wayoverthere

Probably the closest thing used as such is Zello, which unlike echolink, doesn't require a ham license. I'm not up on all the hardware bits involved, but they'll usually have a channel set up tied to a node or repeater, with admin permission required to transmit into the channel. On a side note, I've been pondering doing something similar to your setup with Echolink, so i can access a local repeater remotely, just haven't dug into if I can make it work with what I have or need another radio (oh darn!). That said, if you can work out the interface hardware and locked down the access appropriately (probably self only), I don't see why you couldnt use echolink to access your home node.

Perhaps @PACNWCommsmay have input/experience with the 2200's; I know with my 4200's, they'll go into a reboot loop when the cable is plugged into the radio, and stop and switch to "pc prog" when it gets whatever signal it wants to see from the software. I'll usually have the cable plugged into the computer, plug it into the radio right before I'm ready to read/write, and then click the menu item (which, IIRC, reminds you to turn the radio off and on). one other thing to check would be Windows Device Manager to see if it may be a driver issue (look for the little yellow triangle/exclamation point). On a side note, I found it interesting the "upload" and "download" terminology are opposite from most consumer radios/software I've used.

I won't say direct experience with CE82, but I've had good luck fooling the CE package that covers my VX-4200's (and VX-920) by changing my system time to something well before that Jan 2013 date (I usually just leave the rest of the date alone, crank the year back to 2005, and use the actual edit date in the filename when saving) before starting up the software..

Not hearing any activity isn't necessarily an indicator of the repeater being offline, though not getting some kind of response from the repeater is less of a good sign (though not indicative, either, depending on repeater settings). sometimes there just isn't any traffic, though. That said, while you don't have to worry about PROGRAMMING offset, you do have to at least make sure to use the correct channel that has the offset programmed. GMRSXX are the simplex channels (no offset), while REPTXX are intended for repeaters, with the +5.0mhz offset preprogrammed...if you're already on track on this aspect, feel free to disregard.

if you're connecting an amp between the antenna port on the RT97 case and the antenna, the amp is in the receive path (which does neither the amp or your receive any favors. it COULD be sorted to bring the tx and rx out separately, amp the tx side, and either run separate antennas or add a duplexer suited for the higher power....but then do you end up with a repeater that talks further out than it can hear?

Yeah, it wasn't particularly surprising. One of those "worth a try things"...though that does bring to mind something else to try, to see if opening the dat file from the radioddity software works with the Midland software. What I tried previously was using the Midland software to try readying from the anytone radio (just to clarify).

I cut that sentence off a little too soon....should have said only one that does vhf; according to the chart (and experience with the 805) the 805 and 905 are UHF only. Also missed the zones thing...rushing to complete the post before I needed to clock in for the day.

First, welcome to the fun! Wouxun KG935g is probably the most flexible choice on the list, and according to the comparison chart on BTWR, appears to be the only one of their 3 GMRS HTs that does vhf, and I want to say I've seen something about the ability to do the zones as well will have to dig a little more on retevis and radioddity to offer suggestions there.

The only ones I know of are Garmin's Rino series. https://www.garmin.com/en-US/p/533999

Back with a little further test data to share. I grabbed the other one out of the beater, since that one isn't attached (just shoved in the slot in the console) and I was in that car today. Both are programmed near-identically, really differing only in which channels show up in the scan (the one in the car is doing ham/GMRS dual duty, one in the truck is primarily for GMRS with a Icom for ham). Even unlocked, I did my best to stick as closely as possible to the part 95 configuration (save that 'able to access other services' thing). For the GMRS channels, 1-7 are set for low power, 8-14 are rx only. Hooked it up to my PSU (alinco dm30tr), hooked up the sw102 and dummy load, and keyed low power on ch 3 (462.6125). PSU shows 1.6a draw, 13.9v (radio shows 13.8v). The Surecom showed the expected 1.0 swr for a dummy load, and 5.12 watts out. Tried it again with an antenna in place of the dummy load (midland mag mount on a piece of sheet metal, 5/8 wave base loaded whip) also shows 1.0 swr, with 4.48 watts. Still curious for a meter reading on output, but like @donniefitz2 I'd like to know what's up with the programming in the radio, and could it be "CH 3" is something outside of GMRS and in lockdown mode it's just not actually transmitting? Given the number of issues we've seen with some of the brands with all kinds of funky things showing up as default programming both post reset and out of the box (and the fact that, despite being sold as part 95 gmrs-locked radios, both of mine came unlocked), verifying the programming is probably a good next step (outside of solutions Radioddity may offer).

Took a quick look at mine in the truck (currently unlocked to full dual band to toss in the better half's car for a recent trip), and the one bar on the on screen meter and red tx light are consistent with low power transmit on mine. I found "tx inhibit" in the menu, though it may only be there in unlocked mode. In the software, you have to hit the >> at the end of the row to go into channel details, and it's toward the upper left, iirc. I want to say when I checked on my psu, it showed around 3.5a draw on high, but I can pull it inside and check low power. from here, dummy load or not, I'd want to get it on a meter and check power output directly..just give your call sign and say something about testing when you key up, if you don't have a dummy load....won't be a 100% accurate figure, but close enough to see if the output is there or not, and what the swr looks like. Touching base with Radioddity isn't a bad idea as well.

I'll try to peek at what the meter looks like on my anytone with low power tx sometime today, and if the tx disable is in the menu. Three things come to mind to check: swr (to rule out a cable issue causing it to cut power), whether tx is disabled on that channel in the programming, and (the big one that stands out) if plugging in something else to that 12v socket displays as a draw on the meter....heater, 12v fridge, whatever. I'd expect to see some current draw on key up.

that lines up with seeing 18 from mine into a dummy load, and 22 into an antenna, both on high...i usually use medium power.

Not that I see, so far. It'd probably be a pretty popular one. Mentioning it as a mental note to myself, but I wonder what id get if I installed the Midland software, and tried reading from the anytone. edit: downloaded and installed, but no luck reading from the anytone, and trying to mess with things in the .dat and .fre files just ended up with system errors and making the program unusable. the fact that they limit what tx frequencies you can program via the software makes me think it's not all that locked down in the firmware, similar to the Wouxun 805g, but dependent on programming limitations in the software to keep it in-band.

At 6", that would be a 1/4 wave, correct? It looks like the closest laird equivalent to the Midland I have is the b4502, which is a base loaded 1/2 wave, 12.6" long and no ground plane required. There is an all black version as well (I have one for 430-450mhz), and spring versions in both colors.

No disagreement there; some are better than others (the program for my yaesu ft4x isn't awful), but it's probably the main reason RT systems was able to carve out a place in the market. It's mainly the window for editing the settings on a specific channel that hit me, as the naming boxes and the settings seem to pretty much mirror each other. Is this a hint that the mxt500 has a cousin on (or coming to) the market under a different brand? Between the software and the past crossover with the dbr2500/anytone 878, an Anytone seems likely. And with 25 watt radios being a long time thing for them, there IS room in their lineup to add a 50 watt model.

So, back here since this seems to be the main MXT500 thread. Went digging for the MXT500 manual tonight related to the thread in the guest forum about scanning issues, and stumbled into the programming guide first instead. What stands out most, looking at the screenshots in the programming guide, is how similar the screens are to the software for the anytone at779/radioddity Db20G/retevis RA25 triplets...there's a couple screenshots over here:

The one possible thing I see in the manual is that it comes configured to scan all the channels out of the box; are you sure you added the channels rather than. Removing them from the scan? The manual seems to indicate a period after the CH icon indicates a channel active in the scan list.

a quick search found this one pretty fast:

it was close enough that i thought it'd been reset. here's my quick attempt...i kind of cheated and looked at the page source to get a close font (Roboto), and grabbed a screenshot from another profile to match the background color, square size (200x200 px) and font sizing. feel free to use it if you'd like.

One minor addition: while the uv5r (and other radios in the same form factor don't natively support USB charging, the high capacity (3800mAh) batteries do have a barrel plug, and BTech sells a USB charging pigtail that can charge the battery via that plug. https://baofengtech.com/product/bt-1013/

my 'base' isn't too far off of that....3db (5/8 wave) midland whip (what they sold before the current 'ghost'), mag mounted on a 8"x12" piece of sheet metal on top of a bookcase. can't say much for simplex, but makes repeaters just fine at 30 and 60 miles out. i believe laird makes a similar whip for 450-470mhz, and both that and mine are around 12" tall. for best results you may want to have it outdoors when in use, on a window ledge or balcony, as many high rises use low emmissivity glass (low-e), which in addition to blocking heat, also somewhat blocks radio signals.

Went to see about throwing something together for you to approximate the blank/callsign only user photo (since i'm home again with access to a computer), but it looks like either you beat me to it, or @rdunajewski got it handled (if so, thanks Rich!) Below is what I saw just now when viewing your profile in the main site:

Gotcha....the profiles between the forums and the main page don't quite connect, though when the forum took place we did at least have the logins merged. The forum profile does offer removing the picture, but it doesn't seem to carry over to the main pahe, and the main page doesn't have the "remove" option, or a "hide my user photo" option either. Barring some assistance from @rdunajewski , the easiest option may be to just mock up what you want in your image editing program of choice (or paint) and upload that in place of what's there. (I'll note that I have completely different profile pics between the two, which didn't seem to merge with the logins.)

linking won't affect the range of a specific repeater; it's going to be dependent on the location, the machine itself, the antenna, and everything in the RF path from repeater to antenna. across the link, it's pretty much wherever the repeater can be linked to, you can reach, as long as you're within RF range of the repeater you're accessing the network through. if i were to travel down to socal (where one of the repeaters is linked in for the national nets, i could talk to a user in Brooklyn or New Jersey, or anywhere else that a repeater is linked into the network. if you throw something like zello into the mix, you can, it's pretty much the sky's the limit. i've checked into repeaters in Bronx, Jersey, Utah, and Arizona that way, as there's not currently anything in my range that's linked for the nets.