PACNWComms

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.

Yes, just bought a lot of these for some sites in Middle America, great radios and also use the chargers/accessories for the XPR6550 UHF radios they already had. They were going to spend about $1000-1200 for XPR7580e handhelds, new, and waiting at least six months to receive due to the current supply chain issues. The XPR6580's were ready to ship as refurbished units (re-cased with 80% or more on the batteries guaranteed).

I still have to explain to die hard dispatchers that this is the case. Analog sites complain about analog, while digital trunked sites complain about digital delay. Then others ask what the tones are, MDC ID, Basestation ID (BSI), which then leads to a discussion on Pre and Post sending of MDC ID versus Pre only. I like MDC ID on my own repeater, but respect those that do not want to hear it on theirs.....there are only a few other GMRS repeaters in my area.

Excellent advice, it also means that those with "sticky" fingers will need to take a 6-bank charger too, instead of swiping one radio and single charger. It is common to lose one radio, but six, with a 6-bank charger?

Here on the West Coast, Day Wireless has been known to rent DTR/DLR radios at times. I have not seen a 900 MHz ISM band Motorola rental in a while though, as many people must have realized the cost and purchased them outright instead, they proliferate in cities where UHF spectrum is very congested. I still support a fleet of DTR410's for several local schools, but bought them outright as well. What I do see as rentals and many XPR6550 Motorola Trbo series radios, mostly in UHF band, and working for a large corporation with many contractors, get several back each month that are actually rentals. I have one at my desk now, and this particular XPR6550 was rented to Veca Electric, has the Day Wireless engraving , and when rented by a corporation, they fall under licensed spectrum of the rental company, in this case Day Wireless. You should not be paying yourself for spectrum for rental radios, rent what they have and on their license, channels, and TalkGroups when possible. Then you get a different radio, which is legal for the area you are using/renting them for......did many trade shows, oil spill responses, and training evolutions this way. Another company is Bearcom, that often rents radios. I hate to mention either one as they have "hit or miss" customer competence/service, but have stocks of rental radios. A third that has been great for sales is Used-Radios.com also known as Sunny Communications out of Colorado. They may have rentals that will work for you on short notice. (SunnyComm would be my first call, then Bearcom, Day Wireless is just west coast - a regional company).

In my area of the country, many GMRS repeater owners state that they want users to refrain from using MDC, Talk Permit Tones, "Roger Beeps" or any other signaling, mostly due to the noise of those signals, or to keep Motorola users from "flexing" on other users......used to a thing in the past but surplus Motorola is also a lot more common now (as is other manufacturers including MDC in their products). On my own Spectra repeater system, I do have MDC set, so I can see which radio is keying up the repeater by its Radio ID number (just me and my family using my radio net most of the time), but that is a private repeater and I want to know when some outside person is on the net. (Usually other guest users do not have MDC set up, so I see a "1" or "0000" come through).

I used XTS5000's while in the military, which were great radios for P25, as for GMRS use, I want something smaller, lighter, and more recent. Mobile it is a combination of Motorola XPR5550e and CDM1550 LS+, and handheld it is XPR6550/7550e radios. That XTS5000 is just too big to be lugging around unless I am using it for something else as well. Still, the XTS5000/3000/2500/1500 proliferate my own collection, as that is what I have supported in a long career, both military and civilian, and they continue to be used as long as parts and batteries are available. As another posted before, it is nice to have the XTVA option, switching radios as needed and having a Hand Held Control Head and multiband antenna installed on the roof. +1 on buying Model 3's as well, you will want Front Panel Programming, and a display....I do this with XTS2500's and pretty much any radio I expect to use a lot. That display comes in handy for troubleshooting when you need to do so.

Those have really gone up in price, have used many of them for Icom A110/120 aviation radios, as that connector is also used by that series of mobile radio, with electrical noise being a huge problem with AM radio. Great filter, and does work well. I also add chokes to power cables, a practice that came from Motorola shipping cases of these when doing large projects, such as P25 installations at Public Safety Answering Points (911 Call Centers). That filter should work well to curb much of that noise heard. Back when you could still go to Radio Shack, they had a version that was sold for use with CB (AM 23-40 channel) and stereo equipment too, which was larger, cylindrical and comes up in many auction sites, for about the third of the price of the Kenwood version, it works too. Bought many on clearance years ago and used them all over the place.

One reason why many people run their repeaters for their own use and others they trust only. This is a lot easier in the amateur bands as there are so many more options and variables. GMRS radio use, well, people can figure it out easily if they know what they are doing.....and more reason to not even acknowledge the trolls, jammers, or other people that mis-use the radio system in play. Sort of like school yard bullies, unless you are ready to draw blood to prove a point, you only feed them what they want, acknowledgement and the thought that they have power over you. I see this on here at times, people that bully others, to make themselves look more important, or reply with flippant answers, attempting to belittle others, this does impact the usefulness and utility of this site (and is most likely why it has not grown as quickly as other radio related sites). Great advice has been given, do not "feed" these people or it gets worse. Some ways around this, use radios that have voice inversion (yes, some had/have this), do not acknowledge that you even hear these users, change channels, tones, or get off the air for a while. They do go away if they think they are unsuccessful. There will always be those that engage, and then rant about being jammed, trolled, or doxxed because of it, but it does not have to be you, if you keep it quiet. For clubs, business users, and individual families; bad news stays internal, good news goes public.

I always have some version/ hard copy of the ARRL Handbook, coupled with Motorola R56 guide for site installation. Then specific equipment manuals, and guides......much of this is available in PDF format. R56 for site installation https://www.k3emd.com/downloads/Motorola_R56.pdf?msclkid=7f0e394bc5a411ec9ff5a858ab2bd53d Military tactical comms https://armypubs.army.mil/epubs/DR_pubs/DR_a/pdf/web/ARN20819_ATP_6-02x53_FINAL_WEB.pdf Very basic for ARRL/ARES/Emergency comm/CERT types https://trainex.org/osc_readiness/2004materials/IntrotoRadioTheory.pdf?msclkid=af0a48dfc5a411ec9e189629d5f536f4

Unfortunately, I have only used the VX-3200/4200 series radios. The 2200 series was something that was used in other areas by a former employer of mine, but I never had experience with them. However, with CE-52 (for VX-3200's) there was no warning for the wideband/narrowband requirement, as it was made well before the 2013 mandate. Turning the "clock" back to pre-2013 also works with many other radios and software as well. An issue to watch out for with the VX-3200/4200's is that many had filters that were manufactured with a defect, high humidity in the plant in Japan, where the radios could not go into narrowband due to defective narrowband filters. That cost thousands of dollars when January 1st, 2013 came around....and it was not just Vertex. Many then end up being sold as fully functional, either unknowingly, or by those that do not care. Good luck on the VX-2200. Quality wise, they are an older Vertex which were made well.

Yes, 1/4 wave antenna for UHF. On my car, I use a dual band Tram (VHF/UHF) NMO mounted antenna, and it is about 1.5 feet long that would work pretty well in an apartment too if someone were to need dual band, and a small antenna on a magnet mount, baking sheet ground plane setup.

I had to look back at my gallery posts, to see the Laird antennas I use. It is the 6" QW450, with the GB8UM magnet mount base, then placed onto a metal object for a small ground plane.

Same here, and why I never was able to work from home these past two years.....DHS CISA letter meant me and my crew came to the office and job sites. We do SCADA, microwave, satcom, and land mobile radio, along with telemetry for flight testing of experimental aircraft. As for radio, I find FRS/GMRS equipment all over the place that should not be in use, whether voiding company policy or FCC regulation, like that buffet example provided earlier in the thread. What I tend to find around my house and at work sites are the baby monitors (audio), some video capable units, and then lots of sites that are supposed to use corporate radios, using Midland GMRS handhelds bought at Cabela's (most are camouflage models). The local thrift stores have received many Midland sets, after providing the corporate users with UHF HT-750/1250, EX500, EX600XLS, PR400/CP200, up to XPR7550e replacements. At this point, I am no longer surprised what is being imported that operates in the GMRS frequency band, as so many consumer products come into the country with little to no scrutiny.

Here is the link for a previous thread on this subject. For my own use on the second floor of my house, I just use a New Motorola (NMO) mount UHF antenna, a magnet mount, and have it mounted on the top of a 19" network rack. Other people use metal baking pans for GMRS antennas as a ground plane. GMRS antennas do not have to be big, or even outdoors to work....I get consistent 8-10 miles in a mountainous environment, but this drops to about 5-8 miles when I move my base station to the first floor (daylight basement) setting.

As a system administrator for a nationwide Motorola radio network, made up of Motorola P25 Phase 1, Phase 2, legacy analog, and Trbo sub-networks, I see this all the time. While much of the programming, engineering, and installation and maintenance is done in house (very large corporation with a dedicated radio shop) we still do use many vendors, local radio shops across the country. And we all tend to complain en masse, especially for the new Trbo R7, Ion series radios, and push for PTT over LTE with the APX Next radios. For firefighting, confined space, and first response use cases, licenses are a problem. We have also had to inventory radios, triage them by firmware, options and EID status. Then, as you mentioned, making templates from that. Two counties in Washington State, King and Snohomish, are going through this right now. Too many templates to make and falling behind schedule, as they did not even know what they had end user wise, and have found they have more radios/license issues, and options that need updates. My fire departments are now sitting on APX6000XE radios, and awaiting the templates from the counties they must be interoperable with, to catch up. King and Snohomish counties are going P25 Phase 2, leapfrogging over FDMA Phase 1. They are now learning of the drastic changes in programming, entitlement ID's, CPS versus Radio Management, and other issues with TDMA P25 Phase 2. Then WAVE also gets pushed, with the monthly service cost being glossed over. All of this being typed as my old HT-1250 is being charged, the one I use for GMRS.

Had some UHF Vertex VX-261's myself, and they were very rugged little radios. They were cast off from a corporation that was standardizing on radio models and these were the odd model out for them. I did not need more radios, but will not turn down a gift.....and in turn they went to new amateur radio Technician's. One mentioned using them for GMRS use as well as a couple of local repeaters....and accessories were readily available. There were some wired remote speaker/mics with some of them as well. Reminded me of some of the Vertex amateur radios made with the heavy metal chassis, which seem to last forever, even when dropped many times. Great suggestion for an economical radio.

My area has a bit of everything, P25, NXDN, DStar, Trbo, and even some ISM band, but part of that is having elements of Icom, JVC/Kenwood Group, and some lesser known aviation radio companies in the area (Bendix, Relm, BK Precision) and even test equipment manufacturers being local. I either have to have several radios, or pick and choose what to listen to from time to time. My Part 90 radios are probably worth more than my car at times when I drive down the road. I picked up an old vintage analog AM Technisonic base station radio recently too. Use an old analog scanner instead, my Realistic Pro-2006, and Radio Shack Pro-2032's work much better than a Technisonic radio from 1985.

From the heartache of several Motorola people I am dealing with this week, it would seem that Kenwood's NX-5300 series and some Tait radios are making a dent in the big /\/\'s Part 90 radio market, due to the capability versus price difference. I have some APX4000 FDMA radios on a Tait system for interoperability, and the system administrator keeps asking if I can buy Tait radios to keep his network consistent....his leadership wants to get rid of Motorola and my leadership wants only Motorola (Kenwood for confined space use, and Icom for aviation) in use.

Yes, Kenwood followed the precedent set by Motorola for Entitlement ID's for both radios and Customer Programming Software (CPS). I do not like this either, and make labels on my programming computers on which ones have EID's (wideband for GMRS/VHF Marine/amateur use), and other features I find necessary, like Front Panel Programming. Harris Radio Program Manager is locked down to one computer via registering the computer to their server, which logs its MAC address. No adding multiple instances of software like Motorola. Kenwood licenses have been hit or miss depending on radio series......my current job requires multiple licenses for NX-5300 series radios for example....one license per computer, but it is also a custom software made by Kenwood for Confined Space Communications in Hazardous Areas (CSCHA) use. The next nightmare seems to be "software as a service" and the push to "license" programming capability based upon a monthly payment plan, or pushing codeplug programming vie the Internet, cloud, or WiFi from a distant server, but only if your bill is paid on time. Part 90 radios in the secondary market could get interesting if/when that happens.

I should also add that federal grant money is also only available to buy radios that are P25 capable. This came out after many manufacturers tried to find new ways to grab market share a decade or so after the terrorist attacks of 2001, when radio interoperability was found to be lacking. So, finding many of these NX-5000 and similar Kenwoods, will be expensive, if you are looking for something that is capable of P25, which may be out of the budget for those wanting to use them for GMRS as well. Although, I do know many people that add an analog Zone, channels, or TalkGroups to their P25 or DMR radios for GMRS use. I do this with several myself.

Yes, that would be me. Ironically enough, I am currently in Motorola training this week as well, now being administrator of a large P25 Phase I/II and Trbo network. The JVC/Kenwood Group was trying to gain some market share in P25 radio, while supporting smaller departments/municipalities, and those that may not have been able to afford P25 hardware up front. The idea was to market hardware that contained P25/NXDN/conventional capability, then unlock those features through software when needed/wanted and paid for. The only problem with this is that they also hired way too many software engineers from Microsoft, with little to no radio knowledge. Some Kenwood radios then needed to be sent in for hardware upgrades, as software changes over production cycles meant that several versions later, the hardware was now incompatible. It was a marketing plan that resulted in many different model/hardware/software versions. They are most likely out there in the wild, but Kenwood has spent several years fixing that problem, and you may find it hard to find parts, or shops willing to swap boards for what you want. Just in time manufacturing has changed that a bit, especially now with chip shortages. Kenwood has had a chip vendor lose some production capability recently as well. Good luck though, as you may find enough parts radios, or shops that have the combination you want. But,they probably won't be cheap, as the P25 hardware meant higher prices to get back the research and engineering budget spent to develop the product line.