gortex2

I would not set it to none on any XE radio. The entire reason its there is to have a certified battery on the radio. I ran into a customer who changed this on all the fire radios so they could use cheap batteries. A radio was sent in for water damage and was not repaired as it was using non IDLH accessories.

FRS/GMRS without a doubt CH1 and CH2. Listening to hunters right now on CH2. For repeaters I have them on 600,625,675. Some of my locations are above line A so cannot use 462.650 MHZ, 462.700 and 467.700. I used to have on on 550 but too many folks programmed the radio on the input and would use it to talk simplex.

A scanner is a better way to listen to other frequencies other than GMRS. I have one bank dedicated to GMRS on my scanner.

It would not be type accepted to use in any other band.

Why not make the sheet into a google sheet and share with you net folks. Simple and every one sees everything.

I told you yesterday in another post to leave the firmware at 17. There is no functional reason to move it to 20 unless your dealing with P25 simulcast with Geo-Primes. I have seen MSI shops brick a XTL pretty quickly when done wrong. Is there a specific reason you think you need to upgrade the radio ?

The noise issue in in duplex applications. It has been discussed many times. Its worse if any water gets in it or the connectors. If your running a repeater fine a variant of LDF and it will resolve the noise issues and have better loss.

The XTL2500 is no longer supported so you can no longer purchase flash upgrades. If its R17 it will be fine for HAM and GMRS.

Only place on the GR1225 repeater that has audio is out of the 16 pin on the back. The GR500 was technically the chassis and was originally for the dual radius/maxtrac radios. When the GR1225 came out they sold an adapter for the 1225 head to mount in the chassis. Good unit. Good idea about the low power. I still have 6 in use that work fine on low power. If needed they would support an external controller but try to use the internal for simplicity.

Just get a sat unit and don't rely on the GMRS radio. A Garmin Inreach Mini will cost about $20 for the safety plan and allow you to send a text or message home to let folks know your ok. Simple and cheap solution that will work on the entire AT. In the end the cost of the GMRS radios, paid repeater access will cost just as much

To be fair there are other communications forums that have subscription fees to access certain locations. To me some of it makes since after running websites and forums for some time. Its not cheap. On top of that some of this gets more interested parties in certain conversations. You will see more and more subscription fees as we move forward.

For 10 years I unscrewed my NMO mount when backing my F350 in the garage every night. Sometimes a better mount requires a bit of work. Just food for thought.

So being this has been beaten to death on RR I don't really want 200 posts on this forum over it. It is up to you to pay or not. I provide multiple feeds so don't pay for service however paid prior to my feeds for many years. For me its the ability to download scanner files and to look up certain data. So its all what you can get out of it. Prior to him hiding some of this stuff we had adds and everyone complained about that so he removed the adds and said pay to get certain items. For the cost of servers and everything it takes to host the RR Site, Forums, Databases, and Broadcastify I don't feel its unreasonable.

The software is still on Motorolas Website and available via myview and mol. You need to setup an account with Motorola. Alternative is take it to a shop and ask for it to be programmed.

How do you know you know its setup wrong ? NYC is a mess when it comes to GMRS. Not sure what "club" your looking for but sure there is a ham club somewhere there.

Yagi would be the best bet. But also the cable is important. Putting a yagi 40' in the air with RG58 doesn't help. You will need good cable to go with the Yagi.

I guess whats your expectation ? Many folks come on here and get all excited to put a repeater on the air and find out it covers 5 miles from home then get disappointed. Most large coverage repeaters are on high buildings, mountains and tower sites. If you have a 40' antenna at home don't expect miracles. The questions asked above will help diagnose an issue if there is one. What do you feel it should do ?

This is the way the radio is. For a CCR I'm not sure what your complaining about. Spend a few bucks more and get a better unit. They have to lock them down so they are finally doing what they should have done 10 years ago.

Although not in the rules it should be followed. Some follow the rules but some do not. My guess is he is trying to keep CCR/Pre defined radios off the repeater.

Yes he is looking for a file for the kenwood software. To my knowledge there is not one on this site. Just start typing. Its a commercial radio so it will never work with Chirp

Antenna Farm has multiple. Depends on the year. NMO specific Mount

What kind of truck ? There are model specific ones out there.

Adds are normally based on your browser history so.....

Talk to Demlarva Communications in New Castle. They are a MSI shop and should be able to diagnose the issue pretty quickly. There is also Magmum in Dover area but never dealt with them.