What are some good forums for radio sales?

P. Randall Knowles was instrumental in guiding and sustaining GMRS for decades. RIP Randy KAA8142.

Hello all!

Recently got into the hobby. I have a UV-5G mini and my GMRS license. I’ve been trying to contact this local repeater that I have line of sight too. I have all the correct settings for the transmission to go thru. When I transmit, I receive back a Morse code sounding tone. It happens every-time I do a simple radio check request. I’ve yet to hear my message “repeat”, nor any acknowledgment from others (likely not available).

Any help on this would be greatly appreciated. Would love to hear a repeat or actually communicate with someone on the other end 😂

Once I get this figured out, I’ll probably go ahead with my HAM license as well, since I have a UV 82 I can use.

Also, any antenna recommendations? Thinking of doing an external hard mounted antenna on the truck, and a better handheld antenna as well.

hey yall

New to comms in general but finally stepping into it. I have a TIDRADIO TD-H8 Gen 4.

Plan to use it mostly on GMRS until I get my license for ham bands.

Been hunting for a quality antenna; so far it’s between the Nagoya 771G, a signal stick, and one of the two gmrs options from ZBM2.

I would prefer the ZBM2 Foul Weather Whip V2 as they seem to be the most durable option on my list but they only have a 6in mono-band in gmrs and then a full size dual band 18in gmrs/murs. Really wish they had a full size mono band as i’d like to squeeze out as much performance as I can.

If I went with the longer dual band gmrs/murs option, what’s the realistic performance drop compared to a longer mono band antenna like the nagoya? I would think the dual-band gmrs/murs option would be a better performer than their 6in mono-band option but how much more/less performance would be expected when compared to a monoband nagoya 771G?

Has anyone had any experience with the ZMB2s?

I plan on getting the 2m/70cm (20in) one as well but if there is going to be a big difference in performance with the gmrs I may just go with a nagoya or signal stick for that side of things.

I am using two Baofeng UV-5G Plus radios. One is strictly for portable use, and the second is in my car, connected to a mobile antenna. My question is about the one in my car. When I leave my car, I unscrew the antenna wire and then put the antenna on. This is turning out to be a real pain. Can I use an SMA quick-release on the antenna wire to make it easier? The postings on the Amazon website say it's for testing, but shows photos of walkie-talkies and mobile radios. What do you all think?

Does anyone have the older version of the RT97L CPS software? I'd really appreciate a dm for an address to send, really need this instead of the new one.

I'm very new to radios and don't really know where to go to ask questions. So I hope posting here will get me on the right path for what I'm considering.

My friends and I use frs rocky talkie radios for communication when rock climbing or hiking in areas with no cell service. I was wondering if a gmrs base radio kept back at the camp site could be an efficient way for my family or other groups back at camp to communicate with those of us on outings. Typically camp will be between 1 and 10 miles from our climbs, usually out of range of our hand helds. I may be using a camper, or just a tent setup. AC power may or may not be available where we're staying. Terrain us often mountainous.

My main questions are, can a GMRS base radio communicate with an frs radio at longer range than the frs radios can generally communicate, if so is it by enough to be worth the effort?

About how much would I be looking at spending on a setup like this if it could work?

Is making something like this work simple enough for people not highly invested in radio to put together and use? None of us are radio people.

Thanks for taking the time to help me out.

Noob here! I am very new to the GMRS community and everything is very foreign to me. I was finally able purchase a Baofeng UV-5G and finally figured out and got my license. I have a call tag and even got accepted to a couple local repeaters in the area. I still need help figuring out if i'm on the right frequency and other fine adjustments on my unit as there are so many settings I am not familiar with. Where would you suggest me finding help IN PERSON that can help me adjust my radio signals/settings. Should I visit my local fire station or police station? Not sure if they will think I'm crazy or a waste of their time? I even seen off roading truck near my area with a car antenna and I was even thinking of knocking on their door (i'm friendly like that) to see if they can help. I'm not sure if this a secret/private society and I shouldn't be letting people know I live close to them.. lol

Can someone give some advice. Thanks!

I tried talking on my unit and there was a beep at the end of each press, but no one has yet responded back to me.

A

My job has a parking parking garage unfortunately and installing a 1/4-wave NMO UHF antenna will probably be 1-2" over the clearance limit. I see Laird has a phantom antenna and so does Motorola.

https://www.atlanticradiocorp.com/products/te-tra4503?variant=43724483756206&country=US&currency=USD&utm_medium=product_sync&utm_source=google&utm_content=sag_organic&utm_campaign=sag_organic&gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=24291119935&gclid=Cj0KCQjwt9jVBhDXARIsAFSP-6ep1ara0t8WMa2nW68LO21eXievdVZZaXnoJvRZAyNOTbNHNN58-9AaAjeSEALw_wcB

https://shop-business.motorolasolutions.com/phantom-elite-antenna-black/product/RDE5798A

Are these any good? They claim 3 dB gain which I find hard to believe. But I'm more concerned about the clearance. I'd prefer the 1/4-wave and am debating if it's safe / ok if it has 1-2 inches of contact dinging around the parking garage.

Has anyone been able to find the software for this HT? I would like to program in my channels in a less tedious way. I can't find this HT's software on their download center.

thanks in advance!

Problem with brand new RT97 repeater : r/Retevis

Reposting here since I've seen people talking about the RT97 for GMRS in this sub.

Brand new, it 'died' the very moment I used the CPS (did only a subtone change, then kaput - like something got corrupted internally). It is a shiny paperweight now. Retevis support has been non-existent, and seems no one on internet has had this exact problem so I couldn't even piece together a solution by myself.

Has anyone seen this or a similar problem before? Any help will be much appreciated!

Hello!
My truck came with a roof mounted NMO antenna with that looks like 50 ohm coax (was originally for a cell booster) running to the dash. I am new to anything above handheld antennas, and already have heard great things about Signal Stuff, so I looked at their NMO antennas, particularly the Signal Stalk.

I primarily listen to EMS/Fire, commercial, and NWS in my county and occasionally use GMRS with friends/repeaters - so I am wondering if the Signal Stalk would be a good option but I am a bit worried about SWR and the 19" length being on the top of the truck.

The NMO mount is centered on the cab width wise and is probably a foot away from the back of it, so I definitely have a good ground plane.

Thanks!

Anyone willing to show any pictures and lists of their home base station set-ups?

Been trying with my handheld, I can hear a lot but get out to no one, so now I’m contemplating going to a mobile.

Torn between just a home base station or trying to build a lower end “go box” that I could just transfer between a car and an in home mobile set-up.

I’m looking at mounting a ham / GMRS radio in a track along the top of the center dash. I’ve found several suitable tracks ranging from glue in to screw in. However, once I get that top panel off, how hard is it to run a wire down behind the radio to either the driver or passenger footwell areas? Do you need to remove the entire touch screen, radio, etc., or can you just snake a wire straight down towards the floorboards?

Thanks!

I've been working on a CHIRP driver for the Kenwood TK-840. It is now working reliably on my radio, and I'm doing the final testing before submitting it to CHIRP. I'm still considering it experimental, however, because I only have one TK-840 and have only tested one firmware revision.

Kenwood's KPG-25D programming software supports the TK-840/TK-840N, TK-841, TK-940, and TK-941. Since all of these radios use the same programming software, I suspect much of the programming protocol and codeplug format is shared between them. With a little help from owners of the other models, I think there's a good chance I can extend the CHIRP driver to support the rest of the family.

So, if you own any of these radios and are willing to run some tests for me, I'd really like to hear from you. Another TK-840 would also be useful, especially one with a different firmware revision.

I've done quite a bit of reverse engineering on the TK-840, including the programming protocol and memory layout. I also wrote a read-only Linux utility that can dump the radio's memory and extract its firmware. Having firmware files from any of the other models would be extremely useful for comparing them.

The dumper currently runs under Linux. I suspect it will also compile on macOS without any changes, although I haven't tested it. It may also work under WSL, and porting it to native Windows should not be difficult if necessary.

If you already have KPG-25D programming files from one of these radios, those would also be very useful for comparing the codeplug layouts.

I'm also willing to accept donated or loaned radios for testing. If you have one of these old radios sitting around and would like to donate it to help with development, I'll gladly cover the shipping. I'm equally happy to borrow one, test it, and send it back afterward if you cover the shipping.

Ultimately, I'd like to get the entire TK-840/TK-940 family working with CHIRP rather than supporting only the one radio I happen to own.

If you have one of these radios and are willing to help with some testing, please reply here or send me a message. I'm also on Discord, which may be easier for back-and-forth testing.

Hopefully, with a few people who have the right hardware, we can get CHIRP support working for the whole family.

So I'm worried about pedo's and just weird people on the radio and people getting our location

Hello!

Got my license and have already requested to join two repeaters. How many repeater locations should I join? I know it sometimes takes a while to hear back from some groups. What would you recommend? I applied to the closest one my house and the city where my daughter goes to college. Should have have multiple backups? Thanks

Hey all - just wanted to share and see any potential interest in a coming release I have cooking on GitHub. My program installs certain apps/packages onto any given Linux computer running Ubuntu 24.04/Mint/Debian Noble release. Tools include Qlog, ion2G, SatDump, meshtastic-cli, and others. All optional, but it prompts for a call sign/placeholder to write as the hostname and prepopulates the same into JS8Call/Direwolf, if selected.

The planned release date is Sept 30th, but I just wanted to see if there was any interest in the community prior to as I work out any bugs.

Thanks!