PACNWComms

Interesting piece, and glad that "prepping" is becoming more mainstream with the population, at least according to this 60 Minutes segment. The whole Doomsday Preppers show seemed to go for the oddball types to make this seem for fringe than reality (of course). However, I tend to go with what the local community Emergency Response Team (CERT) recommends radio wise, begin with a cheap FRS/GMRs radio instead of a Baofeng, unless you like to fiddle with USB drivers and program radios via computer, which also requires computer skills. My own neighbors were able to figure out Motorola TalkAbout series radios, tune on and place onto the same channel, then push the side button to talk. A Baofeng with a full keypad would have been too much for many of them. These are "Walkie Talkies" to them, and many non-radio geeks. Keep it simple. To OP, thank you for sharing, it is always great to see this prepping situation becoming more normal. the government at every level may not be there to help, and people need to take some personal responsibility in life.

Also found this brochure for those interested. Looks like the DTR 550/650's with a shorter antenna for the 2.4 GHz band. Other features look the same as other DTR series radios, private calls, one to many calls, messaging. Could be useful for some users, barring the line of site issues mentioned in the video. The DTR series radios I have put into place mostly went into schools for campus wide use. The requirements were for unlicensed spectrum radio equipment that would cover about a mile wide campus, and radios that could not be heard with a cheap Radio Shack scanner, as there were concerns about stalkers and people monitoring children getting hurt on the playground, kids wandering off, and just general snooping taking place. If you can set your own hopset like the other DTR series, this can be a very secure method for short range comms. dtr2430_dtr2450 Brochure.pdf

If you mean the Motorola DTR2450 handhelds, I have not used these, but have supported many 900 MHz versions in this series of Motorola portables. The DTR410/550/650's in 900 MHz are great. 2.4 GHz may benefit some users, but I tend to stay away from 2.4 GHz myself as I do not wish to raise the WiFi noise floor in my area, and the 900 MHz radios work. Perhaps as they break, they will get replaced with DTR2450's in time? Here is a video I found online; I do not take credit for any of this video.

Great antennas.....have used these and similar variants for years on fleet vehicles for commercial and public safety users. This version of coil also does not get caught in car wash brushes or cloth flaps (we tell end users to hand wash the cars but they do not listen) as often as the exposed coil version too. Some have lasted so long that they only fail (after years of use) when the center conductor spring has corroded into pieces, breaking the connection between the antenna and NMO mount. This is in a very wet environment, the Pacific Northwest, so everything gets wet over time. As for the 12 miles, you should try again as they do tend to get a bit further out, depending on what you are talking into (in my case it is a UHF repeater network, so 12-16 miles is common with a GMRS mobile.

Could be useful on small vessel or personal watercraft (or some people car's where they can't seem to keep from spilling drinks etc. [kids/elderly]). I had an incident a few years back when one jetski in my group needed to be towed by a larger vessel and this would have been a great use case for a radio like this, as many people on shore had FRS/GMRS radios in use. The jet ski was a rental and did not even have a handheld Marine VHF tucked with its "survival kit" that consisted of a few band aids, and the phone number of the rental company.

I clicked on this as I had no clue what a Motorola XTS4000 was, only XTS1500/2500/3000/5000 LMR's, so this was interesting for me. Attaching this link, as you may be able to get parts, battery/belt clip through a Motorola vendor that may have "new old stock" or more information on a belt clip. https://www.ebay.com/itm/151191959689

Brings back some memories, had a few of these myself. As well as the Uniden handhelds. I found out that the base station units had been donated away, as the wife thought they were old cordless phone bases. But, still have many of the simple Uniden handheld radios. Two digit display and rubberized case that was larger than comparable TalkAbout series Motorola radios at the time, meant easier to hold. When used with these Audiovox base units, spread across the farm, they worked great for a couple of miles, or until the Uniden batteries got low. Base to base was great though, and they were left on all the time between outbuildings and sheds. Wish these were still available, or something like them. AC powered, big buttons, and decent size display. Was easy to teach others that they were a "wireless intercom" rather than a "radio" at times.

I ended up with a GM-30 as part of a package deal with a mobile VHF/UHF radio, and am actually pretty amazed at the abuse it will take. I am in the Pacific Northwest and have had that GM-30 get rain and moisture all over it, and it has held up well. The case has taken a few knocks too. I bet yours does just as well, and having a radio is the first step in using radios (hobby or pro). There are many I know that get a license and then never get a radio, they just wanted the piece of paper to put on the wall.

Snarky answer is "yes"....as members of my former employer, that responds to hurricanes, floods, and oil spills needed a distant end to test their equipment. I spent some time on a Kenwood FT-920 HF transceiver, 500 Watt amp and beam antenna acting as their distant end. They were using WSPR to check HF propagation, some were located in Florida, while others were in the surrounding area. Most took satcom gear, but one did take his portable GMRS radio and hotspot, setting up in the hotel as he made his way from Houston Texas, to Miami, Florida. It was through him that I found out that a former co-worker of ours working out of Miami had quit a week earlier, leaving that site without a radio technician.

Good to know. I support one VXR-7000 repeater located in a remote area, where the fan is the only thing keeping the mold and ants from invading the chassis. It has chugged along for about seven years now, and is still going strong. But that fan and environment always worries me. Location is on tribal land and the tribe does not want to spend money on the building, which makes me wonder if they would spend that on the repeater when it fails. Luckily, VXR-7000's are pretty tough devices.

Another tool in the toolbox....I know many AUXComm/Emcomm/support elements that assist government agencies and private industry at all levels that have thought about bringing GMRS into the fold. Right now HF is big with the push for DHS SHARES, a program to link sites across the country via HF and data over these links during large disaster situations. GMRS is also on the table, but the first step now is still to get workers back into the office. My employer has 54 cities linked via radio across the nation (Motorola Astro/Trbo and analog conventional, Kenwood NXDN sites, and HF Radio over Internet Protocol), but if there were a real incident, it would still be only the few that are already at work and near one of the radio stations. Covid proved that, and I and my crew were in the office every workday as the federal government considered our public safey and fire interop with 9-1-1 Public Safety Answering Points to be critical. That was the reason I went and purchased a GMRS call sign and joined this site, so the station in my building would then be able to also use GMRS. As other have said, government GMRS is most likely through a user that ends up as the conduit for the service, and may bring their own gear, or have some provided. In my own use case, what this meant was for one person at each site to get licensed for GMRS, DHS Shares registered, AFMARS license, amateur licenses, FEMA ICS trained, and anything else to make it realistic to have these government affiliations. Then each station made sure to separate the commercial company comms and the interop radios. It is a little odd to see GTR8000 repeaters racked in a corner, and high end Motorola and Harris radios on a bench, and then go to the other end and see Yaesu, Icom, Kenwood, and SGC tuning equipment for the amateur side in a support role.

I have an old Motorola Spectra repeater kit that I used for when out and about. Subscriber units can be whatever one brings though, shown here with my Motorola XPR7550e and Anytone "878" as examples. This along with a tripod, a couple of deep cycle marine batteries on an RV tray (let's you connect two batteries in an easier to move sled type of configuration, and a dipole antenna 20 feet in the air gets signals out well enough. I also have an old GR300 desktop repeater that had Motorola GM120 radios in it initially, after putting XPR4550 mobile Trbo TDMA radios in it, I now have narrowband and two slot TDMA possibilities in a portable package. Lots of possibilities when it comes to portable comms.

I made my own spark gap transmitter as a kid.....it knocked out television and radio and this made my father hunt me down and paddle my backside. There were sparks flying from my metal "gap" pieces all the way to the ceiling, scorching that ceiling a bit. From then on, I was restricted from using ignition coils for "experiments"....but then ended up with a crystal AM radio receiver kit i was encouraged to solder together. Now, I have an amateur ticket, GMRS license (hence being here), commercial licenses, and a soldering iron. I spent some of this weekend repairing a 1944 R-100/URR receiver, that needed recapped.

Bought the DB-20G mobile with a GM-30 handheld combo.....that GM-30 is the one wish I had not spent money on. It is a decent radio, but already having considerably better radios, to include those also made in China (Anyton 878) as well as Motorola, Harris, and other radios made in the United States (some Motorola is still made in Chicago, as is Harris), that GM-30 is a little too basic for my likes. I gave it away to a neighbor that wanted to get into GMRS, and seems to like it a lot. So, all was not lost. My issue with it was that it was only UHF, just did not fit my larger hands well, and had very tinny audio. Neighbor uses it, but has also bought nicer and more expensive radios since.

I would caution the OP and anyone else on the Harris XG-100P radio for hobby use. While multi-band, there is very limited support for this discontinued model. Getting the Radio Programming Manager software, parts, and accessories can be an issue. Cool factor wise, you can't beat it by much, unless you have a full blown military AN/PRC-152 though. They are available for about $1000-1200 on the auction sites, but getting that software to program one radio is not worth the effort in my case. (I have RPM12 for one Harris XG-100P bought as a demo unit). +1 on those mentioning the Anytone 878 series, that is a lot of radio fort he buck, as long as it is known to be a much cheaper alternative than a Motorola (or Harris) or any other commercial radio. My own 878 is the Anytone AT-D878UV Plus with GPS and Bluetooth. It does not have some of the more recent features that have been added to newer models, mine having the blue button on top. $2500 can get a lot of radios, or one really good one, if you can find someone trying to offload an APX8000 radio for that price. Good luck OP in your search.

I added another camera where it could be easily seen by delivery people. That gets me better service, less thrown items at the porch area, and lots of hand waves and smiles at the camera. Sometimes I talk back and say "thank you" so they do not know if I am there or not, but re-enforces the "someone is watching" process. At least amazon did give you the refund, and having this evidence is great. I had an issue in the past with "signature required" items, sometimes high end radio gear or test equipment being left without even a knock on the door. Luckily, none of it "walked" away, but it was frustrating. Which kind of frequency counter was it? Looking for a fluorescent display multi-meter and frequency counter (two separate devices) myself, to go easy on the eyes. Fluke 45 may be on the shopping list multi-meter wise, but still looking into a bench top frequency counter. Have an old HP that is falling apart now.

I am on the fence for more or less GMRS repeaters being needed. There are only a few GMRS repeaters in my area, and more amateur repeaters still....but none of them get much use. I throw out a call sign and get a response back at times. When I hear people (rarely) I respond with a radio check. When speaking in person with the repeater owner or administrator, many just "monitor" and never respond back to anyone. Maybe it is a hobby in this area, and I own a Motorola Spectra based portable repeater, which I only put up for my own family use. But, for others there is the bragging rights of being a repeater owner, administrator, or adding another radio service notch to their resume. It varies for all involved on what motivates them. So, more or less, my own opinion is to work within the rules and have some fun. For some, it may be a hobby, for others it may help a business or organization. I tailor my own radio usage for what I am doing, VHF for short range (MURS), GMRS for family use when I am in areas known to not be saturated with UHF (which is hard as many public safety and interop systems are UHF based in my region), and 900 MHz FHSS Motorola DTR radios when I do not want to hear anybody else, but stay within about a mile of other users. Money is often an issue, but then I see many that spend a lot more money on consumer grade hardware, when used commercial gear would serve them better. Or, recommendations on higher end gear, but cost considerations leave out software, special programming cables, or computer operating system upgrades (which all add to overall cost). I may use some of my older Motorola GR300 repeaters, with hardware radio upgrades (replace the Radius based radios) XPR4550 mobiles, as future GMRs repeaters (I know the "radio police" will flame me for that part). It would be nice to see more repeaters in the Pacific Northwest, to include GMRS, but with what is available and under used, it just becomes an ego boost to add more in this area. Getting more people to communicate and respond on local repeaters would be even better. Throw out a call sign and respond to someone who is....that will get more people on the air in some way, shape, or fashion.

I have stock in Garmin, and own way too many devices, to include several Rino series GPS/radios. Good concept and at some point I will probably break down and get one of these. I used to use a Motorola MW800 mobile data terminal with Maxtrac data radio, GPS, and Streetview USA. It was a very cobbled together mess that weighed about twenty pounds, another twenty with the MobileView camera and VHS recorder, but did well for showing my off road adventures. All taken from police and fire vehicles. Now, Garmin bundles this together at a tenth of the cost, with streamlined capabilities, twenty years after the public safety version. Thank you OP for sharing.

There is a "Range Extender" version and then another standalone repeater available for the DTR series Motorola radios. https://www.twowayradio.com/motorola-dtr-range-extender.html The standalone is the CW-DRX1020 repeater. There used to be a third company making these, back a decade or so when the DTR series first came out, none were Motorola, but the first one I used looked like a MotoBridge system. It required a "donor" DTR series radio and could only extend a specific TalkGroup, so one repeater per TalkGroup. Not very cost efficient of an option, and the DTR410/550/650 were only one watt output, so the range expectations were not very far to begin with. I still have several schools using DTR series radios a decade after implementation, no repeater needed for a campus about half a mile across. Some large warehouses had the repeaters, but may not be using the radios as they complained about not being able to get "cell phone" batteries any longer. I told them to buy BL-5C batteries, as they said range was less due to poor battery performance. So, I know of three repeaters that worked with the Motorola 900 MHz ISM band FHSS radios. With two still being available. Might be useful for those using the DTR series, not sure about newer version DPL, etc. though, have no experience using those.

I get a kick out of this as well, as a quick Google search gets a lot more than many people realize. I had a guy in a fishing forum mention that the "blackout" headlight on his truck was on his "bugout rig" and that he could not say more due to OPSEC (Operational Security) reasons. A quick Google search showed this guy used the same screen name for other forums, and in one included a picture of his Texas Fish and Wildlife pickup truck, with the military style blackout light on the brush guard. It was his issued work vehicle, not personal. Similar searches in radio forums result in similar results. In another radio site forum, a member posted many APX series radios, claiming they were for personal use (all 7/800 MHz). Well others then called him out, as they showed county names on the screens, and people found out whom it was and mentioned to the local departments that some of their "missing" radios may have ended up with a certain user. Online searches are easy, just using a call sign, and other details, as it is public record as you mentioned.

While in Iraq in 2008, there were conex boxes filled with EFJ 5100's. At that time, Kirkuk was being readied to become "basic training" and flight school for the Kurdish Air Force a.k.a. Iraq's "New" Air Force (pre-ISIS take over). All Motorola gear was being swapped out for older equipment, going back to Maxtracs, consolette's, and EFJ5100's being put into play instead of XTS series radios. A cheaper alternative and as mentioned earlier, used XTS accessories and batteries. Decent radios for what they were. The ones I dealt with were 800 MHz on a trunked 16 channel Quantar network.

I have an Anytone with FM receiver and have used it a few times, just to hear local news and to see if the reception is available in a remote or rural area. Works as a great accessory for that type of use. However, I have a co-worker that bought a Baofeng, then a Nagoya antenna about two feet long, as the "math" says that this antenna will give better performance on the FM broadcast band. So of course, this meant testing the Anytone and Baofeng side by side, with no perceptible difference on FM broadcast, at least to our ears.....if we had looked at dB levels it may have been different. But, I can't get the guy to even bring the radio into work again, several people hassled him with the two foot antenna on a cheap Chinese radio, sticking out of a backpack (he was trying to LARP as a forward observer (guy is retired Navy avionics technician that tries to tell people he called air strikes in Afghanistan.....we all see through it). As for including FM broadcast, I find it useful to have as a feature, just like FRS/GMRS radios that came with Weather receivers, and Weather Alert functions, it is a plus over those radios that lack these features.

I have been out of the office for a few days and had my crew watch this. With some even stating that they had 'Merican made GMRS radios. Not having watched the video, I thought there may be one or two companies that might make a model here stateside, so it was no surprise to see a blank sheet of paper. Then I had to question the co-workers who said they had 'Merican made radios. No Ritron, Datron, Harris, nothing. Great video and point to those that think electronics are still made here. The last domestic radios I have purchased for a government contract, where made in Chicago, and had to be pre-ordered months in advance, but were indeed made here (at about twice the price of their Malaysian made equivalent - P25 non-GMRS in this case). The individual chips in those radios, they were made in Texas by E-Systems. For a domestic company to make a GMRS radio, I would expect it to cost several hundred dollars, as even this order of P25 radios doubled in cost to be made here, and with only a few vendors making the components that met federal government specifications. This entire thread reminds me of when I found out in 1992 that the federal government was going to use Cisco Systems hardware for data network hardware, everywhere. Then they dominated the business and commercial market. Now Cisco Systems continues to dominate the industry, while their hardware is made in China. Then people wonder why our intellectual property is being compromised. It would be nice to see a 'Merican made GMRS radio, I would buy a dozen just to prove a point, provided they were less than $500 each.

Wow. Thank you for the heads up. I am due to purchase several hundred XPR7550e radios this year, with my last order being placed last November (2021), with a reported ship date this coming November (2022). The decision makers I work for stressed the ordering of APX6000XE and XPR6500 mobiles, and decided to leave most of the Trbo series radio orders until later this year. We do not use Bluetooth, WiFi, or GPS, but I am sure the big /\/\ will still charge the same or higher prices without those features (chips) over the next year. This messes with my intended plan to implement Radio Management and WiFi programming if the newer XPR7550e radio lack the chip for WiFi. Another project revolved around GPS location, which would be impacted as well. Glad that even my Baofeng's and Anytone's are older, which still have th eFM receiver chip.

I took scan and monitor DMR and GMRS radios in my area, using legacy scanners for GMRS and an Anytone in promiscuous mode for DMR. In my area, UHF radio is so over saturated, it is also very common to hear digital modes in use. Then, there are the Garmin Rino radios that have been issued to search and rescue personnel, some National Guard (Army and Air) members, as well as Community Emergency Response Teams that pushed for FRS/GMRS use as the technology became cheaper. This, along with several radio shops that push new product very well, means there are many first generation XPR series Motorola Trbo radios proliferating the secondary market. As for digital use on GMRS frequencies, one of my first "catches" as a frequency and spectrum manager in the military was a unit that was using data and encryption on their military STX3000 UHF radios, programmed on GMRS frequencies. They said they did not have training frequencies that they could use. Checking the NTIA listings, they really did have official frequencies they could have used to stay legal, and after setting them straight, did not hear digital modes on GMRS, until after the FCC changes made in 2017. When the Motorola DTR series 900 MHz ISM band frequency hopping radios came out, they were sold as a great alternative to the saturated UHF radio market and users. This means I also hear many of them, being used in their defaulted state, on the included TalkGroups.