wayoverthere

Started in this section, since it's a ham/GMRS overlap topic. Since i haven't figure managed to work in testing for my ticket, it's still pondering at this point. But that said... Looking at having 2m, 70cm and GMRS in my truck, and since GMRS is fairly dead here, I think the ham side will get more focus.I suspect there isn't a part 95 certified holdover that will cover all 3, which leans toward having 2 radios . I know there will be antenna considerations as well. Option 1: Vertex VX-4207 (covers 400-470mhz, and part 95a, yeah!) that i recently acquired, and a single bander for 2m. Leave Btech GMRS 50x1 as base station, add a dual band (no need for remote head) there at some point. upside of this is more power in the single band 2m, compared to most dual band, and the singles are generally less expensive. also, not needing a remote head on the dual band at home means a little less expensive in general.downside is finding space for both radios; i don't see any remote head options in new single band radios, though i'm there seems to behit or miss possibilities on the used LMR side of things.Option 2: Vertex as base, with a single bander for vhf; throw the Btech in the truck, and pair it with a dual band radio that offers remote mounting. upside is saving space in view, and the home side of the equation is less expensive.downside is the truck side is a bit more expensive. Overall, dash real estate being an issue, (and how little time I spend in the truck the past year or so) I'd lean toward the second option, but I'm open to thoughts/ideas/suggestions/other things I haven't considered. It's really just a 'thinking out loud' stage right now.

So...all the port stuff aside and back to a basic question (and I may have missed the reason somewhere..), but why use the Windows version of Chirp via Wine (and introduce the extra layers of complexity), rather than running the Linux version of Chirp directly? I'm not working with Kenwoods, but rather the (dreaded/ubiquitous) uv5r, but other than a little trial and error at the start to get the right port, it's been pretty much smooth sailing. it also had no issue with my gmrs 50x1. I'm running Mint Mate (had 17.something, then moved up to 19.something) on an old gateway 1ghz atom netbook; also runs/worksjust fine on an atom powered Intel Compute Stick (for windows).

I suspect so...mine have been fairly forgiving with both windows and Linux versions of chirp

Boomer, thanks for covering the "skip" setting. this is the best page i've found to walk through the chirp columns (though there's the 'outthinking' sometimes...): https://chirp.danplanet.com/projects/chirp/wiki/MemoryEditorColumns If the 'tone mode' column is (none), it should ignore that default 88.5 and show as "off" in the radio. from what you described (same tone in/out), it looks like the tone mode setting you want is "tsql", and it should put whatever tone is in the 'tsql' column for both rx and tx. offsets, you can do a couple ways (and it seems to work better to set the duplex mode column first, if i remember right); most gmrs use will be set that to "+", and 5.0000 for the offset. if you're doing something oddball, you can set duplex mode to "split" and enter the desired transmit frequency in the 'offset' column (i use the "split" setting on the local public safety channel so i can listen while preventing an accidental key-up from causing interference...i offset the transmit into the FRS band somewhere) (let me know if i can clarify...long day and lack of sleep has my mental processing running a little slow)

Shot in the dark running off of memory at the moment (since I'm not at the computer), so I don't have the specific names at hand... i want to say it's the "tone setting" column that allows setting for for mixed tone types... For this situation I want to say that has to be "tone -> tone" to accept tones on both tx and rx...I think if it's set to "tone -> ", it won't store the RX tone. Chirp does do a bit of trying to outthink you sometimes...

on mine, after i enter a frequency, if i hit and hold scan again, it will start scanning in the UHF band. i found that even if i typed in a VHF frequency, it still wants to scan in UHF, which seems to point to something left over that isn't working quite right in the locked-down firmware.

Will it let you type in a frequency, or use the exit key? My 50x1 will let me type a frequency, but it's being weird about whether if gives me that prompt or just starts scanning, and it only seems to scan uhf, not vhf.

Is the mic plug all the way in? I had a bit of funkiness with mine, and discovered it would sort of click in, and I had to push past a little resistance of the rubber seal to get it to fully seat into the socket

Thanks for setting me straight.guess I had that a bit off in my head

if it's something you're going to use regularly, definitely worth adding to its own memory slot once you get it figured out. my setup is the base 30 presets, my 3 local repeaters (2 of them on .625 with different tones), and then a second set of repeater channels (as "new 15r" through "new 22r") to have an extra set when traveling.

(Edited the qt/dqt part as I was left field wrong on the meaning; see n1das post below. Left the second part because it largely stands, minus minor corrections to the menu items) Since you can change it from the radio menu (it'll be "T-DCS" in the menu), i'd set it for D445N first (normal); if that doesn't work, use the menu to change it to D445I (inverted).

Repeaterbook covers ham repeaters and (afaik) recently started listing gmrs repeaters. It's going to come down to configuration as to the difference between the two, mainly the frequencies they operate on. The non gmrs ones will be on frequencies your wouxun will not transmit on, though if they're uhf, you may still be able to receive. The wouxun will only allow transmitting on gmrs frequencies.

So, short version: for those of you with surplus commercial equipment in your box of goodies, do you know (or have you looked into) what and/or where those radios came from? Color me curious...the catalyst was that I picked up a couple surplus Vertex HT's from ebay...400-470MHz range, and part 90 certified, so good compromise to cover both GMRS, and have some ham coverage for when i cross that bridge. I've been picking through what they will and won't let me do, but hey seem to be pretty restricted, with all but one of the presets looking to be set up for some form of digital. Poking through the names of the presets, though, seems to indicate they're set up for a small town school district out of NY State, which fits with having come via a radio shop in NY state. Most of the presets seem to be elementary school names, with "MS Admin" and "HS Admin" thrown, along with "Trans" and "Facilities". There's a couple more with a "L/F" prefix that the purpose seems obvious, but what they belong to, less so. With a location, digging on the frequencies in use became a bit easier, and info seems to point to them being set up on a MotoTRBO system (which seems to fit with the 'group call' option i'm seeing with the presets). Anyone else done this? Found anything interesting if you have?

I've been meaning to try something along that line with one of the local repeaters; with a not great base setup (gmrs 50x1, 5/8 wave whip in the attic), I can reach one ~60 miles to the southwest. Been curious if I can hit it from the hills on the east side of the valley (which would be in the neighborhood of 90 miles). closures due to last Summer's wildfires put that on hold though.

Been pondering that factor lately, and completely agree, although even reddit is a step up from Facebook for being able to make use of a knowledge base like this. (One of my car groups has ditched the forum and gone all Facebook...not a fan)

That, I'm not sure. It's crossed my mind, but I haven't dragged my programming stuff out to try it yet. I'd even give up 1-7 for more repeater slots, honestly.

Unfortunately, yes, that appears to be how it's programmed, anything past the base 30 presets is receive only. It's one of my biggest complaints with this radio.

Depending on the agencies, you may be able to use the uv82 as a scanner. I know ours here are mostly unencrypted, except for the tactical channels. I have a couple of uv5r's (also not 95 certified); one is programmed with tx disabled for use as a scanner. The other can still transmit, but I set it up with offsets on the public safety channels, where if I bump the ptt, the transmit goes to one of the frs frequencies, rather than stepping on public safety channels

It's definitely a learning journey, including separating some of the real world application from the marketing fluff. I have a set as well, and I have to give Midland credit for being beginner friendly gear. That said, one part of the journey is going to be research...varied levels of radios, and differing features. Some have all the features we want, some don't, and some of that we can learn from others' experience. Case in point was my hands discovering that the method btech uses to lock down the gmrs 50x1 is an inconvenience with the repeaters near me, where the kg805g handheld doesn't have the same limitation.

Yes, you're understanding correctly. You may be able to hear repeaters (as the repeater output frequencies, and the simplex frequencies for ch 15-22 are the same), the gxt's are not able to transmit to the repeaters.

Thanks for the tip; I held off ordering the cable for the HTs till they actually showed up, and glad I did...still waiting for word from UPS where those are. On the 4207, we'll see how it goes. Bluemax49ers stuff seems to be well regarded for working, but he's sold out on the one for the 4200 series.

Took a gamble on a less expensive option...cable and programming software for $49 from the antenna farm. We'll see how it goes. Radio itself is a vx4207-6, 400-470mHz range

I'm curious how the vertex stuff does; the evx539's I tried for seem to have disappeared in UPS hands somewhere; I'm on the edge of pulling the trigger on a mobile. Edit: I went for it. Ordered a programming cable too.

This. The power draw simply sitting idle receiving (or programming) is pretty much negligible; it fluctuates betwen 0.1 and 0.0A on my alinco psu's digital readout. edit: was doing some other testing tonight (whether switching power supply is inducing noise on gmrs); for my alternate power, i dug up a couple 6v lantern batteries, and wired them in series, and my 50x1 powered up just fine, showed 13.3v (it seems to read voltage a little high, it usually shows 14.2v when the psu is set to its 'set 13.8v' mode, and a multimeter on the batteries in series showed around 12.15v) also corrected amp reading above...it fluctuates between 0.0 and 0.1A.

Does friend by chance have led drl and or taillights? I know I get some pretty bad interference on the cb from the drop-in led headlight bulbs I have in my truck, though I haven't noticed any interference from any of the others 3rd brake, dome, reverse, and tails).