SteveShannon

I agree, but I didn’t say anything about a club GMRS license.

He still offers them on his website: https://edsantennas.weebly.com/about.html

A GMRS repeater may only be operated under a GMRS license. A ham club certainly could collocate a GMRS repeater at their repeater site, but it would have to have a GMRS call sign reflecting its operator’s GMRS license.

Based on WRKC935’s second paragraph in the section “Dropping to 190”, it sounds like with a high gain antenna, there’s probably an RF null beneath the tower and for some distance around. The pattern of the antenna directs the RF outward, closer to horizontal, rather than up or down.

Marc’s explanation is absolutely excellent and should be pinned. I learned from it. I would just propose one addition and I apologize to Marc if it’s pedantic. Privacy tones do not prevent interference. If two nearby groups are on the same frequency, but different tones, and one person from each group transmits at the same time, a receiver with receive tones set will lock in on the stronger signal, regardless of tone. It just won’t reproduce the audio if the tone sent with the stronger signal is incorrect. This could mean that your receiver remains squelched, causing you to miss a transmission that you were intended to receive. Another thing to consider is that having receive tones set prevents you from hearing a conversation on the same frequency before you transmit over the top of them.

If you want just for temporary use when your car club gets together, what about a suction mount? https://www.amazon.com/Rugged-Radios-NMO-SC-Suction-Antenna/dp/B08177PQPH

I have no experience with the model you’re asking about, but in case you’re more interested in what the settings need to be rather than how to set them: I recommend leaving the CTCSS receive tone off until you are certain the frequency is correct. Once you’re certain the repeater is transmitting on the frequency listed you can always add the receive tone. By leaving the receive tone clear, you hear all transmissions on that frequency. Also, just in case you didn’t know, you transmit to the repeater at 467.550 MHz, 5 MHz above the frequency you receive. That’s commonly called the uplink frequency. You receive on the downlink frequency. So, to summarize, what I would do is this: 1. Simply set your receiver to listen on 462.550 MHz with no CTCSS Code. It may take some time if it’s not very active, but If the repeater is active this may confirm it. 2. Set the receive CTCSS to 141.3 Hz and listen until you’re certain you’re still receiving the repeater. If you no longer hear the repeater, turn the CTCSS tones off. You don’t need CTCSS to receive; they just filter out anyone who doesn’t send using the same CTCSS tone. 3. Finally, set the transmit frequency to 467.550 MHz with CTCSS of 141.3 Hz and transmit, using your call sign, to see if anyone hears you “This is wrph848 doing a radio check on (whatever the call sign of the repeater is)”. Listen for squelch tail, a slightly prolonged sound coming from the repeater after you let go of the PTT. Hopefully someone will hear you and tell you how you sound. I apologize if I’m misunderstanding your question. Good luck!

I don’t really know, but there’s a third choice. The company that hosts the forum you’re currently on sells a slightly different version of the RT97, which is the RT-97S. It has an external controller port which allows the repeater to be linked to other repeaters, including the MyGMRS network: https://shop.mygmrs.com/collections/repeaters-and-accessories/products/retevis-rt97s-portable-gmrs-repeater?utm_source=mygmrs&utm_medium=banner&utm_campaign=rt97 The last time I checked it was more expensive than the US Retevis store, but if the addition of the external port is necessary for your application, there doesn’t seem to be an alternative.

Do you really mean should you be able to transmit, or are you thinking that your transmission should be able to be heard? Some radios arrive from the factory with transmit not allowed and a change to the configuration of the radio may need to be made. But if you’re thinking that because you can hear someone transmitting that they should be able to hear you, that’s a bit more complicated. Lots of things could prevent your signal from traveling to them. They could be transmitting at a higher power, for instance. Or, you might be able to hear transmissions because you have no CTCSS set, but they might not be able to hear your transmissions because you have no CTCSS set on your transmitter and they require it. So, I’m afraid my answer isn’t terribly helpful without understanding the actual problem better.

https://www.buytwowayradios.com/downloads/dl/file/id/1411/product/5287/wouxun_kg_1000g_owners_manual.pdf Menu 26 - set it to Off for receive CTCSS Menu [26]: RX-CTC Function: Sets the receiving CTCSS tone for each channel. Use the arrow keys to select, or keypad to enter the tone. 50 standard tones are supported as well as non-standard tones. See page 75 to learn how to enter non-standard tones. Options: OFF/standard CTCSS/Non-standard CTCSS Default: OFF So, use the arrow keys to select off.

I don’t have the KG-1000, but for many (perhaps most) transceivers using a tone involves two things: selecting the tone (separately for receive and transmit) and turning on the tone for receive and transmit. I suspect you just turn the receive tone off for that channel; it still will have a value in it, but it won’t use it to filter incoming transmissions.

To my highly untrained eye, it looked very similar to the xpr7550 radios that appear on eBay, but I could only see the back panel. It was used with an external microphone.

I was amused to see a Motorola radio prominently being used by the ski team in China yesterday! Would that be an EAR (expensive American radio)? Come on you two, take a break. Go to each other’s profiles and ignore each other. This is just an Internet forum, not a matter of honor, treasure, or life and limb.

Very good point! If the voltage sags when transmitting, that could explain it.

Did you look at the notarubicon video of the same unit? I think he tested it for power output (I could be wrong). @OffRoaderXtracks that YouTube channel pretty closely ?. Maybe he can comment.

I agree, seems disappointing.

Very well said. This hits the nail on the head. A lot of people believe that unless a receiver is superheterodyne it suffers, but it’s simply not necessarily true. DSPs and integrated circuit design has blown past traditional circuits. The flexibility that can be achieved with a direct conversion Software Defined Radio is just incredible and only going to get better. As an example here’s a link to a solicitation from four years ago for radio equipment: https://www.sbir.gov/node/1482371 Of course as your so correctly pointed out they can be done poorly also, but the over simplistic notion that superheat > all other technologies is incorrect. And this also explains why a number of companies can start with a reference design created by a SDR chip maker and tweak and tune it to come up with something that’s outstanding. It doesn’t make sense to go all the way back to a blank piece of paper. Want a dual band 2 meter/70 cm radio? All you need is different firmware. Want a really high quality commercial radio? Add some front end improvements, higher quality case, better parts, and firmware, but the core design doesn’t have to be thrown away. That’s where a very agile company can turn out numerous designs for different markets all over the world. And that’s why it’s silly to discount anything that didn’t start out on a blank piece of paper and only designed for the GMRS market.

What was the SWR at each of those frequencies and settings?

Thanks for the shout out. I’ll try not to be too slow in the future! ? Sounds like it worked out. I might have just taken it the wrong direction.

I'm probably being pedantic, but detachable antennas are prohibited on GMRS radios when those radios are capable of sending digital data. https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-47/section-95.1787

Not that I know of here in Montana. Our WHOLE state is also a single area code (406), but I have to wonder if adopting a standard based on sparsely populated states with single area codes creates more problems than it solves. It's probably fine for people who primarily recreate in that state, especially hikers, fishers, etc., but for people passing through using the interstate system it isn't obvious, unless the state starts erecting billboards notifying people. Maybe interstates are not considered because cell coverage follows them.

Just so you know, you can edit a post or comment that you made by clicking on the three little dots in the upper right corner of the post or comment.

Probably not. While there are a limited number of hardware com ports, Windows can continue creating virtual com ports and assign them to USB ports. What did you learn in Device Manager?

Unfortunately, I don’t remember the exact sequence I had to do to use a non-FTDI cable with Chirp for a radio, but I made it work by opening Device Manager and looking for any exclamation marks which indicate a device that needs attention. My devices were okay, so the next thing I did was expand the USB ports, and then enabling a com port there under one of the USB ports. Once I did that, when I clicked on the list of com ports included the one I needed. You only have to do the Device Manager thing once each new device. The new device is the USB cable in this case. So, to recap, open Device Manager and look for an exclamation mark showing that you have a driver problem. If you do, resolve the problem. That may mean unplugging the USB cable, rebooting the computer, and loading software before plugging in the cable. You cannot make changes in Device Manager unless you’re logged in as the administrator account. Then, once the device has been recognized you may need to tell Windows to allow a com port to be assigned to the USB device. I’ve never needed to keep an older computer for driver compatibility. Windows 10 has the ability to right click and run programs in compatibility mode where you choose the software level (at least back to Win 8 or possibly even 7. I’ve only had to do that once, but it was helpful. When you’re in Device Manager, if it seems too daunting, take screen shots and I may be able to make suggestions.

I greatly enjoyed reading this post and I love hearing about your military experiences. But I have to agree with OffroadX that people are responsible for their own actions, especially when it comes to emulating someone on the internet. There are far more authoritative warnings against transmitting into an infinite impedance than the examples his two videos show.