jvfreetage

Got the link to this in my inbox today, and I have to say if it performs as well as the UV-82, this little GMRS radio could really get more people interested in GMRS. https://baofengtech.com/gmrs-v1 It is a GMRS only radio, and has the ability to change CTCSS tones on the fly. I'll probably get one next week to see if when changing the tones if they say during a power cycle, but we'll see. HAPPY GMRS! James WQUL457 W8JVF

I have to second the Ed Fong j-pole. The thing is, if you buy it off e-bay from Ed, give him your transmit frequency, he will tune the thing for that frequency! Or you can try and build it yourself. Either way, I use the Ed Fong with a portable GMRS repeater as well as on a semi permanent basis (Military move every three years). When I use it with the portable repeater (about 15' of pole with the antenna on top) I get a good 2 mile range out of it with mobiles, and a solid mile + on HT's. The atenna is light enough that I literally strap my 15' of shelter poles to a corner of my 10'x10' straight leg pop up. It's a little tricky to get the antenna mounted to an upright pole, but with a little fiddling it's not so bad. I use a PVC "T" cut in half, four hose clamps, and about 3" of the left over PVC pipe from the antenna build. You make something that looks like an "H" clamping one side to the poles, and the other to the antenna. Works like a charm. Hope this helps! James WQUL457 W8JVF

Look under "Repeater Linking" topic. There's some great discussion about linking GMRS repeaters using Allstar and Raspberry Pi computers. Basically linking your repeaters using the internet as opposed to RF linking. Hope this helps... James WQUL457 W8JVF

Sorry to be the one to say this, but unfortunately the Baofengs are not certified for part 95. So basically they are not legal for GMRS use. That being said... The Nagoya 771 and the Nagoya 701 are GREAT antennas for Ham Use. They're specifically tuned for the Ham bands. I've noticed that trying to monitor GMRS and FRS using those antennas they are a little weak. Baofeng Tech sells a Nagoya 701C which is tuned for commercial bands (which includes GMRS) and works GREAT. Another thing to look for is that there are a LOT of "fake" 701'S and 771's out there. You may have gotten one of those, especially if you paid less than $12-15 for one, because even though the 771 and 701 are tuned for Ham bands, they will work on the GMRS, just not as well as they do on the Ham bands. James WQUL457 W8JVF

OK... Was working on the pics, but they are all too large to post. Going to "shrink" em down and see if I can get them up.

I agree with Corey. Just remember, a dummy load has a 1.0:1 SWR. SWR just makes the radio happy. Your field strength meters and just testing the thing is going to give you your best findings. HAPPY HUNTING! James

So I have 2 of these little gems. One of them is mounted in my wife's car (Outback Sport) and the other is in a little "portable" setup to use in rental vehicles. 25 Watts, part 90, and low power drain. Audio on them is pretty darn good, both transmit and receive, but the scanning really stinks. You can control the volume, channels, and A/B selection directly from the mic. Basically worth the $95 I dropped on on each of them. Www.miklor.Com did a great review on the 10 watt model, and pretty much hit it on the head. As soon as I get to a computer, I'll upload my photos of the "portable" setup. It basically will slide between your seat and the console in your crosstek. 73 James WQUL457 W8JVF

Little hesitant about putting this up, but it looks as if there was a start of a review on the miklor site for a possible part 95 radio. The only reason I got this link was because they sent out an email about a review on the new trio band mobile that BTech put out. http://www.miklor.com/COM/Review_GMRS-V1.php

So after reading your woes about space and such, I hear these questions daily here in Hawaii. Between the space limits and those bloody HOAs there comes unconventional solutions. First off... If your looking for a go everywhere do anything radio, it is by far the Yaesu 857. HF -70cm and in a much smaller package than the 897. Not legal on GMRS, but hey... You can't have everything. Although I did easily modify mine for my MARS work and it has continuous TX and Rx from 1.0mhz to 500mhz. OHHH... And it does 100wats on HF and 50watts on VHF and 35 on UHF. Another nice thing is it's a very sturdy radio and is easily mounted mobile if needed. I even have a buddy who purchased a second control head, and just moves the radio body from his truck to the shack and plugs it into that head. If your roof has metal rafters, youre kinda screwed on interior antennas. BUT people are having GREAT success with mag loop antennas in small spaces. If your rafters at not metal, you can string an end fed wire with match box through them and actually work a lot of stations. As to V/U antennas, we do a lot of mag mounts on metal pizza pans around here. Mag mounts on fridges, even sticking them on the top of window AC units. Power amps are great on HTs, but the receive seems to not be as good as a mobile. As to the 9D?? LOVE mine. GREAT radio! Too bad it is not 95 approved. My station is actually mounted in a gator box. Reason being, we have to move like every three years, and it makes life SO much easier. I will also take my gator box to field days and scouting events. So it is TOTALLY portable. There is no limit to what you can do. The only limit is money. But that's half lthe fun in this hobby, making stuff work on the cheap! 73 James WQUL457 W8JVF

So I built this little machine, scabbing together some pieces and parts and used equipment with two new pieces that I just couldn't fabricate, it's a frequency agile AllStar/Echolink node with a frequency agile Uhf/Vhf Repeater. What I was wondering is, would anyone here be interested in how I did this project? And are they looking to possibly build something like this for themselves? This is a primarily a GMRS forum, but I've seen a lot of guys who are somewhat interested in ham radio stuff too. This project is going to be going into a 6U Gator Box to be transported and field deployable (field days, JOTA/JOTI, who knows what else). I've had this thing on the air now for about 4 days, and have had NO heat problems, even with the Hawaii AllStar / Mainland net which lasted for over an hour and the radio transmitted for almost 100% of that time. BTW the radio is a Yaesu FT-8800R. 73! James W8JVF WQUL457

So my quest continues for the perfect "cheap" radio. Below is a review I did for the new Wouxun KG-UV9D (NOT the 8D). With other amateur radio operators in this group, you might find it interesting. One thing of note, the KG-UV9D doesn't have the 2.5kHz spacing. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------So I did a little review on the KG-UV9D and posted it on BuyTwoWayRadios. Just reposting it here. Wouxun has a winner here! BUT it's not quite perfect. I purchased this radio during the pre-sale, and was very satisfied with it. But after using the KG-UV8D for almost a year, my expectations were just a little too high. First of all, I have to say I LOVE my KG-UV8D and all the things I would change about it, I find in the KG-UV9D, but they left a couple of things out. First of all, let's start with what I don't like about this radio because it is a VERY short list. Let me preface this by saying I use this radio to rag chew every morning (well... almost every morning) and it gets a real work out. I've also used it hiking and for public service events. OK... Now the bad. Screen doesn't turn all the way off. Yep, I'm weird like that. I found the if I set the screen to off in the 8D, my battery life goes through the ROOF! I can't do that with the 9D and it does impact the battery. When I want to see what's happening on the screen, I usually just hit the "EXIT" button and don't bother with taking up a programmable button on the side for backlight. No extra or extended batteries available (but I understand that extra standard batteries will be available soon) or a nice leather case. Last ding, no crossband repeat. It's a nice feature on the 8D that I really like, and sort of miss it on the 9D. Lastly, even though it has 240MHz coverage, it still doesn't receive the 1.25M ham band. (OHHHH so close...) OK... Now the good things. Change channel settings "on the fly". Yep this is a big one. You program in a channel, but then when you're actually using the radio you find that 90% of the time you only need 2 Watts and not 5, just change that setting for that channel, and it's done. Cycling power or channels doesn't revert back to the old settings. This also includes things like CTCSS/DCS, offset, and even channel name. Solid Audio. Both transmit and receive. When Wouxun started shipping the UV8D's with the 1.05 firmware it was darn near perfect. The microphone in the 9D is sensitive but not overly so and the speaker is nice and loud for us hard of hearing folks. Solid signal. Transmit and receive are pretty good, and I love the ability to have true dual receive. So when I said that the improvements I would have liked to have seen in the 8D are now in the 9D? Yeah... they are ALL there. Medium power. This is by far the best improvement in my opinion. I love having a 2 Watt setting. 1 Watt isn't quite enough sometimes, 5 Watts is more than needed, but 2 Watts seems to be "just right" for a lot of radio work and saves on your battery. Wide Band Receive. Even receives AM for those that like listening to air traffic. Visual Programming indicator. When writing or reading to the radio from the computer, the radio has visual indicators to tell you it's "talking" to the computer. Would have been a nice feature on the 8D, but it's in the 9D. Size matters. The 9D is a little slimmer and longer than the 8D. This make the radio a little more comfy in the hand. Programmable FM stations. Sometimes it's nice to have an FM radio available to listen to music or news. Having the ability to pre-program those channels is a God-send. You can even program these channels through the front pannel. Easy "talkaround" function. One button press and hold, and you're now talking around the repeater. Very nice feature. Backlight level control. Yep, another battery saving feature. Now you can dim that large beautiful screen to fit your environment. Auto Power Off. Set the time, and if you leave the radio on by mistake your battery won't totally drain. Various lock options. You can set the lock to engage on the keypad, keypad and rotary knob, keypad and PTT, or all three at the same time. Good Tactile side buttons. No need to actually "look" at the radio to make sure I'm pushing the right button. All the buttons on the side have a distinct tactile feel to them. And lastly, easy to use front panel buttons. The keypad on this radio is a little larger and the buttons are a little desire to press than the 8D. Overall, the size, weight, and layout of this radio is SPOT on. it's just a nice radio to have in your hand. Overall after using this radio for a month, it's a clear winner. It's just not "perfect" yet. Would I recommend this radio to a fellow ham? Absolutely. In fact, I already have. Just a little side note. The smaller antenna that is available with this radio is on par with the original UV5R antenna. In fact, I find a stubby Nagoya is actually just as effecctive as the shorty that comes with this radio. Again, a great little radio. 73JamesW8JVFWQUL457

Hey Zap! Sorry I've been out for a while, been planning the JOTA (Jamboree On The Air) here plus a couple of side projects kicking my butt. ANYWAY, just a side not on the BaoFengs, the latest daily builds of CHIRP lets you adjust the squelch levels under the "service" tab. It's made a HUGE difference in mine. I've also found that a separation of about 15' on VHF and 8' on UHF keeps the radio's clear of desense while running. Also I switched out my transmit radio to a BF-F8HP set on Medium power (5 watts) and I've been pretty impressed with the performance. I know a lot of that info is ham related, but the UHF separation of about 8' is noteworthy for GMRS ops when setting up a "tactical" system. James

Well, I can tell you by looking at the specs with 3 watts UHF you might get 2 miles out of it in real world applications, unless you put a good antenna on it. Probably less than a mile for full quieting. If you're getting it for the weather protection and GMRS use, probably a good investment. From working on the boats here in Hawaii, I can tell you that handheld marine radios just don't work in the ocean. They're good for close in comms, but for some strange reason they just don't like to work too well unless you can connect them to an external antenna. You'd figure with the salt water you would get excellent propagation. ANYWAY it doesn't look like a bad radio. I especially like that it can float!!! That can always come in handy around here. If you get one, let us know how well it works, I'm kinda curious. 73 James

Sorry .... TOTALLY forgot about updating about the antennas. The Uv-8D has an SMA male adapter, so finding someone that sells these antennas is hard, because with the exp!losion of the baofengs, the SMA mpfemale antennas are what sells the most. Buytwowayradios.com seems to have the hookup though. The Nagoya 701 and 771 work VERY well and are broad banded. They are under the accessories section. Make sure you purchase SMA MALE or it won't fit. Also, the little rubber oring included with the antenna is junk. I went to my local hardware store an purchased rubber orings in the plumbing section to give the antenna a nice clean look, and relieve the stress on the antenna jack. Diamond also makes a VERY nice high gain antenna for HTs that has an SMA MALE connector, but you still need the oring. Buytwowayradios also sells that diamond antenna. The 701 has good performance, but is still a little limited. The 771 has better capture area and gives great performance. The diamond antenna really blows others out of the water. Again, most of my stuff is on the ham bands, but I can still work GMRS with a better antenna. Hope this helps.

ZAP... your "stash" pic just made my day. is that a conex box there next to the pile? 73 james

Yeah... Where do you find a 20 W Jensen Duplexer??? LOL I made a portable field deployable repeater repeater out of a .50cal amo can. Did it V/U for a ham/scout thing. Two antennas using the ammo can as a ground plane. Here's a couple of things I ran into. Battery life... Used batteries on the radios the first time. Second time used a 14 amp hour SLA battery hooked to battery eliminators. First time had about 8 hours of use, then the batteries died. Second time got Friday evening until Sunday noon out of it. Heat... On the first go around I think the heat really messed with the LiPo batteries on the radios, the second time by using the battery eliminators the transmit radio was warm, but didn't get as warm as the first time. Also, on the second time I drilled some holes on the sides and a couple on the bottom to allow for air flow. i also put some "flanging" over the holes so when it rained water wouldn't get in the holes. This thing was pretty slick. Had four eye bolts mounted to the lid, so I could run it up a tree with some 550 cord. I can also leave it sitting on the ground and run two lines of RG-8X from the SO-239 connectors on the top to two roll-up J-Poles. NOW "theoretically" if I space the J-Poles out far enough, I can run this thing on V/V or U/U without problems. So that's my next experiment. 73 James

You can now add the 8R series from AnyTone to the list of MURS radios. http://www.anytonetech.com 73 James W8JVF WQUL457

I've got the 950P, which is very similar, only quad band. One thing I like about it is programming it with the computer. If you have it in the shack, I would invest in a programming cable. BEWARE of copy cables, they don't work too well. The programming software for the radio is pretty average, but is usable. I run the CRAP out of mine in the car, SOLID for the past 3 months with like no issues. BUT that is the 950P... I have heard of the display issues with the 920, but I thought that was fixed with later models. 73 James

Hey there Jay, Sorry that I haven't chimed in on this sooner, because it's been a little busy here with the holidays and such, then I had issues chasing DX with my HF rig.. etc etc etc.... ANYWAY.... The KG-UV8D is a model I am VERY familiar with, and use it extensively. It is a MOST excellent ham radio, and I do believe it has Part 90 acceptance. When using the KG-UV8D I have found that the Stock antenna doesn't work too well on the higher end of the 70cm spectrum. It seems to be cut for 443.000 mhz. It's like the sweet spot is even below the Ham band and is centered in the European equivalent of FRS frequencies. NOW ... with that being said, when I look for an antenna, I try to get as broad band as possible. Mainly because I also do MARS/CAP since my spouse it still in the military and we'll be traveling from base to base to base, so I need the higher end of the 70cm spectrum. There's a go-to antenna that I use for most of my wacky band work, and will be more than happy to share if I'm allowed (Moderators please chime in). The UV8D is a nice radio for the price, and just seems to work. I especially LOVE the screen. BUT keep in mind, that this radio is not part 95 accepted, only Part 90. Have I sufficiently beat that dead horse? OK... so ... antenna.... The older Wouxun HT (the 1p) has a pretty broad band antenna, but it's lower gain than the UV8D antenna. This is why I'm thinking your problem is in the antenna. Just so you know, I use the UV8D a LOT. Rag Chew on it for like 2 hours every morning, then for another hour in the evening, and hit repeaters quite well in the ham band. SOOOO.... I'm thinking it's the antenna. The only other issue may be you accidentally have it set to low power. If you're like me and need reading glasses, then look at the screen when you key up. If you have a Red bar extending only halfway across the screen when you key up, then you have low power set. MENU ---> "4" ----> MENU -----> "UP" button or turn the channel knob one click clockwise until the screen reads "HIGH" ----> MENU ... remember to hit the MENU button after setting the power to lock it it. One nice feature about this radio is when you change something on that memory channel from the radio, it's SAVED!!! So each time you come back to that channel it will be whatever settings you had the last time. Again, if I can recommend an antenna brand and model (there's actually two of them) just let me know. I can even supply links of where to buy them. One is like 9" long and the other is like 15" long. The problem is possibly getting a cheap copy of this antenna. OK... I think that's it!!! 73 James W8JVF WQUL457

The TYT's are not a bad radio, but they really don't handle high duty cycles too well. Had a buddy of mine got one cheap, and set it up as a crossband in his house to reach a distant repeater here on the island. The high duty cycle really got the radio HOT!! Run the output radio on medium power, or even low. Bearing that in mind, as long as you're not running a radio net through the things, they should do OK. OF COURSE THIS IS ALL HYPOTHETICAL due to part 95 acceptance yadda yadda yadda.... The sure-com controllers are pretty decent, and they have a "plug and play" interface with the TYT, AND DTMF remote kill. The only thing you should add to the repeater is an identifier. Radio Tone makes one that will actually wire in line with the sure-coms. Yep... Plug and play. When you're running your antenna, make sure it's tuned properly. If you've made a dual band j-pole out of 1/2" copper pipe, unfortunately it's not going to work too well. Staying with the whole make your own theme, try and make one out of 3/4" or 5/8" copper and the actual radiating part will only be about 2' tall. Using a thicker pipe will give you a broader frequency coverage. Make sure you tune the VSWR for the OUTPUT, you can fudge the input. Now yes you can put the TYT's on top of each other, but if you can space them out some (say a couple of feet or so) you might get a little better performance as well as heat dissipation. I would guess that your range issue is also related to how you have and where you have your j-pole mounted. I've made a few of them, and learned that any type of grounding to the things will throw off the transmit big time. Also, they need to be clear of any metal. So for example, if you mount your j-pole to an aluminium mast, make sure the "j" part is at LEAST 2' above the aluminium pole, and the base of the j-pole is NOT directly attached to the aluminium. J-poles are great if there's no metal around them, but any metal (when using them on 440) within 2' will throw the whole thing off. But... Good going. Experiment Experiment Experiment. I LOVE building antennas and seeing what I can do with them. Also, I do like your idea of mounting the antenna in the oak tree. Just be warned that you'll loose performance in the rain. Mounting it above your roof line is your best option for performance. OK... I think I've beat this horse enough. If you have any other questions just fire them out!!! GOOD LUCK! James WQUL457 W8JVF/KH6