DeoVindice

Have you hooked it up to a power meter? Could be anything from a blown PA to SMA damage to internal antenna damage to needing alignment...

As with many myths, there is a shred of truth in there. The original (V1) 5100s used XTS3000 RF decks. The V4 ("X-platform") and V6 ("ES-platform") 5100s introduced an all-new EFJ RF deck. I strongly advise against buying a non-ES/V6 5100 as they are infamous for a variety of hardware and software problems. The 5100ES is a very good radio and I prefer them to the XTS5000 in many ways.

The in-house radio shop that maintains the TRBO equipment concluded that channel selector lock was not possible; there was a long and frustrating email chain on the subject. I believe the radio in question is running 2.10.2 but I don't have it on me right now so don't take that as gospel! The shutdown issue is caused by the volume knob getting snagged when the radio is carried on a belt clip. On my personal radios (EFJ 5100ES and VP600), I use soft power down and volume lock to solve this issue and it has worked perfectly. One of those had its volume knob bumped into the off position this past weekend but these settings kept it functioning normally. I'm inclined to think that this issue is only common in industrial and public safety applications.

If the size and weight don't bother you, the 5000 is an excellent radio. Personally, I deeply dislike the XPR7550 having used one extensively for work. I had a lot of issues with inadvertent channel/volume changes and uncommanded shutdowns from bumping the radio against process machinery in cramped areas. The zone/menu structure is also illogical to me.

I have not used either of those mobiles, but I can attest to the fact that the AD-SR1 works nicely with mobile radios. I connected one to an EFJ 5300ES with a shop-built cable fabricated from an Ethernet cable and a DB15 solder connector. The programmable CWID function is very nice to have. I have the various DTMF commands programmed into all of my portables for remote control of the repeater, which is mounted in my truck and can be readily powered off solar and a separate battery.

The PSTN as legally defined doesn't really exist anymore.

Virtual machine. Learn it, love it, program radios with it. FTDI converters work perfectly with VMs. I ditched Windows over privacy concerns and now use Linux as my primary operating system, with Windows XP running as a VM for programming.

There's an issue in this region with a commercial Capacity Plus DMR system splattering onto GMRS frequencies. The DMR system operator and FCC have been made aware of it but seem to have no interest in correcting the matter. You could be seeing something similar.

I still do all my programming in an XP virtual machine running in Ubuntu!

That is the purpose of talkaround.

I've been quite impressed with with RF performance of the 7550e I carry for work. It maintains control channel reception even several floors underground. Motorola's engineers did good work with the Rodinia receiver. I personally haven't seen 30-hour battery life. On an LCP system with midlife batteries, we get 9-15 hours per charge. My personal "weapon of choice" is an EFJ 5100ES. I've always liked P25 audio a bit more than DMR, and the controls are very glove-friendly (especially with 51FIRE blade knobs). Specified sensitivity is only 0.25uV and I haven't hooked one up to a monitor to see how actual performance compares to the spec. I guess I give up some performance to get PS-grade controls at that price, but with proper end user training and employment it's not been noticeable. I use two antennas, a Smiley Super Stick and an RCBI stubby. The stubby is for MMDVM hotspot use and underground work where a whip would get snagged. When handheld or worn on a chest rig/harness, that Smiley gets out better than anything I've ever used. It's surprisingly close to mobile performance.

On my end, a Kenwood TK-290 and NX-200, as well as an EFJ 5100ES, all on 146.52 with Kenwood and Motorola wideband antennas. Not sure what my buddy was using; it's possible that his equipment was the problem. He has some quality LMR equipment and some CCRs.

With adequate antenna and ground plane, as well as acceptable noise floor and minimal structures between stations. Anecdotally, our VHF simplex testing in a suburban area was laughably bad even using multiple different radios and antennas on each end. VHF portables just don't work very well in that setting. UHF was full quieting on 1W where VHF was noisy and hard to copy with 5W. In a mobile application or with external antennas, it's a different story.

I'm enjoying this thread! Personally I have a small solar/battery system (and my fiancee just bought her own). We field-tested it for a week this summer and were able to comfortably power a base station, several portables, and several cell phones. That's in addition to a decent amount of stored food, propane, water, individual equipment, and the means to protect all of it. We went the P25 route for our private communications. AES is standardized across manufacturers so it's not a problem for subgroups to choose different equipment. Our gear is all EF Johnson and Motorola but integrating Kenwood, Tait, Harris, or BK gear is trivial. Subgroups get their own keyset that isn't shared beyond that group, along with a shared keyset for interoperability. A nice side benefit of this is that it forces you to get organized before needing to use the equipment for real. Rather than relying on fixed repeaters, I have a simplex repeater that can operate off any of my portables. It will pass encrypted traffic and is small and light enough to carry and drop off anywhere. I need to set up a second unit and work on an extended battery. Something else we've implemented is TMS. A quarter-second data burst can convey complex information while being nearly impossible to DF, and it seems to get out a bit better than voice. Between encryption, data, low power, transmitting while mobile, and terrain masking, it's not too hard to be miles ahead of 99% of potential adversaries.

Omit the "." from the end of the link.

I'm aware of one that previously served as a repeater RF link in New Mexico but was decommissioned once internet connectivity was established at the remote site. It was approximately an 80-mile shot using a yagi on at least one end but was very susceptible to noise and presumably tropo ducting. I'd be very supportive of adding high-power operation on the MURS frequencies to GMRS, in the same way that GMRS shares frequencies with FRS.

These results are about what I'd expect. That's not an especially hostile/dense RF environment. Given that only about a half-mile of reliable coverage was achieved, I believe there was an LoS issue, probably caused by terrain. There's no cheating the laws of physics - barring a serious sensitivity issue with the Chinese radio, it will perform about the same as the Motorola in a low-noise-floor environment. Put it in an environment with a high noise floor and it will struggle. Another interesting point - 0.5 square miles of full quieting coverage was achieved compared to 1.13 square miles of copyable but noisy coverage. A digital mode such as DMR, P25, or NXDN would 'clean up' the audio in that 0.4-0.6 mile band, more than doubling the area in which noiseless communications are possible. Beyond that, it will also be spotty - P25 doesn't defy the laws of physics either. Just something to consider, as digital modes are normal and accepted in the amateur service. (I also know of a couple digital repeaters in GMRS, operating under FCC experimental authorizations).

VoLTE on FirstNet is unusual. Not to say nonexistent (BeOn), but unusual. FirstNet is primarily a data service. My experience with LTE has been very poor - consumer-grade junk that sacrifices coverage for data speeds and falls down even in populated areas. For essential communications, we use encrypted LMR, and the SWCRS system when longer range is required. WQVS960 has done an outstanding job building that system. I understand the desire to record traffic, but forcing repeater operation without provision for contingencies is negligence no matter what the justification. Radio inhibit commands keep the unit from working at all, not just on the system.

Private company charges for use of its equipment! News at 11! You're not entitled to use somebody else's repeater, and it's quite reasonable to ask for money to offset construction and maintenance expenses. Sites aren't free, you know.

If they do not, that illustrates serious negligence on the part of that agency. No reason to not have their own simplex freqs as well as the various 7TAC interop freqs programmed.

That's definitely worse performance than I would expect. From inside a second-floor apartment to another portable outdoors, two miles simplex is easy with a good antenna (I use a Smiley Super Stick IV). I'm sure we could go further if desired as RSSI is excellent when using the Smiley. The path is across a mixture of urban and suburbs, with a couple farm fields thrown in for good measure. I'll grant that we're both using public-safety-grade radios with double-conversion superhet receivers. I'm not familiar with the architecture of the KG-905G so you could have a receiver overload situation if it's a direct-conversion/SoC deal. Have you repeated the test with the stock antennas? Better antennas have been known to cause overload when used on radios with poor selectivity. As stated before, excessive objects between the two stations will also impact range.

Personally, I wouldn't stress too much about simplex frequency selection. 446-447 MHz is generally accepted for UHF simplex so I'd program in some frequencies in that range. In the exceedingly unlikely case you encounter analog activity on one, just move to another. We use TG1, NAC 293, and Digital Squelch (EFJ's term for it...), on P25 simplex. It's functionally identical to CSQ. Unfortunately, KPG-D1NK has an awful reputation for being clunky and slow. It's not like the older spreadsheet-based Kenwood software. I have an NX-200K and like it pretty well. It's not something I'd use for mission-critical (antenna orientation and lack of channel selector lockout) but for business, amateur, and scanning, it's a good unit. I particularly like the depth of options permitted by the menu system, including on-the-fly audio setting changes. They're now cheaper than TK-2180s despite being far more full-featured radios. If you purchase an NX-200, shoot me a PM. I have some manuals that will help you get the unit set up and performing at its best.

To be entirely honest, I just use 446.000 for P25 simplex. I have never heard anyone on 446.000 aside from a few friends (and a simplex repeater I stumbled across in southwestern Colorado). 146.52 either, for that matter. FM simplex is dead here.

Assuming this is a previously good radio that stopped working without a programming change being made, take it to your radio shop for alignment.

I'm not aware of any direct 3.5mm audio accessories. I use a speaker mic and a cord between the mic and headsets; it works well enough.