wayoverthere

Not a bad price on the icom, though I wouldn't call it a great price unless it's new..they tend to be in the 250-300 range new, depending on sales and rebates. Does definitely fill your crossband need too. On a side note, when I used the crossband at home, I had the tones configured so it only repeated from ht to the set repeate (I had a couple cross and channels set up for various frequencies), but not back to the ht....since I could hear the repeater just fine, just not reach it with the ht from indoors.

Forgot to expand on this a bit...I have a batch of simplex channels programmed in 146 and 147 on 2m, and 446.xxx on 70cm to give me some simplex, calling frequencies included. I think eventually, either this truck or the next, I'll pick up an id-5100 or ftm-400dr, and the icom will come back inside, or try to sneak it into the better half's car

Commercial radios generally aren't the most flexible thing., But you can get around it somewhat with programming. I've shuffled my setups a few times, though the alinco dm30 is the one consistent piece, powering everything. There's a couple of tekpower that are well regarded and slightly cheaper. Radio wise, my current setup is a vx4207 for 70cm (bonus being 90/95cert, so legal for gmrs too), paired with a vx4204 for 2m. The 4204 wasn't exactly inexpensive, but the 4207 can be had on eBay for 135+shipping from used-radios.com (username erac1)...it's a little more on their site. Previously, I had an icom 2730a dual band, which was solid, but the fan noise got to me a little; it's in the truck in place of the vx4207. If 95a certification isnt an issue, I've seen other models (I want to say vx2200) with a power supply for base use for 175 on ebay. However, I'm currently doing straight analog FM on the base, plus dmr and p25 on handhelds. (Also tech, kicking myself for not studying up to do general at the same time). I've been scouring for some affordable p25 mobile, or 1.25/6m options but haven't pulled the trigger on any of those yet. Kind of like some members go for Motorola, my 'fleet' is pretty heavily biased toward Vertex Standard.

Imo, I wouldn't call it a deal breaker. If you're going to be scanning, or want direct channel access it's nice. If you're generally going to be parked on one channel, it's probably not necessary. I've mostly used mine for changing channels, and jumping in and out of scan; also sometimes in vfo for punching in a specific frequency I want to listen to outside gmrs.

The zen was pretty equivalent to the hd-based ipods of the early 2000's minus the need to use itunes, slide bar instead of the circle, and a replaceable battery.

And Creative didn't seem to bother trying to compete with the ipods after the Zen, did they? Didn't Samsung do a Galaxy media player for a minute too?

The short answer is that it's likely not quite short enough. The simplex channels that the 50x1 can access are all in 462.xxx. those repeater channels transmit in 467.xxx, which will want a little shorter antenna than 462, which requires a bit shorter than the ham 70cm band. An analyzer like a nanovna would say for sure, though, where the "sweet spot" is at its current length.

Check the port first; my 805g has a rubber layer inside that's a bit askew, and can prevent full seating of the plug if I'm not careful. If that isn't the issue, reach out to BTWR, and see if they'll be willing to swap out the cable...if the cable or plug are the issue, it isn't going to matter if you use wouxun's software or chirp because the physical line of communication is broken.

definitely more efficient use of the spectrum. maybe it's just my setup, or setups on the other end, but everything i've heard so far on DMR, people sound very...robotic, while p25 has sounded about as natural as analog. if they set a couple of digital only channels, and the manufacturers were able to boil it down to the same level of menu as some of the current bubble packs, i can't see why it would be any worse than it is now....instead of ctcss or dcs, match channel and color code, and go. they already have the programming able to handle the switch between wideband on some channels and narrow on others, out of the box. perhaps i haven't played with DMR enough (especially simplex) to really see the potential issues, though.

yeah, i can't say i got as good a deal on either of my P25 handhelds (vhf vx-p829, and uhf vx-p824), but they're in good shape. grabbing a mobile seriously tempts me, but if i'm realistic, there isn't THAT much around either....DMR has more repeaters than P25, C4FM/Fusion, and D-Star combined. maybe it's just my searches, but it seems like UHF outweighs VHF a bit in P25, probably 60/40, with both giving way to 700/800.

It's changed with the software; it comes preset to wideband on 1-7 and 15-22, and narrow on 8-14.

Yeah, I know the odds are slim. The overlap between current radios in the wild and the new if they reallocated the existing channels though...would make some sense with the narrow bandwidth dmr uses though. Yeah, I've always wondered why p25 is generally so expensive. I was floored when I found a "p25 capable" icom for a pretty reasonable price, but to buy the p25 upgrade was over $300 (for basically just a license).

a little pie in the sky, expecting logic from the gov, but IMO the best way to do it would be adding channels. if there's spectrum for it, how about 5 new digital channels, and 5 new repeater-designated channels, no sharing the outputs with simplex. i suspect DMR would be the mode of choice; i don't see them leaving it open or tying to a proprietary standard. started having some success with DMR, but i'd have to say so far, P25 sounds better.

A couple of my collection are from used-radios as well (one mobile, one ht), and one more due in any day now (nos vhf evx539). Would buy from them again no problem. On some things it's cheaper to buy from them on eBay (erac1) over their site; the vx4207 was 135 on ebay, while being listed at 165 on the site.

Your last statement is on the right track, but there's a little more to it. If you're both using simplex channel 20 (usually labeled as 'gmrs20', 462.675), your radios are transmitting on the same frequency as they're receiving. Tones being a sort of filter, if you're both using the same tone, yes, you'll hear each other even in the absence of a repeater. Repeater channel 20 (20r, or rept20) your radios will be transmitting 5mhz higher (467.675) than where they're listening (462.675), where a repeater would be listening (this is referred to as offset, or repeater offset). In this case, since where your friend is listening isnt where you're transmitting, and vice versa, you won't be able to talk to each other without a repeater to retransmit your signals on the frequency you're listening on.

If they're operating under your license, they'd use the same callsign, though you can append identifiers ("alpha", "mobile", etc) of your choice to differentiate between family members. On the 2nd question, no, they don't do vanity callsigns on GMRS; someone actually tried either earlier this year or late last year and FCC rejected it, stating they had no provisions allowing it.

CCRs or big money gear (I believe some of the Motorola APX line covers both, all the way up to the 700/800 public safety range). I did similar...it was a bit more than those g7 split ones, but I stumbled on a seller with some supposedly old stock VHF evx-539's and grabbed one...it's due any day now, depending on FedEx...happens to be the same one I got the vx4207 and the vx-p824 from

The 450-512 (g7) splits are capable of covering FRS/gmrs frequencies as well, if covering 70cm isn't necessary. They seem to be more plentiful, too. 2 of my 3 are g7, the other is g6 (400-470), and those two set me back $120 for the pair, with uprated Motorola batteries and a speaker mic.

Channel 3? ? https://radiofreeq.wordpress.com/2013/06/29/shtf-survivalist-radio-frequency-list/

The repeater's page has a link to the swcrs site, which has a list of their rules and instructions on requesting access (which also gives access to the tones needed). https://swcrs.org/?page_id=46

Good info on Harris, I've seen them in my eBay searches for p25 stuff (other than dmr, that's probably the most common digital mode here in central CA). And I think most (if not all of us) have tried the lower priced stuff and learned through experience why a lot of it is cheaper to buy, be it poor performance, poor durability, or a manufacturer trying to build its name. Other than the lockdown method, I can't really complain about the Btech 50x1 I have, and do have a couple of uv5r variants...not a bad scanner for $25, and one has recently been paired with a mobilinkd tnc3 to try playing with APRS via radio..already poked at it a little strictly from the app/internet side.

My "shack" shares desk space with a work laptop and a personal laptop, a couple LCD monitors, a network switch and mesh access point, a Google speaker, a wireless charging pad, and a few radio chargers that may or may not be plugged in at any given time. The power source for the radios is also a switching power supply, though it's one designed for radios (alinco). The only RFI I've run into is the work issued monitor (few year old Samsung) hits the lower end handhelds (wouxun and Midland) on ch 3 and ch 6. The vertex stuff isn't bothered unless it's literally right next to the screen; the BTech mobile doesn't notice it either , with the antenna sitting roughly 6 ft away.

Yeah, I didn't make it clear enough that that 5 watts on the Btech is pretty much a joke, like it's just there so they can technically claim triband. On the bridgecom, I didn't catch that they no longer list it on their own site, but it jibes with dxe having it as "special order". DMR, not sure what I was missing, but with no success either direction other than the parrot channel, I'm clearly missing something. I'll come back to it when time permits.

Yeah, ive had the very slight temptation for a dmr mobile too, but it wouldn't really fill any needs, and the only thing it has that I don't is dmr...if I do grab one, 95% chance it'll be a vertex. And no point in spending on that until I get set up on/figure out dmr to begin with..made some effort with cheap stuff and no success, so...back burner for a bit, and I'll come back to it. Will probably try on a repeater instead of hotspotwhen I come back to it. I was eyeing the retevis and it's clones for the same reason (I think it's sold under one or two other brand names, but the same radio), but hold off because theres not much here on 220 that isn't linked to something else (a lot more on uhf than vhf here too). Btech has a triband mobile with just 5 watts on 220 and it's near $400, DXE lists a Bridgecom monoband for $240 as a special order item, and The Alinco has been discontinued.