Radioddity DB20-G

[jsneezy]

I'm considering getting either this or the Retevis RA25 to put in my truck. They both seem to be the exact same radio, aside from a few bucks in price. The question that I can't seem to find a straight answer on has to do with the receive only channels. If I were to program one of those channels to a GMRS frequency and add in tones for a repeater, will it transmit on that channel or will it still be restricted to receive only?

I don't do a lot of traveling with this vehicle, but it would be kinda nice to be able to add a few repeaters for other areas that I might be passing through instead of overwriting the existing repeaters that I'll have programmed.

[SteveShannon]

4 minutes ago, jsneezy said:

I'm considering getting either this or the Retevis RA25 to put in my truck. They both seem to be the exact same radio, aside from a few bucks in price. The question that I can't seem to find a straight answer on has to do with the receive only channels. If I were to program one of those channels to a GMRS frequency and add in tones for a repeater, will it transmit on that channel or will it still be restricted to receive only?

I don't do a lot of traveling with this vehicle, but it would be kinda nice to be able to add a few repeaters for other areas that I might be passing through instead of overwriting the existing repeaters that I'll have programmed.

I have two of them but I don’t have an answer. I think you can add additional channels, but I never tried. I’m going to be out of town for a few days but if you don’t get an answer I’ll try it next week. 
I know that the one I reset to the ham bands can have channels added. 

[jsneezy]

1 minute ago, Sshannon said:

I have two of them but I don’t have an answer. I think you can add additional channels, but I never tried. I’m going to be out of town for a few days but if you don’t get an answer I’ll try it next week. 
I know that the one I reset to the ham bands can have channels added. 

I've heard programming them from the handset is a giant PITA and using the programming software isn't much better. It looks like they don't work with Chirp either, and haven't since their release. Luckily I don't think I'll have to do much with adding channels too often. 

 

[jsneezy]

10 minutes ago, WRXE944 said:

To be able to use the same repeater frequency with two or more different tones, you will need to use the USB cable and the Radioddity CPS software to program the DIY Repeater channels from Channels 31 to, I believe, 55.

The first time you use the USB cable and the CPS programming software, be sure to save the default codeplug; although it will have any changes that you have made manually such as the example above also contained in the default.

I think this is closer to what I was looking for. The only things I could see listed were "8 repeater channels" and "9 extra empty repeater channels" which made me wonder if there was a possibility of adding repeaters beyond those channels. I think just for Arizona, I have around a dozen or more repeaters programmed into my HT, which will also be programmed into the mobile. Just in case I wanted to do something like possibly talk with the resident YouTube Hobo while passing through on a road trip to visit family in Oregon, along with interacting with repeaters I come across a long the way, without having to erase my local repeaters.

[jsneezy]

6 minutes ago, WRXE944 said:

To be able to use the same repeater frequency in the DIY channels from 31 on manually, try this (again, using FLOR625 as the example):

1) Push the V/M button to change from Channel Mode to VFO Mode

2) Using the Microphone keypad, enter the Repeater's output frequency: 462.62500

3) Push the FUN button to enter the Menu Mode and again go to Menu 01: T-CTC

4) Push the MON button if it says OFF or anything other than a number from 62.5 to 254.1

5) Using the UP and DOWN buttons, go to 141.3, the Transmit Tone for FLOR625

6) Save to the first open channel by pushing FUN and UP on the microphone keypad (or then use the UP and DN keys on the top of the mic to scroll through the available channels, with empty ones saying NULL; NOTE: the channel number

7) Save to this channel holding down the "MON-*" key on the mic

8-) Push the V/M key again to re-enter the Channel Mode and you are done! 

Thanks for this. It definitely helps to know that it's possible before making the purchase rather than finding out I can't after the return window is closed. The way everything I could find with quick searches made it sound like it was basically the 22 simplex channels, 17 total repeater channels, and everything else was monitor only.

[wayoverthere]

I believe I saw a prime day special on the db20-g, at $87.99, if you have prime

[SteveShannon]

6 hours ago, jsneezy said:

I've heard programming them from the handset is a giant PITA and using the programming software isn't much better. It looks like they don't work with Chirp either, and haven't since their release. Luckily I don't think I'll have to do much with adding channels too often. 

 

Programming them from the software is easy.  Read the radio (not strictly necessary but I always do it) then edit like a spreadsheet and write to the radio. I just haven’t tried adding additional channels in the default GMRS configuration.

I have programmed quite a few channels into the radio I opened up for dual band vhf/uhf ham as recently as a few weeks ago. There was nothing about it that was even remotely painful that sticks out in my mind.

[Guest]

10 hours ago, Sshannon said:

[...] Read the radio (not strictly necessary but I always do it) [...]

Guess we learned the same way that establishing that the connection is working by reading the radio is a good idea ... 

(Losing whole code plugs because the program crashes based on a bad connection or just forgetting that one setting that always restores to the most annoying default or ...)

[jsneezy]

I ended up ordering from Amazon. Looks like it will be here Saturday. Now I just have to figure out the antenna and what I want to do there. I've been kicking around a mag mount like the Nagoya UT-72G or an NMO mounted through the roof with either a Midland MXTA26 or the Tram 1181. Either option would be going as close to the center of the roof of a Nissan Frontier Crew Cab, so a good ground plane shouldn't be of too much concern.

Also, @WRXE944, I won't complain if you want to share some more shortcuts. 

[wayoverthere]

1 hour ago, jsneezy said:

I ended up ordering from Amazon. Looks like it will be here Saturday. Now I just have to figure out the antenna and what I want to do there. I've been kicking around a mag mount like the Nagoya UT-72G or an NMO mounted through the roof with either a Midland MXTA26 or the Tram 1181. Either option would be going as close to the center of the roof of a Nissan Frontier Crew Cab, so a good ground plane shouldn't be of too much concern.

Also, @WRXE944, I won't complain if you want to share some more shortcuts. 

It's tall, but I'd vote the mxta26 over the tram. Have the tram 1181, and it just doesn't seem to work well anywhere I've used it. Had trouble getting into repeaters on 10 watts Ive used with a handheld inside the car, from the same area.

Also ran it on a piece of sheet metal on top of a bookshelf, testing receiving APRS....barely received anything, half a dozen packets over the course of a week. Switched it to the base antenna (comet gp1 in the closet)band saw a couple dozen inside an hour.

Edited July 13, 2023 by wayoverthere
clarifying

[SpeedSpeak2Me]

29 minutes ago, jsneezy said:

I ended up ordering from Amazon. Looks like it will be here Saturday. Now I just have to figure out the antenna and what I want to do there. I've been kicking around a mag mount like the Nagoya UT-72G or an NMO mounted through the roof with either a Midland MXTA26 or the Tram 1181. Either option would be going as close to the center of the roof of a Nissan Frontier Crew Cab, so a good ground plane shouldn't be of too much concern.

Also, @WRXE944, I won't complain if you want to share some more shortcuts. 

 

14 minutes ago, wayoverthere said:

It's tall, but I'd vote the mxta26 over the tram. Have one, and it just doesn't seem to work well anywhere I've used it. Had trouble getting into repeaters on 10 watts Ive used with a handheld inside the car, from the same area.

Also ran it on a piece of sheet metal on top of a bookshelf, testing receiving APRS....barely received anything, half a dozen packets over the course of a week. Switched it to the base antenna (comet gp1 in the closet)band saw a couple dozen inside an hour.

@jsneezy, the Midland (5/8λ stacked) will be far superior to either the Nagoya or the Tram, hands down.  If you want a good UHF-only performer that's not as tall, the Laird BB4503 (Black) or B4503 work great, but have to be tuned (trim the bottom of the mast).  They are both 5/8λ, and about 10" tall, and work very very well.  I normally use the BB4505C (32", also 5/8λ stacked), but when clearance is a concern I swap in my BB4503.  With the BB4503 I have no problems hitting repeaters (250-300' AGL) at 30-40 miles with only 15w.

*The Midland MXTA26 will not require any tuning.

[wayoverthere]

On 7/12/2023 at 5:39 PM, SpeedSpeak2Me said:

 

@jsneezy, the Midland (5/8λ stacked) will be far superior to either the Nagoya or the Tram, hands down.  If you want a good UHF-only performer that's not as tall, the Laird BB4503 (Black) or B4503 work great, but have to be tuned (trim the bottom of the mast).  They are both 5/8λ, and about 10" tall, and work very very well.  I normally use the BB4505C (32", also 5/8λ stacked), but when clearance is a concern I swap in my BB4503.  With the BB4503 I have no problems hitting repeaters (250-300' AGL) at 30-40 miles with only 15w.

*The Midland MXTA26 will not require any tuning.

I had the 430-450 version of that base loaded 5/8, and that worked very well also. Was picking up a 70cm repeater at something like 100 miles out, and it worked great for overhead clearance on my truck.

I also clarified my other post to indicate it was the tram 1181 that didn't work so well for me

 

[jsneezy]

18 hours ago, WRXE944 said:

Will you be programming it manually or with a computer?

Speaking of which, QUESTION TO ALL:

I have been running the Radioddity software since the beginning by running it in Windows XP on my Mac (using Parallels as a Virtual Machine).

I just tried to run it in Windows 11 and I am getting COM errors which of course are probably USB driver problems.

The actual cable does not identify which chip it uses and I guess, I could eventually try all 3 or 4 available drivers to see if that solves the problem.

But does anyone have this problem solved in Windows 11?

I'll be programming it mainly by computer, unless I happen to need to add something in while on the road. I'm still on Windows 7, so I'm not sure what will be in store for me with drivers for the programming cable. I think some of the reviews I had come across mentioned something about using another brand of cable, but I don't remember where I had seen them.

[wayoverthere]

23 minutes ago, jsneezy said:

I'll be programming it mainly by computer, unless I happen to need to add something in while on the road. I'm still on Windows 7, so I'm not sure what will be in store for me with drivers for the programming cable. I think some of the reviews I had come across mentioned something about using another brand of cable, but I don't remember where I had seen them.

Ive been declining the "upgrade" to 11, but afaik, the issue there is some cables that need an older version of the prolific driver, and win11 is especially bad about "helping" by updating drivers. I thought I saw something recently about being able to tell it that a certain version wasnt working when you install an older version, but I dont remember where I saw it.

I've had minimal problems on win10, though. I forget if I needednto manually install the older driver or no...it's been a year or so since I picked up my anytones (which program just fine with the radioddity software).

[wayoverthere]

5 minutes ago, WRXE944 said:

The key programming tip is to leave blank channels between “chunks” of coordinated channels. 

For example, after Channel 31, leave some channels blank and start, say with Channel 36 for your local repeaters. 

Now lets say you put Tucson Repeaters into Channels 43-49  

Then Flagstaff Repeaters from Channels 54-62 Etc

Then receive only Public service channels starting in Channel 100 

I put the NOAA channels in the last Channels up to 500. 

As you operate, contiguous channels will be easier to switch around using the Up and Down buttons on your Mic, and blank channels will be ignored. 

Leaving blanks allows you to more easily add new Repeaters into their proper Channel groups. 

This is a big plus since the software doesnt have some basic stuff like copy and paste....if you need to move a block of channels, you're retyping everything below where you need the space.  Leaving a gap leaves you room to insert later in the blanks, and the scan skips right over the blanks like they aren't there.

[jsneezy]

1 hour ago, wayoverthere said:

Ive been declining the "upgrade" to 11, but afaik, the issue there is some cables that need an older version of the prolific driver, and win11 is especially bad about "helping" by updating drivers. I thought I saw something recently about being able to tell it that a certain version wasnt working when you install an older version, but I dont remember where I saw it.

I've had minimal problems on win10, though. I forget if I needednto manually install the older driver or no...it's been a year or so since I picked up my anytones (which program just fine with the radioddity software).

That is exactly me as well. I decided at some point, I think around the time 8 was announced or maybe when they were giving away 10 to get people to "upgrade", that any more operating system changes to my computer would be Linux. I only keep Windows 7 around for a few games I still play. 

I was sure that one or more of the reviews I had come across had mentioned getting a different programming cable than the one that came with the radio because of issues. I didn't pay too much attention to which cable they were saying they used. For all I know, it had something to do with a driver that didn't want to play nice, and a lot of people that aren't technologically inclined tend to blame the hardware first. I'm just going off what I had seen elsewhere, as I don't have the radio or cable in hand just yet. I do seem to remember Windows 7 rarely having issues with much of anything. I'm actually kinda surprised these don't work with Chirp considering how long they've been on the market.

[KAF6045]

2 hours ago, WRXE944 said:

@wayoverthere Are you saying for sure the included cable uses the Prolific chip, as I have not been successful with a YouTube tip about how to use that driver in Windows 11, and I was going to turn my attention to the other chips' drivers.

While I don't have Win11, and don't have a justification at the moment to try connecting my unit (I suspect the cable alone won't trigger COM port) what I recall is that:

1) IF you've allowed Windows to install a Prolific driver for the cable, you'll likely have manually remove the driver and COM port from the device manager.

2) disconnect the cable

3) download an older Prolific driver and manually install it before connecting the cable.

My understanding is that these cables do NOT use a Prolific chip -- they use a cheap knock-off that masquerades as a Prolific chip. Problem is that Prolific's modern drivers have code to detect the knock-off chips and won't run with them.

[wayoverthere]

3 hours ago, WRXE944 said:

@wayoverthere Are you saying for sure the included cable uses the Prolific chip, as I have not been successful with a YouTube tip about how to use that driver in Windows 11, and I was going to turn my attention to the other chips' drivers.

Not sure offfhand, but I will try to remember to dig out one of the cables this weekend and see how it identifies. I think it's likely though.

[jsneezy]

17 hours ago, WRXE944 said:

I have kept up with most of the literature regarding this radio and I do not ever recall anyone suggesting a different cable; so if you come across that review, please copy/paste it here or link us over to it.

I think you may be confusing a review on a different radio that suggests using RT Software and one of its cables for that different radio.

The notes over at the CHIRP website indicate problems getting standardized serial protocols from this radio, so as to allow CHIRP to use it.

FWIW: I believe Miklor has an article on how to make a home-brew cable that works with the Anytone AT-779UV clone of this radio.  But since I believe everyone sells these radio complete with the RJ-45 USB cable, no need for another cable.

I can't remember where I had come across it, nor am I able to find it again. Thinking back on it, it was someone having driver issues with the supplied cable, and I think they may have mentioned that they were going to try the Wouxon PCO-003 cable. For all I know, it could have been someone on Reddit that mentioned the idea a while back. 

Is there a way on Windows 11 to disable certain updates from installing to keep the functioning driver from updating? I've always had my computers set to notify me when updates were available so I could review them and only install the ones I've actually needed. But I also stopped at Windows 7 and will not be buying another Microsoft Operating System. I do think I'll most likely be setting up the radio with the repeaters that I also have programmed in my HT, and anything else will probably be added in from the radio itself if I come across something while traveling.

[jsneezy]

I only keep Windows 7 around because I still tend to game on the computer. Though I don't have much time for that any more. I actually prefer Linux, and it seems that gaming support has been getting better for it over the last few years, but it does look like I'll still have a reason to keep Windows around. 

The radio and antenna should be here today. I grabbed the Nagoya UT-72G for the time being, because it's been hot here for the last couple of weeks. I don't suspect that I'll be seeing any cooler temperatures until somewhere between late September and mid October, and working at the roof of a truck when it's over 110 out isn't fun. Especially when work happens to be garage door service, so I'm out in the heat all day, 5 days a week.

[jsneezy]

Got the radio today, and got it programmed using the CPS. It wasn't nearly as bad as some of the reviews I had come across mentioned. Getting 12V to it to get it to turn on was another story, since I don't have a power supply for something like a base. I ended up modifying an old computer power supply that I had laying around that I've used for other things, and cut the lighter plug off the radio. 

A lot of the reviews of the programming software mentioned having to type in everything by hand, but what I found was a little different. On the farthest right column, there is a box with 2 arrow symbols pointing right (like this >>). Double clicking that brings up a box that allowed me to name the repeaters and select the tones from drop-down lists. All in all, I think it took me about 15 minutes. 

The next step is going to be running a wire from the battery, through a fuse, then to a relay behind the dash of the truck. From there, I'll use either the stereo turn on wire or the accessory wire off the ignition switch to trigger the relay to turn the radio on and off with the key. After that, it's going to be antenna wiring and then testing. 

I'm still trying to decide how I'm going to run the antenna cable, since it is only going to be a mostly temporary installation. Once the weather cools down, I'm planning to put an NMO mount in the roof and adding the MXTA26. 

[jsneezy]

1 minute ago, WRXE944 said:

I find from prior experience it is better to let new DB20-G users expect a harsh programming experience and discover, like you did, that it is really not all that bad!

Yes, that double caret (>>) row is best double clicked and opens the individual channel programming options.

Just curious: With Power Off, hold down the V/M key and turn Power On and what version is your firmware?  

Turning Power Off returns it to its default state.

Firmware version is the one thing I didn't think to check. But I did remember to save the original code plug. If it's in the code plug, I might be able to check later, otherwise, I don't think I'll have a chance to power it back on for a couple days. 

The one thing I did find, which may be a limitation of the programming software, is that when I tried to set up a repeater on channel "41" as the radio sees it, I could not get the 467.xxx on transmit to save. I was trying to save the local Phoenix area repeaters to one block, and leave some empty spaces before adding in the northern AZ repeaters, but no such luck. Maybe I missed something simple, and have to take another look.

[jsneezy]

It seems odd that it won't let us store anything beyond those 17 total channels for repeaters. I don't have a lot to compare it against, except for the Baofeng UV-9Gs that my wife and I have, and those have a total of 32 repeater channels if I remember right. But even beyond those channels, to my knowledge, you can program anything for scan, but if it's within GMRS frequencies I believe it will let you transmit. Although, that may have something to do with a possible setting in Chirp that will allow you to disable the receive only setting for said channel. It's not a deal breaker on this DB20-G though, I think I have a few repeaters that may end up getting removed from the current programming. I don't think I'll be in the areas that they are located in enough to make a difference.

[jsneezy]

Considering they have had about 2 or 3 years to get Chirp or RT working, if they haven't gotten it figured out by now, I don't think it's likely to happen. Whether it is a handshake issue as far as initiating communication or something in the coding I can't really say, as I haven't looked too much into it yet. 

I'm not as worried about getting too many more repeater channels. I'm not even sure that I'll use all of the repeaters I have programmed. There's quite a few that I know I absolutely will, but I also have a few around Tucson programmed, and I might end up near there about once every 10 years, if not even longer. 

So far from what I've seen, I'm pretty impressed considering the price I paid. One thing that I did think was pretty interesting was one of the times the radio restarted during programming, I looked over and noticed that the display said "Anytone! Welcome". As far as I was able to find, it sounds like the Retevis RA25 is the exact same radio, with different firmware. 

I'm still working out a plan for antenna cable routing but I'm planning to work on all of that next weekend. I'm just trying to do something that isn't sloppy, but also not too permanent. Considering I was a car audio installer at one point of my life, it shouldn't be too bad. I just need to look a little closer at what I'll be working with.

[jsneezy]

4 hours ago, WRXE944 said:

Please confirm for me, you did not purchase the Retevis Ra25.

I definitely purchased the Radioddity DB20-G.