Raybestos

Thank You for your help and for all you do for us, Rich!

Hi Steve. I have not heard from Rich. I have always understood that he is a very busy man, therefore I don't mind waiting another day or two in case he hasn't had a chance to work on it. If it is still a problem in another day or two, I will contact him again.

Thank You, Steve; but I wouldn't have been able to contact Rich if not for your help. It is back at the moment, so I am guessing it intermittently comes and goes. I thought that was an awful quick remedy. I have confidence that it will be fixed in due time.

Steve, I just checked and the problem is gone, for now. It hasn't been long since I contacted Rich and sent him a couple of screen shots. Not sure if he fixed it that quick or not, but it is good at the moment. Thank You for all the help!

Galaxy S22 Ultra with Chrome browser.

I just tried that but it didn't help on my device. It went away yesterday for a while but has since returned. I guess I will contact Rich. Thanks for the suggestion! It may help someone with a similar device to yours!

This happened a year or two ago and is back, today. On the repeater page, I can only view about seven repeaters in the list. After that, the lower half, third, or whatever of the page is covered by an ad, making viewing of anything beyond the topmost seven repeaters impossible. Steve Shannon, you are often incredibly helpful in remedying these issues. Just to clarify, I am not complaining that there is an ad. I totally understand that ads are necessary to the operation of this site, especially for us freeloaders. The problem is that the ad is so large it obscures the repeater list and the ability to view it. I think we had a misunderstanding about that, the last time. I do not recall how it was remedied the last time and to be honest, have forgotten the procedure for notifying Rich of these issues. Thank You!

I tend to concur. Especially given that at least one brand (in my experience) of popular GMRS transceivers have faulty design decoders which may or may not open up when a proper PL/DPL tone is applied to them. That said, there are unfortunately many areas in the country where intermod, static, computer noise, noise from car electronics, and other garbage will keep a carrier squelch open, or repeatedly open it. This can be like Chinese water torture to the brain and ears. For this reason, I set channels 1 thru 30 on every radio I have to encode only, a 141.3 Hz tone. It can enhance greatly, your chances of getting through to someone on channels 15 thru 30, and slightly on channels 1 thru 14.

So far, only one on "Not A Rubicon's" YouTube channel, according to him. I thought I had seen more in the past but maybe not. Thank You for coming forward with this information! Every KG-series GMRS radio I have, and a few owned by friends, have exhibited this problem at one time or another. I was starting to feel gaslighted on this issue as so many said they have never experienced this problem. I believe the lack of complaints from others may be because many do not use their PL/DPL squelch and/or do not use their radios regularly enough to notice. I cannot believe that I personally, have been a magnet for the faulty Wouxun KG-series GMRS radios and that they all somehow wound up in my hands or the hands of close friends of mine.

Interesting! The friend I had that conversation with had purchased a 7900 about a year ago on the advice of another friend who likewise had great praise for the 7900 antenna. He said it worked well on 462 MHz GMRS, but had high SWR (I believe 3.0 or higher) on the 467 MHz inputs.

Talking with a friend the other day, it occurred to me that there is probably a sizable market for a mobile antenna (NMO mount) that would deliver good SWR and radiation/gain on 2m and 440 ham, as well as 462/467 GMRS frequencies. I know personally of quite a few people who would gladly purchase such an antenna if it were made available. Yeah, I know you are not supposed to run GMRS on ham radios but the fact of the matter is that a LOT of people do and having one antenna that does it all would be a big thing for those people. Also, AFAIK, there would be no FCC repercussions for designing and marketing an antenna with that capability. I wish I had the money to invest in such a venture as it likely would be successful, provided the antenna was efficient and durable. What sayeth you; Larsen, MelloWave, and others?

Cool line from an MTV interval commercial in the early 80's.

A popular 2m repeater in my area developed a problem similar to what you describe, some years ago. It was on a tower that switched from the winking incandescent tower lights to strobes. At about 1-2 second intervals, there would be a static crash as the power supply discharged into the lights, causing them to flash. It was a royal PITA. Stations that were close to the repeater, or otherwise very strong, had little to no interference from the strobes. Farther or weaker stations (such as a ht) were impacted more by the static. One clue that it might be tower illumination you are hearing, is if you only hear it after dark. During the day, it was non-existent. It was such a problem, the antenna was moved to a lower spot on the tower. The static is still there after dark, but not nearly as bad. Of course, range of that repeater has been negatively affected by the lower pisition of its antenna on the tower. I hope this helps.

At first, I thought it might be encode and decode. After additional observation it appears to be mostly or all an issue with the CTCSS/DCS decoder. I have had this problem when receiving other Wouxuns, Motorolas, WLN's, Baofengs, etc, with noted Wouxun radios.

I have purchased no less than four KG-905's, for myself and others. Of all the Wouxun KG-series radios I have owned or used, they were the very worst with regard to PL decoder issues I have experienced, whereby the CTCSS/DCS decoder will sporadically fail to open for another base, mobile, ht, or repeater, that transmits the same tone as the decoder is set for. FWIW, I have experienced this issue with every single Wouxun KG-series radio I have owned or used. The list includes the 905G, 935G, 935G+, S88G, and 1000G. Many will swear they have never experienced this problem with their Wouxuns and that may be. Reasons they may not have experienced it might include not using the PL/DPL decoder often, not using the radios much or often, or perhaps they were really lucky in getting a good radio. I find it difficult to believe that all of the radios with the decoder issue have wound up exclusively in my possession.As this has been an intermittent issue for me across a number of frequencies, PL's and DPL's, and brands of radios received, it is very difficult to diagnose. I love the basic Wouxun platform and channel layout, which allows for use of all thirty GMRS channels PLUS being able to program a variety of simplex and repeater channels to your liking, using differing PL/DPL tones; but the decoder issue has become a deal killer for me. I will not be buying any more Wouxuns unless and until they acknowledge the issue and fix or change the decoder algorithm to eliminate this issue.