SteveShannon

Yup, no offset on any of the the non-repeater channels. Good job figuring it out!

You certainly haven’t offended anyone yet! If all you want to do is listen, simply make sure all of the CTCSS tones or DCS codes are cleared out and set the radio to scan all of the channels. GMRS and FRS have 22 channels for simplex communications, where radios take turns talking to each other one at a time, so radio A transmits to radio B on 462.550 MHz. When it’s done radio B transmits back on 462.550 MHz. 462.550 MHz is channel 15. There are eight main channels, which are numbered 15-22. They’re actually called the 462 MHz main channels in the regulations. Those eight channels are shared by people transmitting simplex to each other and by repeaters. Those are the only channels repeaters may transmit on and remain compliant with the regulations: https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-47/chapter-I/subchapter-D/part-95/subpart-E?toc=1 But repeaters must receive signals at exactly the same time as they transmit. So they receive on frequencies that are 5 MHz higher so the received signal and the transmitted signal may be handled separately. Receiving and transmitting at the same time is called duplex (sometimes old people like me call it full duplex but most people simply say duplex.) The eight channels that handheld and mobile radios use to transmit to a repeater are called the 467 MHz main channels. GMRS radios are set up so when you’re tuned to one of the repeater channels your radio automatically transmits on one of the 467 MHz channels and receives on the 462 MHz channel exactly 5 MHz below it. Unfortunately, there’s no standard for how those repeater channels are labeled. Going back to the example 462.550/467.550 channel pair, that is called channel 23 by some radios and RP15 by others. If all you want to do is listen, leave the tone/codes out. But, if you want to transmit through a repeater, you almost always will be required to set a matching tone in your radio or the repeater will not allow your signal through from its receiver to its transmitter.

Provide us with a screenshot from Chirp. Maybe we can see what’s going on. Are you on a repeater channel? There won’t be an offset otherwise.

So I’m not sure how the Retevis RT-10 implements DMR on an unlicensed radio. Where does the DMR ID come from? But, it’s the closest thing to affordable that I could find. https://a.co/d/i96kTIS DMR is not frequency hopping, although many DMR radios have the capability of encrypting communications. I have no idea what the regulations say about that for 900 MHz. Being unlicensed is not the same as being regulation free. The only FHSS radios I found were the Motorola DLR radios. They’re digital and FHSS but not inexpensive. Good luck finding something for your son.

First, for every channel, remove any CTCSS tones or DCS codes on both transmit and receive. Then just change them both to the same channel and you should be able to transmit from one to the other. Don’t try to transmit from one to the other when they’re just a few feet (or inches) from each other. That can cause desensing, which is when the strong transmit power from one overwhelms the sensitive receiver of the other. Put some distance between them. Good luck!

DMR radios require licensing anyway. Is there some reason why you want the 900 MHz instead of license free MURS in the VHF band or license free FRS in the UHF band? Either can be had for pretty low prices.

I also have MXTA26 antennas.

Just to clarify, those tones are well within the range of human hearing. For comparison the lowest note on a piano is 27.5 Hz (lowest A). After the tones are no longer needed, but before being converted to audio, radio circuitry filters out everything below 300 Hz to prevent us from hearing the tones.

Or is that Access Requests have been disabled by owner?

When I left wind projects generated AC power that was converted to DC and then back to 60 Hz AC before connecting to our grid. I’m certain the technology has changed in the past nine years, but I haven’t kept up.

Try it. I think it’ll have a really screwy propagation pattern, perhaps mostly vertical, but without trying it you’ll never know. If you have an analyzer put it on first because the SWR will probably change as well.

That’s right. I completely forgot about that.

Just setup your radios to scan the eight repeater channels with no tones. Then let them scan. You might not be able to respond but you might learn what repeater channels are active.

The ability to buy and sell in the classified section and the ability to download database extracts from the repeater directory. No advertisements. Free beer at Rich’s house. Most importantly the knowledge that we help pay for the site.

Go out to mygmrs.com, not forums.mygmrs.com. Rhen bring up your control panel and click on $ Subscriptions:

No, that’s typical. When you reconfigure your radio from a GMRS radio to a ham radio it usually has to reset the memory which wipes out any saved channels. For many radios you can back up the memories before reconfiguring and then restore them to the new configuration, but not all. The DB20G will block restoring memories from a different configuration.

It’s silly to knowingly place your name and address on a publicly available list and then get upset that someone uses it. Randy has a video about how to use a mail forwarding service to obtain a modicum of abstraction from your real address.

A radio in a window will have a narrower field of view than the base antenna on the roof (presumably) at your house. Getting a tuned antenna might help some, but getting an antenna up on the roof of your shop will be more likely to do the trick. At that range it doesn’t have to be high gain, in fact it’s probably better if it’s not a very high gain antenna.

I realized that the lower price is without attached connectors. Once you add the necessary connectors they’re close to equal price.

Yeah, Gigaparts has it for $84, but the reviews seem to indicate that that the $35 one comes from Kenwood USA. For the price difference I’d try it and return it if it’s not genuine.

And be careful to get a genuine Kenwood. Amazon has two (at least) listings for this. This one appears to be genuine Kenwood: https://a.co/d/4br5zAE And at $19.95 and no mention of Kenwood, I suspect this one is a clone: https://a.co/d/5ocPatD

Good job, Gil! That’s a much better price than the one from LCom.

And another video I enjoyed:

It has been a while since I looked at them, but there’s also a way to use existing coax rather than dropping your headliner and pulling in another cable:

I would look at what Kenwood sells.