wayoverthere

Thanks for the food for thought, and the reminder that i need to give the antenna side of the equation a little more thought as well. The part 90 route may end up being the winner (gmrs is mostly pretty dead here too, but nice to have the option), and the RF exposure aspect was something i hadn't thought about, but definitely need to...that aspect also makes the dual band mobile/single bands at base sound better, though getting the antenna OUTSIDE will be a necessity.

It's easy to end up with extras as you upgrade, bit by bit. I started with a pair of bubblepacks. Added 3 better HTs and 3 progressively better mobiles since then.

It's a shame to hear the ghost is that bad. I have the antenna it replaced, (I forget the mxta number), ~12" base loaded whip, and it does pretty well shoved up in my attic as a base antenna, and doesn't need much clearance on the truck, even on the roof.

So...radio to radio, ch 19, you transmit on 462.650, they listen on 462.650 as well. Repeaters listen on a different frequency (input) than they retransmit (output) so it can be done real-time. Realistically, only one person can effectively use a frequency at a time, hence the different frequencies, and the RPT channels take that into account When you're going to use a repeater on 462.650, yes, just leave the radio on rpt 19. Your radio knows to transmit on 467.650, because that's where the repeater is listening, and it retransmits on 462.650, because that's where you're listening. I think the basic key is looking in terms of to hear each other, you have to be transmitting where theyre listening, and vice versa.

I reached out to their support via email, rather than calling, as this was during the "everything is shut down" portion of last year.

Slightly, yeah. Both channel 19, you'll receive on 462.650. on simplex (gmrs19, radio to radio), you also transmit on that frequency. For duplex (rpt19, radio to repeater to radio), the radio is programmed to transmit 5mHz higher (467.650), which is where a repeater would be listening. The repeater transmits back on 462.650 (where you're listening). Surprises me a little to hear, but yeah, that's exactly what it sounds like happened. I hadn't previously heard of any shipping missing the repeater presets. That said, it's fairly easy to program, and allows tx on any of the presets as long as they're inbounds for gmrs. On the Mac issue, wouxun's stock software seems to get along well with wine in Linux, as I've used it with Mint Mate, so it may play well in a virtual machine.

The base simplex channels (1-22) and repeater (23-30) are preloaded. The channel named "rpt19" (it will be preset 27)is the one that equates to a 462.650 output. Tune to that channel using the channel knob or arrows, then hit menu. Scroll to "t-ctc and hit menu again, and use the arrows or channel knob to scroll through the list to the appropriate ctcss code. Hit menu to confirm....you can also go back a couple options in the menu and set "r-ctc" as well using the same method, if you want to filter incoming traffic to the repeater only. Hit exit, and you should be good to go.

Some info I found on the net indicated at least part of what would be there is frequency alignment settings for the radio itself, so be careful messing with the settings if you manage to get in.

There is a password prompt that comes up if you hold the menu key at startup....haven't had any luck googling, and when I contacted support I got a zero pleasantries, "that is for service use only", response. No idea what's behind that prompt, but I'm curious. And digging around via chirp didn't turn up any clues.

Looking forward to it

Same here....cb and mxt115 are on a keyed lighter plug, so they come on with the ignition.

Export to excel, =counta(

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?