wayoverthere

Midland makes you enable the repeater channels in the menu first...there's a recent thread on the same topic here: https://forums.mygmrs.com/topic/2673-new-to-gmrs-got-a-midland-mxt275/?fromsearch=1

Not personally, but there have been similar issues on the west coast...Here are a couple threads: https://forums.mygmrs.com/topic/1984-seattleport-angeles-repeater-owners-ix-from-nxdn-idas-equipped-yacht/?fromsearch=1 https://forums.mygmrs.com/topic/1971-san-diegola-600-repeater-owners-ix-from-nxdn-idas-equipped-yacht/?fromsearch=1

Yeah, I'll admit that already having compatible batteries and borrowing an antenna from the 924 definitely played into going for it. I keep telling myself that's enough used stuff.

Sounds like you got some steals! Yeah, I've been curious to try out p25, and have a couple repeaters in range with the capability. i can't say it was cheap...found a seller with a bunch of the p824's for $150, radio only, which was a bit less than most anything else. The one I got, the antenna was pretty much wrecked, and the battery is pretty much toast. New antenna is inbound, and I have a spare battery as I bought 2 for the 924, which takes the same battery. 824 can also use the same cable and charger, so I'm already set there, though I may grab a couple more batteries, though waiting to order till I see the state of the last 539 (might want one for that too)

I will caveat that that fcc.io has some...glitches. it lists the fcc ids for my vx-p824 and vx-924 as part 9, when searching the actual fcc.gov database shows them as part 90. My g7's were kind of a live and learn thing...I didn't look closely enough (or ask) pre-purchase. The (different) seller I got the 924 had mislabeled one spot on the listing as g7 instead of g6 (it's a g6), and he messaged me prior to shipping to make sure g6 was what I wanted...cool of him to do

Agreed with this. While some brands are known to allow programming a little out of band (such as kenwood) other simply won't (my evx539's), so if it you're after both bands, watch the splits on what you buy carefully, and double check against photos if possible when going the ebay route. Not sure if it's used with other brands, but for vertex ive found g6 designation is often the 400-470 split I'm after, with g7 being 450-512.

Not so far. My part 90 HTs don't cover into ham bands, and the stuff that does isn't approved (one shows as part 9...typo in the db maybe, as that refers to 911 services, 2 are baofengs). Have one on the way that should be 90 or dual cert (evx539) and cover both, but it'll still probably be sparing...lack of travel means family is glued to cell phones, and I have mobile radios in the truck and at home that I use instead.

Seconding....I need to stay off of ebay. I haven't even finished my shack/mobile setup yet

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.