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You touch on an interesting, and IMHO too often overlooked point here. People should buy equipment that is suited for their application. If you run a kid's day camp in a park and everyone is always within 1/2 mile, then the dirt cheap Amazon CCR special of the day may be perfect. They will cover 100% of your terrain, they can get lost, crushed, have lemonade spilled on them, etc with no worries. On the other hand, if you are organizing a search & rescue team you would have to be bat shit crazy to get anything other than high quality Part-90 equipment. Of course, the world is not binary, and there are other applications that require a lot more thought. If you are getting into UHF (GMRS or ham) as a general hobby, and do not know exactly where you will be everyday, or whom you will contact, or how (simplex or repeater) you are going to make contact, you have to look carefully at your budget and priorities before making a decision. And, of course, it is not as simple as Baofeng-888 vs Moto XPR5550e. There are high end CCRS and low end pro equipment, etc, etc. To me the key point in all of this is to learn how radios work and what makes one different from an other. That knowledge, coupled with clarity on your needs will help you make the right decision. And, building on that, the right response to "I am new to GMRS, what radio should I get?", is none, until you understand the differences and how you will use it.

Its pointless arguing with this kind of posts, b/c they lack any basis on reality, and they are usually posted by the likes of ... trolls, looking to sow doubt, and stir trouble... But I'll bite... First off, Motorola high end radios are not "Made in China", it seems as if you've never owned one, and it figures... they are "Made in Malaysia." Also, by the same argument of where things are made, and just to pick an example: iPhones are made in China, but so are a lot of other pieces of crap no-brand phones too... and even though iPhones aren't my thing, I would still pick an iPhone over the no-brand POS phone... if the iPhone was too expensive new, and iPhones where, again, my thing, then I would simply buy a used iPhone... which is still leaps and bounds better than the cheap garbage phone... well, the same thing applies to radios. Most people like to walk around with a fancy S20s, or whatever the latest fancy phone happens to be... but then we purchase these pieces of garbage radios? Using the word "supposed" means its your opinion, and everyone has one. With that said, after measuring many of these radios with an ISO-tee, an industry standard test to diagnose receiver problems, the observed average desense in all those CCR radios was found to be around 15 dBm when compared to high end commercial grade radios, like the XPR5550e... A 15dBm difference is the equivalent of running, roughly, x16 times more power on the transmitter... but it is safe to assume that you have no idea what I am talking about, b/c you just called me a "naysayer" for sharing the results from my ISO-tee tests, and made claims devoid of any basis except for the sake of just discrediting others by sowing doubts. Not sure what to make out of that... If you need moving your HT 6" around chances are you have a piece of garbage. I don't need to move any of my many XPR7550e radios to listen to base, b/c they just receive, they work, all the time... I don't like having my radios cut in and out when I am working either... but I guess that is par for the course with those CCRs... and trust me, I remember well... I still own a lot of them... The legal argument to scare beginners into buying garbage radios, or the "beware of overpaying" for used commercial gear scare tactic, also geared towards scaring beginners into buying garbage radios, both are just misleading at best, won't go into what worst could be... which begs the question, are you getting paid by those companies to advertise their junk here? Using Part 90 radios on GMRS has never been a problem, it isn't a problem and it will never be a problem, b/c there isn't a shred of evidence the FCC has ever fined or taken any action based solely on the Part 90 radios, however, using pieces of garbage Part 15 CCRs, a scanner, with a PTT, actions have been taken, see Rugged Radios FCC letter... Part 90 equipment is certified to a stricter standard than the Part 95 toys you so much claim to be comparable to used commercial gear. Now, If you think you're overpaying, or getting ripped off, then you can always ask around, I did, and others have asked me, people can give you a good estimate on how much something is worth, but there is also the "completed items" option on eBay, which gives you an idea of how much something is going for... etc. Also, based on how much the OP's paid, it seems that he got ripped off for a 199 CCR.So, as you can see, you can get ripped off no matter what, buying new or used, CCR or used commercial gear. I've even seen BF-888s being sold for 199 bucks a unit... G.

Suite yourself. I was only trying to help you. Just keep in mind, GMRS is not really a stepping stone to ham radio. They are two separate services, each with its own purpose. Many, many people start with ham radio because it provides what they are looking for in a general radio service. GMRS, on the other hand, while usable for local communications with strangers, like ham 440mHz, is historically, and still to a large extent, designed for communications within existing groups, like families. This is apparent from the licensing model. For that reason. it is quite possible that you will find, as you seem to have already noticed, that there may be few to no people to talk to. And, a final point to make all of this clear. There is no GMRS equivalent of "CQ."

What your thinking of is *way* more trouble than it's worth. If you were to do this - the best you could do is one of those lithium "jump-start" thingies you can get at Harbor Freight. But, you'll quickly run it down.. My best advice is to just wire the positive lead directly to the car battery, and the negative lead to the closest chassis ground you can find. It's a little more effort, but well worth it.

My mobile has a recommended input of 13.8 +/- 15% so it would be good up to 15.9v And as low as 11.73. Just adding this for a reference. This radio is 45w out (claimed) so I went with a 30amp power supply. I would think 450w should be fine for most. In the manual, the radio asked for less than 15a (207 watts?). I figured it would be safer to just double that.

So, I was planning on mounting my mobile rando in the center console. Opening it up, I find this very close to where the coax, and likely power would run. It’s the passenger restraint system. I don’t want to fire my airbags the first time I key up on high power (45 watts)

For our MyGMRS members in Tennessee, Missouri and Arkansas - A "Critter Alert"... Wild alligators have been migrating north from Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida and Georgia for many years. The State Wildlife Departments in Arkansas, Tennessee and Missouri have confirmed breeding populations present in these somewhat cooler states. According to wildlife officials, even though alligators are cold blooded and can not regulate their internal body temperature without warming themselves in the sun, they can survive cool winters by going into a hibernation-like dormancy called brumation. They can withstand periods of ice by sticking their snout out of the water before it freezes, which allows them to continue breathing. This is just a caution for our friends in states that are normally not thought of as having large reptiles present. Alligators up to 11 feet in length, weighing up to 600 pounds have been confirmed in wetland areas of these states. Having personally encountered 'gators in Alabama, let me just add that if you do happen to encounter an alligator in the wild during the warmer months of the year, do not approach them. An alligator can move at close to 30 miles per hour for short periods of time. Female alligators protect their young viciously and are most aggressive in August and September. However, if humans enter their territory, they will protect their habitat. That makes us the specialty of the day on their dinner menu.

I don’t want to derail this thread, but at least it is related. G, perhaps if you have some test equipment around that you could mock up a couple of tests for us. If interested, perhaps we could start a new thread. One test could be the effect on transmitter output signal integrity and another on the receiver performance before and after placement of a large static magnet field (large rare earth) directly on the exterior of a UHF radio chassis. Similar tests could also be conducted covering the effect on transmission line performance in the presence of same. I don’t have ready access to the caliber of equipment needed for this so I cannot mock it up and measure it. Admitted that is probably a better topic for those in the amateur community rather than in GMRS. Just a thought. Michael WRHS965 KE8PLM Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

i will agree with that point as well. there's a wide variety of quality levels. that said, i see mobile as jumping into things a little deeper than just a HT, so more of a situation where if you can get "good" instead of "subpar", for not much more, it's worth considering.

Er, there is sorta-kinda an equivalent: "WQWU626 listening on the Midwest GMRS Network."

As a current example, I just bought a "new, open stock" XPR5550 (not the 'e' version) for $300. I've had the CPS for several years but did have to buy a programming cable for it. The cable from "BlueMaxers" was ~$30. Now I can't find the programming cable for my darn XPR7550!

I expect no affect. Why? Reason 1. It is act of a changing a magnetic field that induces currents to flow in another conductor. In the case of a speaker, the permanent magnet is on the outside. The speaker coil in which currents flow is substantially confined to the interior of this otherwise large constant-magnetic-field structure. Reason 2. The frequencies at which the speaker operates are audio frequencies. The only audio frequencies used in your radio are those used to supply audio to the radio to transmit, and from the radio to a speaker for listening. When you are listening you want the speaker to reproduce the receive audio. Good there. When transmitting, the speaker is not being used. Good there. And remember of course that almost every radio has a speaker in it right next to the electronics. Hope that helps. Michael WRHS965 KE8PLM Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

A gremlin indeed. While you will invariable receive loads of ideas, I will start by throwing out the first one that came to my mind. Do with it what you will. Confirm you have a set of conditions that are repeatable every single time. Turn off AC power circuits in your home, except the circuit needed to perform your tests. Confirm if the symptom persists. It it does not persist, something powered by one the circuits you turned off is contributing. Power up one circuit at time until you find a circuit that results in the symptom occurring again. Then troubleshoot further by removing power (unplugging/removing) items from that circuit. Once you find the culprit, then we talk solutions. If turning off circuits except the one needed for your tests does not yield results, then troubleshoot further by removing power (unplugging/removing) items from that circuit. Do this one at time until you find the culprit. Once you find the culprit, then we talk solutions. If removing items from test circuit does not yield results and the only thing left connected is the offending radio, then starting powering down all battery operated devices in your home, including any device powered by a UPS. This includes cell phones, iPads, laptops etc... Blasts of GSM noise from a phone has been a common source of interface in the past and can be suspect. You could have other items in your home that contribute interference in a similar way. I am one that most generally likes to remove all variables and build back up until the problem occurs. In this case I am taking a hybrid solution. Hope there is a nugget of help in there for you. Michael WHRS965 KE8PLM Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

No one arguing here. I will make one point that I think is worth noting. Rules written poorly will be twisted, turned and interpreted a million different ways. Well written ones are clear, concise and explicit. However when rules are written the latter way people will complain. They will say they are strict, to inflexible. <sigh> Perhaps the FCC rules should be reclassified as “Recommendations”. Michael WRHS965 KE8PLM Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Normally, I don't research for others just to make a point, but in this case I'll just do it. 47 CFR 95.1767 b Couldn't be any more explicit.

Where do you find that explicitly stated in the FCC regs? What specific paragraph? Michael WRHS965 KE8PLM Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

I have mentioned it before, but it still surprised me when my wife and I did some testing a few years ago. I have a GP-9 on a 40 ft tower at our ridge farm which is 1240 ASL and I drove my vehicle way down to the nearby Sidie Hollow, which is less than 900 ASL. These are deeply notched valleys (called coulees) in the Driftless Area of Wisconsin. Distance back to the farm was around 3 miles. With a cheap dual band 2 mtr/440 ham antenna retuned for GMRS, we could barely communicate. Switching to the tiny Midland mag mount 6 inch quarter wave, the signals became quite readable and one bar on the Midland MXT400's which we had on each end, running low power. Switching to the Midland mag mount with the "3 db" gain Midland 5/8 wave antenna increased it to another bar. Switching to the "6 db" gain Midland 5/8 over 5/8 wave increased it to another bar. I think we compared power levels from the lowest power setting to medium and that helped as well. I really did not expect to see that much of a difference. Especially when you consider that the gain antennas tend to put more signal closer to the horizon. It may be that the RF was bouncing around the hills and sort of filling in from different directions. I have no way of measuring the difference in db's for each bar. It would be helpful to have a ballpark number.

The 5.5 dB claim is, simply put, not true. (also, if you don't see dBd or dBi its probably fake as well) That TRAM1173 (or MXT26) antenna probably has less gain than a simple 1/4 wave NMO, given the cheap coils used, and being only 2 elements, with insufficient phasing element separation between them (gain in collinear antennas is achieved by increasing the distance between the phased elements) not a chance in he11 it has 5.5 dBd... well, unless decibels dBs overseas are measured differently than in the rest of the world... that is. For comparison, a real world 5.5dBd gain is what a 4-bay folded dipole has, which is a massive antenna, and coincidentally, it costs a lot of $$$$$... too. IMO, and in my experience, for a car install, a simple 6" inch NMO antenna cut to GMRS frequency will work absolutely great, as measured. G.

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I can vouch for the Ebay Cable guy it's BlueMax49ers I bough all my programming cables (iCOM, Kenwood, Motorola) from him (Mark KJ6ZWL) all his cable are FTDi Chip fast shipping too. My latest purchased from him was the programming cable for XPR8300 and as what gman1971 say all cable works just fine.

Taking the lack of understanding of the rules out of the picture for a second... I think it's being discussed in GMRS groups because of channel sharing with FRS. I also think there is a lot of confusion due to the name "Family Radio Service". The name implies that it is for use by families, not businesses. Lets be honest... most people live by the concept of "when all else fails, read the directions." If purpose and rules are occasionally misinterpreted by the people trying to understand by reading them... you can imagine that people who don't, would be exponentially more confused. Just a thought anyway.