RCM

The 1 watt makes no difference that you would be able to hear. The first thing I would check is that both radios are set to the same bandwidth, wide or narrow. Next thing is have your friend try a different antenna.

There is a usb cable for the TK880. No serial adapter needed. Here's the one I have: https://www.ebay.com/itm/USB-Kenwood-Programming-Cable-TK-780-TK-880-KPG-46p/152618254912?hash=item2388c1c240:g:JnkAAOSwytJaBd~n There are also cheaper ones on ebay, but this particular seller was recommended to me and it is the one I have direct experience with.

I literally laughed out loud when I read this. When I first got my gmrs license, I was tempted by Midland's marketing hype. And it looked like such a neat little radio. However, after I did my due diligence I decided against buying one. I'm really happy about that decision, too. Had I bought one, it would undoubtedly be sitting in the very back of a high shelf right now. I would probably not want to give away something I paid $250 for, nor would I want to take advantage of a newbie by actually taking money for something that I knew would handicap him from the beginning. As for commercial radios failing, I've seen radios selling for $40 shipped that are way better than an MXT400. Even at double that price, you could buy three of them and a programming cable for the price of one MXT400. The software can be found as a free download, especially for Kenwoods. My first gmrs radios were Kenwood TK-805s. With those you don't even need software: remove two screws, pop off the top cover, move a jumper, then power it up while holding a certain key sequence to enter programming mode. This allows you to program everything on the radio. The factory service manual (available as a free download) details exactly how to do it. When finished, power it down and back up and it's ready to operate. You can either leave the jumper in that position for future field programming, or move it back to the locked position. It doesn't affect radio operation, either way. And, the TK-805 (like most of the Kenwoods) is part 95e accepted, so it is 100 percent legal for gmrs. I bought several of them. I'm using one of them as the transmitter in my repeater. I'm thinking about putting up another repeater, and will probably use two of them for that. None of them have failed. In fact, one of them was caked with dried soup or something when I got it. It worked fine, but it was ugly and some of the buttons would stick because of the caked-on goo. So I used soapy water and an old toothbrush to scrub it clean. After that it was good as new, and still is. So, if you prefer to rely on the warranty from a proven (to be deceptive and misleading, that is) company, so be it. But I would rather have the better and less expensive commercial radios, and use the money I save to buy more of them. If one ever fails, it will just become a parts radio. ETA: I just looked on ebay and found a few TK-805s on there for around $60 each. I also found lots of TK-880s for around the same price, including one seller who has 5 TK-880s for $55 each buy it now with free shipping, and a "make offer" option. You could probably get all five for $50 each, for $250 total. That's the price of one MXT400. A programming cable is about $12. The TK-880 can also be set up for field programming if that's important to you, but it holds up to 250 channels so field programming is not necessary for most folks. Just enter the eight repeater pairs as many times as you need to get all the tone combinations you need.

I probably would have tried to reach it, announce my callsign, and ask permission to use it if anyone replied.

Yeah, that should do fine.

The fact that the MXT400 is narrowband only would put it out of the running for me even if everything else were the same. Even if that were not the case and there was no price difference, the TK880 is so much better than the MXT400 that it really defies comparison. To begin with, the MXT400 has 23 channels according to the advertising I have seen. So what do you do if your travels take you within range of three different 462.600 repeaters? With the TK-880 you could program all of the simplex frequencies all with one PL tone (or a different one for each) and set up the monitor button to bypass the tone when desired. Then program the 8 repeater pairs 29 times, each with a different access tone. Bypass those tones as needed too, and set up one of the buttons as talkaround to get simplex on those frequencies. Basically you can set it up to work with every single repeater you would ever encounter, and have it scan all of them continuously. And that's just one feature it has over the Midland. Oh and BTW, each of those channels can be set up as wide or narrow, so if one of the repeaters you run across is narrowband (never seen one, but it's possible) you can optimize it for that too. There's much more, but those features make it geometrically better than the Midland in my opinion.

Anyone seen this? https://amzn.to/2WgaY7t Looks like there is finally another mobile to challenge the Midland (also Chinese) radios. Its specs look better than the MXT400, and it costs less to boot.

Have you seen this? http://www.dxinfocentre.com/tropo_eur.html I think you're in Florida, right? If so you might want to try shooting along the coast. ETA: with your directional antenna, that is.

Well, NVIS is regular F layer propagation. Also, 400+ MHz is not VHF. I don't dispute aurora propagation, nor meteor scatter propagation for that matter. I'm just saying you're using incorrect terminology, which would not be a big deal except that NVIS is a thing, and what you are experiencing ain't it. I'm not trying to be a pain either, but NVIS is one of my favorite types of radio propagation and one I have used quite a bit.

It has. In fact when I studied for my Extra exam, we still had Morse code requirement. Also when I was using NVIS propagation on 160 Meters with a buried antenna. In fact, that is a good test: dig a post hole and put a directional UHF antenna (a Yagi for example)in it, pointed straight up. If you can't still get at least 100 miles out of it, it ain't NVIS. In fact, try it on 27 MHz too and report back. Or just take a road trip to the nearest canyon and try 27 MHz there. I can definitely talk out of a canyon on 75 Meters, using NVIS. 10/11 Meters, not so much.

NVIS usually maxes out below 10 MHz and pretty much never reaches into low VHF and never reaches into UHF. If this were not so, satellite communications would be impossible. NVIS occurs at and below the frequency that a radio signal directed straight up is reflected back to earth instead of penetrating the ionosphere.

Yep. A tenth of the radio (if even that), at easily 3 times the price of a nice TK880.

I don't doubt that you made the 300+ mile contact, but it wasn't NVIS. If the MUF reached UHF, the radiation would fry us all! Probably tropo ducting.

True except for ham radio, where you can use anything that meets purity and bandwidth specs for whichever band you are using. So if you had such a radio (and a ham license of course), you could legally use it on 6M, 2M, 1.25M, 70cm, 33cm, 23cm, 2300-2310 MHz, and 2390-2450 MHz. As for GMRS, any radio that was originally Part 95 classified and still meets original specs would be legal.

Thanks for the info!

Exactly right. In fact you could be talking to your brother on the radio and both use just your callsign, nothing more. Perfectly legal.

Since you have the tuner, you have nothing to lose by trying it. The high swr does increase feedline loss, but if it works there is no reason not to use it.

My repeater is open to all licensed operators who operate according to the laws governing GMRS. Users don't have to email and ask permission; however I appreciate those that do, as it gives me a chance to get to know the users of my machine. It's just a courtesy thing.

Call it whatever you like, but antennas with greater gain also have greater effective area which increases received signal strength. When you double or quadruple the size of the antenna you pick up more noise and more of the desired signal equally.

Point a Yagi antenna at a weak signal, then turn the antenna away and see what happens to the signal. You won't need high dollar test equipment to hear the difference.

Gain works both ways. RX as well as TX.

Depends on the terrain. In a mountainous area for example, more gain is not necessarily better.

Good points. I doubt the FCC will be revisiting GMRS rules anytime soon. They actually did a lot of good with their 2017 updates, and it has given the service a much needed infusion of new blood by easing some of the previous restrictions as well as making the license itself more affordable. And yes, they did make a couple of rule changes that make little sense and pretty much (theoretically at least) kill the market for good quality new radios. But, then they compensated by making that statement about being aware of (and apparently not too concerned about) GMRS ops using Part 90 radios. Which supports the points you made above. I figure if they give a hoot about FPP-capable Part 95 radios (which they obviously don't on radios made before 2017, or they would not have granted type acceptance), they have thousands of users with non-type-accepted Baofengs to wade through before turning their attention to it. I also figure anyone who contacts them to ask about it will get whatever answer they figure is most likely to make the questioner go away and leave them alone.

The + or - is from the receive frequency, not transmit. On GMRS the transmit is + 5 MHz from the receive frequency. That is also common usage on 70cm ham radio, but some repeaters do not use that standard.

Whatever. We already know that you can't correctly quote rules even after two tries (and leave out pertinent statements in those rules); that TK-805Ds are type accepted for part 90 and 95, that according to factory literature the TK-805D was shipped with FPP enabled (and that it is therefore not a modification), that the rules concerning GMRS were rewritten after production of most if not all Kenwood part 95 approved radios had ceased, and that part 95 type classification was not revoked on those existing radios. Therefore, whatever conclusion you claim is irrelevant. If you want to come up with some kind of legal interpretation to prove that only Midland mobiles are legal on GMRS, so be it. Good luck convincing anyone else that they should give up their much better radios.