wayoverthere

Hardware wise, it looks like a clone of the btech 50x2, and closely related to the gmrs 50x1 (which isn't exactly confidence inspiring). That said, I have huge doubt this one is part 95 aapproved.

Glad to help

Your 275 (like other repeater capable midlands) comes preprogrammed with channels with the correct offset for gmrs repeaters (+5). You may need to enable the repeater channels in the menu; once enabled they will show up as 15RP-22RP.

I want to say some of my vertex stuff has mdc1200 as well (evx 539, and vx924...part 90 stuff)

I know, I'm just playing in the shallow end for now with 2m/70cm/gmrs, and the reality is a bit more than 2 when I start counting, especially the handhelds. Edit: I should really stay off eBay. Found a couple deals I couldn't pass up on a couple more vertex...another evx539 (in g6 split, this time, with charger), and a g6 split vx-p824..no charger, but it takes the same battery and charger as the 924 I have already.

that would be a nice bonus, and would play very well into 2 radio, 70/65cm and 2m setup, especially once i get the comet into a better location than set up on a tripod in my office. i think nanovna will be going onto the shopping list in the near future....probably joined by a little better swr meter as well.

i stumbled on this info a bit ago via reddit, though at the time it was limited to the graphic. haven't been able to find what frequencies were involved in the testing, as the link to the catalog article is now dead. i don't feel as bad about running mag mounts (not too worried about my paint anyway), though with the last puchase i DID go out of my way to find one with better (rg8x) cable. i will also concede this is just looking at losses in general, and not effect the different placements have on the radiation pattern. https://kv5r.com/ham-radio/mobile-antenna-placement/

One more votes for his books...that was one of my sources when I tested for tech, and I'm planning to pick up the one for general as well.

Ahh okay, think I misunderstood a little, but yeah, law enforcement version of phonetics...What I've seen indicates it's it's mostly the same back to the 40's. The local stuff here deviated a little here and there from the LAPD standard from what I've seen/heard, though.

Personally, I stick with normal alphanumerics unless otherwise requested, or the normal method isn't getting through (and need to repeat). That said, I'm still a bit shaky on the NATO phonetics (I have a postie on the calendar above my ham station with that callsign spelled out), so sometimes I default to APCO phonetics.

I'll have to recheck the swr on the one on the truck; it's a tram browning 5/8 over 5/8 uhf, and it's been enough to get 5 watts from the uhf handheld to a repeater 30ish miles away pretty solid. Been running it with the mxt115 for gmrs. I know when i checked see on the midland 3db gmrs antenna on 446.000, it showed like 2.4, so not so good there. Current state of things is the vx4207+icom 2730a as my base, on separate antennas (midland 3db and comet gp1 dual band). On the mobile side, the mxt115 and a uhf vertex handheld take turns with the tram browning antenna. In retrospect, what I spent on that (and the other 2) uhf vertex I probably could have gotten a decent dual band yaesu or something, but live and learn.

Lots of public safety stuff in 450-460, in some areas. Radioreference.com has listings for many areas. My area is pretty split between vhf and uhf...both my town and the next town PD, next town fire, and the local hospital/ems are all in the 450-461 range (uhf). Local sheriff and my town's fire are on vhf.

Couple ideas: use some form of adapter (3.5mm, bluetooth, etc) to send audio from the kenwood to the rv stereo, and let that power the outside speakers. This way no worries about the speaker impedance. Alternately, if they're 4 ohm speakers (standard automotive), you could wire them in series to get an 8 ohm load to the radio, though only mono audio.

Yep, you got it. Unfortunately, there are issues with outdated repeaters in the database, either defunct or listings not maintained. My area of california has a few as well.

i had a long reply typed out earlier, but missed clicking to post it ..wrcy896 covered most of it. if you're logged into the main page (it's separate from the forum, last i checked, but you can use the same login & password for both), if a repeater is listed as open, it should show the input and output frequencies (which you'll equate to channels on the radio), and input and output tones (which you'll take to the tone charts in the manual to see which code you need to enter in the menu). the 'repeater' channels on the radio are set up with the appropriate offset between transmit and receive. for example, if i want to use an open repeater with an output of 462.625, input of 467.625, and input/output tones of 141.3: the table on page 27 shows that to be channel 18RP, so i'll tune to that then, go to the table on page 28 and look for 141.3 (it's ctcss) and find this equates to ctcss code 22 with the radio on 18rp, go into the menu setting for tones, select CT, select code 22, and save.mxt275 is online in pdf form here: https://midlandusa.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/MXT275-Owners-Manual.pdf does this make it all a little clearer?

If I remember right, midland labels the repeater channels as 15r-22r, though you do need to enable them in the menu. On the tones, midland matches the different tones to a code; you have to look for the table in the manual for the code you want, and see which code that is.

thanks for the input. haven't even dug into the handheld side any more yet, but i think i'm covered okay there between 3 vertex UHF HTs and 2 dual band baofengs.

It will be running two radios either way, it's just a question of combining 2m and 70cm with gmrs separate, or gmrs with uhf, and 2m separate. (Leaning toward the first option, eventually..will probably go without 2m for now). I'm already set with gmrs radios and antennas for both base and mobile (btech/Midland), and the vertex is 95a certified. Not holding my breath that the GP1 will be good for gmrs frequencies, but figure i'll check.

Couple minor updates since last month; passed test for tech as of a couple weeks ago, and finally got some things ordered to expand my shack. have a couple new antennas inbound for base (gp1) and mobile (ca2x4sr, nmo), and a dual band radio (icom 2730a) for the truck. still pondering the 2m side of base, leaning toward just adding a single bander for that (likely yaesu or icom), but not set in stone yet. on research, my town appears to lump ham antennas with other telecommunications facilities, requiring professional engineering reports to get the required permits, and yearly certification that it's still in operation. with that in mind, i went on the smaller side for the base antenna so i can attic mount it and avoid all the messing with the city and permits and such.

quoting Rich for comparison; I just checked California via ULS (almost 6 years later, to the day), and got: 14,295 active licenses in CA. 123 in my metro area. interesting part is the relative size of the two towns; one is near 1 million, and has 68 active licenses. the other is a little over 100k, and has 55 active licenses. was trying to get the entire county, but the geosearch isn't playing along.

Full agreement there; K4IA and hamstudy were my sources for study, and I will probably grab the general book as well.

Some googling puts the btech and the mxt400 pretty close in size, 7.5"x5.7"x1.85" for the btech, vs 7.3"x5.5"x1.6" for the mxt400. There's other posts around the forum on programming the mxt400, software sources, and what cable is needed. On the btech, I want to say I paid a little extra for the cable, but it isn't needed absolutely needed if all you're changing is tones. it's straightforward to do from the menu/front panel, and it will do split tones out of the box.

The 115 and 275 do not allow split tones...the 400 can, but requires programming to enable that. The other minor difficulty is changing tones requires consulting a chart in the instructions for what code in the menu equates to what tone. If you're just setting up once and leaving it be, not a huge issue Can vouch for the btech being pretty straightforward for plug and go, and not difficult to change a few settings. It isn't as small as the 115 or 275, and you can't add additional transmit channels in the empty memory slots, everything past the base 30 (1-22 simplex, and the 15-22 repeater channels) is receive only

Glad to try at least. I know chirp can be a little frustrating, especially when it's trying to outthink you