wayoverthere

I think a few other users can vouch as well, they aren't necessarily the least expensive option, but I've had good dealings with https://used-radios.com/ , including via eBay (username Erac1). Bought 4 radios from them, zero issues, and quick to respond on a couple after sale questions I had.

It's kind of a weak point in both the search and the map, but any repeater that the listing hasn't been updated in the last year, the search considers "stale", and by default, won't include them in the search. On the map, look for the gear icon near the top left, and toggle that option on to "show stale repeaters". There's some holes around Bowling Green and Elizabethtown, but quite a few scattered around still.

If OP has the same one I do, they aren't too expensive...I think mine was around $20 when I bought it some time ago.

I will second Marc. My initial setup had the comet clamped onto the side post of a wire storage rack, around halfway up. Swr was around 5:1, IIRC. Moved to the tripod and rechecked...1.2:1. Coupling with the rack was making a mess of an otherwise well tuned antenna

Those would definitely be more robust/stable (at least without some assistance). I don't know that I'd have kept mine as is as long as I have if i didn't have an out of the way spot to park it that it wont get bumped

This. I think I even have the same tripod, but since I'd lost the camera mount plate I just removed all of the mount parts and just left the shaft. It's been holding a comet dual band for my ham setup for a year and a half or so now. Testing will tell for sure, but you may be able to get away with tilting the camera mount so the handle is all the way down next to the shaft on the side opposite the antenna, and move the antenna all the way to the top of that shaft (lower the tripod and/or shaft if you need to for ceiling clearance ).

IMO... I wouldn't let the narrowband only grant turn me away if it otherwise met my needs. The biggest issue of wideband vs narrowband is the equipment is mismatched (narrowband radio into a widband repeater, or vice versa). It would just come down to setting up the radios accordingly. On another note, from what I saw on retevis' sitez the stock tuning for the original rt97 wants 10mhz offset in vhf or uhf...not even feasible in vhf (2m), being only 4mhz wide. It makes me wonder if the lower rated power on the gmrs model is to get it to sneak under the thresholds for certification (from some of the numbers we saw in the report), if it's accounting for signal loss tuning that tiny duplexer down to a 5mhz offset, or a bit of both.

From their page on Facebook, it looks like they had to shut it down in July due to site costs. https://m.facebook.com/barnsys/

I forget the page number now, and I may be reading it wrong, but was the chart earlier in the report (page 15 or so?) focused on spurious emissions showing the spurs were higher output than the actual in band signal?

Not that I see in the menu on mine either. Black text on white background may be the best it gets... short of fabbing a little visor for the display.

First, I'll suggest not trusting those other sites ( .io or .report) 100%, as they aren't official sites and I've seen a few glitches in the data...though that doesn't seem to be the issue here. Here is the actual doc on fcc.gov...looks like narrow only there...11k0f3e and 5 watts only. https://apps.fcc.gov/oetcf/tcb/reports/Tcb731GrantForm.cfm?mode=COPY&RequestTimeout=500&tcb_code=&application_id=46EoA4PpE8zlyRIMY2v7uw%3D%3D&fcc_id=2ASNSRT97 Here is the main authorization search page https://apps.fcc.gov/oetcf/eas/reports/GenericSearch.cfm Perhaps the "wideband" is there for ham use, where they aren't subject to certification testing like they are for gmrs?

I get strong interference that stops the scan on my 805g on channels 3 and 6...traced it back to the work issued lcd monitor, goes away with the screen off though.

Good thinking for easy setup! I f you go po box, it may vary a little pricewise between locations. Also, some now offer "street addressing" which means they'll accept most packages from ups, fed ex, etc, and you can ship things there from vendors that wouldn't normally ship to a PO box. At least at the PO I use, street addressing is a no additional cost opt-in. https://postalpro.usps.com/mailing/competitivepoboxes

My experience is similar to @wrcu527 . I have some vx4200's in play, and the date workaround works on those. No experience with an evx mobile, but I also have a couple evx handhelds, and those are a bit harder. On the handhelds, once they're programmed for narrow, a recovery tool needs to be used to restore wideband, and then the export version of the software will be needed to program and stay wideband after recovery, as the us version will force narrowband

I think the difference in relation to hinge is just hinge location changes between models, the height in relation to the cowl seems pretty similar. That said, I also agree that the proximity of the body is probably the biggest issue. Tried a base setup clamped to a metal rack (about halfway up, to clear the ceiling...3.5:1 swr. Moved it to a tripod in the closet, away from the rack and anything else metal...1.1:1 on the same frequencies. I believe @marcspaziis using lip mounts on the edge of his jeeps' hoods with good results

Same here as well, hence... (I think I have the same name on the gotenna mesh forum as well)

What antenna is the 2730a hooked up to? I know (at least in terms of swr) the comet gp1 that's my ham base antenna isn't happy with much outside the 420-450 range. The commercial stuff is also probably better optimized /filtered for the higher frequencies (possibly more sensitive, as well) where commercial and gmrs reside, where the 2730a is outside it's normal operating range

I'll give that a try...forgot about that option.

did what i could with a piece of cloth...no luck so far. did a full uninstall/reinstall...no go on either of the XPRs. even broke down and picked up an oem Moto cable...same message. unrelated to the moto challenges, I picked up a Diamond NR72b, on the ongoing hunt for something less compromised but still short enough to clear the garage at work...tram1181 is just an inch or so long, and the Comet SBB1 I usually run leaves me wanting for a little more signal. While great in 70cm (1.02:1), and pretty decent in GMRS (1.25-1.3:1), the NR72b is showing surprisingly bad swr on 2m (3.2 on the browning/rg8x mount, and 2.7 on the midland mount, both at 146.550), while a variety of other antennas have been 1.3 or better on these mounts and placement (at least within their tuned band). I think I need to either drag out the VNA, or test some more around 2m to see if it's a tuning issue, play with mounting location (lead into the next bit...), and rule out being overly sensitive to the led dome/cargo lights)...because where it gets weird is when i tested it indoors on the 8"x12" sheet metal/mag mount i use for gmrs (and also for testing, since it's the easiest to grab), it showed the same numbers in GMRS, and 1.01:1 on 2m ?

agreed...makes me wonder how good that SRH701a that came with my vx7r is doing (though i usually swap have a srh320a triband on instead, or occasionally the 940 to see what little there is to hear on 6m). or diamond in general... (moving the mostly off topic musings to another thread...)

That sums it up well ?

Yeah, @rdunajewskican get it squared away, one way or the other

I have a baofeng uv5r (older, unrestricted) that we use as a scanner, though admittedly it doesn't scan quickly. That said, we only have maybe 8-10 channels programmed. Chirp had checkboxes on the settings tab to disable tx. For my LMR stuff, I used weird splits to dump any unintended key-ups on either gmrs ch 1 (which is just mess of kids kerchunking and pounding the call button on bubble pack radios here) or one of the murs channels.

Usually the simplex (transmit and receive on the same frequency) channel for 462.725 is named something like GMRS22, while the repeater (or duplex) channel, named something like REPT22, has the offset needed to use a repeater preset. (Your radio transmits on 467.725, and receives on 462.725). Nearly all repeaters also require a tone; this is basically a filter on what the receiver hears, and only signals with the matching tone get through, everything else is ignored. If the repeater uses tones, you'll need the right one for it to hear you. Using one on what you receive is optional. You'll do this on the repeater channel that he's the frequency you want to use. In terms of knowing if you got in or not, you may hear a bit of static, a tone, a transmit with no audio (known as a squelch tail), or the repeater may then identify itself, verbally or in Morse/CW.

I don't have it in front of me, but I want to say chirp defaults values into all of those fields, but ignores some based on your actual tone settings (ignores dcs when tone is selected, ignores ctcss when DCS is selected, etc).