RCM

You need to take on ECRs next: Expensive Chinese Radios. Still made in China, but repackaged with an American name and a price tag to rival that of a new Icom. I think everybody here knows what radio I'm talking about.

Man, I bet it does.

Good points, but not everyone lives/works in an area with such a high noise floor.

Just on the off chance that we don't notice your thread, huh?

And page 17 tells you how to set it.

Did you set the transmit tone?

Anyone here on Zello GMRS channels?

Nope. If the FCC tried to force something like that, I'm pretty sure I wouldn't renew my license. I still like carbureted vehicles, too. Not to mention mechanically injected diesels.

I use the ID-O-Matic, and am a fan. In fact I plan to get a couple more of them.

I've used the marine heat shrink with sealant in it, and it's great. When I want a sealed end, whether with or without the sealant I just pinch the end with pliers while the tube is nice and hot. That welds it closed.

Near threshold is exactly what I was talking about when I said "low power is strong enough to be heard, but is dropping out." In that case the 6db increase from 1 watt to 4 watts can be enough to make a difference.

Yes Mark, the TK-880 is my preferred mobile.

When you mentioned rx diversity on a single tower, I immediately pictured Yagis pointed in different directions.

That's true on vhf and below, and with miniature radios on uhf. But a TK-380 for example is 5-1/4 inches long with an aluminum chassis, so that's very close to a full quarterwave counterpoise. In fact since it has a large cross-sectional area, it probably has enough bandwidth to actually be a full quarterwave electrically.

I would like to add that it generally takes 2 s-units to hear an appreciable difference in signal strength. So as long as your 1 watt is enough to be heard without dropouts, it will take 16 watts to make any real difference. If your signal is readable at a 1 watt "low" setting, there is no reason to switch to "high" power as that will only drain your battery faster. The 4 or 5 watt setting only has any relevance in a case where the low setting is strong enough to be heard, but is dropping out. In my experience, there is zero reason to seek out the 40-50 watt "H" version of a particular mobile radio. It really won't do anything noticeably better than the standard 25 watt radio. But it will use more battery power, get hot faster, and find any substandard connections in your wiring faster than the lower power radio. It will also subject you and any bystanders to more RF exposure. And it is more likely to negatively affect the computer and other electronics in your car or home. That's much more prevalent than you might think, too. The manufacturer of your vehicle or home computer couldn't care less about your 2-way radio activities.

Looks good to me. The only thing I can think of is that being a current model, the programming software might be more expensive than the legacy radios. I don't know that for a fact, though. Just something to look into.

Part 15; same 902-928 as the amateur radio band but at very low power and cannot interfere with any other service (including ham radio). Maximum field strength of 50 uV/M at 3M which is probably about 50-100 milliwatts. Some cordless phones use 902-928. Best way to stay out of trouble is to use the middle of the band since most ham radio use is in the top and bottom 1 MHz. https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/47/15.249 I've seen comments on Youtube and elsewhere to the effect that anyone can just get a 900 MHz mobile or handheld radio and legally start transmitting without a license. That is completely untrue.

Yeah, the 981 has to be set to trunking but you can add conventional channels within that format. You also theoretically have to hex edit to get it into the ham band; fortunately however there is a ham .dat file that you can dump in there as a package that includes all of the ham freqs. Then you can go in and edit to add the tx and rx tones you need. Even simpler than programming an 880 once you get your head around it.

If you have a line on a TK-880H, I recommend that you get it. I'm quite sure you will never regret it. I also recommend the standard TK-880. You can turn the power down internally. The service manual (which is available all over the Internet as a free pdf) shows how to do it. If I were you I would just get a standard TK-880 and set the high power to the minimum that does what you need; whether that be 25 watts, 15 watts or whatever. Then if you are ever able to upgrade your antenna system, you can turn the power down further.

I agree with keeping the power as low as possible. The reason I ask about your existing antenna is a 1/4 wave ground plane on top of your house will probably outperform an omnidirectional gain antenna in your attic. And it's not hard to hide one. I make them out of panel connectors and thin copper wire. A thin 6" wire is almost impossible to spot on a roof, especially if you give the connector a light spray of flat brown or black paint.

We're really limited in how we can help you without a good description of your antenna, its feedline and mounting position.

It takes a KPG-46. Here is the one I bought, and the seller I bought it from: https://www.ebay.com/itm/USB-Kenwood-Programming-Cable-TK-780-TK-880-KPG-46p/152618254912?hash=item2388c1c240:g:JnkAAOSwytJaBd~n I've programmed TK-880s, TK-780 and TK-981s with it. Works perfectly. BlueMax49ers stands behind his cables, too. If you ever decide to get a TK-981 (which I recommend because there are some on ebay now for about the same price as TK-880s) and avail yourself of the 900 MHz repeaters that are in your area, that software and cable will program them too. There is also a really good network of GMRS repeaters in your area, which I'm sure you are already aware.

I'm a fan of the TK-380 as well, and I also have a TK-280 and a couple of TK-481s which are the vhf and 900 MHz versions of the same radio.

I haven't dealt with them, but they look reasonable. I'll extend the same offer to you on the M1225, since gman1971 isn't interested. It's the 40 watt 20 channel version, pre-programmed with gmrs channels, and I'll throw in the programming cable. All for less than used-radios dot com has them listed without the cable.

I don't know about the difficulty of finding silver plated 239/259. In the ham radio world, decent silver plated connectors are by far the most common.