tweiss3
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Posts posted by tweiss3
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Just now, Lscott said:
I'm not shelling out the price I see being quoted of $750 to $770 each. The D75A is a nice radio but it doesn't seem to offer enough in major functionality to justify spending the money. If nothing else I wanted to see AT LEAST split band programming. Also a DMR version would have been the deal maker. At best it's just a slight update/refresh of the D74A. Oh, the battery life on the D74 sucks.
You knew DMR wasn't going to happen. You know better, if you want DMR, the price point on the NX1200/1300 is better than the D75. Looking at my D74 again, the batteries are 1800mAh at the best, 1100 at the worst, which is insane. I have 3800 and 4200 for all my carry radios, so it's not really a surprise when I think about it that the battery life sucks.
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If you need to take it with you, SDS series is about the standard as it has GPS options to adjust your lists as you move, plus it handles the simulcast most trunking systems have. If you don't need digital trunking, there are some less expensive unidens that could work. If you are just listening at home, I use an AirspyR2 on a computer with SDR Trunk software.
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I get what you are looking for, but GMRS was intended as a business/personal radio service, and as such, the field programming isn't supposed to be a thing (so the typical blockhead can't change to an unlicensed frequency).
Beyond that, with a little bit of planning, it's not hard to program things the way you need, even for a cross country trip. Toss in OST and you shouldn't have an issue using any repeater you have access to.
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8 minutes ago, Sshannon said:
And the difference between the two radios, even through a 6 dB gain antenna, is still just one half unit on the S-meter.
Absolutely, large changes in output power matter. Otherwise we could all be running 100 milliwatts. But it’s ridiculous to obsess about a radio putting out 9 watts instead of 10, or 45 watts instead of 50, even with trees.
This is exactly true. Unless your intended recipient is exactly matched to your setup, there is no need to worry over power. In fact, most repeaters are turned down for reliability, so a 100W rated repeater puts out something like 50W after the duplexer, often many are 50W rated repeaters putting out 20W after the duplexer, and have ears way beyond their transmit range. It's one reason I don't fret over having 45W UHF decks vs 50W. Now, in my communication plan, obviously, mobile radios in every car are preferred over HTs, but in that case its to get 3 miles simplex.
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Inventory spreadsheet says an embarrassing number, over 50
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Marine does have HF, looks like an older version of the current Icom tranceiver: https://www.icomamerica.com/lineup/products/IC-M803/
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55 minutes ago, UpperBucks said:
What's amazing to me is that more GMRS radios don't offer a bluetooth-based companion app for the occasional tweaking of settings that are a PITA from a front keypad; stuff like CTCSS/DCS in particular. 462.600 has at least 4 different repeaters in my general area, each with different tone combinations, and there's a 625 repeater that just came up with another CTCSS code. 90% of the time, all I need is PTT and a preconfigured "Channel" - but when that other 10% happens and the laptop is back home, keypad programming for ALL of the GMRS (and Ham) radios out there is an exercise in frustration.
NX-5K allows you to program a single button to turn on OST (operator selectable tone), then holding that button brings up the OST list, scroll down and that's it. Now, that's not Part95, and it's a $980 option per deck, but many of the commercial manufacturers have it figure out, just not by using bluetooth.
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1 hour ago, Lscott said:
Knowing some of the stuff you have your pockets are deeper than mine.
I added a replacement cost column to my spreadsheet, I really don't need my wife to see that column.
12 minutes ago, WRXB215 said:Oh no, my wife doesn't really care, she knows shipments just show up, but she also hasn't seen the total replacement cost either. I have stuff laying all around my home office/radio room, its to a point it isn't noticed what is new and what is not.
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To be fair, any current commercial radio that you can get wideband on is going to be excellent for GMRS. There are plenty of options that are considered end of life that are great too. Motorola didn't have many, if any commercial radios that did get part 95 certification, but there are a boatload of Kenwood's that did.
Depending on what you need (mobile, mobile with remote head/rf deck, HT, etc) will determine what you find. TK8150 is 45w, will do wideband, and remote head is an option, I have 2 of them.
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RJ45 connection to the radio, right? Try a CAT6 network cable and an RJ45 coupler.
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Just now, Sshannon said:
I haven’t noticed any mobile HF radios with dual receivers. Several have dual VFOs, like the FT-891. If you truly want dual receivers you’re looking at $3200 radios like the Icom IC-7610 or the Yaesu FT-DX101mp or FT-DX101D models.
You are right. I guess I'm more annoyed that you have to leave the VFO B on the screen, which is pointless. On the FTM400, you can't turn off the B band, but it will do dual receive. Every other HF radio that has dual VFO literally doesn't show the B band unless you are using it for split (817, 450D, 705, 7300).
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No problem Marc, It was a good exercise in really understanding the radio.
RR has no response to my question. The groups.io didn't have any solution, but suggested I reach out to RT Systems.
RT Systems went back and forth with me a few times. It turns out the memory structure was designed to only allow a single offset for 6 meters and a single offset for 10 meters (probably to save memory size). There isn't anything they can change in their program that would allow multiple offsets for 6 meter repeater memories.
My solution is to put a TX and RX memory next to each other, and if I need that repeater, just jog back and forth between the memories. Not ideal, but better than messing with VFO or other buttons and hitting the wrong one ruining the memories.
I do find it annoying that you can't dual receive on both A and B at the same time.
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Mars mod took all of 30 seconds, but did not open the quick split range.
Firmware is current Main V01-10, DSP V02-05, LCD V01-01
I also emailed RT Systems to see if they could update the software. This is the only radio I have that doesn't allow typing in the transmit frequency, and I have RT Systems for almost every ham radio I own.
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8 hours ago, marcspaz said:
That sucks... i thought for sure that would give you the space you need. I wonder if I have more quick split space due to the MARS mod or some of the other work done.
Interesting. Do you see a range wider than 20kHz in the menu? I don't have an opposition to doing the mars mod, though I don't need it for out of band, if it changes the quick offset. What firmware version do you have? I need to check what I have in the radio as well.
4 hours ago, Sshannon said:20 kHz is 0.02 MHz.
200 kHz is 0.2 MHz.
I don’t know if that helps at all or just demonstrates my pedantic nature.
You are right. I knew that, just didn't type it correctly in my frustration.
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2 hours ago, marcspaz said:
The Quick Shift is selectable from +20 MHz to -20 MHz. I can shoot a quick video a bit later today, if that would help?
I ran into a crap storm today with the kids (quick onset sickness), so I didn't get to try much. I found the quickshift setting. How to turn it on quickly is what I need to try. I just need a few free hours
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@marcspaz let me know when you start messing with it again. I did put my question in the groups.io, so maybe I'm overthinking something.
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I'm assuming it is a VX-4000 LB(B). I just looked, I only have CE49, and the low band manual doesn't say what the alignment program is other than high should be 70 and low should be 30.
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So I need to have 2 memories saved, and push RX to the B band and TX stays on the A band? I vaguely remember something similar on my 817, but it has been a while.
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14 minutes ago, marcspaz said:
Hmm. I haven't tried that, but the RT Systems software should let you program custom splits per memory channel. I'm at a customer site, but can look when I get home.
Let me know. RT Systems software greys out transmit frequency and wants you to set via offset direction and frequency, but if you change the offset frequency, it changes all the memories.
Kenwood TH-D75A Tri-Band Handheld Transceiver with D-STAR and APRS
in Amateur Radio (Ham)
Posted
What is available is dwindling. TS-890/990 is not available new. IC-7300 is probably the best 100W bang for the buck out there, but the step above (7610) is quite a big step. Yaesu does have a handful of options as well.
Funny, I went skiing Saturday, and the lift operators have brand new NX-1200/1300 radios. I was surprised how small they were.