Best GMRS Radio Available

[KB7MIB]

A 3 and a half year old thread.

I'm still wishing for the GMRS/scanner and MURS/scanner mobile radios along the lines of the old Australian market Uniden UH015SX, and companion handhelds, that I mentioned above.

One additional wish would be that the GMRS radio would have FRS channels 8-14, restricted to receive-only, for monitoring purposes. It would still be limited to transmitting on channels 1-7 and 15-22.

I, personally, would use the scanner sections for the VHF & UHF national and local interoperability and emergency management channels; the VHF 'Dot' & UHF 'Star' low power/itinerant business channels; as well as the Marine VHF and railroad channels. I'm sure there are a few other low use channels that I could put into them just to keep an ear on for activity, without having to take up memory space in my primary scanner(s).

I think there'd be a market for MURS & GMRS radios like these.

John
Peoria, AZ

 

[mmckenna]

A 3 and a half year old thread.

Well, since you guys lit the fuse on this one again...

I think there'd be a market for MURS & GMRS radios like these.

John
Peoria, AZ

yeah, as long as they were separate. The whole MURS thing about not having any other services in the radio would complicate things.

It's been a while since I was on GMRS, in fact, my license expired earlier this week and I didn't renew it...
Back when I was active, most of the Icom mobile commercial radios had Part 95 certification.
F-420
F-420S
F-221
Portable's did too, had an F-4
All good radios, F-420, F4 and F-221 had a dealer mode that would let you do some FPP, including change PL/DPL tones on the fly. Wasn't easy to do, required powering off, holding 2 buttons and powering back on. Still, easier to use a PC, but in a pinch it would work.
I had an Icom F-2020, 160 channels and remote head, 35 watts on UHF and Part 95, would cover the 440 band also. Had FPP. Nice affordable radio at the time. Great for use on GMRS.

A great portable with FPP that can be had on the cheap is the Kenwood TK-390. They are selling for $100 to $150 on e-Bay. I've got the VHF version, and they are pretty good radios.

 

[johnwashington]

Maybe a solution to year old threads is to get rid of them-

 

[Citywide173]

Maybe a solution to year old threads is to get rid of them-

Or to just make them read-only after a set period of time without replies.

 

[mmckenna]

Or just leave them be.

I've seen this site go both ways. If you ask a question that was answered anytime in the last 10 years you get folks upset because you won't search. If you search and comment on an old thread, there's another group that gets upset due to old threads being dug up.

Unless there is a bandwidth or storage issue, I don't see the harm. Old info that is accurate and useful is still good and can still generate good discussions.

 

[Citywide173]

Unless there is a bandwidth or storage issue, I don't see the harm. Old info that is accurate and useful is still good and can still generate good discussions.

[hijack]
It's not so much bandwidth/storage, but unwieldiness. There are the RTFF people that will disagree, but when a thread gets to a certain length, it becomes difficult to locate the specific information you're looking for, and a new thread would help out more than reviving an old one. That plus the info in the old thread isn't always guaranteed to be accurate and up to date. I have several threads on a board I run that were closed at around 300 pages and a successor thread started for just this reason. [/hijack]

 

[johnwashington]

Bearcom is just a very large retailer that had some mfr put their name on a few radios. Bearcom does not make any radios.
prcguy

Never said or implied Bearcom made radios but they sure do sell them. For VHF I have Motorola mag 1, 8 channel 5watts . Bearcom is UHF 8 channel 5 watts.

 

[tj20]

For your vehicle a Midland mxt100. Magnetic antenna to put outside your car. It only has gmrs channels 1-7 shared

 

[johnwashington]

Never said or implied Bearcom made radios but they sure do sell them. For VHF I have Motorola mag 1, 8 channel 5watts . Bearcom is UHF 8 channel 5 watts.

Motorola is BPR40.

 

[blackbelter]

I have had a pair of these radios which I have not used for a long time. They worked well when I used them on the past.

 

[bill4long]

Bafengs and Wouxuns and just about any modded ham radio will work. Not legal. But you may not care.

 

[Project25_MASTR]

Man, most of y'all are suggesting the hard ways of changing PL tones on the fly.

Motorola, Kenwood, Vertex, Icom, they all have radios with MPL options.What that means, (back in the day) you used to be able to program a mode and then have a MPL option (hot key button) that featured either 4, 8 or 16 PL options (pre-programmed by the shop). However, these PL options did not have to be the same for all modes, they could be strictly for a per mode basis.

Both Icom and Kenwood offer fairly easy FPP options on many of their display radios where you can change the entire mode/personality/channel. Most of them still have a programmable option for MPL.

If I'm setting up a radio and there is the option, I genrally only program 8 channels for GMRS (the repeater channels). I also program a key for talkaround and PL...gets me through pretty much anything I come across.

Radios with MPL options:
Motorola Professional series (CM300/PM300/PR300/etc)
?1225 series? (I can't remember even though I two brand new M1225's in my closet)
Motorola Spectra
Motorola Saber
Motorola Syntor
Motorola Maratrac
Kenwood TK860/TK880/TK890
Vertex VX4000/VX5000/VX6000(which is a rebranded TKx90)
Icom F420
Icom F221
Icom F6021
Icom F4021
Icom F4GS

The list goes on...

 

[SteveC0625]

Radios with MPL options:

Motorola Professional series (CM300

These radios belong to the Commercial Series. The pro Series is the Waris radios like the CDM's, Ht750, 1250, & 1550 which ca not do selectable PL.

The Commercial Series includes CM200 & 300, PM400, CP150, 200 etc. Only the CP200XLS portables and the display mobiles are able to do selectable PL. They can scroll through all of the Motorola PL's, and are not limited to a fixed number of choices. Not Part 95 but neither are most of the other Motorolas listed.

 

[WQWG712]

Which FRS/GMRS Radio do you all consider to be the top-of-the-line radio for everyday use.

Not commercial stuff, but something really good for occasional use.

I'll be using the FRS more than anything else, but "may" get a GMRS license in the future and want have the capability in whatever radio(s) I buy.

Thanks.

*** Go with Motorola CP200 Radius UHF***

 

[Project25_MASTR]

These radios belong to the Commercial Series. The pro Series is the Waris radios like the CDM's, Ht750, 1250, & 1550 which ca not do selectable PL.

The Commercial Series includes CM200 & 300, PM400, CP150, 200 etc. Only the CP200XLS portables and the display mobiles are able to do selectable PL. They can scroll through all of the Motorola PL's, and are not limited to a fixed number of choices. Not Part 95 but neither are most of the other Motorolas listed.

Correct. I never can get Commercial and Pro series worked out in my head...CPS for d) all of the above is sitting on my desktop. The only Pro series radios I have are HT750s so I wouldn't expect a MPL option on a non display radio. Could've sworn someone I knew had a MPL for a PR HT.

 

[SteveC0625]

Correct. I never can get Commercial and Pro series worked out in my head...CPS for d) all of the above is sitting on my desktop. The only Pro series radios I have are HT750s so I wouldn't expect a MPL option on a non display radio. Could've sworn someone I knew had a MPL for a PR HT.

You are not wrong. I forgot to list the PR400 which is pretty much the portable version of the PM400. And since it has a display, it will do MPL. (I always forget that one because you don't see many of them around. Apparently the CP200XLS is a much better cost vs. features choice.)

 

[WQWG712]

Id Rather have the PR400 than cp200XLS

 

[SteveC0625]

Id Rather have the PR400 than cp200XLS

How about saying why you prefer the PR400? Some of us might be real interested to hear your opinion.

 

[Project25_MASTR]

How about saying why you prefer the PR400? Some of us might be real interested to hear your opinion.

I've never seen the CP200XLS (4 channel CP200's seem to grow on trees around here). A local shop began replacing P1225s with PR400's around here for some construction companies.

 

[BaofengScanner]

If you were not allowed to use commercial equipment on GMRS, how would you have a repeater up and working? Commercial equipment is fine on GMRS, as long as it meets the Part number, what ever it is.

Unfortunately, the FCC has a lot more to worry about than what type equipment you use on GMRS, like going after Howard Stern!

Exactly just tell all the people running baofeng HTs and wouxun 50 watt mobiles on those channel and prepare to be an raging embarassment to the human species.