SUPERG900

This. I have a low hill near my house that somewhat impedes my HT's signal. But - if I hook that little 5 watt HT up to my base station antenna I can easily hit a repeater 25 miles away - cleanly. Up on the roof - it's a dead line-of-sight to the repeater. Yep - put the majority of effort into an antenna and you'll be glad you did.

47 CFR 95.389 -> 47 CFR 2.1093.....calling out both IEEE and ANSI standards. Last I checked, both the IEEE and ANSI are still industrial standards organizations. ---

Settle down there, pardner. There was nothing personal in that post towards you. It wasn't directed to you - either. That the rest of the world thinks that American's suffer a bit from too much hubris is rather well known. Nothing personal there. That the internet is next to impossible to police isn't really opinion - it's just an observation. The point I'm making is that the Chinese manufacturers have a very large international market - and it's the international marketers who are at fault, as very few OEMs sell directly. It is the importer that is ultimately responsible for making sure the product imported meets the regulatory requirements of whatever political jurisdiction they are importing to. Don't extrapolate any more than what was just said above or make conclusions based on what you think I intend.. Nuff said.

We live in the internet era...trying to police radio sales on the internet is like herding cats.... I'm of the opinion that it's mainly importers and label slappers that are breaking the rules vs oems. The Chinese sell all over the world. (Americans unfortunately tend to think they *are* the world.) The point I'm trying to make is that most of these radios weren't particularly designed (specifically) for the US market. They do take care to make them them part US 90 certified - but of course part 90 is locked down so that's not too big a hurdle. It's the Rugged Radio's of the world that, IMO are the major offenders.

I wonder the reasoning behind having two GMRS model - since the differences between them seem to be minimally firmware related....

Sorry - I wasn't referring to your post. My mistake. I was responding to the guy I was asking for published data from.

Great, a link to a 404 error... That pretty much the story here in a nutshell.

For starters - you immediately dismiss my posts as "your posts are devoid of any logical explanation, only emotional responses, nothing to refute my data, just logical fallacies trying to discredit me, ad hominem, et. all... to sow doubt." That's some heavy bloviation, dude - especially in light of the fact that all the negativity and doubt concerning radios is coming from you. And the rest of your post isn't exactly a model of logic either...so it's hard to see where you're coming from. You can blow out all the numbers you want, but unless you're posting published comparos (of GMRS certified radios) from a respected lab along with their empirical observations - you're all hat and no cattle. Providence matters. What is left is are our subjective evaluations. I'm not interested in part 90 radios for GMRS use unless they're GMRS certified as well. That's a really big distinction. Any cherry picking the cheapest of the cheap radios as an example, which unless certified for GMRS is just a moot point. There are plenty of great radios out there - and no, I do not have a financial interest in selling them.

Ok.. 10 to 20 bucks for a *new* CCR? That's conveniently a lowball figure here... If you find a new GMRS radio for $10 dollars, let us know. And $140 for an XPR6500? And I gotta pay extra for cables and CPS? Do I have to get a new battery too? What's the total cost here? Is it certified? $300 for a used XPR5500? (Get a new Icom!) Is it certified as well? Is there a real difference if something is made in Malaysia, or China? Or maybe the fact that they aren't made in the USA?. The point is to be rational here. If one has a need for a commercial radio - certainly go ahead and, recommend, and get one. They're great items if they can be had. But hammering on about inexpensive chinese radios as if these were responsible for all the world's evil gets old real fast. It doesn't do the new user here any good and doesn't help them any in order to reasonably weigh their needs against their desires and their budget. All they see is someone trashing chinese radios and promoting used commercial radios. It doesn't take too much to point out, though that the trash-er invariably happens to own some of these commercial radios, and wouldn't you know it, they're for sale too! 2cts

What the FCC is gonna do is refer to industrial standards, as they call out in the Part 95 top level personal radio service paragraphs. In practice, who makes a certified HT that does 8 watts on the main channels?

Normally, I don't research for others just to make a point, but in this case I'll just do it. 47 CFR 95.1767 b Couldn't be any more explicit.

Don't let the naysayers get ya. CCR's pack more value per dollar than anything - and the reason these radios are inexpensive is because there *is* a market for them - not because that's the best the Chinese can do. People tend to forget name brands like Motorola, Icom, etc - all *made in China*. Moving an HT a mere 6" one way or another is going to make way more difference in performance than any supposed performance gain you might see from a commercial radio. On the BTECH mobile - that should only go for $199 tops. If you paid more....oof OTOH - used commercial radios *can* be a good value. Just don't overpay for them - there's way too many clowns on eBay asking way too much for them. Of course, since this is GMRS - I can only recommend radios that are certified for use on GMRS, there is a need to research the FCC-ID on used commercial radios to see if they're approved. The CCR's that are approved for GMRS are well known, though.

What your thinking of is *way* more trouble than it's worth. If you were to do this - the best you could do is one of those lithium "jump-start" thingies you can get at Harbor Freight. But, you'll quickly run it down.. My best advice is to just wire the positive lead directly to the car battery, and the negative lead to the closest chassis ground you can find. It's a little more effort, but well worth it.

Two thoughts.... The GMRS power limit for HT's in 5 watts, not 8 watts. No HT radio advertising 8 watts is going be certified for use on GMRS frequencies. IIRC - the family license clause refers to *immediate* family members. Cousins don't qualify.

Yeah - I think they're (FCC) taking the easy way out. OTOH - there is only 8 possible repeater channels in GMRS, and this sorta negates the need for very many channels, even if all you want to do is merely want to change pl tones.

There are a gajillion radios out there that are capable of operating on GMRS frequencies - but aren't certified by the FCC for GMRS operation. The reason for this is twofold. In the first case - someone has to apply for certification. That takes time and money. Secondly, in order to be successfully pass certification, the radio will need to be made incapable of operating outside of GMRS frequencies, and in compliance with GMRS power levels, which vary per channel (and per mobile/HT as well). If the radio design is amenable - only a firmware change will be needed. However, this isn't free or cheap either. Lastly, GMRS radios have a limited market - they're only good for use in the US. In order to amortize the work needed to get a radio certified - an asian manufacturer is going to need a local sponsor (i.e. US distributer) to make a commitment to a minimum purchase in order to make it worth their while. Radio equipment authorizations vary by countries. It's a fractured system. It's always been this way, unfortunately.

For GMRS use, be sure to get one that handles the UHF band - some SWR meters only handle HF. Try looking up MFJ or Diamond Antenna - they make several models of analog SWR/Power meters.

Sure - the FCC grants some leeway, but I would think that it's glaringly obvious (on it's face) that you'd need to be in Public Safety to use Public Safety Frequencies. A good reading of 90:35 will point out that the use of PS frequencies by BILM is only authorized to the *extent* that they engage in PS related activities - meaning there's no blanket grant there. The requirements for GMRS, for end users are certainly different than BILM. One - there's no frequency coordination. You need to use a radio specifically approved for GMRS operation. You need to have a GMRS license - or be the *immediate* family member of someone who is. And you need to identify with your callsign every 15 minutes. None of that applies to 90:35 end users, or public safety end users either. As far as BILM authorizations go - you need a reason to be assigned a frequency in that service other than "because I just want to". You need to articulate a reason. I wouldn't mistake lax enforcement by the FCC as being any sort of approval - given the right (or wrong) situation, they can easily pull the rug out from under you, whenever they choose to, and you'd be powerless to do anything about it. No frequency coordinator is going to give a frequency out just so you can chat with your fishing buddies.

So it appears that Rugged Radios was marketing as Part 90, radios that really can only be legally used by Hams - since arbitrary front panel TX frequency selection is a no-no for Part 90. Good - fine 'em. Being stupid is totally free - but that doesn't mean it is without cost...

There's no such thing as a free lunch concerning antenna mounts. The car's roof is a sufficient ground plane - it's actually the optimum place to put an antenna. You don't need some sort of an add-on ground plane. There's really nothing wrong with a well-built mag-mount antenna. You might be making more work for yourself than necessary.

Somebody will surely buy them. But yeah - not worth the price just to get a detachable face - IMO.

This issue is a tempest in a teapot. Land Mobile Radio vendors hawk their wares all the time and there's no mention of requiring a license - or that you must be a "business" to legally use their product on a business frequency. It is assumed that the prospective buyer is *intelligent* enough to either know these facts or to research the relevant information. It's the same for GMRS - there are rules for this service and they are easily found. Heck - just post the question and someone here will likely answer it out of the simple goodness of their heart. Someone mentioned Hams - well no - we can't conduct any business, per se, although we may hold a "tailgate" net where we list used Ham related equipment. These are listings from individuals and are incidentals, meaning no one's making a regular business out of it.

Heh - my pair of "garbage" Retevis RT76P's are kicking @ss here in New Mexico - and they're on sale for under $30 dollars. You can spend more on a used set of commercial HT's that won't make a dirt spec of difference in the real world - except maybe lull you into thinking you've got some bragging rights. It's your money.

The Retevis RT76P is on Black Friday discount @ $26.99. These are legal part 95 GMRS radios and they put out the full 5 watts. Can't go wrong with these. https://www.retevis.com/GMRS-Radios/

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