muggz

Thanks for your review and feedback; it's my shop and I'm happy you like the stands. I spend lots of time on each design for a snug-not-tight fit. If the mods are ok with me posting a link, here's a 10% off discount code for my shop, valid through 7 August 2024. https://blacklodgecreative.etsy.com?coupon=MYGMRS10 (mods sorry if this violates rule #1 and apologies if so) Cheers, Mike WRNQ661

Some radios, like the Wouxun KG-805G, have parasitic drain on the batteries when the radio is turned off. This will drain a connected battery more quickly, and if the battery/radio offer no protection circuit that's very bad for the battery.

I think I'm not breaking rules by posting this here, but happy to be corrected by mods if this self promotion is inappropriate. I make and sell stands for HTs, for the NanoVNA-H4, and for the tinySA ULTRA spectrum analyzer. https://blacklodgecreative.etsy.com I've also designed and printed TPU dust caps for connectors like SMA, type N, SO239/PL259, etc. They come in handy. I try to stay up to date with the newest releases

I picked up a Rocky Talkie 5W radio. Some peculiarities: All channels are set to narrowband by default. You can however go through a process to change each (high power) channel to wideband, and the change persists across power cycles. Channel 22 had a CTCSS tone configured out of the box. Its "TX beep" is local only, meaning when the beep's enabled it doesn't transmit the beep. It is not a roger beep. When setting CTCSS/DCS tones you can only see a slot number, not the frequency itself. Set your repeater tones with manual in-hand before you head out! The scan feature only offers CO mode, continuing scanning a few seconds after carrier drops. You have to enable repeater channels with a special power-on sequence. Once enabled, they stay enabled across power cycles. What I like about it: USB-C charging. Solid feel in hand. Battery life should be great, I haven't tested it. Simple enough for any family member to use. Relatively small size. The clip actually is a set of jaws with teeth for traction, unlike most clips that are a single blade that just presses against the battery with a bottom lip. Honestly I didn't buy this to use it, but I make accessories for HTs and needed this for that purpose. I thought some of you may benefit from these observations.

Is this what you were looking for? https://fccid.io/2AJGM-P51UV

There's no such thing as perfect security around the utility of a thing. The world of risk is more complicated than most people care to discuss. The term "secure" is always more accurately stated as "the known risks have been treated to an acceptable level" but that doesn't quite roll off the tongue. Of the 4 vulnerabilities posted, the key length downgrade (CVE-2022-24402) is what folks are calling the "backdoor", which seems like an overstatement to me, unless they have information which they're not sharing. If you click to the CVE details page you'll note there's nothing there at the time I post this message. To me the real question is why TETRA decided to implement key length downgrade in the TEA1 cipher. Possibly it was implemented to address product hardware constraints and never removed, or maybe it was added to simplify interception. We may never know, but hopefully those still using radios with TEA1 know they've chosen a deprecated form of communications confidentiality and can choose whether TEA1 is still "secure" based on their risk appetite.

DMR is fun - I enjoy learning and there's a lot to learn. I have a hotspot, which also has provided lots of learning potential. I've explored a local DMR network called PNWDigital, as well as the Brandmeister and TGIF networks. Lots of opportunity to socialize. The Anytone is a very solid radio both physically and its capabilities. There's more social chitchat on GMRS around me, though. For me ham is for learning and GMRS is for chatting.

The OLYCOMM repeaters have general use "open" tones and you can read about them here: https://www.radioofhope.org/oly-comm-volunteers I listen and sometimes participate on OLYCOMM3 and it's fairly active. There's a weekly social net on Wednesdays 8:30pm - 9:30pm, and a weekly tech net Wednesdays 6:30pm - 7:30pm.

NR73BNMO

I put a spare (Diamond) 1/2 wave 2m/70cm mobile antenna on my Chevy Bolt with a hood lip mount and was surprised and happy to get ~1.3 SWR on GMRS as measured by my fars-o-meter 2000. The way I see it, a mobile antenna with directionality is way better than a rubber ducky antenna inside the car.

The alleged difficulty of working with Motorola to gain access to the CPS is what has prevented me from picking one up. I have an Anytone D878UVII Plus (I dabble with DMR) and it works fine on GMRS frequencies. My codeplug has a zone (channel group) and scan list for GMRS. This radio offers a ton of features that you can explore over time.

I have both and for my interests I prefer the KG-935G over the GMRS PRO. Programming the GMRS PRO was a terrible experience from my mobile (iPhone). The BTECH would be more useful if it's what all my friends have, but it's not so the location and texting features aren't useful to me. If you're of the "do everything on mobile and don't touch a desktop/laptop computer" type of person you might like the mobile programming aspect, even if it doesn't work well. The BTECH claims IP67 water resistance whereas the Wouxun claims IP66. The bottom of this page pretty well illustrates the difference. The BTECH comes with a 2,600 mAh battery and the Wouxun comes with a 3,200 mAh battery. However, you can't draw much conclusion about runtime from this alone. You may want higher capacity at all costs, or you may prefer lower weight. The full DTMF keypad on the Wouxun may be more familiar to you if you've used any other radio with common keys, whereas the interface on the BTECH is more different. The Wouxun can store 199 channels, without memory banks (channel groups) whereas the BTECH only offers 6 banks with 30 channels each. Your use cases will dictate whether "more channels" or "selectable banks of fewer channels" are a better fit for you. The BTECH offers integrated USB-C charging but the Wouxun does not. The Wouxun offers dual receive but the BTECH does not. The Wouxun offers VFO mode (can tune to a specific frequency) whereas the BTECH does not. I'm not here to tell you if one's better than the other, but there are some key differences that you can weigh against your goals to make a more informed choice.

Yes, I got my KG-UV9PX this past week and compared it with a friend's KG-UV9GX and the bodies are exactly the same.

I have both coming. I'm hoping they share a body and just run different firmware.