2- way radios

[wbread99]

I take my 923A2 on road trips from time to time, out of my small town. Question: what radios do you travel with? CB? GMRS? In a pickup truck, I have experience with 10 miles on GMRS and 5 ish with CB. With a shitty 2 meter antenna. I'm pretty sure I could go 15 or 20 miles on a good. Gmrs.radio

 

[D6T]

It’s 90 percent antenna and ten percent radio, as you may know.

I would invest in what the most likely choice for people whom you will be with to use.

With CB your compromise may be antenna length. You can use FM mode, even with a tone, per a recent FCC decision.

GMRS, legally, would mean everyone is a family member or you all have licenses. Equipment that can all be on the same channel width will make things much less frustrating— many of the cheaper radios are wideband only, whereas the higher-end ones are narrow or can be programmed either way. On my Kenwood units, I’ve programmed one of the function keys to toggle wide/narrow, but I think the software was edited specifically for that option. You can hear the other users if you all aren’t on the same mode, but the audio won’t be as crisp, especially at a distance.

Two meters or MURS, in my opinion, would be the best compromise. Amateur repeaters will help if you are all licensed and want to cover a larger area. Say, plan to change to a certain repeater when you reach a certain exit on the highway. MURS can be incredibly useful with a 1/4 wave antenna on the vehicle, even at legal 2W power levels.

 

[Valor]

It’s 90 percent antenna and ten percent radio, as you may know.

I would invest in what the most likely choice for people whom you will be with to use.

With CB your compromise may be antenna length. You can use FM mode, even with a tone, per a recent FCC decision.

GMRS, legally, would mean everyone is a family member or you all have licenses. Equipment that can all be on the same channel width will make things much less frustrating— many of the cheaper radios are wideband only, whereas the higher-end ones are narrow or can be programmed either way. On my Kenwood units, I’ve programmed one of the function keys to toggle wide/narrow, but I think the software was edited specifically for that option. You can hear the other users if you all aren’t on the same mode, but the audio won’t be as crisp, especially at a distance.

Two meters or MURS, in my opinion, would be the best compromise. Amateur repeaters will help if you are all licensed and want to cover a larger area. Say, plan to change to a certain repeater when you reach a certain exit on the highway. MURS can be incredibly useful with a 1/4 wave antenna on the vehicle, even at legal 2W power levels.

Just wondering, what is MURS?

 

[antennaclimber]

Multi Use Radio Service

There are five MURS channels and the channels are either 11.25 kHz or 20.00 kHz each. The channel frequencies and (bandwidth) are:

151.820 MHz (11.25 kHz)
151.880 MHz (11.25 kHz)
151.940 MHz (11.25 kHz)
154.570 MHz (20.00 kHz)
154.600 MHz (20.00 kHz)

 

[bikeman]

I get a lot of advertisements for GMRS.

My long term will include CBs, and maybe GMRS. Right now I 'm just trying to get scanners setup.