WRQC527

Did someone say that?

This subject has literally been beaten to death on this site and many others. But since you asked, I'll compare my favorite two HTs, my Baofeng UV5R and my Yaesu FT-70, both of which will do GMRS if the situation allows it. Cost. $20 vs $170. Baofeng wins. Printing rubbing off the keys in 6 months. Yaesu wins. Keypad programming. Yaesu wins. CHIRP programming. Baofeng wins. Receiver sensitivity. Yaesu wins. Battery life. Baofeng wins. Durability. Yaesu wins. Transmit audio. Tie. Receive audio. Tie. Flashlight. Baofeng wins. User manual. Yaesu wins. Worrying if it falls in a lake. Baofeng wins. I'm sure there's more, but you get the picture. I think the Yaesu is the better radio, but the Yaesu is certainly not 9 times better than the Yaeasu, and the Baofeng is not 9 times worse than the Yaesu. Or however that math works. I hope I answered your question without violating your rather numerous demands.

"It just so happens that your radio here is only mostly dead." With apologies to Miracle Max.

Which is one reason I haven't had a daily driver built in the 21st century. The other reason being that I spend all my money on radios.

I'd be more curious about if it actually works in the first place. Although I would hesitate sacrifice my extensive collection of three Baofeng HTs and two cheap Chinese mobiles to find out.

From my research, a radio can be revived in similar fashion. It's also questionable whether the feature actually works or if it's a carryover of a feature of commercial radios that isn't actually enabled. I've never heard of anyone who has killed a radio or anyone whose radio has been killed. One of my Chinese radios calls it a "remote death function". Personally I wouldn't worry about it.

Some radios can be remotely shut down (stunned or killed) by sending a signal to them from another radio. I'm sure others here will pontificate in much greater detail.

CHIRP works on Linux also. Quite well, in fact. My understanding is that it was developed for Linux, but I wouldn't swear to it. I had it on a Raspberry Pi that I used as a desktop until the Pi died.

You can get into 10 meters for around $200-$300 using something like an Anytone AT-6666. It's a mobile 10-meter radio that can be used as a base station with a power supply. There are pantloads of videos on this radio and others like it. 10 meters is getting very active now. I've made a lot of 10 meter contacts in recent months. In fact, my longest contacts with Australia, Europe and Japan have been on 10 meters. A technician level license gives you access to a portion of 10 meters. I have a Yaesu FT-891, and I normally don't run it at more than about 40 watts, with a very basic antenna. There is also a large selection of multi-band low-power radios that are sometimes hit-and-miss in the quality department, such as the (tr)uSDX and its Chinese knock-offs that are sub-$200. There are some handhelds like my Yaesu VX-7R that support 6 meters but it's normally FM and isn't going to transmit far. There used to be handheld 10 meter radios like the Magnum 10/12, but you can only find them used at this point. Some people were able to reach a few hundred miles on them, but only if the conditions were right. Have fun, get the Technician license.

You seem angry.

I'm not going to write you an essay here about repeater frequencies and tones, because you are going to get a lot of those. One thing that may help though is to know what kind of radio you are using.

I've always said I want to die peacefully in my sleep like ol' grandpa did. Not screaming in terror like the rest of the people in the car with him.

I've used both CHIRP and manufacturers software for various radios, and I much prefer CHIRP. Some people like RT Systems, but it's pricey and radio-specific. Ive never used it. Because I’m cheap. One thing I did find is that even though my Yaesu FT70 is supported by CHIRP, only analog is supported. Not digital. The folks at CHIRP do a fine job.

Set a roger beep on your radio. That's a sure-fire way to get a response. Perhaps not a favorable one, but maybe a response nevertheless.

One of the more irritating things is when I'm confronted by non-paying, non-member users of my semi-private amateur repeater that has arguably the best coverage in southern California on the rare occasions when it's down. Which is almost always through no fault of the repeater.

Welcome! Specific questions are a key to specific answers, so go ahead, ask away!

I thought I'd post this in case anyone is interested. Because you never know. I just got this radio a couple days ago. Measurements were made with a Diamond SX40C SWR/Power Meter into a dummy load. The radio is supported by CHIRP. These are my results, but in my experience, these radios are inconsistent. This radio is also marketed by QYT, and a GMRS version is sold by BTech. Programming was done with CHIRP and from the keypad. Anysecu has programming software but I have not used it. Output power (Anysecu rates it at 20-25 watts depending on the power setting.) 144-148 Mhz Low: 9 watts. Medium: 12 watts. High: 19 watts. 420-450 Mhz Low: 6-7 watts depending on frequency. Medium: 10-13 watts depending on frequency. High:14-19 watts depending on frequency. 462-467 Mhz (My radio didn’t need unlocking. I cannot speak for other variants. I only tested GMRS.) Low: 4-5 watts depending on frequency. Medium: 8 watts. High: 10-12 watts depending on frequency. Programming quirk #1: From the keypad, low, medium and high power settings are available. Using CHIRP, only low and high power are available. Programming quirk #2: Channels can be named with alphanumeric tags from CHIRP, but even though the option appears when programming from the keypad, only numbers can be selected. Programming repeaters and menu options from the keypad is very similar to the Baofeng UV-5R, but there's no voice prompts that I have found. Receive audio is decent, considering this is a speaker mic. Volume control is a little quirky, with multiple ways to adjust it. Transmit audio is a mixed bag. Most reports I get say it’s somewhat hollow and doesn’t have the fidelity of my Yaesu mobile, but it is reasonably clear and readable. Typical of a lot of these radios. The radio unit does get warm after a bit, especially on high power. Not hot, but definitely warm. As a result, I’m mostly running it on medium power. Overall, I won’t use this for my daily driver, more as a solution for my two vehicles that have no room for a dedicated mobile. I’m determined to improve the transmit audio. We’ll see how that goes.

In my humble opinion, it's not an issue of ham vs GMRS. Or what ham has over GMRS. There are advantages to both. GMRS doesn't require a test, just your $35 and a promise to obey the FCC rules. And the license covers family members, up to a point. But the frequencies are limited, and channelized. Ham radio requires a test, the same $35, and only covers one person. There are many more frequencies available with UHF ham radio. Both ham and GMRS can operate simplex or through repeaters. You'll probably find more repeaters on ham radio. I use both, since I have ham radio friends who communicate with me, and I use GMRS to communicate with my non-ham wife through a repeater if I'm out somewhere with no cell coverage. My suggestion is to use both and don't fall into the "one is better than the other" trap. Also, there are a few mobile ham transceivers out there that do HF, VHF and UHF. They're not cheap, and you may end up rolling the dice in the used market to find them. The Icom IC-706MkIIG, IC-7000 and IC-7100, the Yaesu FT-857, and others.

The 3" antenna is pre-installed though, which may account for it costing what it does.

I'm no expert on every FCC rule, but there are some restrictions on what can be transmitted from a GMRS radio. Sound effects, one-way messages, etc, may present some problems. Basically, do some homework before you start any of this.

Good morning, welcome! Go ahead and register on this site. It's not affiliated with Facebook. It's also free unless you want to upgrade.

There's apps for literally everything you can think of. It's not a bad idea to keep track of people you talk to. My suggestion is to either develop an app or find someone who can, throw it out there and see if anyone bites. Think about this. You thought of it, so obviously there is some interest in it.

Ugh. I thought I put you on my Ignore User list. I'll take care of that right now.

I've been intrigued for some time by the Anysecu/QYT amateur radio version of this style of radio to put in my wife's Kia Soul. And in fact if it's not permanently affixed to the car it would be easy to move from one to another. I may submit a request to my accounting department to see if she'll approve it.