WRTC928

I have read that manufacturers wanted it approved so they could sell the same units in the US and Europe. I have no idea if that's true, but it makes sense. If it's true, the manufacturers wouldn't care if the FM feature goes unused and US users would have no incentive to use it.

Congrats to your mother! Being old is not for the weak.

I'm celebrating by going to an Edgar Allan Poe pop-up speakeasy.

Not that I'm planning to participate in any crimes, but it seems the best solution is just to leave it at home. If they did that, FRS radios could certainly be handy for coordination.

I hadn't thought about loss in the cable causing an artificially high power reading, but now that you mention it...I guess it could. Thanks. None of the antennas I tested are likely to be the one I ultimately end up using, and I have 50' of LMR400 Ultraflex to feed it. There's always going to be some loss. All we can do is keep it to a minimum. As far as I know, anything you can easily coil up and carry is going to have quite a bit of loss at 462 MHz.

Yes, I have driven extensively in the central US with a CB and I hear some traffic on AM but nothing on FM. Others in CB forums have had the same experience. Most (all?) CBs sold in the US today have both AM and FM capability, but it seems that it rarely gets used. I don't count myself as a "user" of FM CB because I just listen. I haven't randomly gotten on CB and announced my presence for several decades. Would someone answer if I did so on FM? I don't know. I use CB almost exclusively to monitor road conditions, and all of that is on AM. My TYT TH-9800 will scan both AM and FM frequencies and I have yet to hear anyone on FM. I have a CB on a separate antenna in case I want to transmit, but I hardly ever do. Mostly I just hear a sh*tshow with occasional business use and highway conditions.

I checked it with a dummy load and got a consistent 18 watts, which is about what I would expect, given the loss due to the duplexer. I'm puzzled about why I get different power readings with different antennas, though. If someone can explain it, please do. I'm still learning.

Sorry, no. I do what @LeoG recommended. It's surprisingly capable for a $25 radio, but it's still a $25 radio. You can't expect everything.

So, if I turn my phone off at my home, it won't be detectable again until I turn it back on?

True, but I was actually thinking of vehicle-mounted radios. When I think of CB, I still think of mobile units. Probably because I'm old.

As far as I can determine, exactly nobody in the US uses FM CB. I would think FM with PL tones would be very good for people traveling in a group. Perhaps they just get FRS radios.

Apparently people rat themselves out via social media pretty frequently. You'd think they'd know better after a few of them got busted, but they keep doing it.

I can see where it might work well for that purpose.

I probably will just out of curiosity.

That wouldn't explain why I got the expected output with the other antennas and more than the advertised power with the Nagoya.

I have the QYT KT-7900D which is a tri-band (140/220/440) rebranded version of the DB25 and the BTech UV-25X4 and it's fully supported by CHIRP. It's not a bad radio for the price, but it has some behaviors I don't like. If you're monitoring more than one channel, whenever any monitored channel breaks squelch, the radio goes to that channel and there's no way to leave it until the squelch closes. I don't care much for that. Also, it scans very slowly; so slowly that it's nearly useless. I ended up programming only channels in the 1.25 meter band and using it as a dedicated 1.25m radio. In that role, it works just fine, since only monitoring channels in one band means I get less unwanted traffic "trapping" me on a channel. As a dedicated GMRS radio, it should also work just fine. You'll probably want to only monitor no more than two channels at a time, though; the quad-watch can get overwhelming. If I were using it for GMRS (which may happen), I'd monitor a couple of my favorite repeaters and leave the other two channels set to something I might want to switch to but not continuously monitor. It does output the advertised 25 watts, which is refreshing. The receive audio isn't the best, and I have to turn the volume pretty high to understand it. Transmit audio seems to be just fine, though. It receives about as well as my other radios. Overall, it's a decent radio for the price. For $90, I really can't complain. Interestingly, it's $11 cheaper than the DB25-G, at least on Amazon, although Radioddity offers some bundles which are less expensive than buying the QYT and accessories separately.

The different terminologies can be confusing, especially when a manufacturer uses something completely different and you have to look it up in a table.

I now have two 50ah LiFePO4 batteries which should work better, but I haven't tried them yet.

They can, but I'm guessing it was because I was using the "cigarette lighter" socket. It's something I got really cheap and they probably cut a few corners. It will crank my car but not my truck, so it's not the greatest starter pack in the world, but it's small and cheap.

I have a 25' telescoping mast from Max Gain Systems and a mount I can attach to the trailer hitch of the truck or RV. It wasn't cheap, but it wasn't prohibitively expensive either.

I've used one to power a base unit in my living room. It wouldn't do the full 50 watts, but it worked fine otherwise.

Would having it turned off make it harder for them to do that?

How do they know the users were GMRS licensees or using GMRS radios? My money would be on FRS, and like @AdmiralCochrane, I'd be more surprised if they didn't use them. It's kind of an obvious tool for quick coordination. And, yes, I have no doubt law enforcement agencies are listening.

Surely there's more to this story. Maybe they all gathered just to hear the siren, but it seems likely it was part of some larger event.

I own the AR-5RM, UV-5r/Bf-f8hp, and AR-152. Quality control can be an issue. I sent back a UV-5r and a 5RM because the batteries wouldn't lock into place and an AR-152 because the audio was extremely low; the replacements were perfectly serviceable. I'm not intentionally abusive to my radios, but I'm not particularly gentle either and they just keep working. I frequently say that Baofengs are better radios than you have a right to expect for the price.