GMRS radios

[jeffy]

Hey yous guys I have a question.... Do any of the GMRS or maybe even the FRS radios offer a jack for plugging an adapter in the wall as the power source. I hate it I can only use batteries (rechargeble) for power. One of the things I want to do is communicate with my daughter when we lose phone service from storms and whatnot. Why use batteries in the house if I didn't have to.

I see there are different distance ratings for radios... 26 miles being the max I've seen. Of course this is based on lay of the land and so forth. My question is, would a radio rated for 26 miles do better than one rated for 12 if I was going to call 2-3 miles over hills. I know these sound like dumb questions.... sorry.

Jeff - southeastern Ohio

 

[cellblock776]

If you are talking about the bubble pack toys sold in office supply stores and walmarts then you will be lucky to get more than a mile or two. Get your GMRS license and a real GMRS radio and you can reach out much further. A GMRS repeater you can access would be good. Failing that, a couple of 40 watt GMRS mobiles hooked to a alternative power supply such as a battery and feeding into gain yagi antennas should be good too.

 

[Mick]

The Rhino 520

This appears to have it:
http://www.gotbody.com/public/b_SHOP_BY_BRAND/GARMIN$1957/p_RINO_520$GAR39200.aspx
http://www8.garmin.com/manuals/Rino520HCx_OwnersManual.pdf

 

[trace1]

During those storms when you lose your phone service, you’re very likely to lose power service too, then what are you going to do?

You’re certainly not going to get 26 miles, or any claimed coverage, from the little hybrid FRS/GMRS bubble-pack type units.

Get a GMRS license, commercial grade equipment and any accessories needed such as cellblock776 suggested and you’d probably have a nice set up that you’d be proud of and it would serve its intended purpose.

 

[n2mdk]

See this rather new thread for more info.
http://www.radioreference.com/forums/showthread.php?t=89318
With a 5W radio with good antennas like the RH77CA your lucky to get a couple of miles in a city environment if both radios are at ground level.

 

[cellblock776]

During those storms when you lose your phone service, you’re very likely to lose power service too, then what are you going to do?

You’re certainly not going to get 26 miles, or any claimed coverage, from the little hybrid FRS/GMRS bubble-pack type units.

Get a GMRS license, commercial grade equipment and any accessories needed such as cellblock776 suggested and you’d probably have a nice set up that you’d be proud of and it would serve its intended purpose.

Yep, that's why I mentioned battery backup. My 2meter ham radio and a couple of scanners are hooked up 24/7 to a deep cycle marine battery with a trickle charger on it. Lights may go out but I'm still on the air.

 

[jeffy]

thanks... I won't be buying a bubble pack. I'll save some cash and get something better. I'll do some more homework too.

jeff

 

[fireSAR]

thanks... I won't be buying a bubble pack. I'll save some cash and get something better. I'll do some more homework too.

jeff

Jeffy,
looks like we live in the same area, send me a private message and i'll get you the info you need.

 

[scanfan03]

Get your GMRS license ($85, no test required). Then get a 45 Watt Base station (if permittable, i think 45 is the highest you can go) with a really good tall base antenna and then top it off with a Kenwood TK-350 or the like and you will be able to communicate from pretty far out.

 

[jonny290]

My bubble pack radios will sit in the charger and float charge all day long. I leave one on 'scan' 24/7 just to pick up any interesting chatter in the neighborhood. I've consistently done this daily for six months and battery life on the two radios is still near-identical.

 

[n2mdk]

Get your GMRS license ($85, no test required). Then get a 45 Watt Base station (if permittable, i think 45 is the highest you can go) with a really good tall base antenna and then top it off with a Kenwood TK-350 or the like and you will be able to communicate from pretty far out.

This is they way to go for long range simplex communications. When I was in NYC with antennas on my Apt roof, I had no problem communicating with friend with HTs 10 - 15 miles from me using my Kenwood TS-790 base on the HAM bands.

 

[cellblock776]

A good place to learn about GMRS radio is the forums at Popular wireless.
http://www.popularwireless.com/forum/ubbthreads.php?ubb=cfrm

 

[poltergeisty]

I was lucky enough (not for the owner) to have found a pretty good FRS/GMRS on the ground (With power boost and NOAA!) while camping last year. I checked it out and had some rust, but to my amazement it worked! Sense I have so many I decided to turn this one into a base.

That there it a genuine cell phone power adapter. :lol:

Not too hard to do. Wish I had a spare plug lying around. I just soldered the wiring directly. I also could use batteries, however with the wiring still attached. ( I need to add a diode though)

 

[poltergeisty]

I think one could buy some of those dummy batteries and wire it up in series, tape it together and use that as like a powered battery pack. Actually, you need to put some kind of brace on the back of the dummy batteries so that they are all adjacent to one another. Epoxy the brace to the back's or just epoxy the whole thing without a brace. If the radio's plastic battery holder has been molded to fit each battery individually, then this won't work. Just leave the dummy batteries separate. In my radio's case, the battery holder is flat as shown.

 

[AndersonMBK]

Cobra GMRS

I got this pair of GMRS radios. They do work fairly well for a few miles, and the batteries last a while. You have to use there rechargable battery though - no AA's or anything. The good thing is you can charge them one at a time, with a small power connector that fits into the top. I would think they would work for the occasional storm...

http://www.moretronics.com/Common/Product/Product.aspx?ID=40881&Src=GoogleBase&SrcID=207729

These just sit around most of the time though - is there anything fun to do with them?