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Suggestions on GMRS/FRS Devices
- Thread starter RemydaCat
- Start date
- Status
Handheld or mobile?
In addition to Handheld or mobile, need lot more info. What is decent distance capability? Will it be or is it licensed? Topographical information, urban or rural. Purpose of use? Experience with setting up repeaters?
RemydaCat
Member
- Joined
- Jan 24, 2020
- Messages
- 9
To get specific:
Purpose of Use - To communicate with others & listen to traffic.
- reside Downtown in a Smaller city in Washington State.
The area where I reside includes small hills/mountains..and trees
- will travel frequently to a rural location North. It's flat with wide open spaces
- prefer to not have to get a HAM license - at this time.
- will get a license since GMRS requires it.
- am interested in both Portable + Micro-portable > (I would use this inside my apartment possibly)
Can you give it more power = further distance?
I hope this provides clarity.
Thank you!
Purpose of Use - To communicate with others & listen to traffic.
- reside Downtown in a Smaller city in Washington State.
The area where I reside includes small hills/mountains..and trees
- will travel frequently to a rural location North. It's flat with wide open spaces
- prefer to not have to get a HAM license - at this time.
- will get a license since GMRS requires it.
- am interested in both Portable + Micro-portable > (I would use this inside my apartment possibly)
Can you give it more power = further distance?
I hope this provides clarity.
Thank you!
Hi RemydaCat,
If you are interested in communicating with others by just throwing your call out on GMRS simplex, it will be highly unlikely that you make random contacts. Most GMRS repeaters are private and the owners are very selective on who uses them. Are there GMRS repeaters in your area and do you have permission to use them?
If you are interested in communicating with others by just throwing your call out on GMRS simplex, it will be highly unlikely that you make random contacts. Most GMRS repeaters are private and the owners are very selective on who uses them. Are there GMRS repeaters in your area and do you have permission to use them?
bill4long
Member
Maybe you don't realize how easy it is. If you have an IQ slightly above a chimp, it is an easy matter. At any rate, forget thinking about GMRS as "ham radio lite." It isn't. You're going to waste your money and be disappointed.
mmckenna
I ♥ Ø
I was active on GMRS for many years, but I also had my amateur license. I used GMRS because I couldn't get others in the family to get their ham tickets.
We, and everyone else I knew, all ran CTCSS tones on the GMRS radios specifically so we/they didn't have to listen to any other traffic. The idea was that it was for family use, and not for making random contacts with people we didn't know.
-only exception was the 462/467.674 141.3Hz "traveler info/emergency" channel.-
Other than that, we used one of the simplex frequencies for family use, with the CTCSS to make it so we didn't have to listen to other users, and we had our own tone on a high level repeater that gave us a lot of range.
So, like others said, many GMRS users are not looking to make random contact like you'd get on CB or amateur radio. I'm sure there's some, but it is infrequent. I'd say do not spend good money on GMRS gear if that is your intended use. You will be disappointed.
But, if you really want to do it, get the right gear. Don't get the consumer grade stuff. Get a commercial UHF radio that has the -required- FCC Part 95 certifications. You can get a hand held, but for driving use you really want an antenna outside your car. Using a hand held inside the metal body/tinted windows is going to severely limit your range.
Something like a Kenwood or Icom commerical UHF radio. Personally if I was doing it, I'd do a Kenwood TK-8180 mobile and put a permanent mount UHF antenna on the roof of your car, and another one at your home.
There are a number of technical reasons you want the commercial gear, but I'll hold off going into that right now.
Bonus is, when you get your amateur license, you can program 70cm amateur radio frequencies into those radios.
But, really, if you want random contacts while on the road, get one (or both) of the following:
A decent CB radio with an efficient antenna mounted on your vehicle.
An amateur radio that will do the VHF 2 meter band.
The ham license is not hard to get, and gives you access to a lot more users that are interested in making random contacts. GMRS will be a disappointment on that front.
We, and everyone else I knew, all ran CTCSS tones on the GMRS radios specifically so we/they didn't have to listen to any other traffic. The idea was that it was for family use, and not for making random contacts with people we didn't know.
-only exception was the 462/467.674 141.3Hz "traveler info/emergency" channel.-
Other than that, we used one of the simplex frequencies for family use, with the CTCSS to make it so we didn't have to listen to other users, and we had our own tone on a high level repeater that gave us a lot of range.
So, like others said, many GMRS users are not looking to make random contact like you'd get on CB or amateur radio. I'm sure there's some, but it is infrequent. I'd say do not spend good money on GMRS gear if that is your intended use. You will be disappointed.
But, if you really want to do it, get the right gear. Don't get the consumer grade stuff. Get a commercial UHF radio that has the -required- FCC Part 95 certifications. You can get a hand held, but for driving use you really want an antenna outside your car. Using a hand held inside the metal body/tinted windows is going to severely limit your range.
Something like a Kenwood or Icom commerical UHF radio. Personally if I was doing it, I'd do a Kenwood TK-8180 mobile and put a permanent mount UHF antenna on the roof of your car, and another one at your home.
There are a number of technical reasons you want the commercial gear, but I'll hold off going into that right now.
Bonus is, when you get your amateur license, you can program 70cm amateur radio frequencies into those radios.
But, really, if you want random contacts while on the road, get one (or both) of the following:
A decent CB radio with an efficient antenna mounted on your vehicle.
An amateur radio that will do the VHF 2 meter band.
The ham license is not hard to get, and gives you access to a lot more users that are interested in making random contacts. GMRS will be a disappointment on that front.
Hit_Factor
Member
I think you meant 462/467.675, however, .674 might work ok.
mmckenna
I ♥ Ø
The keyboard is intermittent on my 6+ year old MacBook Pro. I've got a new one on order, but due to our molasses like purchasing system, I'm not sure when I'll get it. Might be sometime next summer.
SixTh - How did you get the GMRS frequencies? The specs for the UV8000E show 420-450MHZ.
a certain key-press sequence on power up unlocks the full range. The amazon store item description describes it.
mmckenna
I ♥ Ø
Running that radio through the FCC OET site, its showing it does not have Part 95 acceptance to be legal to use on GMRS.
In fact, it's only showing Part 15, which is used for receivers.
Since the Chinese manufacturers play pretty fast and loose with US laws, I'd be careful about buying one. If you want to stick to the rules that are required by your FCC license, this radio would not be legal for anything other than amateur radio use or as a receiver.
But it's up to you. I know a lot of people choose to ignore the rules. I'm not the radio police and I don't really care.
Thank you.
thanks for the information. I'm looking for something simple for my spouse to use for comms when cell service is down.
I knew that at the time I purchased it but I was looking for a quick fix to get into it and didn’t want to spend money on a limited radio from midland (and the likes).
my plans are to eventually go with kenwood commercial grade radios as those seem the “cheapest” to program compared to Motorola’s. Please correct me if I’m wrong. I understand I can buy them and have them programmed for me but I like to do my own tricks, so to speak, so I’d like to be able to program them myself.
mmckenna
I ♥ Ø
Kenwood TK-3180 is a good option.
There's two models, one with a full DTMF keypad and one with a limited keypad.
For novice users, less buttons is more better. You can program them up in such a way that there are limited functions (or no functions) on the buttons. That makes it less likely a novice user will accidentally change something and not know how to get back on the right channel. In fact, you can program a key that will lock the buttons/channel selector.
As programming software goes, the KPG-89 is pretty easy to learn and can be had fairly cheap.
The radios are no longer sold new, but there's a lot of them on the used market. I have one as a shop radio for testing the limited number of UHF systems I look after. Nice thing is they use the same batteries and accessories as the newer NX-x10 radios.
If you are using these for hobby use, amateur, GMRS, etc. having your own software really is a good idea. At some point you'll want to make changes, that being able to do it on your own is easy.
If you have, or want to get your amateur license, you can get the lower UHF split model and load it up with 70cm amateur band frequencies.
Decent radios for the price.
Add a TK-8180 and you'll have a nice mobile/base and it uses the same programming software as the TK-3180. Would make for a great GMRS setup.
I wasn't busting your chops over the TYT radio. It's hard to find good GMRS radios, and the dealers don't always tell the truth. I doubt anyone would even notice.
There's two models, one with a full DTMF keypad and one with a limited keypad.
For novice users, less buttons is more better. You can program them up in such a way that there are limited functions (or no functions) on the buttons. That makes it less likely a novice user will accidentally change something and not know how to get back on the right channel. In fact, you can program a key that will lock the buttons/channel selector.
As programming software goes, the KPG-89 is pretty easy to learn and can be had fairly cheap.
The radios are no longer sold new, but there's a lot of them on the used market. I have one as a shop radio for testing the limited number of UHF systems I look after. Nice thing is they use the same batteries and accessories as the newer NX-x10 radios.
If you are using these for hobby use, amateur, GMRS, etc. having your own software really is a good idea. At some point you'll want to make changes, that being able to do it on your own is easy.
If you have, or want to get your amateur license, you can get the lower UHF split model and load it up with 70cm amateur band frequencies.
Decent radios for the price.
Add a TK-8180 and you'll have a nice mobile/base and it uses the same programming software as the TK-3180. Would make for a great GMRS setup.
I wasn't busting your chops over the TYT radio. It's hard to find good GMRS radios, and the dealers don't always tell the truth. I doubt anyone would even notice.
I get it.
im looking at those 8180s and I notice some only go down to 450mhz. I’m also reading that some Have success programming them to the 70cm ham bands. Do you have an experience with that? Just wondering in the event I can’t find a V2 model (400mhz capable).
mmckenna
I ♥ Ø
There's two UHF splits, getting the right one makes life easier.
There's a K2 and HK2 model that will do 400-470MHz right out of the box. That'll give you 70cm and GMRS no problem.
The K and HK versions are 450-520. I've been told by many people that they usually go down to 440 without issue. The KPG-89 will throw message saying it's out of range, but it'll program it anyway. But each radio will be a bit different depending on alignment and component tolerances. If you can, get the K2 or HK2 model.
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