New toy incoming.

[LeoG]

Ordered a Wouxun KG-XS20G Plus last week and it should be coming in on Monday.  Oh how exciting.  Another new toy to play with and suck up my time

Since I have a bunch of TD-H3s I decided to step up a bit and get something for my truck that would be more of a permanent fixture for me.  So anything anyone has to say as to tips or advice go for it.

I'll be running a Midland MXTA26 antenna on the system and not sure if I'll be permanently mounting this or just a semi permanent setup.  Sounds like at the beginning I'll just be hooking the power into one of the lighter sockets in the truck.  If it provides enough current I'll keep it that way for a bit.

[SvenMarbles]

New radio day!! lol. I relate to the excitement..

 

I think you made a good choice. A 20 watter is pretty much the goldylocks zone for GMRS... There isnt such a thing as a 50 watt radio being able to do something different than a 20 watt radio in 400 UHF (Come fight me if you want lol).... A hill is a hill and 30 more watts doesn't defeat it... So why not keep it to what you can cigarette lighter plug-in? So now you haven't molested your automobile's wiring and you can also choose to remove it and use it around different places....

 

Is this your first non-ht GMRS radio?

 

 

[LeoG]

Yes it is.  I looked around at the 50 watters and if I was going to get one it would have been the Wouxun KG-1000G Plus.  But for my first foray into the higher power radio I decided that I didn't want to spend $400 and $200 was a bit more inline with throwing away some money to have some fun.  On top of it I might just get another and throw it in the house for the little woman to keep tabs on me 

[WRYZ926]

The XS20G is an excellent radio that I am sure you will enjoy. It is pretty simple to program through the radio itself.

[WRDJ205]

3 hours ago, LeoG said:

Ordered a Wouxun KG-XS20G Plus last week and it should be coming in on Monday. 

Great choice.  I had my eye on the 50w but it was out of stock when I wanted to order so I got the 20G.  So happy with that choice.  Love the fact that I run it off the cig lighter.  It does everything I needed. 

[LeoG]

Glad to hear good things about it.  Only so much research you can do online and by youtube.  Sounds like I should be pleased with my purchase.

[LeoG]

2 hours ago, WRYZ926 said:

The XS20G is an excellent radio that I am sure you will enjoy. It is pretty simple to program through the radio itself.

I got the programming cable because I wasn't sure how easy or hard it would be to program.

[WRWE456]

Here's a article you may find interesting.

https://www.buytwowayradios.com/blog/2024/05/why-wouxun-gmrs-radios-do-not-include-programming-cables-and-software.html

[WRDJ205]

34 minutes ago, LeoG said:

2 hours ago, WRYZ926 said:

 

I got the programming cable because I wasn't sure how easy or hard it would be to program.

It wasn’t that hard to program but I couldn’t full get it to copy and paste from the chirp programmed channels I used for my other radios.  So, just had to type in the tones for the repeaters and the frequencies that I wanted to monitor in other bands.  

[LeoG]

20 minutes ago, WRWE456 said:

Here's a article you may find interesting.

https://www.buytwowayradios.com/blog/2024/05/why-wouxun-gmrs-radios-do-not-include-programming-cables-and-software.html

Ya, I know that.  Wasn't sure if it would be advantageous to have it.  And if I did need/want it I didn't want to have to wait for it to arrive after I already had the radio.  Can't hurt to have it.

[LeoG]

It's here....  Now all I have to do is wait until after work 

[SteveShannon]

That’s a very nice box, possibly one of the nicer ones I’ve seen. I’m sure glad I checked for new unread posts so I could see it.  

[Borage257]

You don’t HAVE to wait…

[LeoG]

24 minutes ago, SteveShannon said:

That’s a very nice box, possibly one of the nicer ones I’ve seen. I’m sure glad I checked for new unread posts so I could see it.  

If I have to suffer... you have to suffer.... 

[Davichko5650]

42 minutes ago, LeoG said:

It's here....  Now all I have to do is wait until after work 

If you'd have stuff delivered to work, you'd be checking this out on your break/lunch....

[LeoG]

I don't know what happened.  It snuck out of it's box and it's hiding in my truck

[WRXR255]

1 hour ago, LeoG said:

I don't know what happened.  It snuck out of it's box and it's hiding in my truck

Figured out where and how your going to mount it yet?

[LeoG]

Not exactly.  Right now I'm still thinking temporary.  Might take a longer board and put another shorter on an angle to mount the radio on and slip the long board under the armrest between the seats.  Don't really want to drill any holes into the truck yet.  It's only 17 years old ya know.

Glad I got the programming cable.  I think it'll be a lot easier to put the info into the machine, especially naming repeater channels.  The program works in the computer.  I haven't interfaced with the radio yet.  I think I have to put the driver for the cord into my computer before I plug anything in.  I've already got the programming software setup and ready to write to the radio as soon as I know it works.

I know, read first to make sure it's working right.

[WRXR255]

Looks like its not CHIRP compatible yet that i know of.

[LeoG]

Plus it looks like I'll have some extra time.  I am painting cabinets and I'll run out of paint before my supplier will be able to mix up a new batch for me.  So after this round I am free to roam about the airplane.

[LeoG]

3 minutes ago, WRXR255 said:

Looks like its not CHIRP compatible yet that i know of.

This is the what the program looks like

[WRXR255]

1 minute ago, LeoG said:

This is the what the program looks like

So pretty similar then.

[Socalgmrs]

21 minutes ago, LeoG said:

Not exactly.  Right now I'm still thinking temporary.  Might take a longer board and put another shorter on an angle to mount the radio on and slip the long board under the armrest between the seats.  Don't really want to drill any holes into the truck yet.  It's only 17 years old ya know.

Glad I got the programming cable.  I think it'll be a lot easier to put the info into the machine, especially naming repeater channels.  The program works in the computer.  I haven't interfaced with the radio yet.  I think I have to put the driver for the cord into my computer before I plug anything in.  I've already got the programming software setup and ready to write to the radio as soon as I know it works.

I know, read first to make sure it's working right.

The cup holder mounts work really well for the smaller 20w radios if you have some strong cup holders.  They worked great for my 20w th8600 (same size radio) before I hard mounted mine where the pull out ash try was. 

[WRXR255]

Just now, WRXP381 said:

The cup holder mounts work really well for the smaller 20w radios if you have some strong cup holders.  They worked great for my 20w th8600 (same size radio) before I hard mounted mine where the pull out ash try was. 

Thats what I went with for my 25 watter.  It does wobble a bit on bumpy roads, but not terribly so to make it an issue.

[Socalgmrs]

9 minutes ago, WRXR255 said:

Thats what I went with for my 25 watter.  It does wobble a bit on bumpy roads, but not terribly so to make it an issue.

That’s why I went hard mount eventually.  because I live and work on dirt roads and the wobble got to be a bit much.  But for most people they work well for the smaller radios. And even better for the removable face plate type radios.  The good ones arent exactly cheap either but for those that don’t want to drill or have newer cars/trucks with limited space they do the job.