gman1971

As you describe the problem, it seems the noise issue you have is based on reports from other repeater users. If that is the case, you don't have a lot of alternatives -- transmitter quality is probably not an issue. If you only use one repeater, or the two repeaters are in the same direction from your home, you could change to a directional antenna (it would look a lot like a UHF TV antenna and might not incur HOA wrath), or use more power. Note, the difference between 10 and 15 watts is negligible ~1.75dBm.  So, just changing to a better quality radio is not likely to yield much improvement.
 
On the other hand, if your problem is the received signal at your radio, then changing to a radio with a better quality receiver could make a big difference. As discussed in several threads here, the cheap imports have low quality receivers and that might be your problem. Also, a directional antenna and/or better coax would give you a stronger received signal as well.

Update:  Thanks to @Radioguy7268 my first VX-264 is on the air in wide-band mode.
 
Some notes for those who may follow...
My Vertex Standard branded VX-264 with firmware 2.07 just arrived today and I used the Motorola CS150 v5.01 international version software to program it.
 
To switch the radio to accept wide-band channel settings I used the Wide_Band_Recovery_Tool software v1.03. (This is not available from Motorola but, thanks to Radioguy7268, I can share a copy with anyone who needs it.)  NOTE: with the VX-261/264 radios you must use v1.03,  v1.02 does not support them.
 
I did not use, though I have ordered one, the FIF-12 programming adapter. Instead, I used the <$20 CT-106p cable from BlueMax49ers. 
 
Extras: I do not own any windows machines so I used a Win-7 VM in VirtualBox for the wide-band recovery and programming. Also, as my MacBook only has USB-C ports, I used a USB-A to USB-C adapter.
 
So far I am very pleased with the radio and find it almost ideal suited for CERT type applications.

Which proves the point, that those things are a hit or miss, b/c the QC is just not there. Again, I started with those and I have a dozen or so of these BF-888S at home set as intercom.
 
The point I am trying to make here is to be VERY AWARE of what you're getting, understand its limitations and make an educated purchase. 
 
G.
 
 

50 bucks for SILVER connectiors!!!???? man, what do they think I am made out of? GOLD? ( no pun intended)
 

I am pretty certain that Vertex radios can be made wideband by using the NON-USA programming software. I've done it to my EVX mobiles without any issues.
 
and YES, other cables will certainly not work. I did try, but didn't work, almost ruined the radio so I returned these and got the OEM FIF-12, never had an issue with that.
 
G.

Man, can I relate. I have two Btech HT's that I use when off-roading. I'll settle for the reduced performance out in the mountains because we are only a few car lengths apart and if I drop a radio in the mud, I would rather have it be a $20-$30 BaoFeng than a $250 Yaesu.

RFParts.Com sells them... so does Ham Radio Outlet.  They are about $50 each.

For Heliax LDF4-50 1/2" cable?
 
B/c I also have a ton for LMR400 cable, but finding those for Heliax is more difficult.
 
G.

It sounds like the same "wild goose chases" I went through when I was all about Baofengs and 20 dollar budgets "can you hear me now?"
 
Again, nothing wrong with that; its just don't hold your expectations too high with the lower end stuff. Otherwise police and military would be operating 20 dollar Baofengs instead of the APX8000 radios and whatnot.
 
 
G.

I haven't dealt with them, but they look reasonable.
I'll extend the same offer to you on the M1225, since gman1971 isn't interested. It's the 40 watt 20 channel version, pre-programmed with gmrs channels, and I'll throw in the programming cable. All for less than used-radios dot com has them listed without the cable.

The only potential GMRS trouble I've seen with the Motorola branded EVX-S24 and EVX-261 is getting them to work in Wideband. The Motorola units I've gotten in are strapped as Narrowband out of the Box, and I've yet to be successful in changing them over to Wideband. I've done that with ease on Vertex labeled units, but there's something that I haven't bothered to figure out when it comes to the MSI branded version.
 
I've heard people say that you NEED to use the FIF-12 cable in order to use the Wideband enablement mode (as well as using the Export version of software) - but I haven't bothered to try that out, as my basic Vertex cable worked for updating (backdating?) previous Vertex units to Wideband enablement.
 
They do seem to be great little units for the price.  Be aware that the EVX-S24 is only listed at 2 watts for Analog UHF (3 watts DMR).
 
*Edit - just noticed that you specifically said the VX-261.  Same issues may apply, but the analog VX-261 is a screaming steal in the Used market. I've been snatching them up in good condition at less than $40 per unit with accessories.

There have been several discussions recently about buying new vs. used equipment for GMRS.  Since those discussions have been pretty complete, I won't duplicate them here. However, I would like to address one point that seems to get lost, concerns about quality.
 
Many people seem to avoid used equipment under the belief used equipment will be more likely to have problems. If you are comparing the same brand and manufacturing quality, that assumption may be correct. However, when comparing used commercial equipment (Kenwood, Motorola, Vertex, Icom...) to cheap imports (Baofeng, B-Tech, Woxun, Retevis, etc.) it is a different story. Glancing through this forum and in particular Amazoin reviews, you will find many cases of brand new CCRs that had to be replaced. Even with Midland branded gear, several users have reported the need for 2 or three replacements before finally getting something they were happy with.  In addition, you are probably more likely to get good service from a reputable eBay seller than some of the CCRs bought on Amazon and elsewhere.
 
So, if concerns about reliability and quality of used equipment is your sole reason for looking at new radios, you might want to reconsider.
 
Just one more thing to keep in mind when you start looking for equipment.

Yes, I learn that lesson about connectors the hard way, next antenna and all after that one will be N connectors... its sealed, and its much easier to get high quality silver plated or tri-metal N connectors than it is for the UHF 239/259 stuff.... 
 
G.

Thank you RCM, however, the Vertex Standard mobiles I have ATM are working great so at this point I think I am all caught up on GMRS radios. (while keeps thinking about ham ticket, finding ways to buy MORE radios ) hahaha.

Yes, I learn that lesson about connectors the hard way, next antenna and all after that one will be N connectors... its sealed, and its much easier to get high quality silver plated or tri-metal N connectors than it is for the UHF 239/259 stuff.... 
 
G.

Not to drag this topic further into further CCR bashing there is one important item to consider. The desire to get into radio is something many dont do any more nor have any interest. So the good thing is some people still want to. The issue with the Baofeng or any CCR is the performance as many he mentioned. The performance can impact the users "taste" of the hobby and many times they loose interest cause it doesn't do what it should. I have had this happen in the SAR world and also Amateur world on top of my GMRS repeaters. 90% of the folks that buy those complain they can't hit the repeater or are so broken up and unreadable more folks tell them its junk. This causes them to loose interest and leave the radio world. 
 
For me I started grabbing cheap good radios when i have extra cash and leave them sitting. When i get a person who wants to use a baofeng I hand them one of these and let them use it side by side. Normally 2 days later I get "hey can i buy this from you". There is alot of good radios out there dirt cheap that works well for GMRS. I recently picked up 6 HT1000 portables for $50.00. Threw some $20.00 batteries on them and programmed up for GMRS. I have one left in the box. 
 
If your truly interested in radio get a reputable radio or your expectations will not be met.
 
JMHO

Ah, I see. Well, I have found that I like their antennae but I am not opposed to trying other quality brand gear. For sure.
 
So far these Diamond haven't let me down yet, the X50C2 and the F23H I have are holding rather well in Wisconsin weather conditions. Since Diamond offerings for vehicle mounted applications aren't that great for what I want I'll probably end up getting a Larsen or a Motorola mobile antenna for a van mounted NMO antenna solution.
 
The point is that most of the cheapie stuff always gets you in the end; and yes, I was on that boat, I was the guy who read the comments like the one I made and said "nah, it can't possibly be that bad, he is just an overreacting fool!" Until I had to throw away multiple antennae b/c they developed 8.0:1 SWR... rusted, solder joints were cold and cracked with the extreme weather... etc. Oh, and once you learn about nickel/chrome plating, intermod and poor RF performance there is no going back to the cheapie stuff, ever. Heck, even the US Navy wrote a paper recommending that all nickel plated connectors had to go... and guess what most of those cheapie antennae are made out of... nickel plated/chrome plated steel surfaces.... which might be fine for the first two weeks, but then, when you look at that "return loss" dB curve on the antenna analyzer rather than looking like a nice deep valley it looks more like Ruffles potato chip....  a wavy mess.
 
Again, its Other People's Money, so I won't lose any sleep if you decide to go TRAM, Browning, or Ganzou CrapMaster... just be aware that materials matter a LOT, and a lot more than you'd think.
 
As for corrosion and weatherproofing connectors I've found that STUF dielectric grease works wonders for those non-sealed UHF connectors. Next antennae I get when these Diamond bite the dust will have N connectors, but again you live and learn. 
 
Thanks for the clarification Marc.
 
G.
 

This is no different from any of the cheap Chinese radios that have come across my bench. I think its time the FCC starts doing its own testing, this goes to show the Chinese manufactures dont care and will fudge the paperwork to make this junk sellable in the US. As I have stated before none of these CCR's belong in use on GMRS as even the certified ones don't meet spec or standard. The spurs in the 900 band where strong enough to pick them up several 100 feet away on a scanner.

Thanks for the comments. We do not need DMR or bells and whistles, these radios are solely for use on GMRS so the key requirement, besides overall quality, is simplicity of use. Thus the need for a display - so users get visual confirmation they are on the right frequency/channel. The VX-**** radios are also interesting. But, for the moment t we are concentrating on hand-helds to augment our existing P1225s. BTW, the major problem with the P1225s is battery capacity and life -- the only available batteries are NiCad & NiMh. For some reason, nobody makes a lithium pack for the P1225

If you're buying this radio for GMRS b/c of the fancy bells and whistles, just don't. My experience (as a former Baofeng addict) is to look elsewhere. While the radio might have a very palatable price tag, with a fancy color screen, twenty bands, customizable button sounds, roger beeps, voice echo, recording of 1000 hours, whatever, etc, the RF performance will be, like most of the cheap Chinese junk, inadequate, (for the lack of a more blunt word) ...  That's their tactic, they can't compete with the US/European/Japanese made radios in the RF performance game (which is the thing that matters the most on a radio) so what do they do? They lower the price and add a ton of fancy (and mostly useless in the end) gadgets so the inexperienced customer bites.
 
You're better off buying used commercial mobiles/portables that are undisputedly legal to use in the UHF GMRS band, or whatever band you are going to use them, (b/c some of those cheap Chinese radios is not 100% clear if they are really type accepted or not, etc). 
 
Personally I really like Vertex Standard radios, they come down in price quite a bit, the VX-5500 and VX-6000 are pretty decent radios, with hot receivers... etc. Vertex radios have free programming software, all you need is the cable, which might add to the cost, but other than that the radio RF will be leaps and bounds superior to anything cheap made in China.
 
G.

It hasn't been too long since I started on GMRS and I started with Baofengs, fortunately it wasn't a very expensive mistake. Once you try to do anything in the real world where you need the radios to reliably work and receive almost all the time, b/c those cheap radios have very poor RF performance you'll hear static where you should hear a loud signal. These cheapies desense (receiver sensitivity goes to ZERO) at the first sign of RF noise... from anything... even other portables around it will make it deaf. You're better off buying used (or new) commercial gear that won't desense all the way when another Baofeng powers up 1 mile away from yours.
 
Have at it, this guy made this nice video explaining why most of those cheap things range is usually pretty bad. And remember, just because you can hit a repeater doesn't mean your radio is any good, it most certainly means that the repeater is using a very good setup to do the heavy lifting.
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uUQsZrd3IGo
 
G.

I have a lot of Vertex gear, some 2nd hand, some new, but I really like it overall, and before they were fully absorbed by Motorola last year, they were basically Motorola quality without all the red tape associated with the Moto stuff. Software is free, just the FIF-12 cable was expensive for my EVX stuff... other than that they are pretty straightforward radios to use.
 
If you don't need to have a DMR radio, then the VX-5500 and VX-6000 mobiles have one of the hottest receivers I've seen.
 
With that said, one of the biggest let downs with the models you've posted is (as explained on another thread) that the bells and whistles factor on those radios is rather low. You get an alphanumeric LCD segment screen, so if you want to use them for DMR stuff like the DMR-Marc etc, you might find the screen a bit lacking lacking compared to, say, the XPR7550e series of portables.
 
G.

Counterfeit stuff is on the rise, and harder to spot these days; and the performance is usually much lower too, as recorded by my own measurements. Most of the knockoff antennae are made with inferior materials too, and after some time they will develop high SWR, and be useless. So, my recommendation is to buy a brand antenna, I have nothing but Diamond antennas installed, and I really like them. I've tried TRAM/Browning, etc, all these went into the recycle bin after 1 or 2 years as they developed super high SWR... so, unless you like replacing the antenna every year or so, stick with brands like Diamond, Comet, Laird... and try to get it from an authorized dealer if possible, otherwise chances are you'll get a counterfeit that won't stand the test of time, more so in bad weather conditions.

I am late to this one, but as someone who started with a couple of Baofengs I have to admit that you really get what you pay for.

It is very hard to understand for the first time buyer why these radios are a waste of money, and only after you try to start using those for anything that requires reliability and range the expectations go south, quick. Most of those inexpensive radios have two major problems/deficiencies that most beginners don't understand, and that is even before getting into the legality aspects of those, which have been shuffled already.

So, those cheap overseas radios use direct conversion receivers with very poor (if any) filtering on the front end, because adding those costs a lot of $$$. And those two flaws alone means you should look elsewhere, regardless of anything else, no matter what bells and whistles, etc. Which BTW, that is a very common, and smart, strategy used by the cheap overseas manufacturers, they give you a garbage radio sugar coated real good with all kinds of fancy color screens, 150000 DMR contacts, etc... but in the end the radio lacks where it matters the most, in the RF performance.

So, what does this receiver mumbo-jumbo mean? Very simple:
-Poor receiver selectivity.
-Even worse receiver sensitivity.

Good lord, what is all that? Well, selectivity is usually the reason why the range on your brand new 20 dollar Baofeng is measured in feet, rather than in miles... and why, you might ask, why? Well, b/c when the radio has little selectivity the receiver hears everything around it, as in, it will hear all the stations that are pumping hundreds of watts at 10 Mhz, 20, 30, or even 300 Mhz apart from the frequency you're tuned in. So, what happens when you are standing front row at a concert and your friend tries to talk to you? You try closing your ears to reduce all that noise blasting in an attempt to hear your friend.... well, the same things happens to these cheap radios, the receivers desense so they are not overloaded, as in, receiver sensitivity goes south, and while the receiver might've had an amazing sensitivity figure advertised (which makes the problem even worse) that means diddly squat when the RF environment gets crowded, even operating near other portables, or mobiles, your cheap radio will hear static where it should've heard a signal loud and clear.

When you buy higher end commercial radios from companies like Motorola, Vertex, etc, you will certainly have less bells and whistles, but the radio will have stellar RF performance so range is measured in tens of miles rather than hundredths of an inch.

And that is not going into other details, like spurious emissions, b/c those are terrible too. I can hear those cheap Baofengs on adjacent GMRS channels even 200 feet away... heard about it, tested it, verified it and moved on.

So, before giving your hard earned money to some foreign company that is just collecting on unsuspecting buyers, dazzled by color screens and fancy boot screens, just look at used commercial gear from Motorola, Vertex, Midland, Ritron, etc... and if you plan on using it for GMRS just buy accordingly with the legal requirements.

Here is a video where this desense effect is shown, basically the radio stop receiving altogether...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uUQsZrd3IGo
 
And this is far more common than you think nowadays, with tons of cellphones, WiFis, computers, Bluetooth devices... there are tons of RF noise nowadays that will render these 20 dollar radios useless where you might need them the most.

Hope this helps.

G.