military radios that share a common backplane a while ago -- something that'd fit in a double-DIN stereo slot, with separate radios, and a shared screen and mic. Seems like it has potential to work really well with an auto-voting mic like you're imagining.
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The UV-5R, containing controls to operate the transceiver, is intended to be held. It's not protected under Nevada's hands-free laws. Whoever initiates the traffic stop might use their discretion to not issue a ticket for a radio on the hip or in a center console as the radio isn't readily accessible, but if you get caught it's probably for taking your eyes off the road to change channel or something.
Most commercial and CB radios (designed for road use) meet those legal requirements, while most ham and Part 95 GMRS radios (designed for operator convenience) do not.
I wonder if you bolted the Baofeng to the dash, while using a battery eliminator…. Or better, bolted the battery eliminator to the dash.
Also, it looks like every Midland except the 105 has channel buttons on the mic. That means every current-production meant-for-GMRS radio that's repeater capable falls afoul of this law.
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Since siting is so important to performance, this is the most exciting newbie repeater project I've seen so far.
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https://handsfreeinfo.com/index-cell-phone-laws-legislation-by-state/
Nevada:
The term does not include a device used for two-way radio communications if:
(1) The person using the device has a license to operate the device, if required; and
(2) All the controls for operating the device, other than the microphone and a control to speak into the microphone, are located on a unit which is used to transmit and receive communications and which is separate from the microphone and is not intended to be held.
So much for my MXT275.
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Well, I can't say I agree on your first point (see below), but, I do agree whole-heartedly with your conclusion.
Agreed. In open space, VHF will travel further, have lower path loss and better building penetration than UHF (See this paper for more information). On the other hand, UHF may actually work better inside a building because of signal splatter and reflection.
Super cool, thanks!
Well, I am sorry if I call BS to the 5 miles on narrowband, portable to portable using GD-77s. I am lucky if I get more than 1 mile using my GD-77 on UHF, and going inside a store, or any building for that matter, the range halves. Even with my base antenna on a Vertex Standard EVX-5300 running just 10W, the GD-77 is deaf hearing the base beyond 2-3 miles while the EVX-5300 can ANY 5W portable at over 11 miles away... that tells you the receiver on those is just garbage. In contrast, the Alinco DJ-MD5 can hear the base at 3 miles pretty much full quiet, the GD77 cannot.
Motorola, even their FRS stuff is hardly a CCR, and I also have a few old bubblepack radios that destroy the GD77 in every aspect (except price)... the first one that comes to my mind is the Midland G11 with removable antenna, which was a pretty nice radio, I still have a few of those lying around, got pretty decent range out of those, the antennas were very well tuned too...
I understand as I've recently lost my Alinco DJ-MD5, it wasn't a Motorola pricetag kind of loss, but it still sucked. I will get another one at some point b/c I like those MD5 radios b/c they are small and have dual band so I can listen to all DMR traffic around town.
My experience with MURS has been the opposite, VHF reaches WAY further than UHF for the same amount of power.
G.
Actually, only one GD-77s. The other is either a Midland MXT275, or an Anytone TERMN-8R. Perhaps they're covering up for the weakness of the GD-77s' front-end filtering with clean output into a low-noise area? I know I don't have any repeaters nearby, the only thing I can hear from here is, occasionally from a hilltop, a Jacksonville repeater automatically ID'ing, so I suspect I'm in an unexpectedly favorable RF environment. Terrain is Florida, so flat as a pancake. I have a few repeaters handy when I go to the beach, but the middle of the state is a dead zone. Also, I'm the only one who ever uses those repeaters in Cocoa Beach, as far as I can tell; I like to monitor them and SARnet when I'm beaching it up.
This place is just a dead zone, for the most part. Every third time I drive by a park, I hear DMR on channel 16. Occasionally a kid with a walkie-talkie after Christmases. But for all I scan, I don't hear much at all.
Edit: Nah, you were right. I just checked the maps, and it's closer to 1.7 miles to the grocery store.
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I hear DTMF tones all over Nebraska on MURS. I looked into it a year ago, and found out that several farms in the area use MURS for a remote monitoring and telemetry system for their crop irrigation systems and water wells. There is also at least one company making MURS remote alarm systems for farm buildings and gates.
MURS is legal for all of those kinds of things, so that's likely what you're hearing.
Most people using MURS for these types of operations do not even know what frequency or band they are using. All they know is that they purchased this wireless thing that lets them know back home when someone opens the pasture gate, and they have another wireless thing that tells them how many gallons per minute the pump is flowing.
Are you thinking of the Dakota Alert gear? I’ve got four of the handies, three bases, and two antennas for them, and I can’t say anything unkind about them other than there should be screwhead-mounting-keyholes on the base for wall mount, and the handies don’t feel super sturdy. They take AA batteries, rechargeable, and are clearly designed for low lifetime cost of operation (you can use Eneloops, and only replace the one bad cell at a time). Proprietary antennas, sadly, but they’re replaceable. No scan function. No big deal. They’re serviceable workaday radios that don’t break the bank designed for rural living, not industrial abuse. I’m tempted to buy a few of their sensors, and build a perimeter around my house, but I know that’s silly and excessive, and it’s an expensive project that’s just for fun.
It’ll wait until I have more hobby budget, though.On that topic, I’m pretty sure my mystery MURS message (there’s a Morse ID somewhere in those recordings...) is farm telemetry. Smack in the middle of Wedgefield Florida, with three big radio towers in view, is some kind of automated telemetry. Either a farmer’s, related to that tower, or maybe beamed down the high-voltage powerlines I’m about to drive under, it really seems like some kind of low-bandwidth M2M machine-to-machine telemetry.
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I’m in the market for another MXT275 in the next several months. Glad I can support the forum while I’m at it.
- kipandlee, Downs and rdunajewski
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Look, I know it’s an objectively bad radio, but it sat at the intersection of a Venn diagram that makes it uniquely compelling to me. Grocery store’s about five miles, and all I’ve known up to this point is bubblepack junk, a couple very nice Radio Shack FRS units, sadly underused, and now with PTT keys gone crunchy and disintegrated disabling otherwise sweet hardware, and Motorola Spirit SV-22 MURS units. Those are my favorite, but they’re heavy and can barely make it to the gas station, because VHF.
I’m not saying that they’re good at receive desnsing, but if you want bad bad, you should look at the Retevis RT-22 and its clones. I’ve never gotten the GD-77 to desense, but those do it at the drop of a hat.
I’m not hugely demanding of simplex comms. If I could find decent FRS, I’d be happy with that… except I have, in the form of the Motorola Sport 7. At this age, only about half of the ones on eBay work, and I’ve bought every one available, and I have two. They’re fantastic. Those Radio Shack ones are smaller, but they use AAAs (though they’ll charge them if you have a 9v adapter) and lack CTCSS, but can be set to any one of 22 channels with the DIP switches, whereas the Motorolas can only do seven channels, (1, 4, 8, 11…) and seven codes chosen more or less at random (set with a dial designed to be wrenched on with a quarter behind the battery compartment).
As for the GD-77, I’ve bowed to interoperability and run it narrowbanded, since most of my fleet is narrowband-only, and only the Talkabout Distances do wideband.
Ultimately, the project for which it was bought was to figure out who the heck was running DMR on channel 16 at the local park. Sadly, either the traffic’s encrypted, or setting up DMR is simply beyond me (for now…).
Still, if I’m carrying only one radio, there’s a good chance that’s the one. After I lost one of my Anytones to a drop, I’m leery about carrying irreplaceable hardware into the field (even if it’s just Home Depot) without careful consideration. Commercial-grade Motos (into which I place even the Sport 7) are reassuring, as is “not irreplaceable”. I have a wealth of good radios to pick from as my needs evolve, and I thank you for your advice on them.
CCRs have their place… which is “close to whoever you need to talk to.”
Midland GMRS Product updates
in Equipment Reviews
Posted
I'm not sure, really the only thing that would need much changing is control logic. Sure, you'd be limited to the power your final amp is good for, but you could get some nice quality-of-life features like two repeaters on one frequency, at least without soldering (if they picked capable enough microcontrollers, at least).