SteveShannon

I’m confused. What do you mean by “out tone mode”? The ID must be transmitted in accordance with the rules, no confusion or argument there. Everyone receiving the transmission will hear it, no confusion there. The transmission is on 462.xxx. The receiver half of the repeater is on 467.xxx so it never hears the transmission with the CW ID. Don’t all repeater controllers that generate a CW ID simply add it into the audio from the receiver half as it’s passed to the transmitter half? What am I missing?

I’m curious if they have a pudgy duck antenna that wouldn’t have that gap. ?

This got me curious. Some forward thinking ARES groups do include GMRS in their plans. It would be silly not to. If the goal is to communicate as widely as possible to those people who are affected by an emergency or those people who can help during an emergency you don’t turn up your nose because it’s not amateur radio. You use every means possible and you plan to succeed. https://www.aresd1.com/post/ares-district-1-deploys-to-hobart-for-simulated-emergency-test

It’s a feature. ?

Even if you missed all the math questions you could pass the test. Take the sample tests in HamStudy when you have the time and you’ll see very few math problems. I don’t think I had to do math until the Amateur Extra exam.

I don’t know about ARES or Skywarn and GMRS, BUT if you still want to get your technician license for amateur radio, I can help you find some study guides. Everyone learns differently and for me the flash cards provided at HamStudy (free - although I did spring for $4 to buy the app for my phone) were perfect. I also would be happy to help you understand the questions and answers if that would help. I would still get into GMRS. It all is valuable and enjoyable.

Use a different manual ? http://www.pofung.cn/UploadFiles/20200827094748361.pdf It explains that you must have all 22 channels programmed and then power on while on channel 22. It will automatically begin scanning: Scan This function can be activated only by means of the optional programming software. To enable the Scan function, all 22 channels must be programmed. If you turn on the radio on channel 22, the scanning will automatically start. Whenever any signal is detected, the scanning will stop on a busy channel. If the PTT is pressed, you will transmit on the latest busy channel. Channel 22 is the priority channel; therefore if you don’t pick up any signal when you press PTT, the radio will transmit on channel 22.

I sat in one place at my kitchen table and tested my Faux Nagoya (TID Radio 771 antenna). I’m about 16 miles from a 70cm DMR repeater. 70 cm is close in frequency to GMRS. The nice thing with DMR is that I’m able to see on a computer screen an automated signal strength report as measured by the repeater. With the rubber duck that came on my DMR Radio I was getting reports that my transmissions were received by the repeater as S6 or S7. With the Faux Nagoya I saw consistent S8 reported. So at least in my case there was a measurable difference. One S unit is equivalent to 6 dB.

Probably the best way is to pick up something like the ARRL Antenna book and then watch some videos that teach the use of EZNec or MMANA, which are two antenna modeling programs. Free versions of each are available and they’re pretty easy to use. Look for a channel on YouTube by DX Commander that has some tutorials on MMANA or David Casler on EZNec. I would try going to a ham swap meet and getting a used copy of the book; it’ll cost much less than ordering from ARRL and the difference will be minimal. Antenna theory hasn’t changed much lately, except for the gigahertz regime. There haven’t been any landmark discoveries that have changed people’s minds for awhile. I receive a big book quarterly of the Transactions of the Antennas and Propagation Society of the IEEE and I almost freeze at the titles of the articles. I think I’d have to go back to school just to understand the titles, much less the actual articles, but every article is about gigahertz or terahertz uses. As far as I can tell the UHF stuff is relegated to the same dusty shelf as VHF, and HF. There’s probably something still being done for ELF also, but I haven’t seen anything.

According to the data sheet, Vgg is rated for 6 volts, so I wouldn't do that. Where does the input to Vgg come from in the circuit? See if you can find a Service Manual and look at the schematic of the TK-880.

Couldn't you just leave the CW ID blank when configuring the controller?

A schematic and an oscilloscope sampling signals along the path to and from the antenna is what you probably need to do. That’s what I would need to do for a circuit that I was unfamiliar with.

That’s not a petition; it’s a rant. I won’t sign it.

How do you know it’s GMRS?

On my Alinco, analog APRS positions are sent either at the beginning or end of PTT or at periodic intervals. I had it set to report periodically on 144.390, regardless of the channel I’m using. It seems to work just fine and I can see my history on APRS.FI.

Use a good quality lightning arrester where your coax enters the house and ground it. If you know a storm is approaching you should disconnect your radio from all external cables: power, ground, and coax. If you want something that is more resilient then there’s a document that describes how commercial communication sites are protected. Nobody goes to them and unplugs everything when there’s a storm. I’ll post a link: https://www.blm.gov/sites/blm.gov/files/Lands_ROW_Motorola_R56_2005_manual.pdf Meanwhile here’s a short video:

I wish you the best results possible with your chemo.

I’ll look to see if my Alinco receives APRS. It definitely transmits APRS.

It’s used to enable or disable simultaneous receiving on the two VFOs. When off you’ll only hear one.

I absolutely agree with Wayoverthere. Look at the configuration in whatever CPS you’re using to see if you can see what the problem is. Sorry to be Captain Obvious, but for future reference, try programming one first and make sure it still works before programming the second. Also, read from the radio and save that configuration before ever programming something new so you have that to get back to. Since it works when you press Moni, the first two things I would look at at changing from TSQL to TONE and I would also decrease the Squelch level. Either one of those could cause you to miss hearing transmissions.

I have and like the Alinco. I have never owned the Anytone, but I believe Anytone made the MD5 for Alinco and that it’s similar to a slightly earlier model/version of the 878. Many of the guys in my radio club have the Anytone and like it. They are so similar that I would have almost zero time spinning up to use an Anytone. Both are commercial radios. The Alinco is more compact. The Anytone has much more memory (500,000 contacts versus 300,000) but I loaded all the DMR users in North America in mine and have lots of room still so unless you plan to load the entire world you may not notice it. There are a lot more tutorial videos available for the Anytone, especially if you buy it through Bridgecomm. I cannot point to anything about either brand that makes me think one is higher quality than the other. The Alinco accepts antennas made using the reverse SMA connector that the Baofeng uses, female threads and male center pin on the radio body. I don’t know for sure that the Anytone does, but I’d be surprised if it doesn’t. I have the following Amateur handheld radios: Baofeng UV5R, Baofeng GT5R, Alinco DJ-MD5GTP, Yaesu FT65R, and Yaesu FT5DR. All except the FT5DR use the Baofeng pattern SMA connector. I’ve been complimented on the quality of my signal when using the Baofeng GT5R and a faux Nagoya 771 made and sold as the Tidradrio 771. They told me that I was getting full quieting on our 2 meter receiver. The repeater site is on a mountain 16 miles away and is the site of a UHF DMR repeater also. When I screwed that same antenna onto the Alinco and monitored the signal strength reported for my DMR transmissions, the signal goes from S5 to S7 and sometimes even S8 while sitting in the same chair at my kitchen table on the other side of the house. So, I like the Alinco. I would like the Anytone just as well or even better because of its features. My favorite dual band analog radio is the Yaesu FT-65, in spite of the FPP interface. I like the size, sound, and price. I feel like it’s an excellent analog handheld. As long as I’m doing a very subjective data dump, I prefer the way DMR is structured over C4FM, at least so far. C4FM is easier to program from the front panel, but the underlying infrastructure is more complex. When it comes to digital modes, it’s probably not very realistic to expect to program many digital channels via the front panel. I can and have done it on both the Alinco MD5 and the Yaesu FT5DR, just to make sure I could.

Actually GPS Roaming as implemented by Anytone switches to either DMR or analog repeaters based on location, rather than DMR handshake:

Is that the GPS Roaming that Anytone has? The Alinco has regular roaming which is the same as roaming in the Anytone, but a few Anytone models have GPS Roaming where a repeater in memory that’s within a radius of a gps point will be selected automatically. The repeater must be programmed in though. Of course a single download from Repeaterbook can accomplish that. I will check my Alinco, but I don’t recall seeing GPS Roaming.

I’ll bite; what is “near repeater”?

The Alinco DJ-MD5 is a radio I mentioned earlier as well. It only requires a configuration change for opening up. It’s very similar to the Anytone handheld internally (contract manufactured?). Once you learn how to setup the codeplugs it is very easy to use in my opinion, but it had a learning curve up front. I haven’t opened it up but maybe I will and set up a zone just for GMRS.