GMRS or HAM radio?

lol, can't tell if you're being sarcastic or not! Honestly I had never heard of them prior to this thread, so I have no idea if they suck or what. But most every other radio in this space is either completely programmable or has channels that correspond to the standard GMRS channels. So that list that was posted seems weird.

He wasn't being sarcastic. Dumb, proprietary channel names for common things shouldn't be bought (which is a sign of encouragement).
 
This simple chart on wikipedia shows the frequencies and channels of the current GMRS standard. There is no way to please everybody, some people just want to say channel one but if your radio isn't programmed that's 462.5625 MHz. Unfortunately there is no easy solution to this, it's one chart with 22 numbers on it, not overall a big deal. 30 if you count repeaters. Maybe something worth printing and throwing in the glove box if you can't program a radio or are ever going to run into somebody that can't. Unfortunately some of the GMRS radios have higher channels like 42 because they pre-program tones and other garbage. There is sadly no easy way to deal with that other than find exactly what odd thing all those radios happened to be set to and that's going to be different for every GMRS manufacturer. Personally, if anybody on a GMRS radio suggested I use a channel over 22 or 30 for repeaters I'd simply ask them to use one of the standard lower number channels, 1-30 or something like that to avoid all the custom manufacturer presets. In any case if you don't have the repeaters programmed you're going to struggle with 23-30 no matter what you do but that's going to be rare without somebody experienced around to help.
 
He wasn't being sarcastic. Dumb, proprietary channel names for common things shouldn't be bought (which is a sign of encouragement).

Exactly. To me it seems like they're trying to create their own proprietary channels. They're marketing to people that don't know better. So if you end up on a trail with two people with these radios, they're going to tell you they use 'channel 4' which doesn't match up with any other channel 4. You can look at their radio and probably get the frequency, but they might have custom options programmed in. So I figure you're going to end up trying to convince these people to use a standard frequency, and they may or may not switch. So you could end up on a trail with people that you can't talk to which is absolutely idiotic.

I understand they're trying to push these radios. Just use standard frequencies that someone like me can glance at and type in.

I did end up on a trail with someone on a run I organized. I put the frequency in the meetup, one that a 2M or dual band could get to. I show up to my own run with a 2M (all I had at the time) radio and someone had told them all to switch to a dual band or GMRS frequency. So I told the guy, 'DUDE THIS IS MY RUN AND I POSTED A CHANNEL EVERYONE CAN USE'. Got flack and we ended up with half the people on one channel, half on another.

The goal here is to pick a frequency that will support all radios in the group.
 
I did end up on a trail with someone on a run I organized. I put the frequency in the meetup, one that a 2M or dual band could get to.

Your run and you'd hope people would respect that. Unfortunately the dual band, gmrs and 2m are all slightly more complicated. I mean dual band does kinda mean 2m most of the time but dual band doesn't cover gmrs or at least it isn't supposed to. Funny how the flexibility of the UV-5R has really blurred the lines in a big way that makes things difficult to discuss.
 
Dual band, IMO would mean 2M/70cm Ham frequency bands. GMRS is GMRS. MURS is MURS, etc. GMRS shares some frequencies with FRS, which is why GMRS has become more popular. With FRS you don't need a license, but you are limited to a HT and 2 watts. Rugged Radios has taken it way off path with all their proprietary channels, plus they throw in GMRS frequencies and whatever else they can get away with. $400 for a mobile radio? Really RR? Better yet, a rebranded UV-5R that costs 3 times the price, but ohh, its blue!
 
My Retivis dual band mobile xcvr is much like the UV5R - programmable to GMRS and MURS freqs. I have a dedicated GMRS xcvr in the Jeep anyway.

Yep, many of the CCR's can easily be unlocked to TX on pretty much anything within the 136-520 MHz range. The older UV-5R's could do that right out of the box until the radio police put the clamp down on them a little.
 
Yep, many of the CCR's can easily be unlocked to TX on pretty much anything within the 136-520 MHz range. The older UV-5R's could do that right out of the box until the radio police put the clamp down on them a little.

Now it takes 5 seconds and three fingers.


(that's what she said)
 
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After all the discussion and giving it a lot of thought as to how I'd use things I settled on this.....

20220909_104241.jpg
 
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You mean like a PA speaker? You could play ride of the valkries for on lookers before hitting tough obstacles 🤣

No a speaker up by my ear so I can HEAR.. Too many years of big guns going BOOM near me so I can't hear for shit.

I haven't put a PA speaker in my rig since the late 90's.
 
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I'm still looking at getting a Ham radio or at least get my license, so I'll have it.

Once you are familiar with the radio, you may go two ways. 1. it works and fills all my radio needs. 2. Radio shit is cool, and I need more of them, like I need jeep parts. It's a sickness, and you are already compromised, lol!
 
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6db version for sure. The only reason to run that ghost stubby style one is if you absolutely need to for packaging reasons. And yes, you are supposed to tune it, but most people run them as is with zero issues. Keep in mind it will use a different SWR meter.