999 Channels For… ?

[Peat]

It seems the majority of GMRS radios advertise 999 memory presets. Are folks actually filling up these memory banks? Which bands have traffic to monitor? I just purchased a Wouxun KG-Q10G, which allows me the CB channels, and I suppose air band is an option. I’m in Pennsylvania so maritime is out and most police traffic is P25. I’m curious to know what others are monitoring.

[marcspaz]

With the frequency coverage, there is a lot of amateur radio, commercial radio and PRS that are all covered.  If you unlock it, you could use all those memory for MURS, Amateur repeaters, GMRS repeaters, your favorite simplex frequencies, etc.  If you travel a lot and want to save a bunch of GMRS or amateur repeater for where you travel to, that can be handy, too.

 

Just some thoughts.

[WRUE951]

7 minutes ago, marcspaz said:

With the frequency coverage, there is a lot of amateur radio, commercial radio and PRS that are all covered.  If you unlock it, you could use all those memory for MURS, Amateur repeaters, GMRS repeaters, your favorite simplex frequencies, etc.  If you travel a lot and want to save a bunch of GMRS or amateur repeater for where you travel to, that can be handy, too.

 

Just some thoughts.

considering that more and more radios are capable of programing zones and various channels,,  it could be very easy to occupy all those channels, especially considering what Marc stated..   

[73blazer]

 

Most GMRS radios are just HAM radios with different software on them. HAM's like their memory banks.  On my handheld I have all the VHF Marine, MURS, GMRS, and various GMRS and HAM repeaters on UHF & VHF  in three different states I visit regularly, as well as some "generic" ones like 525/141.3 550/141.3 575/141.3 etc..even though many of the other ones I have are the same freq/PL I like labels with locations because I don't remember "this city has a 525" etc...That said I only have a few hundred filled.

[WRCZ387]

8 minutes ago, marcspaz said:

With the frequency coverage, there is a lot of amateur radio, commercial radio and PRS that are all covered.  If you unlock it, you could use all those memory for MURS, Amateur repeaters, GMRS repeaters, your favorite simplex frequencies, etc.  If you travel a lot and want to save a bunch of GMRS or amateur repeater for where you travel to, that can be handy, too.

1 minute ago, WRUE951 said:

considering that more and more radios are capable of programing zones and various channels, it could be very easy to occupy all those channels, especially considering what Marc stated..   

 

Two of my Alinco h-t's have 1000 channels & the other has 4000 channels

I have the state that I live in & the states that I want to visit as zones, I have the open GMRS repeaters programmed in

I check the db for additions & updates

I don't know when I'll get to visit them, but my radios are ready

[Lscott]

15 minutes ago, 73blazer said:

 

Most GMRS radios are just HAM radios with different software on them. HAM's like their memory banks.  On my handheld I have all the VHF Marine, MURS, GMRS, and various GMRS and HAM repeaters on UHF & VHF  in three different states I visit regularly, as well as some "generic" ones like 525/141.3 550/141.3 575/141.3 etc..even though many of the other ones I have are the same freq/PL I like labels with locations because I don't remember "this city has a 525" etc...That said I only have a few hundred filled.

I've done the same.

It's even more fun doing a digital radio. In that case I've spent a day, or more, just building the "prototype" code plug for a few hundred channels. Then tying to get all of the options configured is even more work. The worst ones are the Anytone DMR ones. The number of options, many I don't need or use, to configure is just mind blowing.

[SteveShannon]

12 minutes ago, Lscott said:

I've done the same.

It's even more fun doing a digital radio. In that case I've spent a day, or more, just building the "prototype" code plug for a few hundred channels. Then tying to get all of the options configured is even more work. The worst ones are the Anytone DMR ones. The number of options, many I don't need or use, to configure is just mind blowing.

I agree, but recently I repleaced the firmware in a couple of TYT MD UV380 handhelds with OpenUV380. It is actually intuitive compared to the Anytone model which my Alinco radio used. You program repeaters, just the way you would an analog repeater, except of course you need to include color code and time slot. Then you group the talk groups into “talk group lists”.  Finally you associate each repeater to a talk group lists.  No more having to individually program every single talk group for every single repeater.  It’s even easier and more intuitive than using the DMR calculator supplied by RT Systems.

[Lscott]

40 minutes ago, SteveShannon said:

I agree, but recently I repleaced the firmware in a couple of TYT MD UV380 handhelds with OpenUV380. It is actually intuitive compared to the Anytone model which my Alinco radio used. You program repeaters, just the way you would an analog repeater, except of course you need to include color code and time slot. Then you group the talk groups into “talk group lists”.  Finally you associate each repeater to a talk group lists.  No more having to individually program every single talk group for every single repeater.  It’s even easier and more intuitive than using the DMR calculator supplied by RT Systems.

That really sounds like a MUCH better way to program DMR. Cuts out a lot of stupid duplicate programming.

[SteveShannon]

19 minutes ago, Lscott said:

That really sounds like a MUCH better way to program DMR. Cuts out a lot of stupid duplicate programming.

Exactly.  The reason I ordered the UV380 was because I’d been programming code plugs for a blind/deaf (mostly) ham friend.  The OpenGD77 and OpenUV380 software supports a fairly rich set of voice prompts which are a huge benefit to my friend.  For the Anytone/Alinco model I found that the only way to make channels easier for him were to exactly duplicate the channels for every DMR zone. That way he could memorize the numbers of the zones and the numbers of the channels within the zones.  So, channels 191, 291, 391, … all pointed to Talk group 91, the North American talk group, differing only in zone number. But as you say that’s a lot of duplication and ends up with many channels that differ minimally.  The OpenGD77 model is much more intuitive.

[Lscott]

46 minutes ago, SteveShannon said:

The reason I ordered the UV380 was because I’d been programming code plugs for a blind/deaf (mostly) ham friend.

More people should take a few minutes out to help somebody in need. The world would be a more pleasant place to live in. 

I spent half of my weekends for about a year or so along with my two sisters taking a shift to look after my Mom before she passed away. She had advance dementia and needed at home 24/7 care. The insurance only covered half of the cost of at home hospice care while the rest came out of their retirement savings and our volunteered help. 

[SteveShannon]

10 minutes ago, Lscott said:

More people should take a few minutes out to help somebody in need. The world would be a more pleasant place to live in. 

I spent half of my weekends for about a year or so along with my two sisters taking a shift to look after my Mom before she passed away. She had advance dementia and needed at home 24/7 care. The insurance only covered half of the cost of at home hospice care while the rest came out of their retirement savings and our volunteered help. 

We’re at that age (I assume) where we help those who need help. It’s not always easy but it’s rewarding in its own right.  

[nokones]

In my Motorola XTL5000 UHF mobiles, I have 35 Zones with a combined total of 860 channels programmed with GMRS for coverage in six states, and several business radio service channels. In my Motorola XTL2500 VHF mobiles, I have several business radio service channels in about ten zones in various channel configurations.

In my XTS5000 UHF portables, I have 43 Zones with about the same number of channels, not to exceed 16 channels per zone. In my Motorola XTS5000 VHF portables they are essentially programmed the same as my VHF mobiles.

Oh, by the way, it appears that these series radios will not allow you to program more than 50 zones.

I think it is stupid that radio manufacturers design a 1,000 channel radio without any zone banks. Can you imagine trying to zip through a gazillion channels in one zone. Typical $20 POS CCR, and without PL Defeat/Monitor, Home Channel, Display with more than 6 characters, and Talkaround features.

[Lscott]

I use my radios a lot for scanning. Having multiple zones organizes the memory channels neatly. The radios I have allow me to activate each zone, and select which memory channel in the zone for scanning.

When operating DMR you really use up memory channels like crazy. The usual practice I use is one zone per DMR repeater, and one memory channel per talkgroup and slot number. If you travel around to different areas you end up with a huge collection of zones for each repeater loaded up with memory channels for the supported talkgroups. Other digital modes, like P25 and NXDN, end up being programmed in a similar fashion.

Most of my radios are commercial types with no front panel programming, or VCO. So, to simulate a VCO I use one zone and enter sequential memory channels like 446.000, 446.025, 446.050 etc. for the simplex section of the band. The memory name mirrors the programmed frequency. Thus when turning the channel selector knob you see a sequence of memory names which looks like you're just adjusting the VCO with a 25KHz step size. You need a lot of memory channels to do this since the UHF simplex band sections might require around 80 channels each, and there are multiple sections. 

Doing the above on VHF isn't so easy due to various states use either a 20KHz or 15KHz channel spacing. In that case I did a spread sheet starting at the simplex section band edge and calculated a sequences of frequencies using both channel step sizes, then eliminated the duplicate frequencies. Still ended up with a lot of memory channels to program.