gman1971

It is indeed a different board, Mars at Comm Support did a mod to get a female SMA on it, but is not an easy mod, certainly not for the faint of heart, involves de-soldering and resoldering SMD connectors and other small stuff. Plus there are some parts (a flange nut) that are not readily available anywhere.
As for the stud, well, I've personally had pretty good results with it. But then I also purchased the right frequency range antenna for my application, so I am pretty happy. It handily beats the SMA 6550 with any antenna I've put in there. And for when the 7550e can't reach, that is why I have the 5550e with an HHCH, 50w and a 5/8 wave flexible whip... fits on a backpack and reaches 20+ miles. Again, I use the walkie for what is good for: being carried around. Carrying around a handheld with a 5/8 whip, especially in VHF, IMO defeats the whole purpose of being hand held... but again, that is just me, and my opinion. 
G.

Lscott, there is no adapter AFAIK. There is a callbox option that is basically a 7550e with an SMA connector. Get that if you really want SMA on your 7550e.
Personally, the stud antenna has worked well enough for me; and sure, it would've been nice to have had an SMA, but the radio is solid and it works very well as is. Given the amount of POS antennas sold today, I am somewhat glad that those antennas are <10 bucks from Motorola Solutions directly, so I know my antennas are not some knock-off crap. 
And I used to use my 6550s (and other radios before that) as low power portables... but after trying a 5550e with a sweet HHCH, with 20+ miles simplex, I am never going back to these days.
Then, if you really needed longer range than that, for a SHTF situation, you should probably invest on a Yaesu Vertex FD-817 for long range comms, and not use GMRS, or VHF, including any digital modulation for that matter. A good 817 atop a high hill, or a tall mount, will probably open the entire world for comms, certainly reaching further than a 6550, 7550e, 5550e, or even the "luxury transceiver" APXs would ever dream of reaching with or without an SMA port. 
G.

Yes, that is the downside of textual form of communication... 
 
G.

Yes, that is the downside of textual form of communication... 
 
G.

And, tell me, do you have data to prove it?

Pretty badass radio... its a Part 90 radio. Just keep it and use it for GMRS. It will serve you well... certainly a great starter radio over the CCR garbage.
 
G.

Phew... no more Baofeng assassins...  lol

Thanks for clarifying, G. I have the enhanced displays, so I'll edit my post above to make this clear.

Been awesome, the UHF2 seems to have better reception for GMRS. but everyone says both radios TX great.
I did get the wide-band UHF1/UHF2 antenna for each radio.
Picked up some hand Mics.
 
Thanks again.
 

Both XPRs are SOLD.
8-)

hahaha.... man, you're hilarious, OP.
 
I think you shouldn't limit such delightfully entitled attitude of yours to just GMRS, after all why stop there, right? I've heard cops have radio systems with statewide coverage, yeah, and guess what: you're paying for those systems with your taxes!!, therefore you are totally entitled to use these frequencies too... yeah!! absolutely... crank that CCR PA to 100W and kerchunk that P25 statewide like a boss with some "Breaker Breaker, 10-4 10-4, roger copy that, out..." or if CB aint ya'r thing then some "CQ CQ, calling all buddies in this frequency, roger roger india sierra uniform charile kilo alpha bravo..."
 
haha....
 
 
G.

I still think spending money on anything beyond a Baofeng BF-888s is a waste of money for a beginner. The 888s one-chip wonder and the Wouxuns superhets I've tried had similar crap performance... as in, I couldn't get simplex radio-to-radio (no repeaters) worth crap. So, if you need a cheap starter radio then look no further than the BF-888s. Its a 9 dollar radio, if you hate CCRs you can smash one with a hammer on a daily basis and still be cheaper than buying the overpriced Wouxun CCRs... and once you get the gist of it, (or if you don't like GMRS/Ham you can smash it, shoot it, burn it, or throw it from a 20 story building....), but if you really want some decent family comms, then I am afraid you'll need to skip the toys and go for what real professionals use to communicate over long distances. I've tried simplex with every possible combination of CCRs, and none worked.
 
What do you mean by "all we want in a radio"? I only want one thing in a radio: Range, anything else I can live without just fine. Not sure what you're looking for in a radio, but if range isn't at the top of your priorities then anything goes, just make sure next time you upgrade your phone you the cheap one that only has coverage in ~3% of the CONUS. It will be the same thing.
 
Well, If these radios offered real ranges for simplex the I would've been set a long while ago... unfortunately, you won't get the same kind of ranges you get from two XPR7550e radios simplex, on foot, suburban terrain, no matter what antenna you stick on those. In fact, my XPR7550e have more range without the antenna than some of those things on a 5/8 over 5/8 base collinear... 
 
If they stop making them I don't think it will be something I miss at this point. I feel its quite a scam, TBH, its basically taking advantage of beginners just to sell radios that were developed (or I.P. stolen somewhere) 6+ years ago, for a price where you can get an excellent condition used Motorola XPR7550e or something like that. 
 
LMR radios can do both, narrow and wide. My EVX radios can even do 12.5, 20 and 25kHz without any entitlements. Motorola XPR radios require taking a free class to get the entitlement for 25kHz... after that you're good to go. I am sure the Kenwoods and ICOMS are on the same boat.
 
G.
 

+1 to 6550
+1 to anything Kenwood.
 
Avoid garbage CCRs, if possible.
 
G.

That is correct, mbrun... thank you.
 
Not giving up on GMRS.... why would I?  I am selling a lot of my radios b/c I want to consolidate, so all the XPR7550e and SL7550 radios that I've recently acquired... those stay, aka the new Motorolian Imperial Fleet. Also, a lot of the radios I am selling aren't really the lowest of the barrel I own either. For example, the EVX-539 is not a CCR by any stretch of the imagination, but the XPR7550e won the contest, for several reasons other than just better performance. For example, I can't deal with having 10 different codeplugs anymore, nor 10 different CPS, 10 different battery chargers, 10 different prog cables... etc. So everything non Motorola XPR gen2 will have to go at some point or another. I debated whether to keep the XPR6550s Gen1 radios, but I figured I might just sell them as well... maybe these can help others see the light the way they helped me see the light... 
 
Oh, and there is also two more Alinco MD5 DMR/FM radios up for grabs as well. I just forgot to put them on the "yard sale" post...  
 
G.
 

If it can't hear that good with a high gain antenna, it would seem like the 1000G lacks filtering and uses a direct conversion receiver, and its desensing.
 
Just perform an ISO-tee on the radio. 

I hear you. Looks like Anytone will be selling a lot more DMR radios until Kenwood, Icom and Yeasu get the big picture.
 
While Motorola makes nice radios for DMR they are aimed at commercial users where they can get away with raping them for the programming software. For Ham radio that won't fly. Hams are cheap S.O.B's most of the time. I admit I am. If I can't find some place to download the software I'm not interested in the radio. I'm not spending $100's on software. I have 9 different software packages installed just for the commercial Kenwood radios in my collection. More if you count the Ham versions. Some are different versions of the same basic package because a few radios are European, or non North American, types that have slightly different hardware. Using a different install key doesn't work on those.
 
For the life of me I can't see why people want to buy a Yeasu radio using their "System Fusion" digital format. Its only works with other Yeasu radios. At least with DMR there are a verity of radios and manufactures to choose from. And with D-Star at least you have Kenwood and Icom.
 
While NXDN is interesting and several manufactures sell radios it seems more of a small market targeted to business users, like P25 is to public safety, and seems popular with the railroads too.

I may reach out to you to talk that through at some point.
 
 
Michael
WRHS965
KE8PLM

I would like to see Kenwood come out with a DMR version of the TH-D74A radio instead of the D-Star version currently available. I would likely buy one.

I've pulled my hair out fighting with the radio programming software for the Anytone D878UV DMR radio. The worse part of the radio is the user programming software, it sucks. There are features that plainly don't work as expected. Some they fix in the next revision, then the revision after that it's buggered up again. I've grown tired of sending off bug reports to their tech support guy in China. There has been two updates since the last one I did on the radio and I have little motivation to screw around with to see what is mucked up this time with the current update.
 
The scan lists is one of those that bugs me since I do a lot of scanning with my radios. It just so happens than when you start a scan the currently selected memory channel is included in the scan even if it is NOT in the scan list. I was told by Anytone support this is NOT a bug. They claim people want to revert back to the channel when a scan is stopped, OK, but there is no reason to include it either. If the channel is a very busy one you likely don't want to stop every time there is activity on it. VERY annoying. There is a sort of half a**ed way to work around it but it should be required.

Oh, the Surecom shill... seriously, get a NanoVNA v2 with a 4.3 screen to measure SWR. Tune your antennas to 50 ohms, not to the lowest SWR (return loss).
 
G.
 

Sounds like it.
 
G.

Cool line! Permission to reuse?
 
 
Michael
WRHS965
KE8PLM

Hello,
 
Well this is a lot to take in. so lets start with the hand held. At best your going to be limited to users within a mile. This also takes into account most of the bubble packs you hear have a PL or DPL programed on them so they will never hear you. I live in a condo and was lucky to get second floor with attic access. I run several commercial UHF and VHF antennas in the attic and am able to talk simplex 25 miles with other base users. As far as repeaters, I can work 11 from my house with my attic antenna and 50W radio. You can purchase a Motorola CDM1250 in the GMRS band for $100, Power supply for $50, a good mobile antenna in the GMRS band with mag mount $50 and a 16" round pizza pan $10. Try to get the antenna outside for best result. This would greatly increase the chances you will contact somebody simplex or finding a repeater you can access with humans using it. I am not going to lie this is exactly how I get into GMRS, a TYT UHF radio, laird antenna cut for 460-470 a pizza pan and recycled power supply, look at me now... 

For house, I found the Laird FG4500 to be really really good. 
 
For the car, I found that an NMO was the way to go, so I removed the factory sharkfin/antenna and placed a GMRS antenna there. Performance went through the roof (no pun intended) with a 6 inch 1/4 wave.
 
G.

Thanks G.
 
Wish I had known about the RSSI meter in the radio.
 
If you are ever looking for a road trip to Cincinnati and some field testing, you know where to find me. Would have loved to have had you around to lend a hand and offer additional insight. If you ever do come down, let’s do it when the temperatures are above freezing.
 
Regards,
 
 
Michael
WRHS965
KE8PLM