wayoverthere

The short version is they've had all those repeaters "in planning phase" posted for awhile; pretty much since I took an active interest in going beyond bubblepacks (~2 years now). The one repeater in the SF Bay area is supposedly active and has good coverage, though the group behind them is apparently in money troubles at the moment, based on the updates on the repeater descriptions. http://barnsys.org/home.html one of the principals for BARN is an admin for one of the "GMRS Only" facebook groups as well.

I haven't had much luck finding it again, but I ran across something once that implied that limiting the user configurable transmit channels (a la Btech) made for quicker certification. That, combined with what @Lscott mentioned about manufacturers repurposing other hardware to meet minimum requirements (both user and certification) with minimal time invested, and here we are. It does seem that some manufacturers are responsive to user input (retevis comes to mind), while others build to vendor specifications, and input from knowledgeable vendors is priceless (wouxun, via buytwowayradios and bettersaferradio).

I'm reminded of a story I saw recently of someone leaving Alexa to babysit their kid, for the most part, with the kid amused to ask Alexa to 'give me a challenge'. Too soon, Alexa strayed into the dregs of the internet and brought up something akin to "try to fit a fork in the electrical socket", with mom blaming Amazon for the content, and "I thought it was safe".

I'll throw a vote for the 805g as well. The one issue is a LCD monitor on my desk that throws enough RFI to break the squelch in scan, but it's been solid otherwise. The programming software is about as simple as it gets, though it comes with a full set of simplex and repeater channels already loaded...computer programming isn't necessary before you use it. You can set tones right from the menu.

Not familiar with all the shapes involved with the rack...would it be possible to take the bars and end caps off, and route the cable inside the rack, and bring it out near your entry point? Alternately, would offsetting the antenna further back make using the hatch feasible? (Gmrs frequencies don't need a huge ground plane). If I wanted to clean it up that much, I might even grab an inline connector and another piece of cable if that would make the hatch workable. Lmr240 or rg8x pigtails in the 6' aren't horribly expensive, though more cable means a little more loss. I might also try to find some white electric tape and wrap the portion of the cable outside, too.

It's definitely not a clean look on my truck. For the Patriot, is it possible to park it inside the rails toward the back, to minimize the amount of cable run on the roof? Thinking there should be enough room to keep it from being too close to the bars and cause issues On the car, I put it just off center on the trunk toward the drivers' side, and tucked as much as I could along the trunk edge outside the seal, to bring it up and across the seal at the bottom. Tempted to move it further off center, throw a big antenna on, and just hide it in the trunk when not in use (that's the beater car, and I just take a handheld along)

I know, the shuffle definitely muddies things. The wording in the current 95e seems to leave it open that 95e and 90 certification IS still possible, though I can't really see it making financial sense to the mfgs. I can't see the price of new lmr gear selling much in the gmrs market to justify the cost of certifying, and cutting price to sell more kind of undercuts the lmr side. Probably the only ones still remaining are the ones that certified under 95a that have been able to maintain production under that certification (I believe it's been mentioned Kenwood has at least one, though I haven't gone searching for it.

This. Where possible I'll try to be out and about different places...try to get in with a handheld on the early check in, and if it's no go, come in at regular check in on the mobile. The local club also has a trivia type question or discussion topic a couple times a month...how'd a contest go, or do you know this bit of history.

It's too bad 47 cfr 95.2761 and 95.561 disallow dual certification, because given the wording in 95.1761, it seems like that would be allowed from the gmrs side. Or am I reading the FRS/MURS parts wrong?

It can be, though a speaker mic definitely helps. I picked up a short cable (18", I believe) from amazon that has so239 on one end, and sma-m on the other (I use a sma-f adapter from signal stuff as needed). This has been working well with a mag mount nmo, on both the truck previously, and now on the beater car for ham. Edit: This is the one from my Amazon history, though check the major radio retailers (DX engineering,antenna farm, etc) as they may have better connector options (depending if your radio wants sma-m or sma-f). I tried ordering the little DHT 2 pack twice....disappeared en route both times, 3rd try was what I have: https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B07CPVF1GG/

Not so much a product suggestion as a source...I've been checking out hamestate dot com, and they have some seemingly decent deals on some astron linear power supplies...I'm tempted. There's a triband alinco HT tempting me too, but I don't really have a use for 1.2ghz

Glad to help. ?

It's still there....you'll have to hit the "gear" button at the top left of the map, and toggle the option for "show stale repeaters" or "show offline".

To be fair, from what @over2u showed, it's presented both in terms of the raw tone, and the corresponding code number that's used by one of the more common manufacturers. it does also tie with what @lscott mentioned about setting things up ahead of time.l, rather than trying to fumble through it in the time of need. It also does mention it's not intended as a 911-type channel, more for SAR to be able to contact the person they're looking for.

Yep, one of the limitations of btech's method of locking down for 95e certification...the gmrs 50x1 has the same limitation.

Google turned up this doc, which may match up with the tones on the Motorola. You could put the code number on the Motorola, and the corresponding tone on the btech, and see if it gets through still. https://www.cert-la.com/downloads/radio/FRS-GMRS-Frequency-Chart.pdf

It should be possible My first thought is there is a PL tone set on the Motorola, so it's expecting a tone the btech isn't sending. The btech, onthe other hand, is listening with no filter, so it hears the Motorola. If you can't find the tone settings in the Moto menu, I believe v1 can scan for the code (I'll try to dig up the manual later on the computer, if someone doesn't beat me to it)

One of those "reporting difference between dbi and dbd" things maybe? marketing reporting vs actual, kind of like the Midland "up to 35 mile range" labeling.

Thanks for the link.

Good luck! I have my eye on general as well, and started doing some of the practice tests ok the Hamstudy app last night. Also have the 'easy way ham book' for general to study, with an eye toward a VE session at the end of Feb in the next town over.

I definitely have a few places I've learned from my mistakes, mostly due to lack of research, and jumping at what seemed like a good price...and paid in extra effort and/ or frustration instead.

20A continuous is more than enough for a 50 watt mobile. One of the users that has a KG1000G can say better than i can what they've seen for current draw, but in the ballpark of 10-11 amps is what sticks in my head. my 50 watt rated Btech shows just shy of 10 amp draw on high power, and around the same for my 45 and 50 watt rated vertex mobiles. onto the multiple radio question: just as you're thinking, i wanted to size up to have some headroom for ham gear. the big consideration is looking at the most current you'll be drawing at once, and keeping that under the continuous rating of your power supply. if you think there's a chance you'd be transmitting high power on more than one radio at a time, you might want a little more headroom. I'm currently running 3 45 and 50 watt rated mobile radios from an Alinco (I believe it's the DM30TR) with the same 20A continuous, 30A peak. I'm only ever transmitting on 1 at a time, so that's more than enough headroom for me; with all 3 scanning/listening, draw runs around 0.5A. I want to say i've seen a couple other members mention this Tekpower PSU working well for their setups. once you get into bigger wattage, the current draw gets bigger as well, so it may be better to size up more depending what you have in mind (one of those buy once, cry once kind of things). on switching versus linear regulated, i've seen no difference in noise with this switching PSU, generally the reputable brands' models designed for radio will do fairly well at avoiding noise. both my Alinco and that Tekpower have a 'noise offset' to move any 'birdies' you may run into, but even testing back to back battery vs psu, i haven't found any noise in gmrs. haven't tested back to back on the ham stuff, but i haven't noticed anything from the PSU either (though i have other noise around, definitely).

Glad to help ?

I'll try to poke at mine tonight, see what it shows with the dummy load. I know the sw102 is showing 1.04 with the new 60 watt rated dummy load, I think I remember the 5 watt showing 1:1...we'll see what i find. edit: tested across both dummy loads (5 watt and 60 watt) and both meters (sw33 and sw102)...channels 1 and 21RP, on my kg805g. sw33: 1.01 on the 5 watt, 1.26 on the 60 watt. sw102: 1.05 on the 5 watt, 1.0 on the 60 watt appears the sw33 does not display lower than 1.01, as far as i'm seeing.

So...when you mention signal from another radio, are you talking another radio in the same room? Or signal from a repeater? If the former, you could be having a desense situation, with the very close signal effectively making the receiving radio "deaf". Outside of that, I think I've seen reports where radios had shipped from the manufacturer with codes (ctcss or DCs) set from the factory, and some radios will show receiving a signal without opening squelch if the incoming signal doesn't match the code set on that channel....worth double checking that.