stockjock
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Posts posted by stockjock
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On 1/24/2022 at 5:49 PM, WRAM370 said:
If you don’t mind me asking...what is it you want or expect from GMRS ? And I don’t ask that to be a smart ass, I am honestly trying to learn what you are looking to get from GMRS. I don’t think your original question was answered, although there were a lot of helpful technical suggestions as to why you may not be receiving a signal on your radio. And the recent suggestion about getting an amateur radio license may be a valid suggestion for you depending upon your answers.
I think there is a perception that GMRS is an alternative to ham radio, and that it is preferable for some since there is no test required. But if you get a GMRS license, expecting ham radio-lite, you may be disappointed.
I understand GMRS has become a “thing”, and that is due to all the inexpensive Chinese radios that have saturated the market, and all the “reviews” of new GMRS radios by YouTube “influencers” (or “shills” as I call them...”some people”...”some people”) , and the threatened reduced licensing fee...
but what brought you to GMRS?
What did you expect to hear?
and how did you expect to use GMRS?
Perhaps the answer to these questions will actually help you define what you are looking for, and where to find it.
I expected to hear something other than silence for days on end. Not a big deal, as I don't have much skin in the game. But surprised that it's dead, in my area at least.
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6 hours ago, MichaelLAX said:
Get your Tech Ham License and come join the:
Plenty of coverage from Southern California and Las Vegas and a chatty and informative crowd!
Doubt I'll do that, but you never know. One thing is for sure, GMRS in my part of San Diego is pretty nearly dead.
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7 hours ago, MichaelLAX said:
I noticed another San Diego area GMRS user posted recently that he was hearing crickets!
In 48-72 hours, I typically hear zero conversations. Maybe someone keying for a sec, but that's about it.
Guess we're just not all that chatty. -
On 10/21/2021 at 12:01 PM, MichaelLAX said:
Plenty of activity here in the metropolitan Los Angeles area!
On 725: maybe too much!
Still dead in and around San Diego. Barely turn the thing on, as I was going full days without hearing a thing on any channel.
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Now that I've had GMRS set up for a bit, one thing I've noted is that it is really quiet.
I'm in the San Diego area and can hit a number of local repeaters, but it seems that there's basically close to zero activity on GMRS. It's not as if I have the need or time to do a lot of chatting, but I was surprised at just how quiet it is. I can scan channels for a day and hear essentially nothing, or close to it.
Is this pretty typical? -
Here's another question. I found some info on a repeater (not sure I can hit it) and it shows a DLP code of D245 (no letter after that code). When I program my radio, there is an option under DLP for D245N and D245I, but I don't see just D245. Anyone knows what the difference is or how to properly input their code/tone?
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33 minutes ago, stockjock said:
Appreciate the article. Cable was provided recently by Baofeng and shows in device manager as Prolific, but no yellow triangle. However, could not read from the radio.
Following instructions, downgraded driver to 3.2.0.0. with the same problem. Plug is pushed in fully and radio is in programming mode. Correct port selected (Com 3). Not sure what the issue is. Let me know if you have any thoughts or recommendations.
One more thing is that even though it was not reading with driver version 3.2.0.0., when I unplug the USB cable and plug it in again, it seems to revert to the newer 3.6.81.357, which also doesn't work.
The specific error I get on 3.2.0.0 is "please check all connections and communication port settings", but from what I can tell, they seem to be good.Disregard for now. The software can read from the radio. I was holding down transmit and the button under it while turning the radio on. Turns out I only needed to hold down the button under transmit.
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15 hours ago, MichaelLAX said:
For the USB cables, drivers are the problem.
Check out this article:Appreciate the article. Cable was provided recently by Baofeng and shows in device manager as Prolific, but no yellow triangle. However, could not read from the radio.
Following instructions, downgraded driver to 3.2.0.0. with the same problem. Plug is pushed in fully and radio is in programming mode. Correct port selected (Com 3). Not sure what the issue is. Let me know if you have any thoughts or recommendations.
One more thing is that even though it was not reading with driver version 3.2.0.0., when I unplug the USB cable and plug it in again, it seems to revert to the newer 3.6.81.357, which also doesn't work.
The specific error I get on 3.2.0.0 is "please check all connections and communication port settings", but from what I can tell, they seem to be good. -
8 minutes ago, MichaelLAX said:
For the USB cables, drivers are the problem.
Check out this article:Thanks. Chilling w/a glass of wine, so I'll check this out tomorrow.
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1 hour ago, MichaelLAX said:
If you’re willing to buy Parallels Desktop, I’d be willing to help set up Windows for you
Thanks! I have 2 Windows laptops. One (Dell) won't work, for whatever reason. I'm currently updating the other (Alienware), which I haven't used in ages, to see if it will work. But I probably will ultimately have a few questions...
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5 hours ago, MichaelLAX said:
I only have a Mac
i have used the emulation program Parallels with a copy of Windows XP for all of my codeplug programming adventures so far
what version of OS X do you have on your Mac? How much RAM?
I'm using a MacBook Air (current version) running Big Sur 11.5.2 with 8gb of RAM.
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10 hours ago, MichaelLAX said:
Now where do I program the extra Repeater channels in the Radioddity v2.06 CPS software?
It seems still blocked after Channel 30?
UPDATE: Ok, it's not blocked, I just had to go ahead and enter the new Channel 31 and go from there!
Terrific, Joe; thank you again!
And now I am connected to my rooftop antenna, too...
Looks like it doesn't work on Mac. Tried to open using an older Window computer, but not reading from the radio. Using a Baofeng programming cable. Only 1 communications port is not greyed out (COM3). Tried a different port which shows as COM4 and that cannot read from the radio either. Let me know if you can figure out what I'm missing, if anything. Getting the error "Please check all connections and communication port settings".
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16 hours ago, WyoJoe said:
As for the repeater output, there are sometimes codes used there, too. Your radio will receive transmissions from the repeater if it uses no code at all or the same code as the repeater output. If it uses a different code, then you will not receive the repeater's transmissions.
So just to be clear, if the repeater is transmitting a code, and you do not have a receive code set, you will hear that repeater and any other repeater on the same frequency. But if you have that receive code, you can use it to isolate the conversation to only the output from the repeater that you are interested in hearing. Is that correct?
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I mentioned that I received the Pofung P15UV, which seems to be identical, or nearly so, to the Radioddity GM-30 and the Tidradio TD-H5, so I thought I'd share the review. On a side note, I had ordered a Nagoya 771 antenna, but they sent me one with a SMA female rather than the SMA male ordered (and let me keep the Nagoya), so I instead ordered the Comet SMA-24 antenna, which seemed to work pretty well.
Here's the review, and of course I'm new to this, so let me know if you see any errors...
Reviewed in the United States on September 4, 2021
I am not new to radios and telecommunication, but I am fairly new to GMRS, having been recently licensed. For those unaware, a license is required to transmit on the GMRS (General Mobile Radio Service) bands with this radio. An outstanding resource is mygmrs (do a search) and I've found the folks there to be very helpful.
The radio is similar and nearly identical to the Radioddity GM-30. Not sure what the differences are, other than having slightly different key labelling. The basic menu, case and function appear to be identical.
This radio charges with a USB C cable, which is nice. A cradle-type charger is also provided, although there is only a standard USB connector on the other side of the cradle's cable, not an actual AC plug itself. That didn't pose a problem for me.
The unit can receive a great many frequencies, but it can only transmit on the 22 GMRS channels and the 8 additional GMRS repeater channels, so 30 channels in total. Output is typically at or near 5 watts, although channels 8-14 are shared with FRS and in accordance with FCC rules, the power is limited to low or 0.5 watts on those channels only. I did see that one person couldn't switch from low to high, and not sure if his radio is defective or not, but on those channels only you can only transmit on the lower power due to said power limitations. So to my knowledge, you cannot manually override the low power setting on channels 8-14.
The volume output is less than my Baofeng, but still just fine for my purposes. Battery life is good, although some radios have higher-capacity batteries included. Display is pretty easy to read, although I wish there was a way to dim the display. It's either really bright, or off. All channels were set to narrow band, and in my view, you'll want to set them to wide band. The owner's manual will tell you how to adjust the settings and it is written in surprisingly good English.
The antenna provides very good range and I was able to hit quite a few repeaters once I figured out how to do that. There is a learning curve, but it's not rocket science. Still, there may be fewer repeaters than you might expect, and many of them are private and require permission to use. Speaking of the antenna, unlike most of the Baofeng radios, which need an SMA-Female antenna connector, this one requires an SMA-Male antenna connector and yes the antenna can be changed. There is a tiny hex screw at the base of the antenna, so once you loosen that, you can easily unscrew the antenna if you have the need to. Not sure if that's allowable or not, so I won't comment on that aspect, other than to say that it's easily possible.
Nitpicks? Not many. The squelch isn't very effective. I already told you I'd prefer a dimming option for the display. I wish the USB C port was on the side or back of the radio rather than on the bottom, as you cannot keep the radio upright while charging with USB C (but that is not an issue if charging with the cradle). I'd also like to see it waterproof or water-resistant (it isn't). And a higher capacity battery would be groovy. I would also like to see an ability to store more than one CTCSS code per channel, as is possible on some other radios. To my knowledge (correct me if I am wrong) you are limited to one per CTCSS code per channel in memory. Sometimes/often multiple repeaters operate on the same repeater channels, but they'll usually use different CTCSS access codes, so with this one (and most others), you have to manually change the code each time, which is inconvenient.
But for this price, there really isn't much room for complaint. I like the radio a lot, actually. And despite a few nitpicks here and there, it's a 5 star radio at this price, in my view. It works great, feels good in my hand and seems well-built. Still, there is room for improvement, so hopefully the manufacturer will incorporate some of my suggestions into future revisions. -
1 hour ago, DDinMCMI said:
It's my understanding (any I may be wrong) that you don't need a CTCSS tone just to monitor a repeater. As long as you have CTCSS RX disabled on the radio, you should be able to hear traffic regardless of the repeater's CTCSS TX tone. The radio should de-squelch the transmissions because it's not listening for any particular tone.
I discovered this playing around with a pair of our FRS handhelds. I picked a mutual channel and set a CTCSS TX/RX code on one radio while leaving CTCSS disabled on the other. The CTCSS-disabled radio de-squelched the transmission from the CTCSS-enabled radio when I keyed up. I then keyed up the CTCSS-disabled radio and that transmission was squelched on the radio with the tone enabled. CTCSS squelches when the transmit tone doesn't match the tone the receiver is listening for. A radio with CTCSS RX disabled doesn't care if there's a tone or not. It lets everything through.
On the flip side, any radio set to receive a CTCSS tone (like a repeater) has to hear that particular tone before it will de-squelch. If your radio isn't set to transmit the CTCSS tone the repeater is programmed to receive, it will ignore you.
Since we're new at this, hopefully the more experienced will forgive our inexperience.
But that said, I think those tones are basically privacy tones that don't offer actual privacy (conversations can be heard by everyone), but block out others not transmitting the tones on simplex for the listeners that have them enabled. And also those tones are required to access many repeaters, which are activated by the tone, ingest the weaker conversation on 467.whatever and rebroadcast it on 462.whatever usually without privacy tones. There's a bit of a learning curve, but starting to get the hang of it (I think). -
Just to follow-up to my original question, MichaelLAX drove down to my area of San Diego from Los Angeles to find some repeaters, which was way above and beyond the call of duty, so thanks to him for that. Now, I think I know how to do it on my own. We did find a repeater to use and no one kicked us off, so I suppose if I use it I'll ask permission and let them make the decision.
In San Diego, I think there are 3 repeaters officially listed in myGMRS and 1 mentioned in the footnotes of one of those listings. I cannot reach 2 of the 4 repeaters and I did ask permission on the other 2, but didn't receive a reply. Found a new one tonight, but was told it was a paid, private repeater used in fire support, so I will stay off of that one. But the owner did send me a nice e-mail message.
At least I now know how to find and use a repeater, so thanks for the help. I might not be able to use too many of them, but perhaps a few options will open up for use. -
I think it's an interesting medium with a low bar to entry. I actually wouldn't mind if they kept the $70 fee in place to keep too many from signing up. Many years ago, I used a CB radio and watched as it went fully to hell due to it's popularity and low barriers to entry. Hopefully that won't happen with GMRS, but with CB, one could bounce skip signals across the country, and fortunately that won't happen with GMRS.
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34 minutes ago, MichaelLAX said:
Thumbs up!
Success!!
Once again, thanks for the help!
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On the phone, but let me try to multitask...
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1 hour ago, MichaelLAX said:
I’m hete! Charging my EV and having lunch at Rice Chicken!
I hate to see you go out of your way. Just heard a guy on the repeater. Was that you?
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4 hours ago, MichaelLAX said:
Great news: I just used your link to buy one <$30 with sales tax and free shipping to be here September 8th!
Any success yet hitting your local repeaters? I may need to take a drive down in my EV and help out!
No luck so far. I'm hearing some activity on Repeater 2, but not hitting the repeater. Been trying to scan for the code, but not sure if it matters whether to search for DCS or CTCSS.
What if you use a repeater without permission? As mentioned, I requested permission from I think 3 repeaters (not sure I can even reach them), but no one replied.
Hopefully you will enjoy the new radio. I'm not that experienced, but it seems like a good unit for the money. -
14 minutes ago, MichaelLAX said:
One last question: is the ducky antenna removable so that I can connect it to my rooftop Comet?
The antenna unscrews once you loosen the small hex nut. I believe the antenna should have an SMA male connector, but I'm not an expert. That's what I ordered at least.
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1 hour ago, MichaelLAX said:
Stockjock: Is it the same on the P15-UV?
Yes.
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The way they brand some of these radios cracks me up. My radio is a Pofung P15UV which is supposedly a brand of Kitoops which I think is owned by Baofeng, which is sold by Hi Radio, which is owned by Quanzhou Nanshoumaoyiyouxiangongsi (how's that for a mouthful?), which is probably also owned by Baofeng, but who knows?
Repeater question
in Technical Discussion
Posted
I can hit several repeaters in my area (north east San Diego city), but they are extraordinarily quiet.