ctrout

I am trying to program several of these handhelds with the Kenwood software and I keep running into a problem. I'm trying to set up 8 different channel groups and some of the channels will be the same between the groups. I can set the groups up the way I want to but when I load the program to the radios, the program changes. Channels start to repeat themselves within the first group and some channels disappear completely. I have searched the internet for about 6 hours today, trying to find any information on how to use the KPG-56D software with no luck. The only tutorials or videos that I have found just show basic channel entry and none of them show how to properly set up channel groups. Can anyone point me to a user's manual for the software or a tutorial on how to use it?

I am working to get my machine back up and running sometime in the next week or two. I had an antenna that would have worked just fine at over 1000 feet above average terrain. The problem is that I have no real gain to get out from the repeater's current low level. I guess I'll just have to see how well it gets out once I get it back on the air, hopefully this weekend or next.

I suppose that since I'm still getting recommendations I should update the thread. I have gotten the Kenwood software and I've programmed the UHF radio with all of our emergency frequencies and frequency pairs. I like the radio so much that I decided to also order the VHF 7170 as well for our VHF repeaters in the area and it is literally the twin of the 8180. The only difference besides the band is that I couldn't find the 30w version in the condition that I wanted so I had to spend the premium to get the 50w version. We had to go into the mountains and rescue a stranded snowmobiler this weekend who spent 24 hours stuck in a bowl full of powder he couldn't get out of and the TK-8180 performed flawlessly in maintaining comms with the county dispatch office until I arrived on scene to take the role of SAR Command at the incident where we use Motorola CDM 1250s. We are seriously considering Kenwoods now so we can do our own programming. This is being talked about even more now because another mountain search and rescue unit in the neighboring county has just switched over to NX radios.

I was under the understanding that you can't let friends use the GMRS license, that it is allowed for use by family only.

I am the owner of the repeater in Mountain Home. Unfortunately, it has been offline for a while. I used to have an elevated site that would possibly reach out to Twin. I also have a 220 MHz amateur repeater that was on the hill and I had regular contacts with hams in Twin on that machine. Unfortunately, amateur radio politics ended up pissing off county officials and they kicked me off the site. I'm working on getting access again but it's a slow process when you are trying to work with folks who are ignorant of all things RF. I found that there are repeaters in Caldwell and Kuna that are on the same frequency that I selected so I will be changing the frequency when I put it back on the air. I am moving it from 550 to 675. Once I have it back on the air, I hope that everyone in southern Idaho uses it. It troubles me to spend a ton of time, money, and effort on a machine just to hear it sit idle with no traffic. I have close to $4000 in my 220 machine and it gets used for less than ten minutes a week I'd say. Sad.

I just ordered a TK-8180K that should be here by the end of the month. I already have the programming cable for use with other radios. Before I ordered any software, I checked in CHIRP and to my surprise, the 8180 is in the dropdown. I have a couple of questions though. First of all, has anyone ever tried programming this radio using CHIRP? Next, I need to be able to program wide and narrow band per channel because I will also be using the radio on the local emergency frequencies. The radio is loaded with firmware version 1.22. Will Chirp allow me to select wide/narrow per channel or will I need to purchase the KPG software suite from Kenwood with the wide license?

Great info, and thanks for all of the links. I have been a Kenwood fan since I got my first HF rig for ham radio, a TS-850SAT. I've had numerous kenwoods since and these TK-370s are probably the best built of the bunch. The Motorolas aren't bad either. On the field programmability of the TK-370s, the basic 370s are field programmable with no modifications and no software activation required. Just hold the light button and the Dial button in as you switch the radio on. Once the display shows "SEL" you can release the buttons. Then you can do the programming using the keypad and PTT buttons. I was not aware of any way of programming the TK-370G using the keypad. Do you have a link to a tutorial or something?

So I got my license maybe two weeks ago and I'm having a great time with GMRS even though I'm the only person on the air within a 35 mile radius. The FCC database shows 6 other active licensees in my town but I never hear them on. The most I hear is a couple of scratchy signals on FRS from local businesses. Regardless, I got my repeater up and running yesterday on the 550. I have a 123 PL tone on the machine to keep the intermod and errant RFI to a minimum. The duplexer arrived so I spent the evening tuning it on the NanoVNA and got it pretty precisely dialed in. Now I just need to do some tests to see what kind of range I get out of it at low level. According to the coverage map that I generated at the Radio Mobile website, I should easily cover my entire small town. So far, the family equipment consists of a Kenwood TK-370G-1 for me and a couple of TK-370-1s for the others in the family. I got the good radio because I also do SAR for the local sheriff so I wanted the ability to have the extra channels and the narrow band capability. Building the repeater and programming the Motorola Radius M1225 radios for the repeater was far easier than I thought it would be and tuning the duplexer was a fun challenge. The Kenwood TK-370s are phenomenally well built radios with the added benefit of them all being CHIRP programmable. The non-G versions are also field programmable. My family really isn't interested in radio communications but will likely use the Kenwoods when we are camping in the mountains. I would really like to get others in my area interested in using the repeater. I've drafted letters to send out to the other six licensees inviting them to make use of the machine. I hope it generates some more local interest. 73, Chris WRFS756

And let's get rid of the ERP limits on GMRS. I'm struggling now with building the best station that I can under the current restrictions. As the rules are now, I have to have two base radios and two base antennas to build a high performance GMRS station that allows me to operate on all frequencies. I need one radio, 1-10 watts with a unity gain antenna and feedline cut to a length to ensure proper attenuation to maintain legal ERP for channels 1-14. I need another radio, 45w, with a high performance antenna to get the best performance on channels 15-22. By getting rid of the ERP limits, I could run one radio, 5-45w, and one gain antenna for everything. Edit my former opinion above to say, I'm still very new to this whole GMRS thing and I can see now that the frequencies for channels 8-14 are so close to the repeater inputs that higher radiated power would likely cause trouble for repeaters. Let's just eliminate those pesky channels completely.

Does anyone here actually use these channels? I mean, they are limited to 1/2 watt and narrow band. What are they good for?