[chirp_users] A "Feature" When Programming Btech's GMRS-V2 Handheld
Dear Chirp Team:
I’m a newcomer to Chirp, having found it following an interest in getting a repeater-capable handheld, that led me to Btech’s GMRS-V2 as a starter radio. While Chrip presently has a beta-version interface to the GMRS-V2, I found it to work well and I’ve been able to program about 20 frequencies into the radio with regional repeater stations, and a mixture of VHF and UHF frequencies for local fire, police, businesses, etc. Chirp makes this relatively easy (provided you enter all of the data correctly, of course) and is more user-friendly than the CPS software from Baofeng, which is really meant for their UV-82 series on which the GMRS-V2 is based.
One thing I’ve noticed is that while Chirp uploads to the radio and gets CTCSS and DCS codes and other settings correct, after programming the radio is showing the “+-“ symbol for a frequency offset on all of the channels that I put in with no offset. I checked the image file I’d saved and see that the column labeled “Duplex” does show as “off” in all cases. The radio works OK, though, so I describe this as more of a feature and less of a bug...
Does anyone have an idea of something I might be doing incorrectly in the use of Chirp? Or is this a feature of the current Chirp version when writing to firmware in the GMRS-V2?
Sincerely Yours,
Sam Thurman Valencia, CA
Hi Sam,
On Sun, Jul 31, 2022 at 2:30 PM Lisa & Sam Thurman sam.thurman@ca.rr.com wrote:
Dear Chirp Team:
I’m a newcomer to Chirp, having found it following an interest in getting a repeater-capable handheld, that led me to Btech’s GMRS-V2 as a starter radio. While Chrip presently has a beta-version interface to the GMRS-V2, I found it to work well and I’ve been able to program about 20 frequencies into the radio with regional repeater stations, and a mixture of VHF and UHF frequencies for local fire, police, businesses, etc. Chirp makes this relatively easy (provided you enter all of the data correctly, of course) and is more user-friendly than the CPS software from Baofeng, which is really meant for their UV-82 series on which the GMRS-V2 is based.
One thing I’ve noticed is that while Chirp uploads to the radio and gets CTCSS and DCS codes and other settings correct, after programming the radio is showing the “+-“ symbol for a frequency offset on all of the channels that I put in with no offset. I checked the image file I’d saved and see that the column labeled “Duplex” does show as “off” in all cases. The radio works OK, though, so I describe this as more of a feature and less of a bug...
This radio is an FCC Part 95 Subpart E certified radio for the GMRS service. It will only transmit on the 30 authorized frequencies for the GMRS. Any additional frequencies in the 136-179 MHz and 400-520 MHz are not authorized for transmitting so radio will only receive on those frequencies. It is for this reason that CHIRP automatically switches duplex to "off" so that CHIRP matches how the radio works.
The radio displays a "+-" symbol in the upper status display area to indicate that the selected channel's RX frequency and TX frequency are not the same (as would be the case for repeater or TX disabled channels).
Does anyone have an idea of something I might be doing incorrectly in the use of Chirp? Or is this a feature of the current Chirp version when writing to firmware in the GMRS-V2?
You are doing nothing wrong. This is how the radio works. This is covered in Appendix C. - Technical Specifications on page 69 of the User Manual.
Sincerely Yours,
Sam Thurman Valencia, CA
Jim KC9HI
Hi Jim - Thanks for such a quick reply, and for pointing out the subtlety I believe I had missed earlier...
Understood the -V2 is a Part 95E radio with no VHF or UHF transmit allowed outside of the 462-467 GMRS frequencies. Therein lies the subtlety - since the radio won't transmit on the receive-only frequencies I've programmed, there IS a difference vs. the receive frequencies, hence the "+-" symbol is shown!
Sincerely Yours, Sam
-----Original Message----- From: Jim Unroe Sent: Sunday, July 31, 2022 12:02 PM To: Discussion of CHIRP Subject: Re: [chirp_users] A "Feature" When Programming Btech's GMRS-V2Handheld
Hi Sam,
On Sun, Jul 31, 2022 at 2:30 PM Lisa & Sam Thurman sam.thurman@ca.rr.com wrote:
Dear Chirp Team:
I’m a newcomer to Chirp, having found it following an interest in getting a repeater-capable handheld, that led me to Btech’s GMRS-V2 as a starter radio. While Chrip presently has a beta-version interface to the GMRS-V2, I found it to work well and I’ve been able to program about 20 frequencies into the radio with regional repeater stations, and a mixture of VHF and UHF frequencies for local fire, police, businesses, etc. Chirp makes this relatively easy (provided you enter all of the data correctly, of course) and is more user-friendly than the CPS software from Baofeng, which is really meant for their UV-82 series on which the GMRS-V2 is based.
One thing I’ve noticed is that while Chirp uploads to the radio and gets CTCSS and DCS codes and other settings correct, after programming the radio is showing the “+-“ symbol for a frequency offset on all of the channels that I put in with no offset. I checked the image file I’d saved and see that the column labeled “Duplex” does show as “off” in all cases. The radio works OK, though, so I describe this as more of a feature and less of a bug...
This radio is an FCC Part 95 Subpart E certified radio for the GMRS service. It will only transmit on the 30 authorized frequencies for the GMRS. Any additional frequencies in the 136-179 MHz and 400-520 MHz are not authorized for transmitting so radio will only receive on those frequencies. It is for this reason that CHIRP automatically switches duplex to "off" so that CHIRP matches how the radio works.
The radio displays a "+-" symbol in the upper status display area to indicate that the selected channel's RX frequency and TX frequency are not the same (as would be the case for repeater or TX disabled channels).
Does anyone have an idea of something I might be doing incorrectly in the use of Chirp? Or is this a feature of the current Chirp version when writing to firmware in the GMRS-V2?
You are doing nothing wrong. This is how the radio works. This is covered in Appendix C. - Technical Specifications on page 69 of the User Manual.
Sincerely Yours,
Sam Thurman Valencia, CA
Jim KC9HI _______________________________________________ chirp_users mailing list chirp_users@intrepid.danplanet.com http://intrepid.danplanet.com/mailman/listinfo/chirp_users This message was sent to Sam Thurman at sam.thurman@ca.rr.com To unsubscribe, send an email to chirp_users-unsubscribe@intrepid.danplanet.com To report this email as off-topic, please email chirp_users-owner@intrepid.danplanet.com Searchable archive: https://www.mail-archive.com/chirp_users@intrepid.danplanet.com
participants (2)
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Jim Unroe -
Lisa & Sam Thurman