WyoJoe

Any speaker/mic that is compatible with standard Baofeng radios (not the waterproof ones) should work with the KG-905G as well. There are multiple offerings from numerous vendors, but they all appear to be rebranded versions of three or four actual models. I've had good and bad experiences with some that I've tried. They vary in price from $7 dollars up to the $80 one you mentioned, but as of now, because of my mixed experiences with a couple of different models, there isn't one particular type that I can point you to that is consistently good. Unfortunately, my experience has shown that the radios themselves tend to have better consistency in quality than do most of the accessories I've used.

Unfortunately, even though it appears that there is a "standard" for channel usage, this is not followed in many cases. While almost all FRS/GMRS radios follow the same frequency assignments on channels 1-22, when you get above that, things tend to be far less standardized. Some of the "bubble pack" radios offer up to "50 channels" although for channels 23-50, they are actually using the same frequencies as channels 1-22, but with pre-defined CTCSS tones. Most bubble pack radios do not provide repeater access. Many other radios, and most that allow repeater access, are programmable, and many of them allow you to program the channel name. There is very little standardization when it comes to channel naming here. I have seen all of the following designations for the same repeater frequency pair (in this case, 462.625/467.625): CH 26, GMRS 26, RPTR 18, RPTR 4, and a variety of other custom channel names. If you know the meaning for each of these channel names, they all make sense in one way or another, but there isn't necessarily a "best" way to name them. The only thing that remains consistent in the above examples is the frequency pair in use, which I believe is why the repeaters are listed by frequency.

If you subscribe to RFinder, it will allow you to select a route and will provide a list of repeaters along that route using the parameters you set. While not perfect, I find it to be quite helpful for trip planning. This is for amateur radios only, though, so unfortunately does not work with GMRS repeaters (as of now, at least).

I have also experienced the same issue. It seems that the firmware is programmed in such a way as to only allow Tx on channels 1-30, rather than defining an allowable Tx frequency range. I could not add any channels to mine that I could use to transmit - the added channels are all Rx only. I also have the GM-30 from Radioddity, and it was the same situation initially, however, a firmware update made it possible to add channels which could be used for both Tx and Rx. Perhaps we can hope for the same thing for the UV-5X GMRS. For those wondering about using Chrip for these radios, support has recently been added in the form of the UV-5G model. Apparently, UV-5G is the new name for the UV-5X GMRS radio according to Baofeng's submissions to the FCC. The UV-5X designation brought confusion to the situation because there was an earlier UV-5X that was a ham radio, not a GMRS radio, then when the GMRS model came along, they used the same name as the ham model. The bottom line is that to program the UV-5X GMRS radio using Chirp, you need to use the latest version of Chirp (as of July 2021) and the Radioddity UV-5G profile (not the Baofeng UV-5X profile).

Strange... He told me I was his favorite!

Ditto what JG said... Welcome!

I've used my GM-30 successfully to talk to other radios (Wouxon and others) using a repeater with the CTCSS set to 131.8. I haven't tried using codes on simplex to talk from one to the other, but I would expect it to work. I'll give it a try and report back when I do so.

This goes to show that usable antennas do not need to be complicated. I see an antenna like this one being quite useful when attached to a handheld transceiver. You could even place it on a very simple mast by using 3/4" PVC, running the coax through it, and placing the antenna on top (with the connector sitting just inside the top of the conduit).

Randy, congratulations on the new "real" repeater. You can even set the VXR-7000 up in your home as your "base" unit, since it can serve double duty. Did yours come with the internal duplexer, or did you add one to it? I'm thinking about setting one up with the duplexer, but the ones I've found didn't come with a duplexer. From looking at the manual for the VXR-7000, it looks like you could add a common 50W duplexer for the same (or very similar) result. I did find that Antenna Farm has the VXR-7000 programming cable and CE27 software available in a package for a reasonable price. If you ever want to change the programming on yours, it might be worth having.

You can search using the map instead of the repeater listing. Just click on the map tab on the MyGMRS home page. That should help you find what's close to you. Keep in mind though, that to use any of the listed repeaters (or any that aren't listed) for transmitting still requires permission from the repeater owner. If you click on one of the repeaters on the map, it will give you the details of that repeater.

I don't believe this matter will truly be resolved until resolved by a recognized authority on this subject. The information posted above on the Radio Reference page is as close to a recognized authority as any other that I've seen, so rather than try to reinvent the wheel, I'll generally follow their recommendation of using channel 20 for traveling. I would place a sign in my back window for "GMRS Ch. 20" if I wanted to let other travelers know how to contact me. That's what a lot of CBers did back in the day to let others know what channel they were using, and what I've seen a few hams do also. If traveling off-highway with other vehicles, I do like the idea of using channel 16, since it is the product of 4x4. Years ago, we used CB channel 4 most of the time, since we were "4" wheeling. Whatever channel to use would be something that could be decided within the group, however, and could change due to other radio traffic, or if some users only had FRS radios.

Along the same lines as the DLS-45, West Mountain Radio offers their PWRgate devices which function as nominal 12V UPS systems when paired with a power supply and battery. Their "Epic PWRgate" adds a solar panel interface for charging of the battery, and can allow the unit to function without a power supply in some cases. It seems a little expensive for what it is, but is highly regarded, so you are likely paying a bit more for a quality product. What these devices do essentially, is take the 12V power from the power supply and pass it to the radio, while also float "charging" the battery when it receives power from the power supply. When the power supply loses power, the device switches to battery power. When the power supply comes back on, the device switches back to the main source, and supplies charging current to the battery to bring it back to a full charge, before returning to float.

I installed the updated firmware on my radios, and yes, the narrow/wide band issue is fixed on my radios. I can now change from wide to narrow and vice-versa from the keypad (or the programming software).

It's my understanding that Anti-Virus software often blocks the installation of applications that are not from well recognized publishers. I've heard (possibly even on this forum) that people have had their AV software reject even the programs they wrote for themselves. While that may or may not be what's happening in your case, I wanted to mention it since others have shared similar experiences.

In addition to the UV5R variant (Radioddity/Baofeng UV5X) mentioned above, there is also the Radioddity GM-30 and the "Pofung" (Baofeng) P15UV, which appear to be essentially the same radio, the Pofung P11UV, the Retevis RT76P, and the BTech GMRS V-1, all of which are advertised as being "repeater capable," meaning they can be used with a repeater, not as a repeater. All of these have a front panel display and most have a front panel keypad so you can manually enter frequencies or other programming data. There are also a number of less sophisticated radios that don't have a display or full keypad, but can be programmed to work with repeaters, too. Retevis has several such models. If the goal is to equip the group with inexpensive handheld radios, there are numerous options. Obviously, if pay a bit more, you'll most likely get a higher quality radio, but that might put you outside of your price range. I'll also second the suggestion of the Retevis Repeater (RT-97), as it is an almost all-in-one solution (with the exception of the antenna and the battery / power supply). The RT-97 could be easily deployed anywhere you have a suitable antenna and power source.

I have heard this quite often on ham repeaters, so to hear it on GMRS would not surprise me. I believe it is a function of the repeater controller, so if the same type of controller is used on GMRS as on ham, it would make sense for some GMRS repeaters to announce the time.

I have not used the RT76P radio or software, and can't help in that regard, but I have used the Radioddity GM-30 (~$45), and with the latest firmware update, it will allow you to do what you are trying to do with the RT76P. The Wouxon KG-UV9G (~$170) will also do this, but I haven't done so yet with the one I have. If there aren't any solutions offered that are specific to the RT76P, you might want to try one of these other radios.

Often there are tones in use, but they are not listed so you have to contact the repeater owner to get them. This is normally done in conjunction with getting permission to use the repeater. On some repeaters, they may use so-called "travel tones" which basically means CTCSS 141.3. These repeaters are usually open and available to people traveling through the area, hence the term "travel tone."

You probably need to access the repeater from a different channel than Channel 14. Channel 14 is one of the interstitial channels and not a repeater channel. On most of the repeater capable radios I'm familiar with, the repeater channels are usually set up for channels 23-30, inclusive. I suspect you would want to use channel 29 (on my radios that is the default channel for a "700" repeater (467.700 input, 462.700 output), with the appropriate tones for the repeater programmed into that channel. I have a UV-82 which is very similar to your V-1 radio. The CTCSS xmit tone can be changed using menu option 13 on my UV-82. It may be the same on your model, but I don't know for sure. You may need to enter a CTCSS tone on transmit to open the squelch on the repeater. The repeater information should provide the necessary tone frequency if you need one.

I don't think the Midland radios will support it, but if you can program your Btech radio to receive the repeater input frequencies, you might be able to scan them to see what other users are sending out to the repeaters. Since the repeater output frequencies can also be used for simplex, you might hear that and think it's a repeater output when it actually isn't. My recommendation is to scan both the repeater inputs and the repeater outputs to find out what's being used in your area. In my area, there isn't a lot of use that I've heard, except when my family is using our radios. I've occasionally picked up some four wheelers passing through, or kids using FRS radios, but otherwise there isn't a lot of use on the GMRS bands here. As for listening to the net, I believe you should be able to hear it through the MyGMRS website, but I haven't confirmed that yet. Since I learned of it, I haven't been home when the net was happening.

I am trying to run it on Linux using Wine, but I'm getting an error that it can't find MFC42.dll. I've tried a few workarounds, but so far have not found one that works correctly.

I found a few options on Amazon by searching for "handheld radio mounting bracket." The simplest one is a screw-on bracket that the radio belt clip attaches to. There's another that is similar, but also includes a second bracket to clip a hand mic to. Both of them were sold by Rugged Radios. There are a few other options, too, such as cupholder mounts or ball-mounts, although none of the ones I looked at are not specific to Wouxon radios, and some of them might not work well.

The cigarette lighter plug only puts out a marginal amount of current, typically no more than 10 amps, and often, quite a bit less. At 12 VDC, 10 amps should provide about 120W, but I've seen lesser loads blow the fuse, so I expect many lighter plugs are fused and rated for less than that. For a CB or handheld radio with about 5 watts output, the current would be sufficient. When you get to about 25W, the current just to transmit is about 2 watts, but the radio consumes more power than that. That's likely still within the limit of the lighter plug, but it's pushing that limit. A 50W radio will require about twice the current, often exceeding what the lighter plug can provide reliably. Even though your radio is rated at 40W, some reviews have stated that it can put out more than that, so I think it would also likely exceed what the lighter plug can provide. I would recommend hard wiring it.

I agree with what Michael already said, for GMRS the individual entries for each repeater aren't terribly difficult. If you're using Chirp, you can download the FRS/GMRS standard frequencies to your file, then to add repeaters, just copy the appropriate repeater line from the ones you downloaded, change the tones and channel name, and it's done. It only takes a few seconds for each one since you can copy one of the eight repeater channels from the aforementioned download. The good part about GMRS is that there are only 8 repeater frequency combinations, so the only things that change with them are the tones.

Welcome Michael. If all goes well, it should only take a couple of days for the system to catch up.