[Midland MXT575 & MXT500 on Midland website now!]

I am awaiting a review from a overland buddy who has the new MXT5XXs. The 575 is exactly what I have been waiting for and will be placing that order once it's officially out.

[Midland MXT500]

On 9/21/2021 at 4:42 AM, kb2ztx said:

When I talked to them at the last vendor show they indicated Q4 but guessing it will be Q1 of next year before the 500 is out. 

I heard similar about the 575 as well. I am really stoked for the compact factor of the 575, albeit a larger version of the 275. 

[New to GMRS]

What part of the country do you live in? Often, there may be a repeater, or repeater systems, near you and setting up wouldn't be that hard. In Colorado, I just had to reach out to a gentleman that managed repeaters to get the current information. On the other side of the state, I needed to join a group (just an online setup, no $, to help control access to their repeaters) to get the information. 

[Better antenna for my new Baofang UV-5X]

According to some Amazon listings: 

Quote

"Why I received UV-5G instead of UV-5X as I ordered?"

Many customers used to be confused by UV-5X (GMRS version) and UV-5X (U/V version). So BAOFENG changes UV-5X to UV-5G and re-certified the FCC ID as 2AJGM-UV5G. In essence, now UV-5X and UV-5G are both the latest upgraded version of the inventory, with the same hardware and software configuration.

This is from the seller, but who knows in actuality util you receive it. I have heard of some ordering these and getting a UV-5R that CHIP sees as a 5R and can transmit on more than just GMRS frequencies. Sounds like sellers on Amazon are trying to comply (or give a front of it) with FCC.

 

On the topic of antennas, I have used the Nagoya 701C and confirm it works well with the GMRS bands. However I did not know of a 771-G. Now off to research that... Thanks!

 

[New to GMRS]

Do you know anyone in your area you can test it with? If not, do you have a repeater nearby that you can listen into and then test transmission? We have multiple GMRS radios and testing wasn't an issue with the radios for us. Testing repeater config is a different step, our nearest IP linked repeater (to form a large area) is about an hour's drive away. But we are rural Colorado.