Raybestos

I actually had the one on the left, as a child. Mid-1960's I believe. Made by Mattel. The barrel retracted into the frame and the grip pivoted into the bottom to make a toy camera. Push down a small lever on the outside and the barrel extended and the grip folded out, as in the picture. I believe it fired roll caps.

As others said, a GMRS or ham mobile radio is probably not very steal worthy. I recall in the late 1960's and early 1970's, 8-track tape players were the most popular and most stealable items. Police killed great forests to make the paper used for "Auto-Breaking/ Larceny" reports. After 1973, and the Arab oil embargo and subsequent gas shortage, without a doubt, CB radios were the most stealable items for at least a decade, probably longer. If it even looked like a CB, it was in danger of being stolen. A friend who owned a landscaping business had a Low-Band Motorola Mocom control head stolen out of one of his work trucks during that time. The goobers who stole it, thinking it was a CB, left the transceiver that was mounted behind the seat. Before I retired in late 2000's, it was those GPS units that people plugged into the cigarette lighter and set on the dash. Killed a lot of forests doing reports on those. Today, a mounted GMRS radio is probably pretty safe.

The problem with (too) many repeaters with setting T-Squelch (your radio encodes a tone on xmit and decodes a tone on receive) is that some repeater owners (for reasons that defy all logic) choose to require a tone to access the repeater, yet do not encode a tone on the repeater output which allows the end-user to set their decoder and still hear that repeater. This forces the end-user to set their CTCSS to encode a tone only and use carrier squelch for receive. It is as though they just did not have that additional thirty seconds it would have taken them to program a tone on the repeater output. There are several such repeaters here in South Carolina. I have noted this issue with ham and GMRS repeaters. Almost thirty years ago, some ham repeater owners may have had a decent excuse in that they needed an expensive or hard-to-find board or tone reeds to cause their repeater to encode a tone on its output. These days, repeaters are programmable, just like ht's and mobiles, and all it takes is a few seconds of your time to program a tone on the output so end-users can enjoy setting their "T-Squelch" and keeping their receiver quiet until something on the local repeater comes in.

In all fairness, the dude is right. There is so much buggy crap out there on the market that should not be, especially among those brands he listed.

Whoever is having this problem in 2026, please come back to 2025, BEFORE the outage in March of 2026. It might be better, back here.

Are you going to the meeting in Augusta, this Saturday?

Hi 73 Blazer! I use either the BTWR/Wouxun proprietary software or the RT Systems in all of my programming. I have found CHIRP to be quirky and difficult to use on the two computers I have tried it on. I know, lots of people swear by CHIRP and don't want a radio that doesn't allow its use. I never use CHIRP so that can't be the issue. It is incredibly annoying when this problem does manifest itself. I have experienced it while in communication with other Wouxuns of various models as well as other Chinese radios and Motorola repeaters. Addendum: I have owned, used, and programmed and tested a number of Baofeng UV5R's, UV5G's, and UV5X's (actually earlier model UV5G's), and even 888's. These are like the flagships of "Cheap Chinese Radios" and are available for a fraction of the price of the Wouxuns. I do not recall ever experiencing this difficulty with the Baofeng radios. For multiple reasons, I prefer the Wouxun platforms, but the CTCSS/DCS issues make me a bit gun shy about dropping another century note and a half or more, on a new Wouxun. I wish Wouxun would collaborate with Baofeng (not B Tech) on this CTCSS/DCS issue if they are unable to fix it, themselves.

I am glad you have noted no PL/DPL issues with your Wouxuns thus far. I hope your good luck holds. Mine is not such. In fact, this past Saturday I got a taste of the problem, this time with DPL. A good friend and myself were helping out a privately run charitable event with logistics (parking, sign in, site transport, protective, etc). He and myself brought several each of our own radios to use on FRS/GMRS at the venue. Overall, as far as range, etc, they worked very well. The night before, I was programming three WLN KD-C1's so as to match up with a channel our radios had in common. Yeah, I know the KD-C1's are not type accepted so save the lecture, anyone thinking about it. Two were new out of the box and one I have used lightly for about a year. I programmed them using the template my friend's three WLN's were programmed with. Knowing how weird the Wouxuns can be with PL, I tried all three on a Simplex (from FRS/GMRS 1 thru 7) on a channel I had DPL 245 programmed in, with each-other and with my KG935G+. All radios could hear each other with no issues, except that the older KD-C1 could not be heard by my KG935G+. As a precaution, I programmed my 935G+ with an extra version of that channel in it but to encode DCS 245 and receive CSQ. My thought was to issue the older WLN out only if there were a shortage of radios and I absolutely had to. If it came to that, I would set my radio to the channel with CSQ receive and still be able to hear the older radio. Just for the heck of it, I tested that older WLN with my old and slightly off frequency KG935G and my KGS88G. Interestingly enough, they could both hear the older WLN KD-C1 just fine, despite the fact that I have had PL/DPL weirdness with them both, in the past. I packed the KGS88G in case it was needed but it was never issued. For most of the day, all radios performed well and contributed to the smooth operation of the event. Near the end of the day, I was talking to my friend who had brought some of his radios to issue out. He was carrying his own KG935G. Another member of event staff on another KG935G called him on the radio. Both of us heard that transmission. When my friend answered on his KG935G, I could not hear him. He made a series of transmissions to the staff member and each time, I heard the staff member but not my friend. I switched to my recently added version of that channel with CSQ and continued hearing my friend. Leaving the event, using my mobile B-Tech (I think the 20V somethingorother) with DPL encode AND decode set, I could hear my friend just fine. There IS something effed up with these Wouxun KG series GMRS radios regarding their PL/DPL algorithm. Whatever it is, IS mostly intermittent which makes it all the harder to catch and diagnose. I wish people who experience this would come forward and share their experiences. I find it harder and harder to believe that I am just the poor unlucky SOB that BTWR has somehow managed to divert all specimens with this problem to. There is definitely something in their PL/DPL algorithm in need of modification or replacement.

Hi Guys! Sorry ot took me so long to get back to you. It has been a very hectic week for me. Every model of Wouxun ht I have owned has exhibited issues with its PL encode and/or decode algorithm. The worst were the KG905G's. I had two and, before I knew there was a problem, bought two more for some good friends. Some times, some frequencies, using some PL codes, they either failed to properly encode or decode using the same PL on the same frequency. You could try communicating simplex using certain tones and, depending on individual radios, the PL would not open on one or more of the radios in use when in literal line-of-sight with each other. I believe I experienced this with 250.3 and/ or 254.1. Frequencies and encode/decode tones were checked, double checked, and re-checked. The problem persisted. I have had this or similar issues with KG935G (which sounds to be about a KHz or more off-frequency transmitted and received), KG935G+, KG1000G+, and KGS88G radios, owned by myself and/or friends. For those of you who have never encountered these problems, I am sincerely glad for you. Maybe I received radios from lots from the days the people in the Chinese labor camps were not fed or watered well, or maybe not beaten severely enough, to produce the quality of product you guys enjoy. Just because your radios have worked well does not mean that others have not experienced problems as I describe. Some people have bought Dodge automobiles for decades and never had a problem. Others never had a Dodge that was anything but trouble. Ditto Fords, Chevys, and other brands. Me, I had three Hyundais in a row, starting in 2000, when the company began trying to pull its name out of the mud. I loved each one of them. They were very durable and reliable for me. Today, it would appear they are letting their quality slide back into the mud so I would be hesitant to buy another, but during the years I had three outstanding Hyundais, I had friends who had lots of trouble with theirs. Because my luck had been good, I did not dis-believe their tales of misfortune and trouble. I was just grateful that mine worked and served me well. My friends vowed never to buy another and I respected their choices. For those who have not had the PL issue with their Wouxuns, fantastic! I hope your good fortune continues. As for myself, having bought around $3K in KG series radios and accessories for myself and friends over the last few years, I likely won't be buying any in the near future. At least not until BTWR/ Wouxun acknowledges a problem with "some" of these radios and announces steps taken to correct them. How many of you who claim no problems use the PL encode and especially the decoder? How often do you use your Wouxuns? Daily, weekly, monthly, a couple of times a year? I use mine almost daily and frequently use PL even on simplex. OffRoaderX, with the literal dozens of different brands and models of GMRS radios you have at your disposal, how often do YOU use your KG-series radios? Doing a short video and playing with it two or three times before/after the video may not be enough to notice this problem. Ditto the many who comment on here about never turning on the decoders.

Hi OffRoaderX! Sorry I am slow getting back to you. I have a lot of things on my plate the next few days and will try and get back to you early next week with more detailed info. The short answer is Yes, I have had actual issues with these radios as I have noted before, either with my tone not opening the CTCSS decoder on another radio, or another radio or repeater, including Motorola repeaters, not opening my decoder. I appreciate your gallant need to challenge me anytime I mention this problem. No doubt, your valued sponsor appreciates your efforts to de-bunk me so that they can continue marketing what is a good platform overall, but with a seriously annoying flaw regarding their encoder/decoder algorithm for CTCSS. I'll try and get back with more in a few days.

Has anyone checked frequency accuracy/stability and PL tone frequency/stability? I have had issues with both on every model of KG Series GMRS radios that I have owned.

I suffer with hereditary diarrhea. It runs in my jeans.

An elderly lady phoned her telephone company to report that her telephone failed to ring when her friends called -- and that on the few occasions when it did ring, her pet dog always moaned right before the phone rang. The telephone repairman proceeded to the scene, curious to see this psychic dog or senile elderly lady. He climbed a nearby telephone pole, hooked in his test set, and dialed the subscriber's house. The phone didn't ring right away, but then the dog moaned loudly and the telephone began to ring. Climbing down from the pole, the telephone repairman found..... 1. The dog was tied to the telephone system's ground wire via a steel chain and collar. 2. The wire connection to the ground rod was loose. 3. The dog was receiving 90 volts of signaling current when the phone number was called. 4. After a couple of such jolts, the dog would start moaning and then urinate on himself and the ground. 5. The wet ground would complete the circuit, thus causing the phone to ring. .....Which goes to show that some problems CAN be fixed by pissing and moaning.

In the past, I have had good service from Larsen and Laird brand NMO hole mounts.