wayoverthere

I don't know that I'd buy them specifically to diagnose this radio, but a dummy load and a meter (surecom sw102 isn't horribly expemsive and will have you covered for both swr and power output) are helpful things to have in the radio hobby. The meter will tell you if you have power going out, and the dummy load reduces the possibility of interferece while testing. If it's strictly a utility thing, I agree with @Sshannon that it's probably more economical in the long run to just take it as an opportunity to upgrade.

There's a few that pop up on a couple of the ham networks when they're in range There seems to be a few still there. If I'm near the big freeways solo I'll usually throw a cb in the truck and try for responses occasionally, especially if there's something interesting going on. Gotten a few coming back in the last couple years on not too many tries, actually.

Not to mention...unless youve prearranged with someone else to meet there, it may not do much good to look for simplex contacts in a portion of the band where others aren't expecting to find simplex contacts...if that makes sense.

Minor clarification: if you set a receive PL on simplex, you won't hear other traffic on the channel unless they're using the same PL. (exception: the older midland mxt 115 & 275 will want to leave tones off on simplex, since you can't set rx and tx separately) while it's usually not necessary (unless you know you need a specific tone for another party to hear you), it won't hurt anything to run a transmit PL on simplex; if the other parties listening aren't running a receive PL, they'll still hear you. If they ARE running a receive PL, they won't hear you either, unless you're using the SAME PL...if you run without any, they still won't hear you.

I won't say it's the best workaround, but on both the uv5r types and the LMR gear, if I don't want tx completely disabled, I'll them set up with odd splits... on the channels I absolutely don't want to key up over (like public safety channels)...Rx set as normal, with the tx frequency set for low power on either gmrs channel 1, or one of the murs channels for the vhf-only radios.

Now that you mention it, I remember noticing that...can you tell I don't do much DMR?

There is one wide coverage ham network here that part of their auto Id message asks that qso's (contacts) be limited to no more than 20 minutes to conserve power at the solar powered sites on the network. (The KERN system, which is linked with another system in SoCal (SCRN, maybe?)

Ive actually found this forum to be fairly tolerant and respectful of differing viewpoints, for the most part. I'll admit, I was one that came to gmrs looking for "ham-lite", en route to getting my ticket (pandemic shelter in place, and no VE sessions). Learned some things along the way, found minimal traffic (and making minimal traffic of my own since the family has no interest in radio, like less than zero), and made the jump to ham. Also learned the reality is more "frs-plus", or as @marcspazputs it, "bring your own contacts". There's a bit more traffic now that an area ham club added a gmrs repeater...mainly the hams use it to reach their non-ham family, with the occasional radio checks. I chime in occasionally, but keep it to a minimum; to some extent it's also testing where I can reach it from as much as getting back to them, but I keep the majority of my ragchewing to the network of ham repeaters here that encourages it (when I actually join in).

I'll hazard a guess that someone meant to add it to the map for coordination purposes, but inadvertently listed it as open, when they meant to post it as private. The request cued them that it was visible, and rather than correcting the listing they chose to delete it from the map altogether.

I can't speak to the auction part, but I've dealt with used-radios.com a few times, all good, and they were helpful with some questions I had after the sale.

it was a pair of xpr 6500's..one for 70cm, one 900mhz. I was jumping through the hoops with Motorola to try to get a known legit copy of the software, and after giving them the rundown of my situation, they said i needed a business account to get, and wanted some basic info to change over my existing account. Never heard anything after that, so that little project went on the back burner.

I'll speak mostly from my own experience. I've mostly dealt with Vertex Standard stuff, and coming from other radios, the learning curve for the analog only radios isn't horrible. aftermarket cables are available, many of the common software packages are out there, either from the cable seller or other sources, some paid. the help files in the software are pretty decent about explaining the features, sometimes in somewhat technical language. the digital stuff is a level more complicated, but if you're sticking with the analog side, it's not TOO much more complicated than the analog. i have a couple motoTRBO compatible radios, and it's a few extra settings to watch out for setting up for analog. i was trying to get them going on DMR, but haven't fully worked that out. From the forum, kenwood seem reasonably easy to get software and cables for. can't speak to the programming. motorola seems to be more common to see ship-in programming services available. i've been unsuccessful with programming a couple motorola radios i have, and kind of hit a brick wall with motorola, they were being helpful and then stopped. the software i got didn't load at all on one computer, and the other won't see the radio, either with the aftermarket cable or a legit motorola cable. Moto may be the most likely to be accessible through a local two way shop, with Kenwood not far behind.

I was thinking of the same ?

Which side wins depends on the day of the week? I've been hitting both on my drive to work lately....one of the area ham clubs has a high level gmrs repeater too.

Maybe they're hoping to sell some to walmart drivers? Walmart is known for being a big user of MURS, and in many states a hard mounted radio with hand mic is exempted from hands-free communications device laws....not that you can't achieve this with a portable and hand mic, though. I don't think it's a big change to the firmware between this and the GMRS version... both similarly locked down, just a different range and power level for tx. Being based on the uv920/980 means they already cover both bands anyway.

Ditto, I'd be happy to try them out if they wanted to ship me a couple MURS radios to test, but the reality is I have no real need that they (or MURS in general) meet that isn't already met with other gear I have ?

I would take the reviewer's results with a grain of salt. Nothing against them (and call me jaded if you want), but I also wouldn't put it past the companies making sure the units going out to be reviewed are "healthy" examples, compared to what gets shipped to the average buyer.

It would need to be inline with one of the leads and set to amperage, if it has that option. Voltage holding is a good sign though. Afaik, more ferrites won't hurt anything, and i might double check if theres anything close and metal near the antenna that might be affecting swr.

Using a gmrs tuned antenna would be the best option. That said OP, have you checked that one yet to see how it measures up on GMRS? my comet gp1 wasn't happy for gmrs (swr of 3+), but others have reported some similar type antennas not being so bad, closer to 1.5:1. It may be usable, it may not, but testing will tell for sure for not much cost besides time, and maybe a swr meter if you don't have one yet (which is good to have anyway) .

I use the 60 watt version of the Surecom dummy load as well, though I forgot about checking with the dummy load ? perhaps later/next time. Did a little testing though; same abr400, same gp1, same vx4207 and same surecom sw102. There's now a diplexer after the radio, which it shares with a vx4204 en route to the coax/antenna. all tests were done on an unused 70cm simplex frequency, with 4 different pigtails. Pigtail sat between radio and meter, with diplexer connected to the TX port on the meter. 18" black rg8x - 1.03:1 swr, 48.4 watts 12" Proxicast branded LMR240 - 1.05:1 swr, 49.5 watts 36" grey pigtail, unmarked but listing claims rg8x - 1.02:1 swr, 48.8 watts 6" RG174/u from nanoVNA kit, with SMA-F to PL259 adapters at each end - 1.05:1 swr, 47.5 watts. Truthfully, not surprised to see a minor effect between cables. Trying another cable would help reduce the possibility of a bad cable being the issue. One other thought that hit me was taking a multimeter to that power supply, just to make sure it's putting out what it should be, both current and voltage. 30a (even peak rated) should be more than enough for 25 watts (the vertex and btech show 10-11amps draw on high power), and i'd expect around 5amps for a 25 watt radio. if both of those check out, i'm leaning toward the radio is the issue.

I'd be curious what numbers would look like into a dummy load rather than into the antenna. I'd also be curious to test how much difference in numbers a short pigtail (12"-18" ) really makes in the numbers. For reference, I did some testing on 70cm awhile back with a vertex standard radio (rated 45 watts out on high), the 17 ft of unlabeled cable that came with a Midland mount, and 35 ft of abr400. Measured at the radio, with coax and comet gp1 attached, I saw 43 watts either way. Measuring at the antenna end, the Midland cable showed 23 watts, while twice the length of abr400 showed 35 watts at the antenna. I want to say it was spot on 45 with a dummy load at the radio.

I get the appeal of being able to hide everything but the mic..it really comes down to which features are more important to you, the stealth or the ability to load the extra channels...all we can do here is suggest, and try to help you (and others) get the radio(s) that best fit your wants and needs. On the profit thing, while the wouxun ARE made overseas, there IS definitely some profit staying stateside, with buytwowayradios (based in south carolina) ordering batches of them manufactured to spec to resell.

This. It's not that Midland gear is bad, per se, but that's one aspect they're kind of limited. I wonder if the wouxun kg1000g might be a better choice, and it's similar price wise to the Midland, though it doesn't include the antenna. That said, a basic 1/4 wave is around $10, and it sounds like op already has a mount.

I will agree with the subjectiveness. I have a few different ones, from the cheapie baofeng (tinny, not fantastic), the slightly better btech water resistant with the dmr 6x2 (decent), to a water resistant vertex (solid, even at higher volume with the windows down). Have a pryme for the vx7r that I haven't put to use yet.

That site is a great resource...we've been half looking at houses, and I've been running potential homes against that to see what i'd be be up against for the hobby, both figuratively and literally.