Willie

So I think I'm beginning to see a trend here. 1) CB is for citizens to talk to other citizens whether they know each other or not. 2) GMRS is for co-workers / family / friends to talk to each other IF they know each other, but not to be mixed between the categories. ("Don't cross the streams." ~ Egon Spengler, PhD) 3) HAM is for talking to random strangers. Is that about right? Give me a minute to grab a snack... I've still got a lot to learn here.

Just like many will never read an owners manual for a product they've purchased. But they are still provided one none the less on the off chance that someone who cares enough to truly search for answers will be able to find them there. Otherwise you end up with 100% of the newbies asking the same questions over and over again and that aggravates "some people". Either someone is willing to help, or they're not. And that includes the person asking the questions. If you aren't willing to make an effort to try to help yourself, then don't waste other peoples time asking them to do it for you. ($0.02)

TMI brother...

Amateur radio (HAM) is where you will get buried in acronyms. GMRS follows more of a KISS (keep it simple stupid) methodology. There is a bit of it when it comes to the technical stuff but no where near as much as HAM. GMRS is just more "chill". At least in my novice opinion.

And it should be a sticky at the top of the main page so it's easily found. IMHO.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bHb5CFGYz1A

Kinda sounded to me like he planned on leaving voluntarily.

Here is the official definition of a HAM radio "station" from Part 97. The station consists of the equipment used - not it's location. Just like licenses are issued to an individual and not a location. People are licensed not the "station".

Perhaps we need some more emojis added to the collection eh?

I appreciate the tips guys but I'm not really worried about it. The HAM bands around here seem to be pretty much dead all day long except for the morning commute and the evening rush when the same few guys are chatting to each other on their drive to and from work on their mobile radios. Other than that it's pretty much it. Not really my cup of tea. I get much more use out of GMRS and MURS with the family than I ever would with anything else. Back in the day when I was young and in a CB club, that was fun with all of it's 23 AM channels and maybe 12 members but those days are long gone now of course. I'm happy with where I'm at now. But I can still scan through the HAM bands now and then if the mood strikes me. It's all good.

Wow. I've never had that happen before. Although it used to be the TIG welder in my basement shop would cause my wife's computer upstairs to screech like a wounded banshee whenever I would start an arc with the torch. The high frequency of the arc start found it's way back through the welder mains wiring into our electrical service panel and then up into the upstairs wiring. Crazy stuff. I put a couple of large ferrite beads on the wiring to the welder receptacle and it seems to be choking out the HF from the mains now.

I'm not knocking the radio in any way mind you. I love the little guy. I'm just saying that I'm restricted to using a HT here at home. City ordinances prohibit any exterior antennas. Even satellite dishes have to be hidden from view from the street. If they did allow antennas here I couldn't put one up anyway because I am an amputee and can't operate a ladder anymore. Can't win for losing.

Yes I spent plenty of time pushing, pulling and tweaking on the Kenwood K1 plug trying to see if I could get a connection. No success holding it firmly against the radio either. What I suspect is a bad connection to one or both of the data lines inside the radio going to the jack(s). I say this because I also bought one of the cheap headsets (earbud & lapel mic) when I bought the radios as a way to not disturb the rest of the family late at night while I'm futzing around with them. On both radios this headset works just fine, both earbud and mic. The audio signals are getting through so it has to be the data lines are the issue here. If the radios were out of warranty I wouldn't have any qualms about opening them up and having a go at the problem, but these are fresh out of the boxes soooooo.... On a side note I originally thought there was a problem with both radios because they would only transmit on the lower area of the display when using the lapel mic. Using the PTTs on the radios however worked normally upper and lower. I recall seeing something somewhere about the user manuals not working under certain conditions. Yup, guilty as charged.

Yeah, I'm afraid it's not looking good. I've been sitting up all night downloading the Wouxun software and installing it. Using a Wouxun PCO-001/PCO-009 cable too. With the Wouxun cable and software I ended up back in the very same spot. Reads and writes to radio #1 just fine but won't communicate with radio # 2 at all, just like the rt systems software and cable. Disappointed to have to ask to return it because that is the only thing that doesn't work right on the second radio. But having to program everything with only the keypad would bum me out even more.

I've got 2 new KG-Q10G radios that I'm trying to program via the rt systems software and associated rt cable. Purchased directly from rt systems. Software install went perfectly. Com port was found and identified. Opened a new file, downloaded radio #1, made my changes in the file and saved it. Uploaded the new file to radio #1 and again everything went perfectly. Moved on to radio #2. Software will not communicate with radio #2. Went back to radio #1 and everything worked perfect again. I've tried rebooting the computer several times and I did a full reset on radio #2. The software will still not communicate with radio #2 but works every time on radio #1. Both radios work perfectly fine on their own. I can program both from the keypad with no problems. I can't imagine it's a problem with the software or the cable because it works every time on radio #1. Am I missing something or is one of my new radios defective? I've got other misc radios and software and have never experience this kind of problem before between radios. Please just let it be user error!

Yes I know there are a number 'good' HAMS out there somewhere. Just very few of them around my area. There is only one repeater near me and it seems to be maintained by a group of 3 or 4 guys that consider it as their own even though it is listed as a 'public' repeater. They don't want any newbies touching their golden calf. It'sez minezess precious! I've only got a little Yaesu VX-6R HT to work with and there is very little activity around here. Not much happening without the only repeater I can hit. MEH. Yes my KG-Q10G has the 22 GMRS channels and 8 repeater channels with channels 8-14 locked down to 0.5 watt per the regs.

Yes, that was the point I was trying to get at, but I'm not good at getting across what is rattling around in my head down to my fingers on the keyboard sometimes. The dreaded PEBKAC error. You stated it much more succinctly - thank you. I have never seen anyone give a good answer to that before, but now it makes perfect sense to me. Thanks again. Just for a bit of background I went out and got myself a HAM license (tech) a few years ago. Bought myself a handheld to get started. I've used the PTT a total of three times on a HAM frequency. The first two resulted in short pleasant conversations with a couple of locals. The third time caught the attention of THE local SAD HAM and I haven't touched the radio since. (Reasons.) I've been watching the "queen's" video's for some time now, not only for the information shared but for the gut busting humor and sarcasm. Pure genius IMHO. Anyway... I'm looking to replace my old Motorola Distance DPS handhelds with something more inline with the new FCC's rules I've had my GMRS license for several years now and got a hankering to use it again after watching all those "U-Tubes" videos. And yes, I'll be blaming you when the credit card statement arrives with new radios on it and wife sees it.

I am having a hard time understanding why some new type accepted GMRS handhelds have removable antennas and others do not. Why is that? I found this under § 95.1787 GMRS additional requirements. I've been looking at the Wouxun KG-Q10G radios and see they have a 'fixed' antenna. Is the only reason for that merely because it is equipped with GPS location tracking and thus falls under "digital data transmissions"? Looking at the Wouxun KG-935G Plus as well that has a 'removable' antenna but no GPS function. Is that the reason some are fixed and others aren't. Inquiring minds want to know. Thanks.