GMRS or HAM radio?

Do you know of a specific ham radio that will cover AM in that frequency range as well as GMRS?
I believe that a Yaesu FT-857D with the MARS mod will do that. This is a discontinued radio yet it is still in high demand and will sell for the original price or more.
 
If you wait long enough for the FCC to pull their heads out of their asses, the GMRS license fee is suppose to go down to $35. Who knows when that will ever happen.

Check out this site,

www.mygmrs.com

Go to the map section and see if their are any repeaters in your area.
I know of 3 on here who are www.mygmrs.com forum
 
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Yes that is a external CB speaker. And no it doesn't affect my rear view sight.



So technically you're not supposed to be using the Ham radio to talk on GMRS frequencies?
Nor GMRS w/o License - technically
Not that I ever use to run a modified CB with a little more power ;).
This is sounding more like the ticket than getting a GMRS radio and then adding a Ham later. Does the Ham antenna work for GMRS also?

Since we're on that subject. What type of antenna do you run on a Jeep for Ham? I can't imagine using some of the huge antennas I've seen on cars going down the road.
I run a 6" 1/4 wave antenna on my XJ and my new LJR for GMRS. It's center mounted on the roof of the XJ for an excellent ground plane. I have an 8x8" x 1/4" aluminum plate mounted on top of my 3rd brake light for the same antenna on the LJR. 1/4 wave w/ground plane is perfect combo for GMRS.. nothing obtrusive.
No ham debate out of me.. they're more capable by far but GMRS works great for our gang with multiple repeaters in the area.
 
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Nor GMRS w/o License - technically

I run a 6" 1/4 wave antenna on my XJ and my new LJR for GMRS. It's center mounted on the roof of the XJ for an excellent ground plane. I have an 8x8" x 1/4" aluminum plate mounted on top of my 3rd brake light for the same antenna on the LJR. 1/4 wave w/ground plane is perfect combo for GMRS.. nothing obtrusive.
No ham debate out of me.. they're more capable by far but GMRS works great for our gang with multiple repeaters in the area.
These were intended to be Thumbnails.. sorry.
Kenwood TK-8180 is mounted on the overhead plate that's part of the Rock Hard cage.
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PXL_20211002_215826340.MP.jpg


PXL_20211003_215952167.jpg
 
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GMRS is a great and relatively inexpensive way to get good comms with the people around you. It's perfect for groups of offroaders, but, most areas have very little GMRS traffic outside of groups using it during their activities. If the people you wheel with have it, it's a no brainer. They're cheap and simple and work. But if you want to fool around with radios outside of that, it may be disappointing.

When I first got mine, I left it on and let it scan for a week or two to see what it picked up during my 2+ hours of daily driving. Aside from repeaters automatically sending out their callsigns, I heard three actual "conversations;" a group of people at a nearby hotel talking about getting dinner and what time they'd leave the next day, someone at a store talking said something about aisle 12 then it went to static, and two young kids talking about their walkie talkies. That's it. I put the GMRS frequencies in my ham radio and it scans them but I never hear anything other than what seems to be quite a lot of repeaters, tirelessly sending out their callsign, but never actually repeating anything.
 
One of the things I like about GMRS is the lack of traffic and airtime competition, unlike how I remember CB. We seldom have to change from our initial channel choice on the trail and don't even enter CTCSS codes (privacy codes).
 
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Having the removable face plate makes mounting moah bettah! I too hear good things about Yaesu radios.
 
If you wait long enough for the FCC to pull their heads out of their asses, the GMRS license fee is suppose to go down to $35. Who knows when that will ever happen.

Check out this site,

www.mygmrs.com

Go to the map section and see if their are any repeaters in your area.

I just tried to apply, and it is still $70.
 
I just tried to apply, and it is still $70.
Got my Ham Technician license last week after spending 4 evenings studying. signed up for a test on zoom, 15$ processing fee, 10 year license, and the mobile unit I just got in the mail tx and rx all the way up to 520mghz, ie: GMRS. fwiw...

ARRL has a sub site for test prep that you register for. (free)

435? questions in the pool, you get 35 on the tech exam. with the ARRL study guides and prac exams I very quickly got to the point for half the questions that I could see the list of answers, and select the correct answer without reading the questions.

IE something about calculating 1/4 wave antenna length at some specific megahertz. Not sure I can do the math but i can damn sure tell you the answer is 19.

and yes, the practice exams and reviews are all built with the actual test questions and answers, not similar material.