WRHS218

I just drove from Central California to the Texas-Louisiana border. I did the 1900 mile drive in three days. I had my handheld GMRS radio on and scanning for the whole trip. I heard one person talking on a repeater west of Phoenix, AZ. Somewhere in New Mexico I heard a couple of people talking car to car. I was stuck on I-10 in Houston for three hours due to an accident four miles in front of me and heard nothing. I also had a 2m/70cm handheld on, scanning, and heard very little traffic. Both radios, KG-905G, and Yaesu VX-6R, work perfectly. Interestingly enough, when I reached my destination I found a juvenile detention facility using GMRS radios. The facility is several miles from where I am. I was surprised I didn't hear more traffic on either the GMRS or the HAM bands. I will reverse the trip next week and will keep the radios scanning. As an aside, the 3200 mHa battery in the KG-905G lasted the whole trip scanning 12 hours a day for three days and is still showing over 8 volts.

OffRoaderX, You sound like one of my favorite youtube hobos. I am his favorite youtube watcher, he told me so. He also has a calibrated couch. Good advice, by the way. Unless nerding out on building antennas is your "thing" let someone else do the work and enjoy offroading.

Hasaf, I have a 2m mounted in my FJ. I took the head liner down enough to use marine epoxy to a attach a piece of hardwood 2x4 to the roof and install an NMO. I put the headliner back up and mounted the radio mount to the 2x4. The radio has been mounted that way for 9 years of pretty heavy off road use. I never thought about under the passenger seat. Which brings up another point: It is disturbing how clean it is under your seats! Sean

Very cool map. Thank you for sharing!

Thanks for elaborating, Michael. I assumed the KG-905G worked like this but since the manual it isn't as clear as it could be and I had not tried it I didn't want to state it as fact. Also, good point about proximity to the TX radio for repeater operation. Sean

You have to initiate the scan while receiving a signal. If the signal stops the scan will start again when/if the signal is received again. When you start the scan you can watch on on the screen as the tones are scanned. It will stop when it finds the tone. You can set up the radio to save these scanned tones to memory. The signals I have scanned have all been on simplex. I can't answer if it would work on a repeater as I haven't been close enough to a repeater when I had time to scan.

One that serves many. There is a list of supported radios on this page: https://chirp.danplanet.com/projects/chirp/wiki/Home

In a nutshell: CHIRP is an open source radio programming tool that in many cases is better than the manufacturers programming software. The software will program a lot of the more popular radios. Newer radios will normally be added to the list, but sometimes takes a while. Use your favorite search engine to lookup CHIRP.

The pros for me are: The build quality is great. I need a radio that is water resistant and dust resistant. I carried Motorola radios for the last 40 years in my jobs and the 905G feels almost as solid as those. The radio is simple to use. I have had a HAM license for decades and when searching for a GMRS radio I wanted something simple to use. Repeater ready. Very easy to use on repeaters. I like the channels groups and the ability to scan groups. CTCSS scan. A function I find useful that I didn't think I would use. Audio quality is very good. The cons: You can only add repeaters having the same tones into a group via the computer. I like that you can build other groups for repeaters, but, not from the radio end. I wish the screen would accommodate "Name" "Frequency", and "GMRS channel number" at once. I understand it would take a bigger screen and I will eventually learn the channel numbers. Coming from the HAM side I am just so used to it all being about the frequency. I have tried other GMRS radios of lesser price but the quality just wasn't there for me. I was going to get the 805G but when I saw they were going to come out with the 905G I waited and I am happy I did. Sean

I prefer to use screen protectors on all my handheld and mobile screens because I spend a lot of time in dusty environments. Do anyone make their own? I guess I could cut down an old cell phone screen protector to fit. Any DIY screen protector ideas out there? Sean

I live in a mountain area a few miles from the South gate of Yosemite. Most of the listed repeaters in my area are no longer active. One nearby repeater is still active but I can't hit it from my house. The gentleman that owns the unit told me to keep it in my radio and use it if I am in the area which is nice. I cannot see the highway from my house due to trees but I can hear traveler conversations for less than a minute at a time. I use GMRS with extended family and for traveling. I have several 2m HAM repeaters I use occasionally but I don't enjoy talking about weather, radio brands, and new medications so I don't talk much. I got my Amateur license over 20 years ago so I would have reliable comms when a group of us went off roading in the Mojave desert. I have moved to GMRS for that now as a lot of people aren't interested enough to take the test. Can't blame them. This is a good forum to learn from.