73blazer

I don't think it's a nationwide network of repeaters he's proposing, my read on his proposal is only to access one repeater from anywhere in the country...or world. perhaps.

Correct wording, "their interpretation" ! . Someone got it right for once! They're likely response is not to give a direct yes or no answer, they're likely to respond, after many months, with quotes of the part 95 section rules, leaving him right back in the same boat he's in now, interpreting it himself.

If it were clear, there wouldn't be 1000's of pages of discussion on this topic. The Communications Act of 1934 gives no authority for the FCC to create or enforce laws. They make and enforce rules, among some other duties like study and report and advise on laws that would affect access and usage of radio services. All they can do is propose a fine, if you don't pay it, they can use a court of law to get you to pay, but they themselves can't make you even pay, why do you think half the people just don't pay the fines. If they don't pay the fine, it can be referred to the Dept of justice for actual legal enforcement. Taken from their process page

It is far far from clear. Mabey in your head. But the language as written is certainly, not clear. All it says is telephone network is prohibited. That's it. That phrase has been challenged in other services and has settled to mean telephone networks, public switched exchanges and the internet. Which leaves many other types of "networks" as not prohibited. BTW, they are not laws. Just rules.

But the "other networks" is listed in the sentence about remote control and what is possible, because it's listed in the possible for remote control doesn't automatically include it in the prohibited of GMRS operation.. The sentence before it where is states what is prohibited for GMRS operation, just says telephone network.This has in other rulings around other service been generally interpreted as the internet as well. LTE may qualify as a telephone network depending on how your LTE connection is setup.

At the end of the day, that "wording" was an FCC clarification on what they think the actual rules say, they wished to clarify the point they didn't want linked repeaters on GMRS. The rules themselves are a little more grey than their "clarification" wording,which I take as nothing more than an opinionated blog post. Their clarification means nothing. Only the actual rules matter. It's never been actually tested if someone pushed back on it to the point where it ended up in a courtroom which would be a years long process. The worst that could happen is you get a mean letter from the FCC asking you to stop doing that. But if he set it up as a business for a customer, the customer would be the one getting the mean letter and would probably be upset at Cogent in turn.

I've had a KG-UV980P (ham) radio for about a year. It's nearly the same as the 1000 but has a slightly different transmit range. It can transmit 10m,6m,2m,70cm and is easily unlockable so you don't need two radios in your car if you want to use HAM & GMRS (& CB too, if that's your bag). I use it almost daily. Great radio.

Why would you pay for RT systems and a programming cable just to change a menu setting? It's very easy to do on the radio. @WSHA485 Menu Option #11, Voice Guide English/Chinese/Off. I don't have one of mine with me here so I don't remember if that was just menu voice guide or channel voice guide. But it's the only voice menu option. From the owners Manual: [11: VOICE] Voice Guide Function: Disable or select language for voice prompts. Selectable: OFF/ENGLISH/CHINESE Default: ENGLISH

Well that is certainly and interesting issue. I played around with a couple of my 905G's and 935G's and my UV8H (I don't have any + models) I set 254.1 on RX&TX on GMRS 02 and GMRS 16 and did the same on one of my Yeasu's and I didn't have any issue with them working btw the Wouxun's or between the Wouxun's and Yeasu. I tried also some DCS tones and same result it all worked as expected. How are you programming these? With CHIRP or native Wouxun software, RT's, or on the radio itself? My tests I just did I just did it from the radio itself. I generally use Chirp for the 935 or UV8H, the 905 is not chirp supported so I use the native. I have seen Chirp do some weird things on my Yeasu, it says it's supported but when you write out the config it will ADD a DCS025N tone as well (which is not possible on the radio itself to have both a DCS and CTCSS set) , so nothing works, , when you read the config back off the radio you can see it had set whatever CTCSS or no CTCSS but added DCS025N to every channel. But that is very obvious when you go to use and no repeater activates. There was a handful of times my mobile UV980P has not opened a repeater. I'll be going back and forth with someone in a conversation and suddenly I PTT and start talking and mid sentence the person I'm talking to will bust in "uh..did I lose you.." because they can't hear me . I know that happened at least three times when in the first few days of operation because I was starting to think mabey I need to send this one back...but that hasn't happened in over a year since and I use that radio alot on various frequencies, so I dunno what that was.

Car Stereo shops still exist? I thought those went out with the Apple ][e

I have four 905G's, 4 935G and 2 UV8H & KG1000G and KGUV980P mobiles and I have not encountered any PL issues on any of them. The UV8H and UV980P gets used almost daily usually on HAM frequencies with repeaters. The 905G's and 935G's get used extensively with and without repeaters, (usually with no tones if on simplex as usually we're in very rural areas where it's not needed) at certain times of year, so for 3 weeks they'll all be used alot then they sit in a drawer for a few months. I used to use one of the 935G's almost every day for about year before I switched to the UV8H. Mabey I'll try these 250.3 and 254.1 tones and see if I can produce the issue. I don't think I've ever used a CTCSS above 141.5 before. I've used some DCS tones never had issues with those.

Really. Wow. I find my Wouxun radios are the best built, best sounding, best operating radios beating many much higher priced radios out there. I have several 905G's and 935G's which I hand out to my off-road group or snowmobiling or hunting buddies they drop them in streams, run over them, leave them sitting in a tree in 10 degree weather all night, stick them in their back pocket and sit on them while rough riding their SxS's, and they just don't miss a beat. I use a UV8H (same as 935G but ham version) when by myself hiking or kayaking or whatever. They just work flawlessly IP66 rated, rugged, durable, easy to use. IMO, I don't think you can beat them. They do tend to cost a bit more than most "cheap" GMRS radios, and I've tried many of them if your going for price, then sure they may be a bit more than most, but they are certainly not junk. They sound better and are more durable and easier to use than $800 Motorola or Yeasu HT's I've tried. I certainly wouldn't hesitate to get another Wouxun. The 905G is a very solid choice and about as easy as it gets to use. I can hand those to my 86 year old dad and he uses it, giant font on the display, minimal buttons, nothing to worry about. Personally I'm not a Midland fan, the radios are not very rugged (most have no IP rating at all), have operational issues and don't sound very good, especially when trying to talk to someone with a different type/brand of radio. That has just been my experience. Some people like them, so... As the original poster's question, @OffRoaderX is correct, do not use any advertised "range" in fact usually if a radio advertises a range figure, it's probably a good idea to steer clear of them as range is almost completely dependent on what is between you and the other radio. Very heavy foliage, even a 5W "65mi range" radio will only get you 1.5-2mi at most. Open fields, you might see several miles. If your on a side of a mountain talking to someone 80mi away on another mountain side facing you, that will work just fine too. Inside a car, will severely reduce your range. 5w will help inside vehicles or in heavy foliage, as will a better antenna, but most all 3-5W radios will perform fairly closely in most situations as far as range is concerned. That said I prefer to err on the side of more than less, 2.4 is ... pretty pathetic and if that's what they advertise it's probably even less. Even the vaunted Baofang UV5R puts out 3.8 or so (advertised as a 5W) , your wattage may vary as the manufacturing variance on those varies alot some people say they only get 3w, some say 4, some say 4.5....the ones I had did 3.8...not unexpected with a $30 radio. My 905G's all put out over 5W around 5.1-5.2 on full charge. My 935G and UV8H put out 5.7-5.8W on GMRS 16. More testament to Wouxun as they tend to underrate most of their radios in the wattage dept.

I just have a Surecom SW102, it's not the most accurate for sure, but it gives the general idea. On my all fiberglass K5 blazer the same 7500 antenna and radio only gives 1.8:1 because I can't get a very good ground plane on the vehicle.

I have a Diamond Supergainer 7900 2m/70cm in my mobile setup when used in it's design range SWR is 1.2-1.3:1 . WHen used on 462/467 SWR is 1.4:1 still very acceptable for me. But the Supergainer 7500 2m/70cm does much better even though is slightly less spec'd gain in it's design bands. SWR of 1.2:1 on all design bands as well as on 462/467 with a KG-UV980P mobile radio (same as KG-1000G just not locked to GMRS) . Both tested using an NMO tri-mag base on the roof of my crew cab dodge.

I'll throw my 2cents in...every Midland HT or mobile I've every had ... sucked. From poor audio quality on TX and RX to poor output (it says 40w mobile on business freq but you test and it's much closer to 20w). That and they seem to have a knack for not communicating well with other than their own. It'll be a few years before I try another Midland.