Hi, I'm Jay, a retired American IT guy living in Cebu, central Philippines. I got my license in August 2023. Today I bit the bullet and ordered a Retevis RT3S with GPS and plan to eventually install the OpenGD77 firmware on it after familiarizing myself with DMR (I have a Yaesu FT-70D and an MMDVM hotspot so I'm not very familiar with codeplugs, color codes, zones and all that. It seems a lot more complicated than C4FM/YSF but I'll figure it out.) I'll also have to learn what the heck a CPS is
I'm also active on HF (40, 15 and 10 meters where my technician license class has privileges here) mostly on FT8. Lately I've become interested in APRS and plan to set up a digipeater and igate, so I got the Retevis HT as the cheapest yet decent radio that can do APRS to test them. The plan is to get a Digirig Mobile and a cable for an Anytone AT-778UV and use my Retevis RT95 (which is the same radio) for the APRS project. I'm also looking forward to trying the satellite functionality of OpenGD77 with its automatic Doppler shift corrections to see if I can't hit the repeater on the ISS. I may have to build a tape measure Yagi for that. Plus I like the black screen vs. the standard colors on the Retevis firmware. It just looks better and easier to see.
Anyway, just a brief introduction. 73.