OffRoaderX

I too, own three XTL5000's .. One as my base and one in each of my two Jeeps, and they are by far my favorite radios.. What exact setting is this/what section is it in the CPS Tree?

When you switch to the mag mount, is that using the same coax?

About 9 amps on my meter.

and?

Upside to using the 935G is you can slap the rubber ducky back on it and quickly/easily take it and use it anywhere you want.

This place just never stops giving...

GMRS isn't H.A.M. radio or Grindr and its primary purpose is not for "hailing" or "making contacts" with strangers. The main purpose of GMRS is to talk with other members of your "group" - ie; while out adventuring/off-roading/hiking/ect, so it is not surprising that you're not finding strangers to talk with. Many people commonly use Ch19 while driving for traffic reports, etc, but its use is not widespread.

Welcome to the forum! My thoughts are that per FCC rules, GMRS channels 1-7 are limited to 5W, so this would explain whey they are not transmitting at high (50W) power - like all "GMRS" radios manufactured after 2017. Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Mobile_Radio_Service

..

Just curious what tips all the licensed H.A.M. operators would give to someone thinking about getting their H.A.M. license.

To truly piss-off the right people you need video.

Motorola XTS and XTL radios are LMR type radios used by many (if not most) government agencies from the mid-2000's or so up until 2015 or so (not exact dates, but thats the general range).. Out of the box they are cable of light encryption but are also capable of AES256 encryption as WRKC935 mentioned. They come in UHF and VHF versions and the UHF versions are fully capable of use on GMRS and many (many, MANY) people use these radios on GMRS. They are no longer manufactured but are sold used on ebay and many places sell refurbished units. The XTS is a handheld and the XTL is the high-powered (up to 110W) mobile version. Since those in this thread avoiding the conversion often take other threads off the rails without hesitation, I will be happy to answer any questions you have on this off-topic question.

I'm so sorry you had to go through this. I hope you're ok.

There is an unofficial, official national road channel - its Ch19.. Although "some people" will argue to the death that there isnt one, or that Ch19 is not to their liking (don't believe me? just watch this thread)

No. And I dont know anyone that does. There is no "defacto PL" for simplex use - and if someone claims that there is one, nobody that I know has ever heard about it. I'm sure that "some people" will leave 10-paragraph long reply explaining why they might do it, but IMO, they do not speak for all of the normal people out there.

/whooooshhhh..... so sad...

Is the repeater on WideBand?

Talking on simplex is not necessarily more clear than talking through a repeater.. Sometimes it might be, sometimes it might not be. I'm sure there will be several other much longer, "impressive" and overly complicated answers, but the only real answer as to why is: "it depends on a lot of things"

My repeater antenna is attached to a single 10Ft section of a telescoping flag pole on my roof.. i'm sure there is some fancy differences between a flagpole and a mast, but my flagpole/antenna combo lived through one of the worst wind-storms in memory last year and the antenna gets many farz.

I setup my RT97 on a hill in the desert and got several miles of farz in all directions, where transmitting on simplex had no range (because of the hills). I got mine from retevissolutions.com, but I would have got it on Amazon if it was available due to faster shipping and the painless return policy.

Remove all the RX tones from all channels and see how that goes.

Should we guess what the trouble is, or will you let us in on the secret at some point?

Yes

Are they required to? I wish some very smart person could explain the rules in detail along with the meaning and intent of the FCC's wording so I can be sure that I fully understand. The more-detailed, the better, that way I know they're right.

Just a pure guess, but the Rocky Talkie is probably transmitting at Narrowband.. See if there is an option to change it to WIDEband (probably isn't), or see if there is an option on the Garmin to switch to narrowband.