WROZ794

Unlike several here, I'm giving some updates that will be productive for any future folks who might encounter the same issue. The supplied crossover ethernet cable (pins 5 and 7 are transposed on one connector) IS used to connect the units to allow for proper data communication. The units use the somewhat counterintuitive method of putting the RX frequency into the TX unit, and vice-versa; this isn't uncommon but is somewhat counterintuitive in commercial grade equipment and would almost certainly confound a new user. An explanation for the new user: Take Repeater 1 (CH023)/RPT-15: The TX freq is 467.550 and the RX freq is 462.550. Because the repeater system is simply relaying what it hears, you want the receiver to listen on the frequency that everyone else is transmitting on, and to transmit on the frequency that everyone else is listening on. This means you'll see the frequencies opposite of TX/RX charts and opposite of your HT or base stations. I hope that makes sense. As for programming/setup: The menus have changed from the non-'Plus' version of these units, and perhaps have even evolved during the most current run of the 'Plus' models from anything I've been able to find on the internet. Menu option 054 will take you to the repeater on/off selector menu, however to tell the units what they are, you must SCROLL from that menu number, back to itself where it'll give you the repeater mode option, where you can select either TX or RX. You'll need to select #7 on the keypad of the mic (the only way I could get this to work) to take the radio back out of repeater mode, hit the #2 button to key in the frequency number, then hit #7 again to turn the repeater back on. This is an order of operations exercise that I finally figured out, and it appears to be the only way this will function. Finally, I had to go in and set the CTCSS tone by selecting menu option 009 on the RX unit and 010 on the TX unit. You can do this by manually setting it to 000.0 MHz via the keypad, or by selecting a pre-selected value by scrolling up and down. I could not get the repeater to work until this final step had been performed even though it defaulted to 'off'. The new manual doesn't (at least from my poking through it) identify what the repeater mode active symbol is correctly. It is the same as the prior non-'Plus' model with the crossed arrows, however the manual seems to indicate a '+' is used instead.

The cable supplied is, if anything, is unnecessarily long; no issue there at all. Shielding shouldn't be an issue either, and I don't believe is in the mix at the moment because what appears to be the trouble is that it isn't pushing the signal from the RX unit to the TX. Oddly, the TX will show a 'receive' indicator but the RX unit will not. This could be normal, but it'd surprise me. It doesn't matter which of the other two units I set up as RX, none of them will indicate a receive. When I transmit on a separate radio, and have the TX side of the repeater pair's speaker active, I will hear my voice through the repeater, but it doesn't appear to actually be radiating a signal via the antenna. This makes me think it is a data stream issue related to programming, which brings me right back to 'what am I not doing correctly', but unfortunately can't seem to be answered by the manual or any of the other resources I've found. Moreover, I went to the Wouxan website and discovered that the KG-1000G isn't listed in their radio set (that I could find) so perhaps they've deep-sixed this unit. Who knows? I do know they were backordered.

While I appreciate these, you'll find that I addressed the first video in my first post; that is not the 'Plus' version and the menu options have changed, and the information in the manual is complete. The second video is one I've watched, which I've also refenced (I've consumed the entire series as well as the KG1000G videos Randy has made), but there are some gaps there as well and it was unclear whether or not the repeaters used were Plus models or the prior models, though they are almost certainly the prior units due to the menus differing (though I suppose the latest iteration which I have may have captured changes that even Plus models of just a bit ago may not have).

Except he didn't. The entire diatribe was a bit back-handed and then reenforced answers which had nothing to do with the questions. You can feel free to quote my questions, if it'll help. Hell, during the initial post I even stated outright that I didn't mind being corrected on points I might be wrong about, which is why the rather exhaustive description was offered. So far, what I'm seeing is grade-school level 'us vs. them' nonsense which is unhelpful, and if anyone reading this far is being honest, they'll see the same; it's objectively true. I do appreciate your well wishes with the project. Many folks have used these, successfully, as repeaters which are well within my use-case, and after performing a few searches here, found this thread and figured it would be the most applicable without starting up new (being respectful and all). I simply don't cotton to the 'just buy something else' idea while utterly ignoring the actual topic, which is precisely what happened. It's rude, and it is intentionally unhelpful.

You're welcome for my service, and while I don't really care to mention degrees, the implication was that I had no idea what I was talking about. We can get into work experience too and what I did for the last roughly three decades, but as you point out that's as irrelevant as the initial appeal to authority argument that was presented to me which was coupled with a rather patronizing tone (which was quite intentional; very sad-hammish). I'm a bit curious to know what your understanding of forums is, since it would seem to run contrary to their purpose which would be to explore ideas and discussions which promote solutions to problems, particularly in threads which are created specifically to resolve an issue where help was solicited. I suspect that if someone had posted a general question you'd be the first guy to suggest "jUsT uSE tEh SUrCh FunKsHUn!" Now there's a problem with your directions analogy: I didn't proverbially ask directions and then yell at the people who gave them. The correct analogy would be that I went to a town and asked directions to a place from a local who knew the place, but instead of giving them to me or telling me they didn't have good directions to give (or simply kept silent) they told me that the directions I needed were to a place that they didn't like much, and because they didn't like it much that I should just go to another place instead and that I was really unqualified to make any distinction between where I needed directions to an the other place they wanted me to go, and then whined incessantly and threw a tantrum when I pointed out that I really just needed directions to the place I asked about to begin with. Maybe you can't see the difference, but I suspect you can and you're trying to dig out of a hole that shouldn't have ever been dug.

Never a bad idea. I was avionics (Electronic Warfare) for a good many years while active duty, and part of that was doing EM hardening and TEMPEST controls which involved a lot of shielding discipline and cat-separation protocols (particularly for secret squirrel data isolation). I followed that up as a systems engineer and got into program management for depot retrofit/upgrade on aircraft/airborne systems that do collection activities in these spectrums for a couple of decades. While there may be more than one term for 'crossover cable' that's precisely how we made what we called crossover cables so that systems could talk back and forth while being able to internally duplex info (which made it a lot faster since you weren't shoving serial data). I'd been under the assumption that the included (rather long) head relocation cable (which is what I've been referring to as the crossover cable) would be the appropriate one to use for the aforementioned reasons, but it occurred to me at some point that I might not be correct there, and so hunted through the manual to get some clarity. I'm not saying the manual doesn't hold this little nugget of info, but I can say that if it does, I haven't been able to uncover it. As always, there are reasons that make sense for us to be using the KG system for now. If I can get it up and running I'll be happy to push for a dedicated, purpose-built unit in the future, and have been under no delusions that one might be better than the other as a dedicated system, but for now there are specific reasons to use a setup more like this one. We'd briefly considered the Retevis 97 system but there were order issues as well as some increasingly shady business practices by Retevis directly which made us back out, and the system was rather low powered and rated for lower duty cycles than the KGs are, so it seemed like a no brainer. Higher power, greater versatility, and presumably commonality of other radio systems we are already using.

Your videos actually led me to this particular setup, and the ability to split the system and get two mobile units is appealing for a variety of reasons (and I deeply appreciate the effort you put into them; thank you). Much like you I'm elevated, but sit across from a mountain range (roughly 3 miles or less LOS); a highway bisects my town and sits between me and the opposite mountain range. Ideally we'd mount it on the west side of the highway such that it'd give better coverage to the folks on my side of the highway (which is a lower mountain range), and that could be an option. However, running it as a mobile set up inside my home, on a mag base, I was able to get extremely good reception and transmission at over 30 miles from a verified contact south, 5 miles north, and 2 miles west (those are just the contacts that popped up). This represents plenty of spread for my use-case so my fars needs are met, and as this isn't going to be a 'hot use' repeater, I wouldn't expect the duty cycle to be an issue; this augments ham systems in place and a developing Meshtastic system (triple-layer comms...). While a dedicated GMRS may be in the future, it's something that we'd need to prove out, and would buy or build new, and this also lends nicely to having the option to later re-purpose the KG1Ks to other folks doing different duties. When you set up the KGs as repeaters, were you using the Plus models or the standard ones? Picking your brain on the matter would be helpful; I'm absolutely fine with some operator error being the cause of my issues, but being able to resolve it is key. The new manual for the Plus units directs you to page 91 for how to put them into repeater active mode (menu item 54), but you have to scroll all the way through all menu items to get back to menu item 54 before it gives you the option to select what the unit will be doing as part of the repeater (TX or RX). There's no mention of when or how to set up the frequencies. I think I'm just experiencing an issue with order of operations. Heck, if you don't already have these units (pluses) and wanted to make a more detailed video, I'd be happy to send them out to you; I'm sure it'd be appreciated by many, and perhaps if there is a problem with the units you'd have Wouxan's proverbial ear holes to explain the issues... the issues. Let me know.

It's funny how folks just assume what people's experiences are and then elevate themselves; that's a serious narcissism issue you have there, but you've coupled it nicely with some staggering hubris which rounds it off nicely. As before, do you have some constructive help for the very specific questions I've answered or would you like to continue smelling your own farts and telling us how they're rosy?

What kind of warranties do they have? Are they brand new? Do you have any idea the lifespan of the components of these things? I am former USAF, in EW with a couple of degrees behind me. I'm not looking for used items with shady sellers, thanks. I'd like new equipment, which is why I bought new equipment. Now please point me to three examples of those which are factory fresh, brand new in the box. Then we can discuss. Also, how many of those (spoiler, alert, the answer is zero) can I turn into base stations or mobile radios? I bought what I bought for some specific reasons, and if I'd wanted to discuss other repeater options, I'd have started a new thread on that subject.

Really? I asked a specific question, with very specific details and got no response related to any of that data. In fact, I got a response that simply had nothing to do with anything I'd asked; this is, by definition, not constructive. Also, please link all these wonderful repeaters that are available on the market for $700. I'll happily entertain them.

Yeah, cool story bro. Now do you have any constructive comments?

Just got my KG1000G Plus radios (three total; one for the truck, and two to be used as a local repeater). I cannot, for the life of me, get them to work as a repeater. The 'Plus' units have different menu numbers and commands. Of note is the repeater function (054). If you go directly there, it'll say 'REPEATER'. You can select it and turn it on or off. However to tell the radio whether or not it is to perform in RX or TX, you have to manually scroll all the way through (up or down) to 054 again where it then presents as 'repeater mode' and allows you to make the selection. Nothing about connecting the two refers to whether it wants you to use the crossover cable (which connects the head unit to the radio) or if you should use a standard RG234/ethernet cable. Neither work for me, however I could stand to buy a new ethernet cable rather than fiddle with this older one I have tried. So the cable itself is a 'maybe issue' In the YT videos from buytwowayradios shows the opposite frequency programming of what I'd expect; inverting the TX and RX frequencies. That's counterintuitive unless the system expects that it'll receive the transmitted frequency and then broadcast on the receive frequency. If so, fine, but it seems inverted. I have tried both ways, and this doesn't seem to make any difference. I've also noticed that unless you do a factory reset of the factory image from the computer, you're SOL trying to get them to be anything but a repeater; you can't change them back via the keypad or menu options after you put it into repeater mode. That's an issue. Speaking of which, it also doesn't seem that you can tell the radios to go to, say, channel 25 (repeater 17), but that you have to program it in VFO mode, THEN tell it to be a repeater, THEN tell it what kind of repeater it should be (either TX or RX). You can't do this in the software either, you can program a priority channel, but that doesn't solve this issue either, and it'll just default to GMRS-1 unless you pre-program the radio manually via VFO mode as previously mentioned. At this point I'm tempted to send at least one back (possibly two) along with an antenna, power supplies (I'm using Wouxan DWC30WINs; one for each radio, so they have plenty of power at 13.8VDC). I'm okay with being corrected, for sure. If I've done something wrong, by all means tell me. If not... well... any magic bullets for this?