WRUU653

Does Amazon not refund to your credit card? The Antenna that comes with the radio is hard to beat and I have a drawer full of antennas.

This made me laugh more than usual, as it would happen that literally was the case. I had done a fast and then went for blood work so no coffee. I'm good now

I just edited my last post to include your call sign to send message, sorry I hadn’t seen your response already. I was distracted by outside forces

Get the KG-935 plus. This is a good… no it’s a great GMRS radio. Which is perfect because you have a GMRS license and want a good radio. You won’t get everything in one radio but you have other radios to cover other bases. I use Chirp for my KG-935 Plus. @WRYZ926 ,Do they not support his Lynx?

I haven’t had this happen with mine but it did come with some small ring spacers which makes me wonder if this is what’s needed for some radios.

When I installed my new radio it was clear it wasn't going to fit the way my previous radio did. Here is what I came up with. Perhaps it will help someone with ideas for their next install. Radio- I installed a mobile radio (Icom IC-2730A) in my truck (2015 Tacoma). Some things I came up with could just as easily be used with a radio like the KG-1000. The radio has a remote head and I ended up installing the main body under the passenger seat. I attached a layer of speaker cloth around it with velcro to keep dust out. It is attached to a piece of leftover fake wood flooring that is basically 1/4” plastic with a rubber backing which prevents it from sliding around. The head unit is installed with magnets to a bracket that is screwed to the same flooring material and was painted black and cut to fit into a cubby and attached with 3M tape. Mic Cable- I installed a cable with a cat five jack in the center console box to the radio base for the mic. The mic can easily be stored away in the box without having to unplug it and the remote face can be unplugged and stored away as well. Cool thing for removing and storing the head unit is a case I had for glasses that it fits perfectly into to protect it and is made of metal so the magnets on the head unit hold it in the case. Mic Holder- I am not a fan of the hanger style mic holders so I found a button style on Amazon to attach to the mic. I didn’t want to drill holes for screws to mount the mic clip incase I wanted to move it so I cut a piece of aluminum, tapped it for some 6-32 flathead screws for the mic holder then 3M taped it in place to the center console. Speaker- The speaker under the seat was less than optimal. I tried installing a remote speaker in the cubby behind the head unit but this was too muffled. I played around with other locations like in the overhead console but when I was waiting for the speaker I had ordered I had thrown a small speaker I had laying around loose into the cup holder and it sounded great. So I decided that was the best route to take and installed it permanent. I have plenty of other cup holders. I drilled about an 1/8” hole to run the wire in the bottom of the cup holder. I lined the cupholder with some foam and hot glued the speaker in place (keeping holes to minimum). I found a speaker grill on Amazon that looks like it was meant to be there and attached it with more 3-M tape (again no holes if I can avoid it). Someday when I feel like busting the board for the head unit mounting loose from the 3M tape I would like to put the bracket on a hinge so you could access the space behind it for storage. A project for another day.

I have not seen anyone complain about the Wouxun KG-935G plus. I do like mine. This has always been my best recommendation for a good GMRS radio. My Wouxun KG-UV9PX has air band and it is a good ham radio and essentially the same as its GMRS sister the KG-UV9GX that @WRWE456 recommended. A good recommendation. I like it but I can’t see it in bright daylight very well. I don’t use Air band all that much but I have no issues with it. Rules aside I don’t really see having an unlocked radio as that important unless you have both licenses and just don’t want to carry two radios. I’d rather have a good radio. Amazon has a great return policy but there is something to be said for the support of a good dealer like the people at buy two way radios. There is a reason people buy more than one radio (aside from our compulsive need for the next cool thing that I am fully guilty of) and it’s because there isn’t one that does it all and/or does it all better than some do the one thing. My advice, research reviews, think about what you want and collect slowly especially when on a budget because you’re always going to want another. At least I seem to. Okay that’s it for now, back to drooling over the Icom ID-52A, and the Yaesu FT-5DR, and and… damn this hobby!

This has always had me perplexed. I see no reason for it being excluded in the list. It has the same power output limit as a mobile.

He was using an 18” signal stick (so ham and longer). Like I said I have not used one or even held one but I’d be interested if anyone has. edit- …and yes I hear you on the ground plane issue. It looks to be for using an HT antenna just to get it out of the car not a mobile antenna. Of course that begs the question what do you lose in the cable.

Welcome @WSBN871 to the forum. You and other newbie’s may find this video from @marcspaz a good jumping off point to the world of GMRS. Cheers.

I have no experience with this, it’s just something I saw on the YouTube this morning and thought this is a cool temporary mobile antenna mount idea. Especially if you need something on a rental car or perhaps if you are driving your spouse’s (I don’t want a radio in my car) car. Cheers.

Depends on what the emergency is if the FCC rules don’t apply. Now if you are talking about zombies, well everybody knows zombies are inherently drawn to strong HT radio signals next to the brain!

Still have a few here thankfully. The closest is run by a local Ham.It’s good to try and use local people over Amazon when you can so these places are still here next year.

Yes! Coffeeeeee ️

Half joking here, if everyone is on 17 move to 15. seriously though if you are really planning on GMRS as a SHTF family plan have a secondary channel choice to go to should your first choice be in use.

So far the best luck I have had using the UV-9G has been the Nagoya 771G. I think I ended up using a bit of emery cloth to shave it down a bit as it was a snug fit on that radio. The Signal Stick is a great antenna but I don’t believe they make one tuned for GMRS specifically so like the UT-72 that’s probably not your best choice. I have no experience with the UT-72G. I agree with @WRQC527 ,being that it’s tuned for GMRS it’s going to do better than the UT-72 . Real world testing will beat speculation on how many fars you will get. If you can get up on your roof or a ladder safely you may get some idea of the improvement height makes and think of a base station with an antenna mounted higher. If you know where the repeaters are this line of sight tool may help in seeing your path to them. Oh and shout out to @WRQC527 nice deduction on the key strokes

I find this to be the case for me as well. I wish the default was by date. I find myself changing that setting often so things make more sense keeping them in context, at least for me anyway.

No offset needed. The offset is because the receive frequency is different than the send and you will just be receiving on those frequencies. Also tones aren’t needed for just listening. On your GMRS channels the tones on TX are to open the repeater and the Tones on RX are to eliminate everything but that repeater to hear on that frequency. For scanning things like fire channels you can leave the tones off, in fact you can leave the receive tones off on your GMRS repeater programming and hear all that’s on those channels. Hope I explained that okay.

Welcome @Jbailey and @Millimar and any other new members I missed! There are many helpful people here, and there are no stupid questions.

I don't have this radio to check the numbers (if you do) you can check the FCC ID Search and see if it did in fact get certified and for what. It should be located on the radio under where the battery sits. That said if you read through the Midland info I posted above one of their defenses was that some radios had been certified but that didn't seem to matter to the FCC. I guess things slip past the FCC sometimes.

If a radio can’t be certified part 95 that has voice scrambling I don’t see how you can conclude it’s okay to use it. I would be interested in your “accounts read and watched” supporting this idea. Perhaps something has changed I am unaware of? Here’s what I found. FCC definition. Voice obscuring feature. A feature incorporated into a Personal Radio Service telephony transmitter that alters the sound of the user's voice in such a way that the communications are intended to be understandable only to individuals using a similar unit that reverses the process on the receiving end, so that the voice again becomes intelligible. FCC notes on the changes cited by @Sshannon c) Voice obscuring radios. Effective September 30, 2019, no person shall manufacture, or import, sell or offer for sale any radio that incorporates one or more voice scrambling or other obscuring features where such radio is intended for use in any of the Personal Radio Services that provide for voice (telephony) communications on shared channels (see § 95.359) regardless of whether the Commission has previously certified that radio. and finally Midland was fined for just such a thing back in 2009. Here is a few quotes from that report. “the Commission staff publicly interpreted its rules to advise that voice scrambling constitutes coded messaging and, therefore, is not allowed for GMRS devices.” ”Section 95.183(a)(4) of the Rules prohibits GMRS operators from transmitting coded messages and messages with hidden meanings” Midlands argument that they used voice inversion was not successful. from all I have found it would seem the FCC does not condone this. That’s my interpretation anyway

You may find this tool helpful but nothing beats trying it out with your radios. If you can safely get up on the roof with your HT you may get an idea of how much an antenna higher up will make. A mobile/base with a good antenna should certainly help some. It sounds like you are already beating the odds so that's cool.

@Redrocket I’ve been using the Comet SBB-5NMO with my IC-2730A and I’m quite happy with it. Their CA-2X4SR may work better with your taller trailer.

Some bubble packs come with preset tones on them. You could try scanning for the tones. @wrci350 is right, it would help to know what radios we are talking about.

Looks like a 9 dbi gain antenna. I’m guessing that doesn’t hurt the PFM (pure fn magic). I like my Comet mobile antenna.