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Switching from CB to GMRS radios

Mounted give higher power and the external antenna give much better range. But is it really needed? When wheeling in a Jeep, how far are you from the group you are conversing with?

Buy a set of hand held, but have a set of alkaline non-rechargeable batteries handy. I learned at the National scramble the rechargeable battery packs that come with the Midland handheld cannot produce the current and voltage the radios need for prolonged use. Regular old fashioned alkaline can. (To get the voltage needed from the rechargeable pack, midland decided to use 4 AAA size batteries in the pack. With the alkaline, they only need the 3 batteries to get proper voltage so they made the battery compartment hold 3 AA. The AA have a much better amperage draw ability than the AAA size. This causes the radio to do weird things and ultimately shut down.)

I have a couple sets of these:

 
ag4ever said:
Mounted give higher power and the external antenna give much better range. But is it really needed? When wheeling in a Jeep, how far are you from the group you are conversing with?

Buy a set of hand held, but have a set of alkaline non-rechargeable batteries handy. I learned at the National scramble the rechargeable battery packs that come with the Midland handheld cannot produce the current and voltage the radios need for prolonged use. Regular old fashioned alkaline can. (To get the voltage needed from the rechargeable pack, midland decided to use 4 AAA size batteries in the pack. With the alkaline, they only need the 3 batteries to get proper voltage so they made the battery compartment hold 3 AA. The AA have a much better amperage draw ability than the AAA size. This causes the radio to do weird things and ultimately shut down.)

I have a couple sets of these:

Click to expand...
You wont be able to reach a repeater with a hand held unit.
 
I tested my mounted unit against a handheld. The handheld went about 1 mile on flat area, while the mounted went about 2 miles. This was in the suburbs.

On the trails, I heard Eric (@bigwalton ) ask for assistance with getting spare parts for his rig while I was in the parking lot about a mile away in the mountains. Not sure if the handheld would have picked him up, but my mounted unit did so I was able to grab his injectors and take them to him on the trail. The handhelds are good to hand out to people in the group or to walk and spot others. But while driving, I prefer the mounted unit. And I am using the small antenna that came with my midland 275
 
bigwalton said:
Yeah, handhelds are good, but not the same, particularly when it comes to hearing them in a noisy Jeep.
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I've listened to the space station answering questions from a school class (recorded it even) on a Baofeng hand held. It's the antenna that's important, the stock ones are crap, you want a Nagoya 👍🏼
That said, once I get the cage installed with an overhead Tuffy, I'll be upgrading to & mounting a 50w gmrs mobile
 
I would imagine NASA has some pretty good repeaters, just the EOC at my Center is pretty extensive with the equipment they have.
 
GreatCJ8 said:
I've listened to the space station answering questions from a school class (recorded it even) on a Baofeng hand held. It's the antenna that's important, the stock ones are crap, you want a Nagoya 👍🏼
That said, once I get the cage installed with an overhead Tuffy, I'll be upgrading to & mounting a 50w gmrs mobile
Click to expand...
I wasn't talking about reception as much as the volume of the speaker when it's sitting in a cupholder or whatever. We've had all kinds of issues where folks on rides with handhelds don't hear that they're being hailed on the radio.

Plugging into an external speaker solves it, but almost no one with handhelds bothers.
 
Belizeit said:
I would imagine NASA has some pretty good repeaters, just the EOC at my Center is pretty extensive with the equipment they have.
Click to expand...
I used to work for Harris communications.
They make comms for the military, police, fire, space foreign allies Etc.
Months after hearing the ISS I learned that THAT handheld came back down on a subsequent crew swap & I have a picture with it. It was handheld to handheld simplex not a repeater that I listened to because it was line of sight with absolutely nothing in between LOL
 
Belizeit said:
So a hand held is capable of being plugged into an external speaker ?
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Most of the basic GMRS handhelds can have an external speaker. Mine can have an external speaker and microphone that enables hands free voice activation.

IMG_2095.jpeg IMG_2096.jpeg

Model GXT1050P

I have 4 of these radios that I bought for hunting. My deer lease has terrible cell phone coverage, but these work great to communicate with other hunters and base camp.

These were also used at the National Scramble to listen to Raymond’s historical discourse on the local back roads near his Airbnb. That is where I discovered the drawbacks to using the factory rechargeable battery.

I was incorrect in an earlier post, the factory rechargeable uses 5 AAA batteries, you can use 4 AA if you use alkaline. The radio really needs the voltage from the 1.5v alkaline and does not like the 1.2v from rechargeable. It also does not like the reduced amperage from the AAA batteries.

IMG_2097.jpeg IMG_2098.jpeg
 
Nice! SO much better than a CB.

Actually, finally just ripped out my Cobra CB and it’s not going back.
 
IMG_7403.pngJust picked this up in a 20% off sale on Midland’s website. Now to get it installed. Any suggestions for mounting locations of the antenna (with photos please)?
 
Not my scrambler, Big Waltons LJ, but I kept it simple. The little antenna is magnetic mount and still works great where it is.
 

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I am not near my scrambler, but I have the little antenna stuck to the inside of the windshield right behind the glass at the driver side corner. Works great. I used to have it on the rollbar, but kept getting knocked by trees.
 
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