Hi guys so I have recently gotten really interested in gmrs radios. After owning my Radioshack Pro-164 scanner for about 3 years my interest in radios has greatly increased. My first step into an actual radio will be GMRS. So am looking for a budget GMRS radio and antenna. I will be using the radio in my vehicle and maybe in my house temporarily at sometimes. I do not want to drill into the roof for an antenna so I will want a nmo magnet mount and a good antenna. I know that this has been posted a million times but things change and new radios come out along with many other factors so any help would be appreciated. I will mostly be communicating with my buddy who is about 6 miles away from my house(I am at a higher elevation than him, no tall trees or buildings but some rolling foothills) but at the farthest I will be about 18 miles away at at least 1500 ft higher elevation than him and in the mountains with large hills and tall trees. I know that might be pushing it but thats ok if I can't do that. Anyway thanks a bunch
-
To anyone looking to acquire commercial radio programming software:
Please do not make requests for copies of radio programming software which is sold (or was sold) by the manufacturer for any monetary value. All requests will be deleted and a forum infraction issued. Making a request such as this is attempting to engage in software piracy and this forum cannot be involved or associated with this activity. The same goes for any private transaction via Private Message. Even if you attempt to engage in this activity in PM's we will still enforce the forum rules. Your PM's are not private and the administration has the right to read them if there's a hint to criminal activity.
If you are having trouble legally obtaining software please state so. We do not want any hurt feelings when your vague post is mistaken for a free request. It is YOUR responsibility to properly word your request.
To obtain Motorola software see the Sticky in the Motorola forum.
The various other vendors often permit their dealers to sell the software online (i.e., Kenwood). Please use Google or some other search engine to find a dealer that sells the software. Typically each series or individual radio requires its own software package. Often the Kenwood software is less than $100 so don't be a cheapskate; just purchase it.
For M/A Com/Harris/GE, etc: there are two software packages that program all current and past radios. One package is for conventional programming and the other for trunked programming. The trunked package is in upwards of $2,500. The conventional package is more reasonable though is still several hundred dollars. The benefit is you do not need multiple versions for each radio (unlike Motorola).
This is a large and very visible forum. We cannot jeopardize the ability to provide the RadioReference services by allowing this activity to occur. Please respect this.
Budget GMRS Radio & Antenna
- Thread starter ColinHartigan
- Start date
-
- Tags
- gmrs
- Status
rapidcharger
Member
Impossible to say if that's realistic or not without more information. 1500' above your buddy is great but not great if there's a 3000' peak in between you. Or maybe even another couple of miles at the same elevation. UHF is not very forgiving when it comes to line of sight. If you can see it, you can hit it, give or take a mile or so of trees and buildings. (That's my general rule of thumb)
But lets talk about the logistics of using a portable in the car with an external antenna.
Portable radios aren't designed with the connection to external antennas in mind. The antenna connectors are usually a weak spot.. And if the plan is to frequently connect and disconnect when you're in the car, you're going to put a lot of stress on that connector. And to make matters worse, you're probably going to end up placing the radio somewhere in the vehicle where it will see even more stress on the connector. Chances are it if is a budget radio, it's not going to have an available device to convert it to a mobile running off the vehicle's 12v power. Which means you're going to have to be forever removing and replacing the battery and/or the entire radio putting even more stress on the antenna connector.
I know a lot of people that are new to the hobby (both GMRS and amateur radio) expect to have citywide in-vehicle portable coverage with rubber duck antennas but there's a reason you don't see business and public safety users doing that... Because it doesn't work.
Good advice to not try to use a handheld in the car for GMRS. Get a dedicated UHF mobile radio that is Part 95 compliant for GMRS. You can move it to the base station as well. Or better, get a 2nd GMRS mobile and set it up in the base station with a DC power supply and external antenna on the roof. How do you know whether a radio is Part 95 certified for GMRS? Start here:
http://forums.radioreference.com/gmrs-frs/275040-part-95-gmrs-radio-list-2.html
As is noted in the thread, most of them are available on eBay or elsewhere... many times for less than $100.
http://forums.radioreference.com/gmrs-frs/275040-part-95-gmrs-radio-list-2.html
As is noted in the thread, most of them are available on eBay or elsewhere... many times for less than $100.
I am definitely not getting a handheld I want a mobile radio that I can mount in my vehicle not a handheld. Like I said I want to mount a nmo magnet mount antenna on my vehicle. I want to get a commercial grade UHF radio that is like you said part 95 compliant for GMRS. Sorry for the confusion
- Status
