WRQV528

To my knowledge it is only one-way traffic; I have never heard any follow-up transmissions in the moments after a page.

For a while I have noticed paging occurring on channel 5 (462.6625 MHz) in a nearby area. I never gave it too much thought, but after weakly receiving a page on channel 19 (462.6500 MHz) in the same area last night, I am now very curious... Are these agencies relying on GMRS for paging? Have they or a civilian set-up a (maybe one-way?) crossband repeater of sorts? In any case, why? What is the meaning of this?

Is there any documentation or how-to(s) on calibrating this model? I have not been able to find any.

When I first connected my Surecom SW-102 and a 100W dummy load to my DB25-G with a standalone power supply, I was pretty disappointed with what I saw. It peaks at about 13.9W (it is marketed as a 25W radio), and then falls from there. So I wanted to take more measurements, and compare them to other radios to see if something other than the DB25-G is at fault... and my reaction is "say it isn't so!" This evening I spent about 2–3 hours taking measurements with all of my radios. For each channel, going in order from left-to-right as listed in the table of readings below, I would transmit for about 60–75 seconds, and the number I would record is part the power reading I saw the most of that time (the mode), part the average (so the number is slightly subjective). There would be only a brief break in between each trial; except for the DB25-G where I would wait for the fan to spin down completely, which I would guess takes less than 10 seconds. VSWR with the dummy load varied between 1.00–1.03, and VSWR of the antenna got as high as 1.77; though I was not paying too much attention to it throughout all the trials. Let me know if I need to provide more information on my testing "methodology" and/or my equipment. Is there anything weird about these readings (other than that the UV-5R Plus was surprisingly consistent compared to all the others)? Why am I not getting a reading from the 0.5W channels on my KG-935G? And, most importantly, is my DB25-G underperforming?

After watching @OffRoaderX's review of the Baofeng GMRS-9R, I've been wondering if it's a fully fixed UV-9G without the 8 issues outlined by him back in August, listed below. The ones I have crossed-out I believe are not applicable to the GMRS-9R based off of his review and reviews on Amazon, but if I am wrong, please correct me of course. Does the GMRS-9R have the following issues that existed on the original inventory of UV-9Gs... Pre-set CTCSS/DCS on all stock channels? All channels set to narrowband? Difficulty swapping the screw to/from the headset cover to/from the programming cable (solved by including two screws in the package)? Missing CHIRP compatibility? Baofeng's programming software is in RAR and not ZIP? Cannot change transmit power with the "#" button? Inflexible DIY channels? Antenna interface cannot accommodate other antennas such as the Nagoya NA-771G without modification?

I have added a set of 90 UHF business frequencies as enumerated by the Motorola CLP series of radios. The original set has been renamed to distinguish the two. I would have combined them into one file, but at 90 entries you'd be taking up the majority of a Baofeng's channel slots.

I have added CSVs for Midland's "Extra" Channels and MURS, and comments to all files; see the original post and the now-added Changelog section for more information.

Whoops, I guess I read too much into your post then. This thread has inspired me to make a table of how "privacy codes" are not such. I hope many find it helpful. The forum scales down the image and makes it a little blurry; see the attached ZIP for the original in actual size. HowPrivacyTonesReallyWorkVersion2.zip

Ah, yes, because strictly speaking, @axorlov didn't say that each woman's radio was configured to use any tone on that frequency.

Huh. I thought one of the purposes of a dummy load was to prevent interference, especially at that far of a distance. Is there a device that accomplishes this?

I recently bought a 100W PL-259 male dummy load that I wish to connect to a Baofeng UV-5R Plus, which is SMA male, using the necessary adapter. When testing the dummy load at 1W on GMRS channels, the transmission can be received crystal clear at 10 yards line-of-sight (and likely extends farther than that). Removing the dummy load and transmitting without an antenna yields the same results. I'm confused... I know a dummy load doesn't completely absorb or dampen all the RF that's pumped into it, but is it really typical for a transmission to still go that far? Have I chosen the wrong dummy load for this radio? Is the dummy load defective? I notice the SMA female side of the adapter is not flush with the entire SMA male connector on the UV-5R as it does with an antenna... is RF escaping from this gap?

(This was going to be a reply to one of @OffRoaderX's most recent video and associated forum topic, but I felt like I would be hijacking the thread so I made a new topic instead.) For a while I've found it odd that the most feature-rich and/or popular GMRS radios are designed and engineered in China. To be sure, born and bred Chinese brands that have a foothold outside of their mainland are not really new, but I have never heard of born and bred Chinese brands quickly rising to prominence in a market that is entirely foreign to them and relatively new, which in this case are GMRS radios made after the Part 95 reform of 2017. Maybe this is hyperbole, but in a sense it seems analogous to the Japanese takeover of the American automobile market: I get the impression that they seem to have a sizable market share, while some of the more well-known names in radio equipment, both American and (non-Chinese) foreign, seem to be idling and have yet to release products that are competitive in terms of feature set, (arguably) build quality, and price, with Midland and Motorola being the only competitors I can think of that are manufacturing GMRS radios at all. Does anyone have any insight or history as to how and why the GMRS market seems to have been cornered these days by the Chinese?

I just got an idea for a new video. "Today, I will be farting into jars for *you*... my favorite viewer."

Unfortunately, she will have to apply for her own license. There are two legalese passages— IANAL —that prevent your girlfriend from using your unused license. I agree, and I don't envy the task she has ahead. I recommend Notarubicon's guide for applying for a GMRS license; it's what I used to get mine. As for FRNs, after looking at the FCC's page about FRNs, it appears she will need her own, too, and the guide goes over that also. Onto the legalese. First, the legalese for GMRS actually has provisions for something close to what you want to do, but no cigar: a GMRS license may be used by "immediate family members" of the licensee. Part 95.1705(c)(2), the legalese in question, defines that term rather generously IMO, but it does not extend to boyfriends or girlfriends (weird, it extends to parents and stepparents, but only siblings and not stepsiblings): Second, while IANAL, I asked someone who is (obligatory disclaimer: they're not your lawyer) about what the "Conditions" section of my GMRS license means when I got my license. Incidentally, I believe part (or most) of her answer was along the lines of "you can't give it to someone else if you're bored with it and don't want it anymore." I'm guessing that that was conveyed by the following sentence from said section: Perhaps your conditions are different and more lenient... so YMMV? I don't know.

The past couple of days I've been thinking about how I would like to combine the best parts of several Baofeng models to create my "dream" Baofeng radio. Don't get me wrong, I'm happy with my Wouxun KG-935G, but if the price of this hypothetical radio were right... Here's my detailed list so far, which is in no particular order (at the moment, maybe I'll re-order them by rank later): 1. From the UV-5R family in general: a. Use this radio’s feature set, functionality, and design as a base for this hypothetical radio. b. Have a similar, compact design. Using the UV-5R family’s exact chassis would be preferable, but may not be possible considering 4.a. See also 1.e. c. Have the same set of buttons, with additional new button(s) optional if deemed desirable. See also 1.d. d. The ability to press MONI, CALL, VFO/MFR, A/B, and BAND (or a similar set of buttons, see also 1.c) while transmitting to generate repeater tones. e. A 3200mAh–3800mAh battery, either as standard, or as an extended battery. See also 1.b, 4.c. f. Use these radios’ TX/RX LED, or use one of similar apparent brightness (the UV-9G’s TX/RX LED appears quite dim). g. The “FACTORY” trick. h. Commercial FM radio functionality (considering this feature is being cut from some models due to a chip shortage, I feel like it should be an explicit part of the list). See also 6. i. CHIRP compatible. 2. From the UV-5RX3: a. 1.25m/220MHz RX and TX. 3. From the UV-5RTP: a. 1W/4W/8W transmit power. See also 9. 4. From the UV-9G: a. IP67 rating (see also 1.b, 4.c). b. Volume knob guard. See also 7. c. Considering the UV-9G does not have an extended battery, I feel I must point out 1.e. I wonder if this has anything to do with the IP67 rating (see 4.a)? 5. Support for 199 channels instead of 128 (256 would have been preferable, but the LCD for channel numbers can only represent up to 199, and for the sake of cost I wouldn’t want a new LCD to be developed). 6. The ability to save and recall commercial FM radio presets (how many, I’m not sure; 20 to put it on par with the KG-935 would be nice). See also 1.h. 7. A stiffer volume knob. See also 4.b. 8. A green LED for the LCD backlight in addition to the blue and orange LEDs that already exist on the UV-5R family and UV-9G, for a total of 7 color combinations. 9. The availability of 0.5W transmit power. See also 3.a. 10. A “priority channel” feature for scanning. 11. Weather alert radio functionality (1050Hz Warning Alarm Tone detection). What would you add or remove?

Hmm... it seems when I blank those fields (rToneFreq, cToneFreq, DtcsCode, DtcsPolarity), I get a "No channels found" error message when I try to import any of them. I've attached those files to this message. So far I've only been able to test my CSVs with Baofengs (UV-5G, UV-9G, UV-5R+, and UV-5RTP); the attached files do not import at all while the original ones (*_20220613.csv) import without an error message, and do not introduce any tone configuration as the file might lead one to believe. Let me know if any of you run into any issues when using either set, especially on a non-Baofeng. (EDIT: KEEPING FOR POSTERITY. DO NOT USE THE FILES BELOW.) wxChans_202206132314Z.csv wxAllocs_202206132314Z.csv gmrsChans_202206132314Z.csv bizChans_202206132314Z.csv

After recently programming a ham radio with a few sets of frequencies for listening, as it came with none pre-programmed, I decided to export the sets I made and post them here to save others the duplicate effort. Just download these files, then from CHIRP go to "File > Import". A few things to keep in mind: These files use Windows/CRLF line endings (hopefully this never makes a difference). I don't condone transmitting on these frequencies on with a ham radio (especially on the weather radio frequencies as they are for public safety), but am providing relevant notes should you dare do so. On this note, CHIRP does not export or import the "Power" column, so be sure to set power levels manually as noted (should you dare use a UV-5R on, e.g., GMRS). In a similar vein to 2.1., the "Comment" section you will see when importing describes settings you may have to set manually. I hope you find these helpful! I have only been able to test these files with several Baofeng models: UV-5G, UV-9G, UV-5R+, and UV-5RTP. Regardless of make and model, please let me know if you run into any issues. GMRS Channels gmrsChans_20220706TZ.csv Taken from a Baofeng UV-9G's defaults with tweaked names. NOTES: Channels 1–7 should be set to no more than 5W. Channels 8–14 to should be set to no more than 0.5W. Business Channels (UHF, Motorola CLS Series Enumeration) motoCLSBizChans_20220707TZ.csv Taken from the manual for the Motorola CLS1110 and CLS1410. This channel numbering scheme of 56 frequencies is used by several business radios, such as the aforementioned Motorola models, Advantage AWR series, and to my vague knowledge, some Kenwood and Midland business radios. NOTES: All channels should be set to no more than 1W. Business Channels (UHF, Motorola CLP Series Enumeration) motoCLPBizChans_20220707TZ.csv Taken from the manual for the Motorola CLP series. This channel numbering scheme of 90 frequencies is a superset of that used by the Motorola CLS series. NOTES: All channels should be set to no more than 1W. Weather Radio Frequencies (in order of allocation) wxAllocs_20220707TZ.csv Weather radio frequencies, with the first 7 numbered in the order in which they were allocated over the decades ("WX" order). This differs from, and includes more frequencies than, the numbering scheme used by most weather alert radios made since the early '00s; these tend to use the main 7 channels in ascending frequencies, available below. NOTES: Never transmit on these frequencies. These are for public safety (especially during severe weather events and other natural or man-made hazards). If you cannot disable transmitting on these frequencies on your radio(s), set power to the lowest setting possible to mitigate an accidental transmit should it occur. I have disabled scanning on these channels because weather radio stations operate 24/7/365. Weather Radio Channels (the main 7 in order of ascending frequencies) wxChans_20220706TZ.csv The 7 main weather radio frequencies, numbered in the order of ascending frequency ("Channel" order). I believe this channel order is mandated for weather radios wishing to be Public Alert™ certified. This differs from the numbering scheme used by many weather alert radios made before the early '00s, many handheld radios, and many handheld transceivers; these tend to use the "WX order", available above. 162.000MHz, 163.275MHz, and the 161MHz frequencies are omitted because they are not official weather radio channels in the United States (nor part of the Public Alert™ standard to my knowledge). NOTES: Never transmit on these frequencies. These are for public safety (especially during severe weather events and other natural or man-made hazards). If you cannot disable transmitting on these frequencies on your radio(s), set power to the lowest setting possible to mitigate an accidental transmit should it occur. I have disabled scanning on these channels because weather radio stations operate 24/7/365. Midland's "Extra" FRS Channels midlandExtraChans_20220706TZ.csv Based off-of a table on RadioReference's wiki. Channels 23-36 tested against a Midland T77A and confirmed working; channels 37-50 do not exist on this model so those are untested. MURS Channels mursChans_20220715TZ.csv Based off-of the text for Part 95J. NOTES: Make sure your radio's bandwidth does not exceed MURS' odd (with respect to GMRS) maximum bandwidths. For a Baofeng UV-5R, this means you can only transmit on MURS channels 4 and 5, and you must do this on narrowband mode. All channels should be set to no more than 2W. Keep in mind FM is not the only transmission mode allowed on MURS. (MURS is weird.) Changelog (dates and times in UTC): 2022-07-06: Added Midland's "Extra" FRS channels (only channels 23-36 have been tested and confirmed working as the only radio I could test against was a T77A). Added MURS channels. Populated the comment field in all rows of all files. These contain information on bandwidth and max TXP (transmit power), and other relevant information (bascially each row's respective "NOTES" bit). 2022-07-07: Introduced a set of business frequencies used by the Motorola CLP series, which is a superset of those found on the CLS series. Renamed the original business channel set from "bizChans" to "motoCLSBizChans". Removed redundant set of asterisks from "wxAllocs" for WX01. 2022-07-15: MURS channels 4 and 5 shared the same Location column value in the CSV, causing channel 4 to be ignored. Fixed.

Ah, the more you know! Thank you both, and thank you axorlov for reminding me that crimping exists (as I truly forgot). I've since ordered a pre-made Kenwood (or as the listing calls it, "T Shape Connector") to bare wire cable.

I recently received a Radioddity DB25-G and a Wouxun DWC30WIN 30A DC power supply. I had assumed that I could connect both out of the box, but this is not the case. The only cable the DWC30WIN came with was a standard power cable (IEC 60320 C13 to NEMA 5-15P if I'm being nerdy). The DB25-G unit itself has a non-removable pair of wires with an inline fuse coming out its backside that terminates with a male connector I was not familiar with, and the unit also came with a female version of that plug that has a male car cigarette lighter plug on the other end; photos of the then-mystery connectors are below. It took about 30 minutes for me to learn the name of this connector, and it appears to be called a "2-pin T connector", "Deans connector", and/or possibly something else. I could not find a pre-made cable that was a female Deans connector to either bare wire or male banana plug to connect the two devices, so I thought I was going to have to go all-out and build one myself... and I haven't even a soldering iron. So I went around on YouTube looking at reviews of the radio, hoping to see if any of them hinted at how they connected it with a DC power supply. I struck gold with Gadget Talk's review. He did something clever: just connect a wired female cigarette lighter plug to the power supply, then use the cable that came with the radio. So I ordered a female cigarette lighter plug to wire terminals. I'll cut off its terminals, strip its wires (I at least have a wire stripper), then screw into the power supply's terminals. TL;DR: If you're buying a mobile radio and a DC power supply with the intent to power your radio from the wall, you might not have all that you need to connect the two. In the case of a DB25-G, buy a wired female cigarette lighter plug and a wire stripper.

I see it as a useful SHTF feature, even though a more fully-featured AM/FM or shortwave radio would be preferable (at least IMO) in such situations. I enjoy it for casual listening as well; I have 13 out of the 20 available FM radio presets programmed on my KG-935G. On that note, I'd be pretty bummed if Wouxon went down the same road as Baofeng. I recently ordered a UV-5R+ and UV-5RTP off of Radioddity, and will be anxious to see if either are stripped of the FM radio feature. EDIT: Both radios, which were ordered on June 6, 2022, and arrived on Friday, June 10, both have the commercial FM radio functionality.