gman1971

@Over2U it sure sounds like you are experiencing differences between the two. I do own the 905 but not the UV3D and do find the 905 to be on par with the other Wouxun models in my possession. Yeh, the vary some but not by a lot. Most break squelch between -124dBm and -118dBm.

@gman1971 I acquired a HP-339A.


Michael
WRHS965
KE8PLM

I would strongly advice against posting how to crack or obtain passwords from radios. 

Great advice given above. The XPR6xxx series radios are great for GMRS use. I use one myself, although mine requires a hex edit due to the frequency it came with to allow this. Mine is the low UHF1 split, and to get to the 462/467 MHz, you have to get more creative with software hex editing of the CPS. Getting frustrated on continually wanting to change things, and that hex edit mess.....I ended up getting a XPR7550e recently which covers the entire 403-512 MHz band. Stick with that XPR6350 though, great radios, and glad to see someone keep them from the landfill. My XPR6550 is now about twelve years old, and was re-cased a few years ago, as I used it in the oil industry (2010 Deepwater Horizon response), which destroys everything.

First - if you have the CPS, there should be a file in there under "Samples"  which will have a basic codeplug that you can try to load.  Many radios will have a "read" codeplug passcode to prevent  you from pulling out the profile information, but they will allow you to write a new codeplug to overwrite the existing profile without needing a passcode.
Second - If you're handy, the First Generation XPR radios like the 6350 can be read while using Wireshark to sniff the passcode. There's a few videos out there showing details.  The passcode hack was fixed in a firmware update for later versions, but most of the original XPR6000 series  can be easily read.
Third - your "big pharma" employer should be shamed for tossing electronics out with the trash, instead of taking a responsible recycling route for their electronics e-waste.

yeah Mini makes some nice stuff. have a RLB from them for my tracking gen

All the old tricks are new again, just for GMRS at this point. As gortex said, this is common for radio networks when they are first starting out. Similar equipment at each site, and you end up saving on hardware and maintenance since everything is similar hardware wise. Great way to build out a radio network without getting too complicated, and easier for the hosts of the network to maintain and administer. The Motorola GR1225 is a repeater, and 10 watts is not going to strain the hardware. I still have one myself and tend to use it for extending the range of radios when camping (when I am not hiking everything into the camp), more like "car camping".....the one thing to check on the repeaters is the heat conductive paste, that tends to dry out and then you have hardware problems. Keep the fan clean and give that repeater stable power and good coax/antenna and they should serve you well. Good luck on your installation.....post some pictures when you can too.
 
Last thing to add, is a link to the tropospheric ducting thread, as you may have this happen. with three repeaters, that could get very interesting for the times it does happen,if they are on the same frequency, even with different tones in use. 
 
 

No pics of my first. It was a 4 channel Uniden crystal radio. 
One of these 2 are my grab and go radios....
 

My first GMRS radio...

My current GMRS radio... 

G.

My first GMRS radio...

My current GMRS radio... 

G.

LDF4-50A is standard 1/2" Hardline
LDF4-50A
AVA-50 is the 7/8" Hardline. Anything over 100' I run that. To be honest all my repeaters have 7/8" and some are only 50' up the tower. 
AVA-50

That 5 year timeline (plus 5 years of support) has been an issue in my field. But, in Motorola's benefit, it is also pushing my org toward an all ASTRO based system of systems, instead of a combination of HT-750 analog sites, Trbo XPR7550/e sites, and XTS/XTL/APX900/4000/7000/8000sites, kluged up networks spread across the country.
Motorola has also pushed their competitors to do the same. However, the software as a service will be an issue if that portion continues. Some places do not want IT to merge with radio, and have the money to go elsewhere if needed. I know of one large system that went Tait, and is benefitting from that divergence from Motorola. My org is exploring that possibility as well....but has been Motorola so long it most likely will not happen.
The first Motorola handhelds this company purchased was the HT220 Handie-Talkie FM Radio.

I also have a hard time believing that a speaker hidden behind the keypad & LCD will deliver better audio, but I can tell you that the front & rear facing dual microphone setup should deliver outstanding noise cancellation and clarity. Speaker mics that have that feature certainly do.
 

Yes, this speaker being behind the keypad, and then the use of Motorola Trbo Ion series accessories is my issue. Ion series Trbo equipment is more expensive than the legacy XPR7xxx/e series accessories, and most of the company has been using XPR7k series radios for a few years now, with stock on hand accessory wise.
My employer also has APX900 and APX4000, essentially similar radios to one another except the APX4000 has dual microphones for the noise cancelling and as you mentioned, it is noticeable in high noise environments. Forklift drivers end up getting APX4000's as a result, with custodial personnel getting APX900's as they are not working during business hours and it is a much quieter environment.
It will be interesting to see how much the audio difference really is, transmit and  receive. If anyone finds video at some point, please post here and any other radio related site, it will be watched for sure.

Guys lets move this to another thread ? Think its a good discussion. 
 

I recently got a used Kenwood TS-50S HF all-mode radio, but due to weather I haven't been able to do anything with it: its still in the box... but this past week there was a short window where the snow on the roof melted and no new snowstorms were coming..., so figured we go out Jerry rig some antenna and try to test it.... Now, at the present moment I only have a couple of CB talkies from the 90s and a couple of CCR SDR dongles and a TH-F6a to really compare it to... so testing the receivers side by side on the CB channels should be a good test, again, there was no TX. Those CB talkies are representative, more or less, to the performance of what most cheap CB radios will offer today. Both radios are dual conversion superheterodyne receivers.
We took a 5' firestick up and attached it a metal pole on the roof and ran a 25 feet LMR400 wire through the window back inside, which we will connect to the radios/sdrs, etc.
To make things a bit more complicated, there is a PV solar installation on the roof, which has historically made CB pretty much useless during the day if you place an antenna nearby...
So, fired up the Midland 75-820 connected to the Firestick and as just expected, all the radio picks up is the darn chopping noise of the micro-inverters.
Then the same thing happens again with the RadioShack CB talkie.
The SDR waterfall on SDRsharp are just a hot mess of noise across the entire HF band.
TH-F6a doesn't hear the chopping as bad, but I wonder if its the receiver desensing. Again, its a palm sized talkie, I don't expect it to match for a real HF radio.
Lastly, after connecting the TS-50S to the coax, the first thing I notice is that CB channel 1 is almost quiet, there is barely any chopping noises, a lot less than the TH-F6a; so, the first reaction was to thinking that cable was broken, or that the radio might've desensed but then, a conversation came out loud and clear from the speaker... at that moment I was absolutely blown away. Then quickly tuned the TS-50S to 10.000 Mhz and heard the world clock, yep, right there, came in perfect, no chopper noise either.
Switched back to the TH-F6a but it could barely hear the world clock over the PV noise (so that means its desensed, most likely)....
And the SDR dongles none could hear anything on the 10.000 Mhz.
Obviously the CB radios can't tune down to 10.000 mhz, but it was a good test.
So there you have it: The TS-50S worked extremely well in a very noisy environment, and none of the other radios/SDRs could pick up anything, so if I would've been a total beginner I would've thought the channels were dead and nobody was talking. Turns out, high quality equipment is expensive for a reason.. who knew.
G.

Can anyone explain why that program draws a straight line from Wisconsin to France? I guess it must be for Flathearthers.... 
G.

True, they would work far much less sucky on the moon or way out in the boondocks.

In fact, Midland backs up their 32 mile claim for their GMRS radios by testing them line of sight from a huge hill way out in some wide open rural area. The lawyers are happy, but folks who now have those radios, question the claim when they barely get a half mile in a suburban area.

I have some ICOM IC4008A FRS radios that are superhet, but very basic design with little preselector filtering, just a simple coil. Better than an SOC design. They work very well out in the National Parks. But around town, not so much. I keep them because they are easy to use and the AA batteries last days when camping. My wife and son carry them because they are small.

A radio is a tool like anything else. A battery operated drill from China sold at Harbor Freight might get by for the casual home user. But I have a Japanese Makita drill I purchased in 1980 for $300 in 1980 dollars , that has outlasted all of the cheap drills I bought in the meantime. For $35 You are not getting much of a drill. Same for cheap radios.



Sent from my SM-T350 using Tapatalk

Most of the cost of a radio goes into receiver design. All manufacturers must meet minimum FCC specs for the transmitter, so that cost is fixed. Cheap radios will have simple receivers. SOC, System on a chip receivers have a minimalistic design controlled by software commands. The main thing lacking in these designs is RF preselection . The other problem appears to be the lack of an effective FM limiter circuit. While these radios might seem very sensitive in a controlled environment, they really suck in the real world.

Commercial grade radios and public safety grade radios are tested to EIA 603D. If a radio is decent, it will have published EIA 603D performance specifications. Only a minority of the radios available for GMRS have such published specs.

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I think so, the Harvest brand folded dipole goes for 70 bucks on eBay. The 2 bay dipole goes for 140 bucks on eBay. I think folded dipoles are great b/c they have super wide bandwidth and they are very resilient to noise.
single dipole link: https://www.ebay.com/itm/133810193897?epid=1941709490&hash=item1f27b585e9:g:Y5EAAOSwLCdgUyaI
2-bay link: https://www.ebay.com/itm/133927735178?epid=1941709490&hash=item1f2eb70f8a:g:yowAAOSwIytgUyhQ

I would assume an EdFong antenna means some sort of base radio.
Superheterodyne can be poorly designed too, just be aware of that.
My recommendation for radio goes for the Vertex Standard VX-4207, which will not intermod, nor desense, and its part 95. @wayovertherehas experience using that radio. 
For antenna I would go with this: https://www.ebay.com/itm/133810193897?epid=1941709490&hash=item1f27b585e9:g:Y5EAAOSwLCdgUyaI, which you can later upgrade to a 2-bay or 4-bay configuration for increased gain.
G.

I think so, the Harvest brand folded dipole goes for 70 bucks on eBay. The 2 bay dipole goes for 140 bucks on eBay. I think folded dipoles are great b/c they have super wide bandwidth and they are very resilient to noise.
single dipole link: https://www.ebay.com/itm/133810193897?epid=1941709490&hash=item1f27b585e9:g:Y5EAAOSwLCdgUyaI
2-bay link: https://www.ebay.com/itm/133927735178?epid=1941709490&hash=item1f2eb70f8a:g:yowAAOSwIytgUyhQ

If you want a cheaper folded dipole, which I recommend over anything vertical, here are a more budget friendly option for UHF.
-Harvest FDU1 310~480 MHz UHF 500W Folded Dipole. 70 bucks. - Costs around $70
-Harvest FDU2 310~480 MHz UHF 500W 2-Elements Folded Dipole Array Antenna. - Costs around $140
 
For VHF, I've had excellent results with the following dipole (not folded), and its not too expensive. You can build a 2-bay, 4-bay, 8-bay etc, array out of those.
-Sirio WD140-N VHF 140-160 MHz Base Station Dipole Antenna - Costs around $99 
specs can be found at the Sirio site: https://www.sirioantenne.it/en/products/vhf/wd-140-n-wd-155-n
This antenna is very high quality, in fact, I think it might be better built than the newer Commscope DB antennas (not the old ones)

I wanted to throw out of post of good commercial antenna's that work great for GMRS as well as other LMR applications. Every antenna listed I have used for home and on towers and have had little if any issues with. 
Laird - Laird FG Series is a great antenna for home use and limited tower site use. Great for a home repeater when a tower is not available. Mostly omni. 
FG4500 - Unity Gain Fiberglass Antenna N Female 100W 450-470mhz - Cost around $125
FG4603 - 3db Gain Fiberglass Antenna N female 100W 460-470  - Cost around $140
FG4605 - 7db Gain Fiberglass Antenna N Female 100W 460-470 - Cost around $200
 
You can get more specifications from Laird here - FG Series Antennas
I get most of my hobby antennas from The Antenna Farm
The next step up is the dipole antenna and is normally the base antenna I'll install on a tower site. The DB aka CommScope Dipole is a rock solid performer and works well in long term use. I have used these in the ADK park on mountains caked in ice to towers in SE VA and other than physical damage never replaced one. 
DB404 - 3.8db Gain Dipole Antenna - N Male 250W 450-470mhz - Cost around $500
DB408 - 6.6db Gain Dipole Antenna - N Make 250W 450-470mhz - Cost around $1000
You can get more specifications from CommScope here - CommScope
I use various vendors for CommScope gear. Antenna Farm linked above does carry the DB404 as does MyGMRS. MyGMRS would be my first choice as it helps support the site and forum. His price is comparable to what I get it for from Tessco. 
When looking at an antenna also remember the cable to the antenna to be almost as important as the antenna. Putting a DB408 on a tower isn't going to perform as expected when you run LMR400 to it. It should be LDF. In reality if its on a tower it should be LDF anyway. 
Some real case uses of antenna''s above for me. My 38' Motorhome has a GMRS repeater. for years I ran the GR1225 and since have switch to the RT97. I run the FG4500 on my ladder and it works perfect for camgrounds/race track use. I have used the FG4605 for years on a repeater at my fathers house. He had a small mast system and it was a great match. I ran 1/2 LDF up the mast and to the antenna. The DB404 is my favorite. Thats what I have at home on a 1 1/4" Pipe on my roof. I run the DB408 at the tower with 7/8" LDF down to the combiner/duplexers. 
Just wanted to get some info out there on better antennas and options. TRAM, Comet, Ed Fong are all that. They are hobby antenna's and may not meet expectations. Some even cost the same. 
 
 

Sometimes is not that they ignore your calls, but because they have set some PL tones, your call won't even open their squelch.

That's actually part of the reason that broadcasters have tall towers.  Yes, there CAN be a problem with RF exposure with a high power transmitter.  That's why the radiation takes place high in the air so the exposure is limited.  It's also why a typical tower site that is high power is very large with respect to the actual footprint of the tower.  They will buy up large chunks of land to sit empty so that they don't have issue later with a housing development being parked next to their tower and the FCC showing up, doing exposure testing and requiring them to reduce power or raise their antenna's.
There are exposure charts on the FCC site that will show whats legal for power level and antenna gain and height.