WRUA262
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Posts posted by WRUA262
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On 2/23/2023 at 3:34 PM, WRUU653 said:
Nope. Don't think you'll find it either. Baofengs are going to be your best bet for such a thing.
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On 2/23/2023 at 3:34 PM, WRUU653 said:
Nope. Don't think you'll find it either. Baofengs are going to be your best bet for such a thing.
Correct. I programmed my buddy's Baofeng BF-F8HP which is specified as HAM, but found that you can TX/RX GMRS just fine.
But you didn't hear that from me... just sayin'
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4 hours ago, WRPL700 said:
I just viewed Randy's review and all I can say is: "40 watts"??? It's a redesigned product and you couldn't give us 45 watts? I do wish Randy would have tested the Low and Medium power levels.... but at this point I think it is a pass for me.
I would venture to say that very few radios actually push a full 50 watts on the high setting.
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2 minutes ago, marcspaz said:
Assuming the photos are a true representation of V1 and V2, that is not a "full redesigned radio board". 2 parts worth about $0.23 and 2 solder jumpers on the same board (RDA2300 UHF v1.5, dated 2021/10/13).
1 additional capacitor, 1 added resistor, 2 solder jumps.
I pulled those photos off the device reports (pulled from the interwebs) that went to the FCC for approval.
- wayoverthere, SteveShannon and WRUU653
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2 hours ago, WRPL700 said:
If he has a 50x1 it would be great to pop them both open to see if the "radio board" has been modified in the 50v2 like their website states it has: "[UPGRADED] The GMRS-50V2 is major upgrade from the previous generation GMRS-50X1. New features include a full redesigned radio board."
I can save him the trouble.
Since I'm not a circuit expert (I think many 'Sad HAMs are though), I can't tell you what might be different regarding the radio board.
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35 minutes ago, marcspaz said:
Randy is a straight shooter. If its good, he will let you know. One of the things I like about his videos is, when it comes to the gear, he just tells you how it is. He doesn't play favorites or fluff a product for a vendor because they sent him gear.
This ^^^ plus, since he's already got a good feel for the 50X1 unit, he should be able to give a good synopsis of the 50V2 differences, good or bad.
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In all fairness, just about every 'Getting Started' or 'Attention' section of most radio manuals contain the same verbiage about smoke/odor, etc.
We will see. I just ordered one. The price is right for a 50W unit.
It does state that the board has been redesigned, I presume that is a good thing.
- [UPGRADED] The GMRS-50V2 is major upgrade from the previous generation GMRS-50X1. New features include a full redesigned radio board. All 256 channels are fully customizable, the ability to add or remove GMRS or NOAA channels quickly. PCB updates on the GMRS-50V2 include RJ45 audio output, improved audio filtering, constant 50W power output on GMRS
We'll have to see how the @OffRoaderXreview goes once he gets his hands on one (if he doesn't already have one).
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While the new usb-c port KG-935 battery is cool, it's actually has less miliamp hours than the standard battery. The standard battery comes in at 3200mAh while the new usb-c battery comes in at 2600mAh. Convenience sometimes comes with a price.
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1 hour ago, marcspaz said:
^^^ This! have mentioned this a dozen times if I mentioned it once. The Surcom SW-102 is a user-adjustable tool that needs to be calibrated. I have had to re-calibrate mine 3 times this year. Even if it was accurate out of the box, that doesn't mean its still accurate.
That doesn't really mean anything. I'm not being a smart@$$ when I say the closer to zero you get, the more accurate the meter is.
Also, I just did a test of my radio using a Surecom and shared the video. The Surecom was out of calibration after I had calibrated it at the end of last summer. It was misreading a 101w radio as 78w. It also had a bad SWR reading on my dummy load (result of bad power reading). I had to calibrate it with proper tools (or you can use known good meters to compare) so I could use the digital meter in the video, to provide accurate results.
The reality is, the fact that you get the same results on the antenna and the dummy load leads me to trust the results even less.
Not sure how to re-calibrate the Surecom. Is that as simple as resetting it or is there some other way to recalibrate it? There is certainly nothing on the chinglish instructions as far as dialing it in. I'll tell you this, I'm not going to spend a bunch more $ buying a more testing equipment that I might use once. If I was making money off it, sure, it would be worth the investment, but I'm not... so I won't.
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33 minutes ago, Sshannon said:
It’s important to note that there have been a lot of Surecom SW-102 meters reported within this forum that have really lousy accuracy. How can you be sure it’s not the meter. Measuring a cheap radio with an equally cheap meter could be an exercise in frustration. Do you have a friend with a more expensive wattmeter that can verify your results?
The Surecom measured the low setting at just over 5 watts, which is exactly where it should be. I have no reason to think that the meter isn't working correctly. Since it gave exactly the same reading into a dummy load as it did the antenna itself, I'd wager that the meter is not the problem.
But to answer your question, I don't know of anyone close to me at this point with a different meter to verify the results.
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As a follow-up - Bought a 50W dummy load, ran the radio again through the dummy load - ~15 watts, same as when I ran it through the antenna.
Next course of action is to get hold of Radioddity and see what they say. I get that the watts may be a little under stated, but 10-12 watts under is a far cry from 'a little' IMO.
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On 2/2/2023 at 12:31 PM, PRadio said:
I was getting on to say the same thing. It says so right in the user's manual. I have the same meter.
Good info, didn't see that before on the SWR meter manual.
Came across a Gadget Talk review from a year ago, he put the DB25G on a dummy load at high power and it only came through at max ~15 watts. I feel a little better after watching that review.
But then again, Notarubicon measured his unit... let me rephrase... ran the DB25G on a dummy load and it came through at just under 25 watts. Hmmmm. I guess I'll just have to spend the $$ on a 50W dummy load so I'll be able to sleep at night again.
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12 hours ago, wayoverthere said:
It would need to be inline with one of the leads and set to amperage, if it has that option. Voltage holding is a good sign though.
Afaik, more ferrites won't hurt anything, and i might double check if theres anything close and metal near the antenna that might be affecting swr.
Nothing of metal that would effect the SWR, the antenna is mounted in my attic. Wood frame. foam insulation, asphalt roof tiles. I can live with 1.17 - 1.20.
I'll throw on the last 2 ferrites and see what happens. I wouldn't think that I'd be losing that many watts from a 35' LMR400 cable, but who knows? It's reading a full 5 watts on the lower power frequencies.
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18 hours ago, wayoverthere said:
Trying another cable would help reduce the possibility of a bad cable being the issue. One other thought that hit me was taking a multimeter to that power supply, just to make sure it's putting out what it should be, both current and voltage. 30a (even peak rated) should be more than enough for 25 watts (the vertex and btech show 10-11amps draw on high power), and i'd expect around 5amps for a 25 watt radio.
if both of those check out, i'm leaning toward the radio is the issue.
Checked the power supply. Operating at 13.5 volts, not sure how to check the current on my cheap multimeter, so I'll assume it's doing what it should be doing. Threw on a few ferrite collars on the LMR400 cable next to the antenna feed, adjusted the antenna slightly and was able to get about 14.5 watts out of the unit, and brought the SWR down to 1:17. Minor improvements. Wondering if more ferrite collars would help more. Have 3 on now, 2 more available. How many ferrite collars are too many?
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1 minute ago, marcspaz said:
Where are you measuring the power? At the radio or at the antenna side? How long is the coax between the radio and the meter? Is the cable between the radio and the meter also LMR400? How long are your power wires? What gauge are the wires? Are there any connectors on the power wires between the power supply and the radio. What method did you use to connect the power cables to the power supply? (Lugs, power poles, screw-downs, etc.)
The more information the better.
Measuring power between the radio and the coax cable (radio side). The coax is 35FT long. But you might have hit on something - the pigtail between the meter and the radio. Its not the same size as the LRM400. Its quite small/thin in comparison. Maybe it can't put through all the watts to the meter due to the pigtail size?
The power wires between the radio and power supply are about 18" long or so. The gauge is what came with the radio. The only thing in between the radio and power supply is an in-line fuse. Power is connected through screw-downs.
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2 minutes ago, BoxCar said:
Are you certain the DB-25 is putting out full power? Also, measure the power from the radio at the antenna connector. You could have a bad connector at either end of the cable.
As far as I know, yes. The radio is set to HIGH. The SWR reading was taken between the radio and the antenna. I'll try taking another reading at the end of the coax next to the antenna. I've rechecked the coax fittings, both ends are tight. Since it's an attic antenna install, no need to worry about water encroachment or weather issues. I'll also try ferrite couplers and see if those help as the coil of coax by the antenna might not be doing its job.
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Question: I have a Radioditty DB-25G that I am using as a base station coupled with a 30A power supply, using LMR400 coax (35FT) with a GMRS J-pole antenna (in the attic) from KB9VR. This is a 25 watt radio, but the most I have been able to get on high power to a repeater (462.675) is about 13 Watts. Where am I loosing those 10-12 watts? Through the coax? I have the end of the cable looped 4-5 times about a foot away from the antenna itself. SWR is 1.2 with the the Farsometer 2000 showing FW: 12.94W and RW: 0.121W. Those 10-12 watts seem to be disappearing.
On the 5 watt frequencies, it transmits at exactly 5W.
Any ideas what would help find/recover the missing watts?
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I have a NGGMRS sticker (North GA GMRS group) on my truck. If someone wanted to get hold of me, they'd do it via one of the NGGMRS linked repeaters. No frequency needed. I supposed they could call out for the 'guy in the white RAM with the NGGMRS sticker' if they wanted to reach out.
And as for vanity plates, those are only for "Sad HAMS"
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The DB-25G (what I have) is only $5 more. Pretty good deal, especially considering you can program more than 9 additional repeaters in the unit. That's what sold me. Well, that and the extra 5W.
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21 minutes ago, OffRoaderX said:
I wonder if you got a dud? Mine receives virtually the same as my other radios when doing my controlled test(s).
It is possible I got a bad unit. Lots of static both TX and RX compared to the other units. I've done multiple radio checks and those on the other end said the same thing - better TX on the Wouxun units than the GMRS-Pro. If I can find someone local to me that also has a GMRS-Pro, I'll do a side by side and see what we get.
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I have the KG-UV9G Pro as radio as well. I wanted it for the SHTF frequencies, but many departments (police, fire, EMT, etc) have gone to digital so it won't receive those freqs as far as I can tell. Still a great radio and the native programming software seems to be decent.
Another place to search for frequencies local to you can be found here: https://www.radioreference.com/
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Not a big fan. Was sold on it when I watched the notarubicon review. Bought one sight/review unseen. Got through about 3 minutes of the review and ordered one. IMHO, the radio is just OK as far as RX and TX. It has some nice features (bluetooth, texting, etc) but those (for ME anyway) don't overcome the poor radio performance. I even tried it with a 771G antenna, didn't improve it much at all.
I have also both the Wouxun KG-935G and KG-UV9G Pro. Both of the Wouxun radios transmit and receive clearer than the BTECH. My favorite is the KG-935G.
Your mileage may vary...
HTs and mobiles with full control of memory slots within the bounds of Part 95
in Technical Discussion
Posted
I have both the Wouxun KG-935G and KG-UV9G Pro. Both of these HTs have numerous slots available (999 slots) for programming GMRS (TX & RX) and/or HAM/MURS/Aircraft/ etc (RX only) as well as any PL tones for both simplex and repeater GMRS channels. Great radios and very versatile.