WRHS218

You can't just say "terrible license" without sharing it (I understand it isn't yours to share). That would be a good thread subject - Worst Call signs.

If I were starting again I would get a repeater capable handheld GMRS radio and just listen. You can learn a lot by just hearing what others are doing on air, both positive and negative. Get your GMRS license and just get on the air. If you have a friend or family member who is interested that is even better. GMRS is more of a utilitarian radio service than HAM and a lot of people use the service to just communicate with friends and family. Normally if someone on a repeater asks for a radio check they will get an answer. It certainly can't hurt to try. Most of all, try to have fun.

What he said.

I , too, have "dual citizenship" (stealing that term). I got the ham ticket because I wanted to be able to use radios for short range communications while off-roading in the desert and mountains. I had never even heard of GMRS until about ten years ago. It really fit what I wanted from a radio service better than other services. Most of my friends and family had no interest in taking a test and really didn't care about radio in general. I am not a fan of linked GMRS repeaters so I don't listen to or use them. If I want to have a conversation with someone I'll use a phone or jump on 2m (I don't do that either). I will ride my own bike and ignore "some people" that don't like the suit of the card I have in my spokes.

You shouldn't have to. You choose the weather channel you want to monitor which is only available in Area A. You can press and hold the AREA button for 2 seconds to enter weather mode. Once you choose the NOAA channel to monitor you can get out of weather mode and go to menu 7 and turn on weather alert. After that go to menu 23 to choose what kind of alert you want, there are 5 choices. Once you are done with that you are done. When the radio is in standby, you are not actively TXing, and there is an alert for the NOAA channel you selected the radio will display the alert according to the choice you made for weather notification. You do not have to be in the weather mode.

It sounds like there isn't much traffic on that repeater. If you are hearing the station ID in morse code that shows the repeater is operational. Keep listening and if/when you hear people talking wait until there is a break in the conversation and ask for a radio check. If someone answers you then you can ask them about the amount of traffic that repeater normally experiences.

Equipment problems are always possible. How far are you from the repeater? Have you spent any time listening to the repeater you programmed and have transmitted to? Have you heard any other traffic on that repeater. Try monitoring that repeater and If/when you hear any traffic try asking for a radio check when there is a break in the conversation. As most people use GMRS to talk to family and friends they might be more willing to help someone asking for a radio check rather than someone looking for a random contact. If you are out and about you could program other near by repeaters and see if you can get a response on another machine.

One nice feature for any radio you get is to be able to lock the keypad. We were using our radios earlier this year and I left my wife the KG-935G and I took the KG-S88G with me into the snow because of its IP67 rating. My wife was concerned she would mess something up on the 935. It has three different lock settings so I locked it so the only thing she could change was the volume. You might want to check what ever radio you decide on to see if has different lock settings.

Correct.

I understand. In my area LEO and Fire all still use VHF and I listen on the 935G. A few small towns are using UHF in the 460's. Unfortunately LA county is using UHF that we can't get on the 935G. Good luck.

If I remember correctly the city of Santa Clarita doesn't have a police department. They have a Los Angelas County Sheriff's Department substation there, Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff's Station. If it is still that way then their radios are above 480.0000 MHz which puts them out of the range of the KG-935G Plus. Hopefully someone can give you a more up to date answer. The KG-935G Plus is a fun radio either way.

Are you scanning a priority channel when this is happening? You might try turning off all the scan functions just to see if that changes anything. Does this happen if you turn off TDR?

I'm going from memory, so take that for what it is worth, but I think you turn the radio off, press and hold the V/M button while turning the radio back on. That should take you to a menu. Make your selection and then turn the radio off. Next time you turn it on you should be in the band you selected. I think when you do this you lose any changes you had made. I don't know for which bands this radio is certified, so keep that in mind as well.

The kind of short version is we share a well. The booster pump and reservoir tank are closer to my house. The tank is 10 feet lower than my house and 20 above his. Over the last 6 years we have experienced at least 15 power outages with several of them being multiple days long with the longest being 5 days. The pump house with it's own electric meter is closer to me. With a transfer switch we can run the well and booster pump on a generator. The 5 day outage was accompanied by 6 feet of snow over a week which made snow shoeing up and down the hill the only method of travel. We will run the generator for the well and booster pumps on a schedule and use radios for coordination. He was using one of my radios. Now he has his own. Last week we lost power three times for 3-4 hours at a time. We have started turning on our radios when we lose power just in case.

That is what I have done as well. Now that the 935G Plus is out I bought an extra battery with C port. It fits the 935G, 935G Plus, and the 905G. It is 2600mah vs. 3200 mah but it still last all day. When it comes to batteries, especially when away from a 120V AC outlet, two is one and one is none. That goes for other things as well.

I have never owned a Boafeng radio but recently purchased the UV9G for my neighbor. You can input frequencies in the Frequency mode and then save them to a memory channel. Then you have to switch back to channel mode and go to the channel where you saved the new frequency. You should then be able listen if the frequency is outside of GMRS or transmit if you have set up a repeater (GMRS). I don't have it in front of me but I am pretty sure that is what we did. I read the manual paragraph for switching from memory mode to Frequency mode and thought I must have read it wrong. Surly you don't have to turn the radio off, hold the menu button while turning the radio to switch... Well, yes you do, and don't call me Shirley.

I have a several Wouxun radios, different models, that have USB-C. Two have batteries with USB-C ports and one that has the USB-C port on the radio itself. All of them will charge with a USB-A to USB-C cable off of standard chargers and 65W charger. None of the three would charge using USB-C to USB-C. The radio with the charge port is a KG-S88G, a great little radio. The batteries were from a KG-UV9PX and the KG-935G Plus, a really great radio. Even though I can't use the C-C (PD) charging cable I like the idea of being able to charge from USB. Not have to lug a desktop charger on road trips is great. Carryuing a couple of power packs is still smaller and can be used off grid.

You have come to the right place if you have specific questions. There is a lot of knowledge in these hallowed halls. However, as with every corner of the interwebs, you will get good answers, correct answers, and opinions on things you didn't ask. The key is to be able to differentiate between them all.

Yes. Yes it is.

Just as a side note: I did not use the FCC database so I could contact people regarding radio stuff, or anything else. That would be an unwelcome faux pas in most cases.

I just used a good pair of scissors with the older film type screen protectors. Not perfect, but they work and can be replaced easily. I think BTWR sells one for the 935G.

That is a good idea. If there aren't a lot of GMRS users in you area you can start with you closest neighbors. I did an FCC search for licensed GMRS people in my area and found one in my neighborhood. I purchased a cheap GMRS radio for my well-neighbor's birthday this month. He saw me using mine during a snow storm multiple day power outage earlier this year. I have talked to several other people in our area about getting radio, even a simple FRS radio to begin with. From there we'll try to encourage folks to turn them on when the power goes out (like it did last night), during bad weather, wild fires in the area etc. It seems the biggest hurdle is to get non-radio nerds to see the value of having a non-cell phone method of communication. Good luck and have fun.

I bought an old style (non tempered glass) screen protector for a tablet and cut screen protectors for all of my radios. While a screen protector will not stop a broken screen from a direct impact it will help and it keeps my screens scratch free. I have dropped several of my radios and still have pristine screens. As far as radios go, depending on you radio budget, the KG-905G is built like a tank and the aforementioned KG-S88G is my go everywhere radio, compact and tough.

To anyone who might be wondering you can go to your present location, sort of, from using the "Browse Repeaters" button. You can set your distance to search in the settings within the "Browse Repeater" area. That didn't seem to be available using the "Map" button until I logged out and then back in. It now shows my location on the big map. I'm sure it was my mistake. The app is great and much smarter then I am.

Is there a way to show "my location" on the map using a phone's location. That would be handy when travelling in an unfamiliar area on back roads. I know nothing about apps or how to make them. So far the Beta is very fast and easy to use. Thank you for all of your work.