Shriekmau

Very nice! Sorry I haven't been checking in, been sick all weekend. Leave it to me to get sick on my long weekend! At least it wasn't while I was on vacation.

Yep, with narrowbanding in place this should not be an issue. I foresee narrowbanding occurring again in the future. As receivers and transmitters get more precise and their selectivity gets better, we will see even smaller steps. The side effect to this will be increasingly more expensive equipment. There will be a surplus of obsolete equipment and high demand for the newer, so the prices will of course go up.

This is awesome!

Glad I could be of assistance . My better half and I received confirmation from our respective places of employment for vacation approval. The dates are in stone at this point. We will depart NW FL the morning of the 14th and should arrive around 10 hours later. We will be making our way home on the 21st or 22nd.

Wow, that is disgusting!

Hmm, who is "she"? I am guessing a neighbor who will complain? But I bet she is the first one to cry when a hurricane hits and she can't call for emergencies.

I tried doing that and when I tried to change to other band it stopped scanning on the first band. So both bands turned on, scanning in VHF as primary, hit the BAND button to switch to other band, when I did it stopped scanning on Primary and didn't even switch to secondary. Tried this with the VFO button as well, in channel mode and VFO mode. Mine does not seem to have the same functionality as yours. The fact they sent the 920P and not the 920P-A finally got to me so I RMA'd the new 920P.

The two sides do operate independently of each other but only under the following conditions: Neither side can be scanning, it prevents listening on the non-scanning side since the receiver is constantly changing to another frequency This sounds weird I know, and I have not found a reason for it other than the OS just can't handle it One side must be on UHF and the other on VHF The radio can not play audio from two different frequencies in the same band I routinely listen to a GMRS repeater on one side and the local ARC repeater on the other, I only broadcast on the GMRS side since I don't have my HAM ticket yet

The box will not indicate the difference. When you power up the unit it will display the model and the label on the unit should reflect the model. The difference is the A variant is 2.5k step (narrowbanding) compliant and has a bit newer firmware. There are a couple extra features on the A variant, as well as being officially licensed by the FCC for both part 90 and I believe 95.

So the new mobile for my home base came in Friday. After opening the box and looking at the unit I noticed they sent a KG-UV920P, not the KG-UV920P-A. I decided to give it a go anyway, so I downloaded the other software, set up the new config file, hooked it all up and turned it on... Only it didn't come on. Time for troubleshooting: so I unplugged everything, plugged it all back in, turned on the AC converter and heard the familiar sound of the radio receiving power (the radio speaker makes a quiet "pop" when power is applied). I thought "Oh goodie, in my excitement I must have done something wrong". I used the radio for several hours and everything went well, powered it all down and went to bed. The next day I came in and turned on my AC converter but noticed the radio didn't make the "pop" I am used to with my other unit and the same noise this unit made the night before. Hit the power, nothing. Again, powered it all down and tried it all again, but no dice. At this point I figured I had a dud considering my AC converter was making its usual quiet hum. Refusing to admit defeat, I took the radio out to my car and connected the lead to my radio. Low and behold I hear the "pop"! I took it inside, powered up the converter and nothing! Finally I took out the good ol' volt meter and checked the power supply and there it is. VDC is showing 0.93 volts, DCA is showing 0.00. Wonderful, my Astron RS-20A bit the dust. I looked up the serial number to find this unit is 17yrs old (purchased off ebay). The previous owner has had it hooked up and running almost non-stop for the past 15 years. I ordered a new Astron SS-30M from DXengineering over the weekend. Hopefully it will be here in a week or so. I am hoping this resolves my issues.

Those are good antennas and I actually looked at that one. I ended up going with a recommendation by Pastor Gary. He recommended this one: http://www.tessco.com/products/displayProductInfo.do?sku=18168&eventGroup=4&eventPage=1 I ended up ordering it off Amazon for $59.43. Since this is my everyday driver and I might sell it down the road I used a magnetic mount.

I was too. I really like mine. They seem to work really well.

I like it so much that I RMA'd the TH-9000 and ordered another Wouxun

So I mounted my Wouxun kg-uv920P-A in my car with the ability to hot swap it out and take it into the house to use as a base station. Unfortunately my inner sloth got the better of me (I got lazy) and I ordered a new mobile to keep in the house. So I picked up the TYT TH-9000 UHF model for $160.00. My initial thoughts: The manual is worse than Wouxun or Baofeng, there are instructions for features where the process does not produce the described result The user interface is just as bad, except the LCD does not display certain letters very well so it leaves you to guess at what it's trying to say The software is a bit better, allowing you to get an idea of the settings but you still need to keep the Engrish manual nearby to get a description of some of the features since they do not match the same naming convention as a lot of other radios The head unit is built extremely well, like a tank even, and it is fairly compact The mic feels a bit cheap and the functions on the mic are easier to perform from the head unit The "P" buttons (P1-P5) have different functions, they are not labeled, and their functionality can be customized from the computer softwareNow on to the functionality: The transmit power is nice, not many mobile units I have seen provide more than 40W so with 45W this radio is rather unique Once you figure out the interface (still keeping the manual handy) you can navigate the settings fairly easily The backlighting is bright, and I mean bright, but it can be turned down and comes in 3 colors: blue (too blue, hard to read), orange, and purple (weird right? but it is probably the easiest to read) Transmitting on this unit is nice, I was able to pick up the signal on my mobile crystal clear at 4.7 miles away The receive is where the real problem comes in (for me): There are documented reports of the squelch not behaving correctly when not using CTC or DCS (DPL) codes, it appears even on the lowest setting it is cutting out signals the have even the slightest chop or static The recommendation is to set a CTC or DCS for your channels and turn the squelch off, the radio has a setting to listen only to transmissions with these codes and cut out the carrier so you don't get the constant static noise This seems to work great and my mobile unit comes through just fine, but without doing this little trick my Wouxun mobile has static from just 1.7 miles away From the same locations I can transmit on my Wouxun KG-UV6D HT to the Wouxun mobile at my house and hear less static on the mobile at the house than when I use my Wouxun mobile to the TYT at the house The receive does not seem to be as sensitive as others I have used There is a repeater 31 miles away that I can hit with my Wouxun mobile and hear others on it, when I attempt to key up the repeater with the TYT I can not hear anything back I have checked the offset and CTC codes, and they match, I also programmed the Wouxun for the reverse of the same channel so they could talk simplex on the repeater channels and could confirm the Wouxun was communicating with the TYT For me, this unit doesn't meet my needs. Since I live in an area where there are few repeaters in range, I am constantly scanning GMRS frequencies with open CTC and DCS codes. With this unit I either must listen to the constant static or not be able to scan properly. For someone who primarily uses the same channels with the same CTC or DCS codes this unit would work great and at a great price! The product quality seems to be very good and it has nice features. I would recommend getting the programming cable (mine came with one) and software (free to download from TYT) as the UI is rather confusing and the manual is little help. Overall I would rate this unit a 3.5 out of 5 (mainly due to the squelch issues).

Oh wow! Wish I had access to terrain like that!

Thanks Gary, I checked out that chart and compared to my experience that chart is VERY modest. My antenna base is approximately 15ft off the ground, my antenna is 8.9ft in length, putting the tip of the antenna at 24ft and the most effective radiating portion of the radome at 19.5ft. I am using a 40W transmitter, 50' of LMR400, and my antenna is a 7dBd or 9dBi gain vertically polarized omni. By my calculations, my ERP is ~140W. This is taking into account the 7dBd antenna, line loss of 3.1dB per 100' of LMR400 (I'm at 50', so 1.55dB), for a total wattage loss of 12.01 and wattage output to antenna of 27.99. By this chart I should have about 17 miles of transmit distance (and by my calculations a citation from the FCC), but I am hitting a repeater 31 miles away pretty regularly. The receiving end is about 110ft off the ground though, so that might be helping. After doing my calculations I am a little worried about my output. My license only allows for a maximum ERP of 50W. Did I mess up on my calculations? I used a couple ERP calculators online to check my work and it appears to be accurate... I used: http://www.ctspectrum.com/home/node/25 for the ERP and http://www.timesmicrowave.com/calculator/?productId=52&frequency=460&runLength=100&mode=calculate#form for the line loss. I checked the first site against http://www.antennas.ca/calc_ERP.htm which was even more gracious with the ERP, putting me at 146W. Should I be worried?

If GMRS goes the way of CB I will most likely stop using it. The whole reason I chose GMRS was because of the regulations and structure. This is also the reason I am getting my HAM cert. Ultimately most users will not use GMRS even if it does go unlicensed. The HF band provides much better distance, and for most that is the allure of radio. Most just want a way to talk to someone without relying on a cell phone. Self-sustainable telecommunications, no provider needed, plug it in and talk to someone. Since GMRS is easily impacted by obstructions and terrain (more so than the lower bands), it will be less enticing to more novice users. You will still have the "Bubble-Pack Bandits" but they will not have the range or knowledge (for the most part) to get past the CTC or DCS codes. I think GMRS will remain relatively friendly to the core on which it was built: short range communications. The ignorant people will remain on CB so they can have their whip antenna on their jacked up 4x4 (no disrespect to anyone, I'm a "Good ol' Boy" myself).

I tried out the MURS channels with my HT set for low power (1W). The MURS frequencies on 1W could penetrate better and farther than GMRS on 4W. I badly want to drop down into the VHF range with a decent power now. I think I will take my HAM Technician test next month so I can start playing with the 2M band. I will keep my GMRS current and continue using it with my wife, but seeing what the lower bands can do has given me the itch.

It's not false advertising if they can substantiate their claim on the distance. Think about this, how far would they go on the water? The packaging also states "up to", which gives them wiggle room. As to the licensing, they can be used without a license on the FRS channels, but you have to read the documentation to know that. So I agree there is a shady side to that.

Welcome to the forums! The Baofeng are good inexpensive units. Wouxun would be a step up from those and rival the big three. Welcome to GMRS!

Holy cow!

From what I can tell based on the information found on fcc.gov, GMRS equipment can operate on the FRS channels but if it has a removable antenna and an ERP greater than 500mW then the user must have a GMRS license. GMRS equipment may operate on FRS only channels as long as their Tx does not exceed 500mW without a license and not more the 5W with a license. The description of the two services has become muddled together.

HAHA, thats awesome!

I agree with Logan, your GMRS license extends to cover your children. Make sure they know your callsign and all is well. This would allow for farther transmission as well since those HTs can get some decent range. If you are getting 1.5 to 2 miles off 0.5W FRS I imagine you could get 3 or maybe even 4 off a 4W GMRS HT!