GMRS Voice Quality, not so hot...

[WRDC898]

Maybe I'm sounding like a sad ham here, but it seems that most contacts I've made are severely over modulated. The people on UV5R radios actually sound pretty good but darn man, some people are so "In The Mud" so to speak that I can barely understand them while others are crystal clear. I just picked up a Wouxun KG-1000G+ and I'll have to do some testing to see if I'll be in the same camp. Full quieting and intelligibility are two different worlds. I think my Icom and Yeasu gear has spoiled me.... BTW Kenwood people fall in the "Crystal" group as well!

 

[catbrigade]

I would guess you may be hearing people using FRS radios that are required to be narrowband. If your receiver is set to wideband the audio from someone transmitting narrowband will sound low.

[WRWE456]

I just recently got a KG1000G+ as well. I get excellent audio reports with it. I think a lot of non radio folks hold their radio/mics to close. Kids on FRS are really bad about this. Overload the mics so bad you can hardly understand a word they say.

[DONE]

This may or may NOT be an issue with the specific user but instead the repeater.

While MOST of the repeaters out there are setup correctly, both linked and stand alone repeaters, there are a few that have audio issues.  I recently ran into one while traveling and got questioned about my audio quality.  As soon as I got into the coverage area of the next repeater and changed the channel, the issue resolved.  Now obviously I didn't make changes to my radio outside of changing the channel and later found out that specific repeater is known for hot receive audio into the system.  Point is look carefully at the situation and make sure it's not something else before condemning the users radio.  Yes, there are some out there that are running their audio too hot.  But there are other causes.

 

[WRDC898]

11 hours ago, catbrigade said:

I would guess you may be hearing people using FRS radios that are required to be narrowband. If your receiver is set to wideband the audio from someone transmitting narrowband will sound low.

FRS on a repeater would be a no go.... It sounds like they're Charlie Brown's parents. 

11 hours ago, WRWE456 said:

I just recently got a KG1000G+ as well. I get excellent audio reports with it. I think a lot of non radio folks hold their radio/mics to close. Kids on FRS are really bad about this. Overload the mics so bad you can hardly understand a word they say.

SO far so good today in regards to audio reports with both my UV5R and the 1000G. Maybe I'm old, but I hold the mic almost like I'd hold an old school telephone and talk across it vs. talking into it. 

[WRDC898]

19 minutes ago, WRKC935 said:

This may or may NOT be an issue with the specific user but instead the repeater.

While MOST of the repeaters out there are setup correctly, both linked and stand alone repeaters, there are a few that have audio issues.  I recently ran into one while traveling and got questioned about my audio quality.  As soon as I got into the coverage area of the next repeater and changed the channel, the issue resolved.  Now obviously I didn't make changes to my radio outside of changing the channel and later found out that specific repeater is known for hot receive audio into the system.  Point is look carefully at the situation and make sure it's not something else before condemning the users radio.  Yes, there are some out there that are running their audio too hot.  But there are other causes.

 

Outstanding point when hitting an IRL repeater! But, I also hear it on a local repeater where, yeah, you can tell if someone is on a mobile or HT, bit it's not that "wuan, wuan, wwwaun 9 wauuuun 7 won" I hear every day.  I think I'm just totally spoiled listening to 2m nets where the people sound like they're  sitting next to me or just crystal clear. Granted, some of these guys have thousands just into their desk mic not to mention their equipment. 

 

[DONE]

21 hours ago, WRDC898 said:

Outstanding point when hitting an IRL repeater! But, I also hear it on a local repeater where, yeah, you can tell if someone is on a mobile or HT, bit it's not that "wuan, wuan, wwwaun 9 wauuuun 7 won" I hear every day.  I think I'm just totally spoiled listening to 2m nets where the people sound like they're  sitting next to me or just crystal clear. Granted, some of these guys have thousands just into their desk mic not to mention their equipment. 

 

Interesting..  Would like to hear a recording of what you are hearing.  Curious if you have your radio programmed narrow band on the repeater channels or not.  COmmon mistake that will cause audio issues on receive and transmit. 

Truth is that radio is radio.  Commercial, Ham, GMRS, FRS, it's all FM modulated carrier.  It should all work about the same and sound about the same. 

 

[SteveShannon]

12 minutes ago, WRKC935 said:

Interesting..  Would like to hear a recording of what you are hearing.  Curious if you have your radio programmed narrow band on the repeater channels or not.  COmmon mistake that will cause audio issues on receive and transmit. 

Truth is that radio is radio.  Commercial, Ham, GMRS, FRS, it's all FM modulated carrier.  It should all work about the same and sound about the same. 

 

Being slightly off frequency can bring out the Charlie Brown teacher voice. 

[kidphc]

10 hours ago, WRKC935 said:

Interesting..  Would like to hear a recording of what you are hearing.  Curious if you have your radio programmed narrow band on the repeater channels or not.  COmmon mistake that will cause audio issues on receive and transmit. 

Truth is that radio is radio.  Commercial, Ham, GMRS, FRS, it's all FM modulated carrier.  It should all work about the same and sound about the same. 

 

 

On 5/7/2023 at 12:07 AM, WRDC898 said:

Outstanding point when hitting an IRL repeater! But, I also hear it on a local repeater where, yeah, you can tell if someone is on a mobile or HT, bit it's not that "wuan, wuan, wwwaun 9 wauuuun 7 won" I hear every day.  I think I'm just totally spoiled listening to 2m nets where the people sound like they're  sitting next to me or just crystal clear. Granted, some of these guys have thousands just into their desk mic not to mention their equipment. 

 

2 Different services. Most of the quality ham gear starts in price, where the most expensive chinacom (not all are bad) gear ends in price. Even the beloved KG100G is a ham radio with new firmware to lock it down for GMRS. Is it a bad radio? NO, its a great to even fantastic radio. Even then there were compromises made to get it into a price point. But the target audience was different.  So you always kinda get what you pay for, more features and better components etc. 

My fengs have always gotten the under driven, under modulated, you are readable but scratchy comments. Wonder if the mics are garbage, actually I know the answer, they are.  So not completely shocked about the comments about the UV5R.

Wooxun to me has been a good company like Allinco and Anytone, for the most part. Crap a lot of radios now a days, seem just to be retags/reboxed/relabelled of the same 4-5 manufacturer's radios. So generally, you get similar performance across that radio style regardless of it being a bs19999ht 100 watt ht or myass200000ht.

I get what the OP is saying. I have been spoiled by ham and lmr gear. I guess I shouldn't say spoiled but kinda had my bar of expectations high.

 

 I think some of the Harris radios the receive audio I wish was more like a Motorola. Damn, Motorola radios receive beautifully and most of the speakers have left me with no desire for improvement. Which for me says a huge amount.