wayoverthere

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.

I've been tempted by the anytone, simply for the vast amount of experience out there, but held off so far. Stumbled on a NOS vhf version not too long ago, just waiting on FedEx for that. Current idea is to try dmr with the EVXs, and just find a local repeater instead of the hotspot. On the range testing (really just an excuse to go for a drive), I managed 75ish miles to one repeater from the handheld, with a signal stick antenna, the other was a bust from there. However, I went poking around another spot that's home to a dozen or so towers and who knows how many antennas, from ham to public safety to commercial FM. From up there managed to hit that 2nd repeater at just shy of 120 miles out, basically over the top of the valley. One of the handhelds (yaesu ft4x) may have defended a bit, but still usable. The vertex seemed unaffected, was picking up a p25 repeater 100 or so miles away a mag mount antenna.

The other consideration: everything beyond the hard coded 30 channels is RX only, so offsets aren't going to come into play for those because you can't tx anyway.

Should probably point here: https://forums.mygmrs.com/guidelines/ The other link was from before a pretty big site/forum upgrade, I suspect things have shifted around a bit. They're also in the menu in the top right, under the "browse" submenu, at least on mobile view.

Possibly nothing wrong. While it's possible there's a power disparity in play (many of the gxt1000's being only 2 watts and many "mid tier" radios doing 5 watts), it's more likely they have tones set and just aren't hearing you. While there's definitely some enthusiast presence here (the site), in the real world it's more common for users to have tones set so that they only hear their group (be it friends or family). Since tones are effectively a filter, they don't hear you, but with no tone set (and thus no filter) you'll still hear them.

Glad to help. One nice thing about the nmo mount, for me and my tinkering, is the ability to swap whips on the mount. Most times I run the taller whips, but switch out to shorter stuff (signal stalk or 70cm 1/4 wave for ham, 5/8 wave or 1/4 wave for gmrs) if I have to go in the office or other low clearance location. On the rare occasion I take to a car wash, I just pull the mounts off the roof and toss them in the cab till after.

As an alternative to a post sticking up, what about driving a larger piece of pipe into the ground, so your "mast" can slide down into it rather than over it, while not leaving something sticking up that could be a hazard when it isn't being used. That might be a little easier sell than something sticking up, though then it's how to mark it in a non-hazardous way...flexible flag of some kind?

A quick search finds buytwowayradios has the G version https://www.buytwowayradios.com/nagoya-ut-72g.html (BTWR seems to be one of the few really pushing the gmrs part of the market forward, arguably even moreso than Midland, imo)

Is it the standard ut72 or the ut72g? The standard isn't quite tuned for gmrs, aimed more toward the 70cm ham band, where the 72g is tuned for gmrs. That said, I've seen good and bad reviews for Midland's 6db whip, with most of the bad being related to Amazon purchases. I am running their (now discontinued) 3db whip as base with decent success, along with a double 5/8 wave browning uhf that was good swr across both 70cm and gmrs (1.2 or less), and checks in at a little shy of 3 ft long. For all three, you will need to add a separate nmo mag mount, as they're all nmo bases and (as far as I know) won't fit the Nagoya base.

I'd be cautious. First, those wires look a little thin, perhaps better suited to the 25 watt radios (hard to tell from the one pic, and no specs, though). Second, check what your lighter plug will support in terms of current draw. It's not uncommon to see them fused at 10 or 15 amps;running high power, my 50x1 draws between 10 and 11 amps, which doesn't leave much (or any) room for other draws sharing the circuit with the lighter plug.

I was testing a sma adapter the other day on one of the evx-539's, while listening to the local public safety frequency. I went to swap antennas while they were talking, and realized i could still hear the dispatcher, albeit with a bit of static, with no antenna at all. Tried touching my finger to the center pin in the SMA port and it was crystal clear. Don't know what kind of swr i'd present if i tried to transmit through my finger, though.

I think the statement boiled down to it wasn't their intent to prohibit Part 90 equipment; this falls in line with the current wording in the code related to dual-certified equipment, in that it allows for dual certification (95 & XX) where the other service requires certification. So 95e & 90 dual certification is still possible, though it doesn't seem manufacturers are bothering. Along with Moto & Kenwood, I know the Vertex VX4207 (mobile) carried 95A as well; I have one that was doing dual duty in the truck, though it's since moved back to my desk, and the can be found on the auction site for less than some of the current crop of high power gmrs radios.

Yeah, that's why i included "supposedly" and didn't link any ? I don't always trust ebay, and you don't even have the relatively easy return policies backing you like Amazon (which has its own counterfeit issues. And especially little stuff like that that would be easy to fake, and I don't have a need for that many. when there's not much difference between an authorized dealer and ebay, it's worth a couple extra bucks or so to go to a source more likely to be reputable and selling genuine products.

Quality two way radios has been my source for good antennas for my Vertex stuff...a couple of my came with pretty beat up antennas. one, the little screw on bushing had come loose from the bottom of the antenna (sma-m on the antenna, sma-f on the radio). I've also seen batches of supposedly factory moto antennas on ebay (packs of 10 or more) for not crazy prices too. https://quality2wayradios.com/store/two-way-radio-accessories/antennas-handheld-radios/vertex-standard-antennas My evx seem to get along okay with other antennas if I use an adapter screwed in, and attach the antenna to that, though that kind of defeats some of its water resistance.

On the flip side, with information out there indicating .675 (20) as a road channel....if I wanted to avoid interference from simplex users, I would probably avoid putting my repeater on .675 (20), if possible. If there's no other option, due to the number of repeaters around, well, tones will have to do (other than 141.3, definitely). Personally, I think it wasn't the best idea for FCC to overlap simplex and repeater output channels, and make those the only high power simplex channels, but it is what it is.

If the whip separates from the mag mount, you may be able to reuse the mount if it's a standard connector (such as a uhf/pl259 or nmo).

It depends on the antenna, to be honest. My comet gp1 base antenna, not so good for gmrs (swr around 3:1). The mobile comet 2x4sr is a lot better all the way across 2m, 70cm, and gmrs, 1.15-1.3. I've been curious how the 2x5/8 Browning uhf antenna would look on 2m, it's really good on 70cm and gmrs (1.1 or less), but I haven't checked it for 2m. I should also check the signal stalk for gmrs, though it's good on 2m &70cm (1.2 or less).

Yeah, I have evx's...they've programmed fine with a cable from ebay (bluemax49ers); if I get my hands on a copy of the v1.03, I'll probably give it a shot before laying out for the fif-12. I also have it on my mental list to try hex editing to get a couple of them (g7 split) down to 440mhz.

Discovered mine dead as well. It's gotten a little use since last charge but mostly sitting on the shelf. The 2nd battery that was full charged prior to a trip in August and stored in the box shows 8.0v on the radio, where 8.2 or 8.3 seems to be normal "full charge" voltage. So..little bit of drop for the battery alone, but more when on the the radio.

Don't know a good free source, but vertex radio group lists it as available to members ($35 a year for access to the downloads)...I haven't broken down and paid yet.) https://www.vertexradiogroup.net/vertex-radio-software-downloads/ What radio/CPS are you working with? some will let you get around the narrowbanding by changing the system date to something before 1/1/2013. I know this works for my vx920 and p820 series radios, and the 4200's (I'd have to check which cps numbers those are)

There you go ? sometimes we'll just cover basic upgrades without knowing what you've already covered...if you're already ahead of the suggestions, even better.

I think he just means something other than the one it comes with. Midland's 6db antenna isn't a bad choice, though i've seen a few recent reports of bad ones from amazon, either out of tune or cut, though those may have been returns that were resold. realistically, pretty much any antenna tuned to cover 460-470 mhz, or 450-470mhz (more common), single band or dual band is going to be solid. i ran a browning 5/8 over 5/8 for awhile (tuned for 410-490), and it was pretty much perfect (1.1:1 through the band) on a mag mount on my truck. the beauty of nmo mounts is there's a ton of options for antennas and you can swap at will.

How does this look? https://www.amazon.com/Tamiya-Battery-Device-150mm-Venom/dp/B000HKEVH6