WRAX515

Hello all! I just wanted to come on here and let everyone know about a new GMRS net that has just kicked off locally here in the Hickory, NC area (Charlotte, NC metro). It is called the Barretts 600 Net because the repeater is on the Barretts Mountain tower site. Frequency is 462.600, standard +5 offset, and the tone is 146.2 Hz. It's a wide area repeater and reaches at last count about 40 miles circumference to Hickory, NC. The net is every Saturday night @ 7:00pm eastern time. Please feel free to contact me with any questions/comments/concerns. Thank you and hope to talk soon! David (WRAX515 or AK4FD)

I am pleased to announce that we will be having a brand new GMRS net this Saturday @ 7:00pm! It will be on the Barrett’s 600 machine in Taylorsville, NC (Hickory area), it’s a wide area repeater located at 462.600 and a 146.2 tone. It will be known as the “Barretts 600 Net”. I will be Net Control and Net Manager, WRAX515. Spread the word and let’s jump it off with a bang! Share and notify!

I LOVE my XPR7550e, fantastic radio! Currently I have several XTS-5000's in various VHF, UHF, and 700/800 bands that I use daily, even got an XPR-6580 for 900 MHz ham & still got an XTS-2500 in the mix. I do really like the APX series, tho my Department demo'd a Kenwood NX-5400 recently and it actually wasn't half bad and sounded great. But in the end of course we went with Moto APX since our statewide Trunked system will be going Phase-2 P25 in the next couple years. I would give my left pinky finger for an APX-8000 right now...

I really prefer P25 as a favorite digital voice mode... But that may be because I've been a Firefighter for the past 25 years and use/listen to P25 trunked daily. I have also used DMR, Yaesu Fusion/Wires-X, and D-STAR, and honestly I still think P25 has the best sound quality. I have heard some P25 transmissions that sound so clear I could have sworn it was Analog... But that's just my preference and I am sure some will disagree just like some may agree; it's subjective to the person's usage.

Yes I own one. And honestly at 1W power I would save your money and buy another radio. Initially I was buying it to use on 900 MHz ham frequencies since it covers the whole spectrum without any modifications like Motorola 900 radios do. However with 1W of power and 900 MHz repeaters not common in my area it just wasn't making the distance I needed to. So for about the same price I got a Motorola XPR6580 and software-modified it to use on 900 MHz bands and with the 3W power for the Motorola it does the job quite well. Bottom line, the Retevis 900 MHz radio is junk if you need it for repeater-type access, but for local on-site comms it works just fine within reasonable distance. Hope this helps...