Hi guys, I have a rare but great use for my radios. My College is about 2 miles from my home and I use my radios everyday to call home while at college. What is special about this is that my house is on a hill looking out on a big valley which is where my college is located. Due to this I have been able to get good clear use out of my K7GFV500 at ranges of 3 to 4 miles with line of site.
My K7GFV500 recently broke and my family bought a set of 3 K7GT8500s to replace them. The problem is these new radios seem to be basically junk. Even with direct L. of S. I can’t get good communication out of them. I figured I’d been duped with the higher range claim by motorola so I checked their power ratings but the 8500s have .40 more watts of power in the GMRS band (.68 total vs .28 total) so I can’t understand what is wrong. I have tried different channels FRS and GMRS, I’ve tried with QT on and off. Pleas help me solve this crazy problem.
even if the 8500s transmits more power, they might have a cheap reciever or antenna, maybe the antenna or the recieving sensivility of the K7GFV500 were better
I am not sure why you would be seeing this. Based on everything I’ve seen, the T8500R should be an improvement over the FV500.
There could always be some level of manufacturing variance, which means that even though the tested unit showed power of .68 a unit you purchased could vary slightly from that. This is unlikely to be the problem, however, as there is such a difference in the tested power of the radios.
You may want to contact Motorola (1-866-BUY-MOTO) on this, and see if they can offer an explanation. Please let us know what they have to say.