dosw

Do you have a data cable for your UV5G? I have two UV5Gs, but couldn't tell you how to program a repeater into them from the keypad. I know it's a two step process, but to me at least, I find CHIRP more intuitive. Here are the steps with CHIRP: Download and install CHIRP on your computer. Plug in the cable and turn on the radio. Select the Radioditty UV5G as the radio type under the "Radio" menu. Download the current configuration from the radio. In CHIRP, add repeaters and channels as you prefer. Upload it all back into the radio. I realize this is more than two steps. But it's convenient having everything on one screen where you can compare one row to another to verify you've got settings correct, and where you can easily organize your entries into segments within the radio's memory. A cable will set you back $8 to $14, and could arrive at your doorstep as early as tomorrow. Once you've gotten familiar with CHIRP, the familiarity will follow you to other radios in the future. For example, I recently obtained a Retevis RA87. It came with a cable, works with CHIRP, and I uploaded my channel lineup to it within minutes of installing it in my vehicle. Repeaters usually require an input tone to get them to listen to you. And they often send an output tone that you can set your radio to listen for. The input tone on the repeater prevents it from retransmitting a bunch of kids playing on dad's FRS radios a block or two away. The input tone causes the repeater to only open itself up to retransmit when the incoming signal is on the right channel, and transmitting the correct sub-audible tone. When it hears that tone on the frequency it's tuned to, it begins retransmitting on its output frequency. On its output frequency a repeater will usually also transmit a subaudible tone. This is for you, the listener's benefit. If you set that same tone in your radio, it will only open itself up to playing the incoming transmission if the tone is also heard. You are not required to set an RX tone. If you do not, your radio will play over its speaker anything it can hear on the frequency you're listening to. If you do set a tone, it must be the same tone that the repeater is sending, so that it can sense that tone and play over its speaker the incoming transmission. So to summarize: To send a transmission through a repeater you must be on the correct frequency, and you must have your radio set to transmit the tone that repeater requires. To listen to a repeater, you can set no tone (and you'll hear everything transmitted on that frequency), or you can set the repeater's output tone (and you'll only hear that repeater). If you set an RX tone on your radio, it has to be correct or you won't hear incoming transmissions. Your output (TX) tone must always be correct or the repeater won't listen to you.

Just found this: 60w amateur transceiver This appears to be the same radio as the RA87, with an Amateur radio firmware instead of a GMRS firmware. It appears to be a single-band radio, that allows one to choose between 134-176MHz/ 340-400MHz/ 400-480MHz. This model is called Recent RS-900, and is marketed as 60w. Yesterday I found some literature showing that the RS-900 can transmit at 60w/50w, whatever that means (I found somewhere a source that claimed 60w for VHF, 50w for UHF, but I can't find that now. Here's another link: https://www.anyradios.com/product/recent-rs-900-vehicle-mouted-radio/ In this link, you must select the version; vhf, 340-400UHF, or the 400-480 UHF band, which further supports that this is a single band radio, probably configured by its firmware. Using this link you can see the power levels that the RS900 should be capable of: https://twowayradioshoppe.com/copy-of-copy-of-vhf-marineb-transceiver-mobile-radio-rs-900-p4476598.html . In that link, the power levels are listed as 5/10/20/30/50. I think that the RA87's manual claims 5/10/20/30/40. So I don't know if the marketing is inflated for the RS900 (showing 50 max), or if the GMRS firmware for it is capping at 40w, or if the manual for the GMRS version is just wrong, since there are some reviews for the RA87 that claim people are getting more than 40w out of it. Anyway, it doesn't ultimately matter; 35w, 40w, 50w... all about the same thing.

All my computers run Ubuntu Linux. Chirp is easy to install on Debian derivatives; Mint, Mate, vanilla Ubuntu, and so on. I've been using Chirp there for a couple of years. You can also see the list of supported devices on the Chirp website, and even download all of the Chirp source code from GitHub to read through.

I was reading the CHIRP python code for the RA-87 and spotted a few interesting sections: 1: A listing of the actual (targeted) power level for each of the power settings (low, low2, low3, mid, high). POWER_LEVELS = [chirp_common.PowerLevel("Low", watts=5.00), chirp_common.PowerLevel("Low2", watts=10.00), chirp_common.PowerLevel("Low3", watts=15.00), chirp_common.PowerLevel("Mid", watts=20.00), chirp_common.PowerLevel("High", watts=40.00)] 2: The programming indicates that the "left" and "right" side of the radio have rather independent memories. This is also described a bit in the manual. But to be a little clearer, the radio is marketed as having 200 memory slots for programming, and while this is correct, 100 of them are the left side, and 100 of them are the right side. In the highly unlikely event that you would ever need more than 100 repeaters programmed into your device, for example, you would need to program some of them into the left, and some into the right. For GMRS this is not terribly significant; though there may be a few people who use a lot of memory banks, I suspect that most of us aren't using more than 100. If you need <100 total, then you could make left and right both contain the same things. But I suppose for those who want many configuration combinations for GMRS frequencies, you could burn through 100 and have to start using the left side and right side for separate configuration storage. 3: The CHIRP driver for the RA-87 sets "VALID_BANDS" to [(400000000, 480000000)]. It would be interesting to see what happens if one added more ranges to VALID_BANDS. (Bricking the radio is a possible "what happens", though.) This seems to align with what others have posted, that this radio will scan frequencies between 400MHz and 480MHz but not outside that range. It does look like tuning steps can be set to 5, 6.25, 10, 12.5, 15, 20, 25, 30, 50, and 100 (kHZ?). 4: The RA87StyleRadio class definition sets _gmrs = True. I imagine this results in allowing transmission on GMRS frequencies. In searching the code, I do see other radios setting _gmrs = True, or False, and see that other common settings for other radios are _ham, _murs, _pmr... with appropriate bands set in various ways. There is another thread on mygmrs where the question is asked whether the RA87 can scan 2m frequencies (and another comment that the manual doesn't mention any such capability). It is possible that this is simply not a capability of the RA87 hardware, but it would be interesting to modify the CHIRP driver for the RA87 to replace VALID_BANDS = [(4000000000, 4800000000)] with VALID_BANDS = [(1440000000, 1480000000), (4000000000, 4800000000)] ...and upload that to the radio, hopefully not bricking it in the process. I'm sure that adding _ham = True would cross over the no-longer-type-accepted line, though. And who knows if the radio would die a sudden death if one were to key up in 2m. For anyone who wants to look at the CHIRP driver code for this radio: https://chirpmyradio.com/projects/chirp/repository/github/revisions/d644af4b89c8edfe1b59f2f4aa929fc725056edd/entry/chirp/drivers/retevis_ra87.py

Correct. They would have to move the entire screw-in-rods section to below the bracket, and lower the height of the NMO threads so that the bracket's plate could become the backing plate against which the antenna's o-ring seats. Who knows if they'll get it right. Doesn't seem like that hard of a concept but people manufacture what the blueprints say without asking questions, and the blueprints were probably drafted by someone who was just delivering what was asked for, but without fully understanding the problem being solved. Again, the purpose got lost in the several hops between good intentions and implementation.

Interesting suggestion but it defies the explanations provided in amateur radio study guides (here's one: https://www.kb6nu.com/extra-class-question-of-the-day-effective-radiated-power/ ), and in Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Effective_radiated_power ). Putting "not" in caps and adding an exclamation point doesn't make an incorrect statement true. But I could be persuaded that all the reputable sources of information are incorrect if a persuasive argument were made with supporting proof.

I bought a Nagoya GPK-01 ground plane kit, and discovered that it isn't weatherproof. Pictures attached... With the antenna fully screwed down to the NMO threads, the ground plane rods cannot be connected. With the ground plane rods connected, you cannot fully tighten an antenna on the NMO threads. In either case, the O-ring on NMO antennas is greater diameter than the NMO backing on the GPK-01 ground plane kit. I've tried this with an HYS SDN1-T, a Midland MXTA25, and a Midland MXTA26. Each one had an o-ring of greater diameter than the backing of the NMO mount, and each one extended low enough when fully threaded that the ground plane rods couldn't be attached. I reached out to Btech before returning the product because I wanted to make sure that I was not mistaken. Btech responded within a day to say that they were forwarding the pictures and description of the problem for further review. A day later they responded to say that they were going to be addressing this issue "at manufacturing", and would send me a replacement sample for evaluation after the corrections have been made. It'll probably be a little too late for my needs; I will just get a no-ground-plane antenna to put on the sailboat mast, and don't intend to lower the mast again for a few years. But I'm really happy with the outcome of the email to support, since it helped them to recognize a design deficiency, and because they do intend to correct it. Once I've received the replacement I'll post here about it. As I look at the pictures, it seems like the part that the rods screw into could be manufactured so that it's below the bracket, and the antenna could mate against the bracket itself.

Continue asking questions. Answerable questions are great. You didn't mention what GMRS handheld you have. Some models like Midland handhelds don't allow for removing the antenna. But in the GMRS realm that's less common. Nevertheless, before buying an antenna and an adapter, do make sure you are able to remove the one that came with the HT

The RT15 handheld Retevis FRS radios state in their marketing literature that you can communicate with other 22-channel radios on channels 1-5. That tells me that other channels probably have squelch tones set that would prevent you being able to hear other radios on anything above channel 5 (unless you happen to figure out what tone is set in those radios). Set the RT15 FRS radios to channel 1. Set the MXT105 to channel 1 with no tones set (this should be the default configuration unless you've changed something). Now they both should be able to hear each other. And they should work compatibly on channels 1-5.

Looking forward to getting mine in a few days. It's been ordered. I'll put the RA87 in my vehicle, and will demote the MXT275 currently in the vehicle to getting moved back and forth between a boat and an RV (since they're never used at the same time) as needed. I was able to check into a net 63 miles away yesterday using the MXT275, using an MXTA26 antenna, though not with strong quieting. This upgrade ought to help.

100 feet of RG58 could be an issue. You can buy 100 feet of LMR400 and have far less signal loss than with RG58. I'm in the process of assembling the parts to put a GMRS antenna on a sailboat mast, and even though it's rather thick and heavy, went with LMR400 to avoid losing all the gain the antenna produces over the course of a 50 foot run. RG58 will have an attenuation of approximately 10.6db at 100 feet, whereas LMR400 will have an attenuation of approximately 2.7db. It's unfortunate to lose most of the benefit of an antenna through the coax.

With no tones programmed, can you hear the repeaters? Set your handheld on one repeater output frequency with a cheap vox / voice activated recorder attached, and come back in a few hours. Did anyone identify using a GMRS call sign? Hearing activity is the first step.

I thought I'd follow up here regarding the Nagoya Ground Plane kit. From what I can tell (having ordered and assembled it), it suffers from two shortcomings that make it pretty much defective by design. Any NMO antenna from my collection (MXTA25, MXTA26, and a Nagoya 5/8ths wave 17" antenna) cannot fully tighten down against the NMO mount because the ground plane rods are in the way of tightening it down. There is no backing plate around the NMO threads, so every NMO antenna that has an o-ring around its base to prevent water intrusion has nowhere to form a seal. Actually the base of any NMO antenna I've seen should press against the perimeter of the NMO mount. But in the case of this kit, it presses only against the ground plane rods. Therefore, it can't be fully tightened, and even if it could be, it would not be a weatherproof seal. This is for the Nagoya GPK-01 ground plane kit. So this kit is probably getting sent back. Has anyone found an NMO ground plane kit that would be appropriate for a sailboat masthead? I've searched high and low. One that allows water intrusion can't be it.

(d) 467 MHz interstitial channels. Only hand-held portable units may transmit on these 7 channels. The channel center frequencies are: 467.5625, 467.5875, 467.6125, 467.6375, 467.6625, 467.6875, and 467.7125 MHz. (c) 467 MHz interstitial channels. The effective radiated power (ERP) of hand-held portable units transmitting on the 467 MHz interstitial channels must not exceed 0.5 Watt. Each GMRS transmitter type capable of transmitting on these channels must be designed such that the ERP does not exceed 0.5 Watt. Putting that aside (because if I had been following along I would have seen that others already posted the rule), you are 100% correct that it is lazy if the manufacturer has simply designated *memory slots* 8-14 to not transmit, but hasn't placed restrictions on transmitting on *frequencies*. If the mobile radio can transmit on the 467 interstitials just by placing one of those frequencies in a different memory slot, the radio probably shouldn't have been approved. And it clearly is rather braindead for the manufacturer to simply block transmitting on any frequency that has been programmed into memory slots 8-14. It sounds like the embedded system firmware developers didn't understand the assignment. I can see how that can happen, since I work in the software industry. Somewhere some product person heard from legal that they need to prevent transmitting on the 467 interstitial frequencies. And by the time that got from legal to product to a Jira story to a developer, the "why" was forgotten, and the developer just delivered what he was asked: Make it so this radio can't transmit on 8-14.

The amateur technician license exam has some opinions on the topic. Sharp bends in the grounding wire must be avoided, connections should be short and direct, feed line lightning arrestor should be connected to a grounded panel near where the feed line enters the building, grounding rods should be bound together with heavy wire or conductive strap, and tower legs should have independent 8 foot rods sunk into the ground. At least I think those are the answers most relevent to this question.

Set them both to the same channel, first. Next, disable PL tones or DCS tones on both, so that they're both transmitting without squelch tones, and both receiving without squelch tones. Make sure you're not set to a repeater profile or repeater channel. The very first step is to get them talking directly to each other with no squelch tones, simplex. After you've done that, you should be able to begin layering in additional complexity; on a simplex channel set a squelch tone. Be aware that the KG935G+ and the MXT500 have different ways of setting tones. The MXT500 uses code numbers to represent the tones, whereas the other radio probably uses the actual tone frequency. So you'll have to look up in the MXT500 manual how to crossreference the correct code to represent that tone. Of course, all of this should be done in relatively close proximity to each other. Later on when you work repeaters, youi'll need to have the radios separated far enough that they don't deafen each other.

My magnetic NMO mount came with a rubberized shoe that fits around its base, presumably to not scratch the roof of a vehicle the antenna is attached to. Does this insulation degrade (or completely eliminate) the benefit of a ground plane? With the rubberized shoe over the base, there's no metal-to-paint or metal-to-metal contact with the vehicle's roof.

But the question we're all really wanting answered is what the subject line "Mr" means.

As much as I wouldn't put it past their members to do something like this, and as much as it brings many of us pleasure to see them writhe in discovering flaws in their unsustainable conviction, that specific rumor was a hoax, and was discredited by Snopes. The beauty in the hoax is how believable it is. Watch them explain the ISS, which is always at predictable locations in the sky that are easy to explain if you believe it's in a 254 mile high orbit, and impossible to explain in a way that doesn't have flaws, or require more technology than exists, in an FE model. And the fun thing is that amateur radio hobbiests can contact it, in part, by understanding its predictable orbit, and someone with a run of the mill telescope can see it moving in a trajectory that defies coherent FE explanations.

Let's take that assertion by assertion: "Almost all GMRS radios also support FRS frequencies..." That would be true if you said that GMRS and FRS share the same frequencies entirely, except that FRS radios can't transmit on the repeater input frequencies. All current GMRS handheld radios support all FRS frequencies. FRS and GMRS use all of the same frequencies except for repeaters. GMRS mobile can't transmit on 8-14. "Channels 8-14 on a typical 22 channel consumer radio are reserved exclusively for FRS" That's just incorrect. GMRS handheld radios may transmit on all 22 channels so long as they don't exceed 500mw on 8-14 and stay narrowband on 8-14, or 5w on 1-7. Only handheld GMRS may transmit on 8-14 (and FRS). No mobiles. But GMRS handhelds are fine. Look it up. I did. "These channels can be license-free, ..." No. If you are operating a handheld GMRS radio on any GMRS channel, any of the 22, including 8-14, you are supposed to be licensed. If you are operating an FRS radio on those channels, you don't need a license. "So if yes unlocked the radios will transmit establishing open communications and ensuring the operator has a established license and follows FCC rules. " I can't quite make sense of what you're saying there. But an unlocked amateur radio isn't supposed to be used for GMRS. I'm talking about what is authorized, not what is possible, and not what is enforced. There's really nobody enforcing the use of a handheld ham radio that's been unlocked for GMRS, so long as it's following power limit rules, and not being used to cause a lot of trouble. But according to the rules of the FCCs, you're not supposed to use an unlocked device for GMRS. This is clear in the FCC spec. In practice, those who use any radio for GMRS, stay conformant in terms of bandwidth, power levels, frequency centers, and the stipulation that 8-14 is for handheld, not mobile, nobody really seems to actually care enough to try to enforce whether the radio was unlocked or not.

I find GMRS to really be this, as described above; a tool in support of activities, not the activity itself. I use it for camping, hiking, caravanning, skiing (that's a big one), occasionally at outdoor places like amusement parks, and more recently sailing since ship-to-shore communications are so highly regulated over Marine VHF. I can't help but enjoy it as a hobby in and of itself, but recognize most people just buy a couple (or more) radios and go about using them in their activity.

The radio can be set so that the top row and bottom row are different frequencies, or different memory banks (channels). The radio can be configured to dual-monitor those frequencies or channels. But that's optional. The radio can be configured so that the next time you transmit, it will be on the channel that received traffic most recently. That's also optional, and dependent on dual-monitoring being turned on. The radio can be configured so that it is NOT dual monitoring. In this case, the dual rows just makes it really easy to switch between two channels/frequencies. An example: I could have a radio configured to reach my family on the "A" row, and another family at another campsite, or a hiking group, on the "B" row. I can dual-monitor those two rows, or I can single-monitor but switch quickly using the "A/B" button. With your Baofeng, all of these options are available; dual scan, single scan, transmit on most recently scanned, or transmit only on the row you have manually selected. But the point really is that you can set up "A" for one person or group, and "B" for another, and listen to both.

1) So, transmitting on one simplex channel, and receiving on another. 2x the opportunity for interfering with other users, or being interfered with. I would think that using the standard repeater channels is more reliable. 2) Midland, as an example, has a crossreference guide in its instruction manuals that identifies which tone number matches which actual tone. I have found that the Midland PL tone numbers are at least largely compatible with the PL tone numbers for my old Motorola FRS radio. Other manufacturers may vary, and hopefully would publish their crossreference. And of course some manufacturers don't use numbers, but instead just let you pick from actual tone frequencies. 3) I have an old Motorola FRS that has a scramble mode that is compatible with other Motorolas with the same feature, from the same era. But I don't think that scrambling on FRS or GMRS are allowed under current FCC rules, so there aren't any radios being manufactured today that are FRS or GMRS compliant that offer scrambling. The feature has mostly disappeared. The bandwidth for FRS is something like 12khz, and 20khz for GMRS except for channels 8-14 which remain 12khz. I don't think the old scrambling modes would shift outside of the narrowband range, but one would have to test to be sure. And since it's pretty rare to find an old unit that had that feature, it's rather moot. 4) The FCC seems only to approve a radio for GMRS if it can only transmit on GMRS frequencies. Some can be unlocked, or switched to other modes, though. But the unlocking is mostly an undocumented "feature". Ham radios aren't approved for GMRS, and GMRS radios can only transmit on GMRS. On the other hand, nobody's looking over your shoulder as long as you're observing the rules of the road for the service you're transmitting in. In other words, it's pretty much impossible to know that you're using a UV-5r ham radio to transmit on GMRS, and unless you're creating a scene, nobody's going to care. 5) GMRS radios can receive whatever frequencies the manufacturer wants to allow it to receive. But they must only be configurable for transmission on GMRS frequencies. 6) No way of knowing how many. Probably lots. Get your GMRS license, program whatever radio you want to correctly transmit on GMRS (correct bandwidth, correct center frequency, correct power level, etc.) and use it for that purpose. You'll possibly be in violation but undetectably so. If you're being a good GMRS citizen in every other way, you'll already be a step ahead of the kiddies playing with blister pack GMRS radios.

Is the radio configured to wideband?

Those aren't inherently GMRS radios. The UV-5r has to be "unlocked" to transmit on GMRS frequencies. I imagine the TD-H3 also has to be configured in some way before it will transmit on GMRS frequencies. You bought ham radios for GMRS. They're probably capable, but won't just transmit on GMRS frequencies out of the box without some configuration. Unfortunately the question, as asked, doesn't explain what state you're currently in, other than "it doesn't work." Has the UV-5r been unlocked for GMRS? Has the TD-H3 been configured for GMRS transmission? If you transmit from the UV-5r to the cheapest FRS radio from Walmart, does that radio pick it up? If you transmit from that radio back to the Baofeng, does the Baofeng pick it up? Now try the same with the TD-H3. Because that cheap FRS radio will require no configuration other than to select a channel that corresponds with the frequency you're trying to work, this strategy would remove one half of the complexity from the testing. Amazon has a cheap FRS pair for $16.99. Since FRS uses the same frequencies as GMRS, you're using the simplest device to check the more complex device's configuration. And when you're done testing, you have a couple of extra, super cheap FRS, super simple to use radios to toss into the glovebox and use for close-range communications once in awhile, or to hand out to an unlicensed, non-radio-savvy friend to use.