wayoverthere

so..bad news up front: anything you add beyond the 30 it's preprogrammed with will be RX only (I found out the hard way). you can still add custom receive channels, and run it dual watch with the REPTXX channel you'd need to transmit on. what part are you getting stuck on? If it's the setup within the software: Chirp's site has a "beginner's guide" here: https://chirp.danplanet.com/projects/chirp/wiki/Beginners_Guide the one i found most helpful is the descriptions of the columns: https://chirp.danplanet.com/projects/chirp/wiki/MemoryEditorColumns miklor.com has some good guides to Chirp as well: https://www.miklor.com/COM/UV_CHIRP.php#guides if it's more an install issue with the computer, as Michael mentioned, more information on your system will help. if it's setup, give us a litlte more about what's giving you problems and maybe we can better guide you.

I think that's the biggest takeaway...what's prevalent where you are (or travel) and what's equipment availability like? P25 gear is mostly pretty pricey new, somewhat so used, and the equipment is often limited on flexibility (being commercial type gear), where gear running the other digital modes has varying levels of flexibility. Vfo, front panel programmability, etc. I think the percentages here are like 50% straight fm, probably 30% p25 mixed mode, maybe 10% dmr and the rest a mix of the others.

Nah, the frequency thing is still a good catch...I didn't even catch the p25 thing7 because I was further up the page looking at LASD (rather than LAPD). Mildly interesting to note they appear to still have some licensed wideband channels (20k0f3e) too...I thought they mostly went narrow. That said, I'd expect to hear something on the channels if able to tune them and they're in physical range, though it'd just be a different noise in the static (I have a couple of mixed mode repeaters in range up here in 70cm...you can tell when there's p25 going on vs the normal static), but fire up the p25 radio and that noise becomes a conversation.

To give a little different numbers perspective, (on 70cm, not far off of gmrs), I had a vertex vx4207 feeding a comet gp1, via 17 ft of unlabeled cable that came with a Midland mount kit; swr was 1.1 to 1. Measuring at the radio showed 43 watts;measuring again at the antenna end showed 23 watts. Swapped the Midland cable for 35 ft of abr400 (wanted some extra to get the antenna outside), and measured again...1.09 swr, and 35 watts at the antenna. The changing cables cut the loss by more than half, even with twice as much cable. Edit: if we're aiming for 100% accuracy, using a dummy load in place of the antenna would be preferable...as I don't have a dummy load rated for the power, I was content with a reasonable estimate on the loss

So it's getting power...if you press the power then press and hold the channel knob, does it show a blue screen and password prompt? That might hint if it's a bad connection in the screen or something in the firmware. (No idea what the password would be, and I have t found any hints online)

It should at least power up out of the box, and have the base gmrs channels programmed, no chirp needed. are the keys on the mic and/or the screen backlight lighting up whem you power up? The only thing in programming/settings I can think of that might yield a similar result is if all the colors were set to black....there isn't a whole lot If no lights, it that leans toward a power supply issue to the radio. It doesn't need much to power up (mine runs around .1 amp standing by). If everything checks out up to the radio, it's probably time to bug Btech or the seller, depending on your source, but double check everything in the power and ground path first.

Yup, which is why the btech stays at home...mostly ch 16 is set for the near repeater, but a tone change and it's good to go for the far one. Meanwhile, I grabbed another vx4207 for the truck, since I can cover both GMRS and 70cm with that, replacing both the Midland and a ham HT. Great price, and I already have software, cable, and a ready made code plug for it.

Yeah, I don't use the HT's much use outside of them acting as scanners. The BTech is my gmrs base, since the icom is not 95 (or even 90) certified. That reminds me to add the MURS channels to my list for a Vertex HT I need to program

Very true...a lot of the surplus stuff I see is 450-512 split, with a the 400-470 side being a little less common but desirable....not to mention the baofeng/btech stuff doing basically 400-520.

Good catch, I didn't even think about the limits on the radio..a little spoiled with some of the less restricted stuff that will scan all the way up to 520.xxx

CSQ is carrier squelch (aka no tones). Hearing not a peep, my first thought is to double check that tones are really off though. Besides that, it looks like their setup doesn't exactly lend itself to monitoring....radio reference indicates they don't repeat the mobile traffic (unit to dispatch), they talk direct to dispatch on the input frequency (so you'd need to monitor 2 channels to get both sides of a Convo). Probably aiding that, it looks like after the initial contact, they move off the dispatch channel to one of the tac channels. The limitations of the HT antenna, especially indoors may also be playing into it as well, given you mention that even the nws reception is spotty.

There's a couple facets to this. If there is a repeater you can both reach, 50 miles isn't out of the question strictly with the radios, and depending on terrain, might even be possible simplex. Alternately, if you want to use zello to bridge the gap, radio only really comes into play if you want to be freed from the gateway and use the radio..if you choose, you should be able to just connect to them strictly on zello, either on computer or in the app. The radio gateway is just a way to free one end. (or both) from working directly with the app, via radio(s) Ill leave the gateway specific stuff to those that have worked with them, as my depth of zello knowledge is strictly end-user.

I did see in the reviews mention of it being repeater capable, and "30 channel" is usually (but not always) a hint as well. 22 simplex+8 repeater, and all...

That should have no problem. Have run the 805g's software in Wine/Linux mint on an atom powered gateway netbook (circa 2010), as well as the Linux version of Chirp. I also have a variety of cps running fine on an atom powered Intel compute stick running win10.

While it'd be a lie to say the tuning has no effect, I'm confident a gmrs tuned antenna will receive just fine on vhf & uhf. I have a Midland 5/8 wave whip behind a btech 50x1 for my gmrs base setup, and receive 70cm and 2m (public safety, a couple repeaters, and calling frequency). One repeater in 70cm actually comes in better on that than the comet gp1 for my ham setup. I recently changed out the browning 5/8 over 5/8 on the truck for something a little shorter, though it'd probably be a great length for a hood lip/fender mount/stake hole mount, at around 33". In its place now is a 5/8 wave, ~12" laird tuned for 70cm (a hair longer than that Midland above), that should present less clearance issues since I have the mag mount on top of the cab, though I also have laird 1/4 waves for 70cm and gmrs. My mobile setup covers gmrs and 70cm...the browning covers both nicely, I don't have as high hopes for the 70cm lairds. I've heard good things about the comet 2x4sr for wide usability, and it's close in length to the browning; have one on the shelf, but waiting till I get some 2m capability beyond a handheld in the truck to put it to use.

I actually ended up blocking a couple people on the FB radio groups I follow, because I got tired of their only contribution to the groups being links to their videos on YouTube ? no text, no explanation, just video. Because I'm usually multitasking, text usually works better...it's rare I can take the time (or have the patience) for someone to walk through something on video

Yes, the lairds (and everything else i have, except a dual band ham base antenna) is NMO base. I haven't done any specific testing back to back, but everything I've read, and what I've seen in use, indicates the 1/4 waves trade a small amount of absolute range and a little signal strength in both directions at the fringes compared to other configurations....the whole "squishing the donut" visual. On the flip side, the 1/4 will have a wider range vertically than the others. On the aluminum thing, again, no direct experience, but I've read it's not an issue.

Haven't been to the office (main place I need the clearance) since I got them, but there was a very minor (but noticeable if you really listened) difference in both rx and tx using the near repeater (~30 miles out in the hills) with a Midland 1/4 wave and the mxt115.

This. That said, I'd say if you have access to the menu, check the squelch. If that's on a reasonable level you need to talk to whoever handles the radio tech for your company. I will say my vx4200 was doing something similar, and it was a another "base" squelch level setting in the software that was on like 9/12; the menu setting seems to only have a little bit of range from that base setting. Cut it down to 2 or 3, and now all is good.

If you found the page to handle it electronically, yeah, that's definitely faster. Once they process the payment they should post it pretty quickly. In most cases within a couple business days, and then it usually takes a day or two between it showing up on FCC for the day to filter out and process through in this site's database.

I've noticed the same in the vertex line: probably 2:1 uhf:vhf, both in availability and price difference. There also seems to be few mobile options for p25 outside of motorola.i think Kenwood has a couple models, vertex has one, and there's an icom, but for that last one it seems to be a dealer unlockable feature, few of the capable models I've seen have it enabled, and the pricing to add it after the fact makes Motorola look inexpensive (what I found seems to imply 300-400 for the option board, and 600 for the license to unlock it). Maybe I'm just not as aware what's out there, but it does seem like the digital modes in general skew more toward handhelds than mobiles. That said, in absence of a job requirement, I don't think I'd even buy a radio that was strictly digital with no analog capability.

If it's like what I've dealt with, yes....they split them up geographically, or to track certain fees (from what I'm finding here) but if you have the appropriate notations on your check/money order it should get posted. There's some info related to some lockboxes here, though I don't think this bit specifically relates to gmrs: https://apps.fcc.gov/redlight/help/Understanding159.cfm

one of my VX-4200's came with the MH67; works fine, and i haven't had any low volume issues, even in my semi noisy truck. found a 2 pack on ebay for a semi reasonable price: https://www.ebay.com/itm/123423014109 also found a MH25 listing: https://www.ebay.com/itm/174939795515

while a screenshot might help with confirming, i know other government stuff i've dealt with used "Lockbox" payment processing. Basically it's a bank contracted to process mailed payments for the agency. I suspect they just want to know which processor they should watch for the payment to come through.

I will say the mag mounts (I have a couple of the Midland and a Browning) do look a bit better protected than the hard mounts with the threaded centers. Since I have nothing else to tie the cable to, I just pull the mount off, antenna and all, and toss it in the cab when I run through the car wash. Yes, sounds like you're on the right track. There are a couple different types of screw on, NMO is the one to get, similar to the link below.... though that one appears nicely enclosed under the nmo and might not be bad on a hard mount. Some are more open underneath, intended for attaching through sheet metal with the underside protected. You can absolutely reuse a nmo mount and swap a gmrs aerial out and put your choice of nmo-compatible ham aerial in. https://www.amazon.com/Browning-WSPBR1015-Enclosed-Hole-Mount/dp/B00BLCLUJ6/