I'm new to the forum and radio. Just bought my GMRS license and I'm studying for my technicians license for HAM.
Welcome.
A lot of the suggestions will depend on your skill level and how much effort you want to put into this.
While CB radio is a good start, some of the knowledge required to program a GMRS radio or even an amateur radio is different. Giving us some more information about your skill level, budget, and how easy you want this to be would help us give you a better answer.
I plan to put GMRS radios into my Jeep Wrangler and F350 pick up truck. The Jeep will need a shorter antenna for going off-road. I'm currently running a 24" firestik CB antenna on my tire mount and it is just even with the softtop for tree clearance. I also see they have little nubby antennas too like the 3db ghost which would work on a fender bracket. Or if there is a good surface mount mushroom type antenna that could sit in the center of the hood? I have a 24" whip (firestik) on the tire carrier for the CB and that is dead even with the roof on the soft top so trees don't take it out.
The truck won't have a height issue- so whatever is best, probably mounted to the front of the bed rail behind the cab. 6db 32" whip?
The antenna and its installation will play the biggest role in the success or failure of your setup.
Mounting a UHF antenna down below the cab on the bed rail isn't going to work well. It's shadowed behind the cab which is going to make it very directional towards the rear. The cab will block the signal going forward.
For UHF, your best option is to do a permanent installation on the roof of the cab. That gets it on a good ground plane and in the clear with nothing blocking it. That's going to give you the best performance.
I run full size pickups and always install an NMO mount dead center in the roof. It takes some effort to do that, plus a few tools you may not already own, but it is worth it.
The Jeep gets to be a bit of a challenge. You want a good ground plane under the antenna if possible. As you are suggesting, best place for that would be center of the hood. While some might laugh at the idea, I know a guy with a Jeep that did that exact thing. He used it for a VHF antenna and it worked pretty well.
You don't want to mount it in the same place as the CB antenna, as you want some separation between them. You could do a 1/2 wave antenna mounted off the edge of the fender. There's a user on this site that did that exact setup with a GMRS antenna, as well as his CB antenna and amateur radio antenna.
The Midland "Ghost" antennas are not the best design. They are a physically short antenna that leads to less than ideal performance. You can get a 1/4 wave VHF whip (about 6 inches tall) that will likely work better and be less expensive. You can use a higher gain antenna, but that doesn't always help with coverage.
Finally, are the Midland micro mobiles any good? The MXT500 looks like it'll work well in the truck and the remote mount MXT575 looks ideal for the Jeep.
For an "off the shelf" consumer grade GMRS mobile, it's hard to beat. It'll do everything you want on GMRS and it'll be essentially ready to go out of the box. As stated above, you pay for that convenience. The other benefit is that it'll likely match what others are using, so it makes setting up the radio to talk to someone else that much easier. Drawback is that it'll only do GMRS.
The XTL-1500 mentioned by prcguy is a good option. Excellent radio. The only drawback is that the programming software has a pretty steep learning curve. Not impossible, but it takes some time to learn. If you can get a file from someone else who has already set one up for GMRS, it'll make your introduction to the software quite a bit easier. One benefit, as mentioned, is you can program it to work on the 70cm amateur band, so one radio will do GMRS and amateur. That's a pretty good feature right there.
Another option is the Kenwood TK-8180. It's a physically smaller radio and can be set up with a remote head kit to make installation easier (similar to the XTL-1500). The Kenwood KPG-89 programming software is easier to learn, probably one of the easier commercial radio softwares out there.
TK-8180K 450-520MHz 30 watts. This one is the only version that has the FCC Part 90 certification that is technically required for GMRS
TK-8180HK 450-520MHz 45 watts. Doesn't have Part 95, but does have some more power. Don't get hung up on transmitter power, it doesn't make that much difference.
TK-8180K2 400-470MHz 30 watts. Doesn't have Part 95, but will cover the 70cm band. Again, don't get hung up on that 15 watts...
TK-8180HK2 400-470MHz 45 watts. Again, no Part 95, but will do GMRS and 70cm if you ignore that little section in the rules.
The TK-8180K version will usually stretch down into the 70cm band just fine.
As for the FCC Part 95 thing, many choose to ignore that section of the rules. That's a decision you need to make.
So, essentially, it comes down to how much effort you want to put into all this. The Midlands are suitable radios and are pretty high on the "Easy" scale. There are better radios on the commercial side, but they come with some challenges that can be overcome with some work.
Only other thing I'd add:
The effort you put into the installation is directly proportional to how well the radio is going to work. You absolutely want to run power for all your radios direct from the battery. Don't tap into existing wiring, as that picks up noise/interference you don't want. Don't use cigarette lighter sockets, either.
Permanent mount antennas will give you better performance, and getting the antennas on a good ground plane and in the clear is well worth the effort.
