Handheld GMRS recommendations?

Glad it worked for ya! Those are far from the best radios out there, but they function and for $25, they are hard to beat. They are also a cheap gateway drug and you'll soon find out if you are satisfied with a couple small hits talking with your trail buddies once in a while or if you "need" to go full buggy junky with a 50w rig & high gain antenna to get your fix. Turns out I'm a full blown GMRS crack head 😆
 
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hear said:
I ended up going with the UV-5R. I know there has been some confusion about whether or not it can transmit on GMRS, but there is an unlock method found on notarubicon’s channel that works perfectly.

Worked great 2 days on the trail, battery never went off 3/3 bars, did not recharge overnight. I programmed the channels in from the handset, was not hard at all (chirp doesn’t work on a Mac anyway I’m told). Only real complaint was that the volume knob can easily get bumped down w/o you realizing it.

Thanks for the help I found here.
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Awesome..Yeah these are fun.
I ended up buying a second one with the extended battery on Banggood a couple of weeks ago they were on sale for $20 I just couldn't pass that up.

If you haven't checked this website do it...
https://www.radioreference.com/I programmed all my local police stations, DPW, and emergency responder channels in my area.
Just make sure to either 1 program them not to transmit or 2 never transmit on those channels.
 
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SkylinesSuck said:
Glad it worked for ya! Those are far from the best radios out there, but they function and for $25, they are hard to beat. They are also a cheap gateway drug and you'll soon find out if you are satisfied with a couple small hits talking with your trail buddies once in a while or if you "need" to go full buggy junky with a 50w rig & high gain antenna to get your fix. Turns out I'm a full blown GMRS crack head 😆
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Don't get you Ham license dude! You'll need a bigger shovel! Lol!
 
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kmbarreiros said:
Look into this if you may want to mount the handheld in your vehicle.
Universal Metal Holster Mounting Bracket for Baofeng UV5R UV82 UV5XP Radio

I just got one just need to actually get the right screw mount to get it on my Cell phone holder.
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I have about 5 of those that I modified slightly, I welded a 1"x3" 16ga. piece to the back with 1.5" sticking out the side. After I powdercoated the unit, I put a little velcro soft side on the tab so it would hold a speaker mic. My old versions did not have a clip, so I put the rough velcro, the new versions have a clip that fit the tab too, so covered for whichever mic gets used. Then I hooked to a 1" ram ball that I loctited in place.
 
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SkylinesSuck said:
Glad it worked for ya! Those are far from the best radios out there, but they function and for $25, they are hard to beat. They are also a cheap gateway drug and you'll soon find out if you are satisfied with a couple small hits talking with your trail buddies once in a while or if you "need" to go full buggy junky with a 50w rig & high gain antenna to get your fix. Turns out I'm a full blown GMRS crack head 😆
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yeah, I can definitely see the desire to get a mobile unit & antenna mounted. I don't see the majority of my crew also doing that, so it may be fruitless. I've got two of my homies onto the UV-5R (I found a yellow one to match his XJ and that was enough to make him pull the trigger).

On this thread (or another one, I don't remember) somebody suggested using MURS, but seems like mobile units that allow TX on MURS don't really exist.
 
MURS is in the VHF spectrum, GMRS, UHF spectrum, so yeah, some antenna tuning would factor in. MURS only has 5 frequencies and is mostly used by Walmarts for in store coms. If you unlock a UV-5R you can probably TX on either, but the antenna won't be optimal.
The neat thing about MURS, nobody uses it, so traffic won't normally be a problem.
 
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hear said:
Why are you not suggesting it at all?
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Price is crazy for only MURS for me personally. I'd just hard mount a UV-5R and be done with it. Any dual band 2m/70cm antenna will work fine if you can get something to transmit on GMRS and MURS frequencies. The 2m ham bands span about 5 Mhz and MURS is only 3 Mhz away so it's pretty close. If you happen to have an antenna that's good at 148 Mhz ham it will probably be better on MURS than it will be on the lower end of the 2m band. It's close enough not to get carried away in the fine print is all I'm saying (with lots of fine print).
 
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hear said:
Why are you not suggesting it at all?


And I may have meant that I can't seem to find a mobile radio that does GMRS and MURS. I guess antenna length requirements could be a factor?
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Because it only does MURS. Not knocking MURS at all. I would use it as an option, but most people you would ride with on the trail will be on GMRS or maybe CB. It's all about having other people to talk to.
 
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bobthetj03 said:
MURS is in the VHF spectrum, GMRS, UHF spectrum, so yeah, some antenna tuning would factor in. MURS only has 5 frequencies and is mostly used by Walmarts for in store coms. If you unlock a UV-5R you can probably TX on either, but the antenna won't be optimal.
The neat thing about MURS, nobody uses it, so traffic won't normally be a problem.
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Used to be GMRS was fairly traffic free, now It get roving bands of Spanish speaking gardeners tromping on both my tx and rx in the GMRS band. Must be the cheap radios on amazon is all I can think. Pretty funny cause the traffic only lasts an hour then another group rolls in range.

MURS would be nice out off road and outback for just what you said, no traffic.

Does walmart use any carrier/privacy tones?
 
WSS said:
Does walmart use any carrier/privacy tones?
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It varies store to store from what I've read. My buddies try and talk with them sometimes. Got a response for a "clean up on aisle two" once but it's just as likely somebody on the trail was messing with us. My guess is most of them have some basic stuff so people can't bug the workers.
 
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SkylinesSuck said:
Because it only does MURS. Not knocking MURS at all. I would use it as an option, but most people you would ride with on the trail will be on GMRS or maybe CB. It's all about having other people to talk to.
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because when I first replied to this thread everybody is like "just tune to 151.820 and be done with it." Plus I don't care what everybody is doing, I only need to talk to my group. I'm sure you're handsome but I don't need to chat with you on the trail. :p
 
Yeah man, if it's just your group and everybody has UV5RS or something similar, it would work well. Another point with the KG1000M though is it's a 50w radio neutered to only put out whatever the MURS max is (5w?) and only capable of those freqs. It's a lot of money for something detuned to the same power as a $20 hand held.

And yes, I am devastatingly handsome. Or at least that what all the ladies keep telling me 😁
 
They are taking full advantage of our good nature with all this radio SHTF crap. Companies are puking out radios and we are drinking the Kool Aid, no, guzzling the Kool Aid! You should see what kind of bank the business LMR radios are going for!
 
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bobthetj03 said:
They are taking full advantage of our good nature with all this radio SHTF crap. Companies are puking out radios and we are drinking the Kool Aid, no, guzzling the Kool Aid! You should see what kind of bank the business LMR radios are going for!
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A drop in the bucket compared to what the TelCos are making off of the world wide smartphone obsession. Damn near everybody guzzles *that* Kool Aide!
 
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