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Go to FCC - https://wireless2.fcc.gov/UlsApp/UlsSearch/searchLicense.jsp Change Search = NAME (Last Name, First normally.

I don't want to burst your bubble, so to speak, but I do want to make you aware of some of the realities of GMRS. Many, but not all, GMRS users only want to talk to their family members on the radio. If you hear them on the radio and try to contact them, they may not be interested and may not answer you, or they may have their radio set to only open the squelch when the proper code or tone is used. GMRS differs quite a bit from amateur (ham) radio in this regard, since most hams get on the air to talk to other hams. Hams are generally looking for someone else to talk to, while GMRS users mostly want to talk only within their group.

I don't usually like to post videos, but this video was inspired by many comments that I have read here and in a few ham-radio forums.

RBC-450 with or without spring are mobile half-wave antennas not requiring ground plane. Good for the intended application, imo. Base antennas like FG-4500 will fail quickly on a vehicle. They are rated for 100+mph winds, but not for all-day.

The Motorola 900 MHz digital FHSS radios are great for in-building coverage. They work pretty well outdoors in the open also. 1 watt is a little misleading when comparing them to "full power" UHF 4 or 5 watt portables. Transmit power is only useful if it overcomes the noise floor that you're trying to transmit over. Where those 1 watt 900 MHz FHSS radios shine, is that they have an effective receive signal level that's down in the -125 dBm range. Your typical UHF portable is lucky if it's beginning to receive anything at -119 dBm (and even if it does, then it's probably quite scratchy). So the 900 MHz radio comes in at better than a 6 dB winner in the receive category. Search that up on the dBm to Watts conversion scale, and you'll see that your UHF portable would need to transmit a decent signal at 4 watts or more just to begin achieve comparable performance - while the 900 MHz radio is hopping frequencies to avoid interference, plus pushing out a digital signal that's intelligible even at the very threshold of receive. Forget comparing horsepower numbers. In the radio world, you need to compare receivers. That's where the magic is happening. Watts are for salespeople and marketing types.

Since you have the roof real estate used up with good stuff (boats, panels, who knows what), I'd say half-wave antenna at any convenient location (front corner on self-fabricated gutter mount) will do.

So...one thing it just hit me that I haven't seen asked or answered: is the plan to be able to use the radio in the truck (possibly in motion, based on the comment about cable slap), or in the camper at rest? If the former, that may limit the usefulness of a mount drilled into the camper roof (which puts the cable inside the camper), unless there's then good access from in the camper to run the cable into the truck. On the slack/slap, if you were dropping down from the roof rack to route in the side door seal or back window, the rack and one of the front jacks could be a place to attach the cable, while leaving some slack tucked inside the vehicle...when parking, just unclip the cable and release the slack and pop the top. I currently have 2 mag mounts on my truck (cable runs on the roof, rather than the side) and only once experienced any slap, and snugging up the slack resolved that.

That may simply be a loose power connection somewhere in your truck that’s causing interference.

Good info guy, thanks. I'm learning. Antenna theory is fascinating and mysterious. Smoke, mirrors and magic. From what I've found looks like for gmrs, a disc of metal 6 - 8 inches works, doesn't even need to be a disc just the equivalent surface area if odd shaped. Then I see 1/4 wave vs 1/2 wave etc. with no ground plane needed for 1/2 wave. I'm probably mixing disciplines here. I'm getting a new truck but the camper will be the same. This photo is more up to date. I have three solar panels on the front now. High on the roof would be ideal but I'm not sure practical with canoe. I may be able to mount a pole on the back of camper at roof height and mount there. This roof moves up and down so that would present a problem with needing coax slack and slapping in the wind.

And that is expected to be the case, probably about the same time the GMRS license drops to $35. $70 for 10 years is just $7.00 a year... not all that terrible anyway (IMHO).

Motorola DLR 1030 and 1060 give me less range than 4W Kenwood TK-3170. Not by much, though. In urban environment I'd say maybe 75% of range I'm getting from TK-3170. I still did not have a chance to compare good GMRS to DLR radios in the mountains.

That's the truth, just licensed two commercial sites in Florida and one in Colorado, thousands of dollars for UHF spectrum. Luckily no towers, repeaters, combiners, or duplexers needed, just spectrum for line-of-site comms. However, the Colorado site was using Midland T70 radios and wondering why they were not working well. Half million square foot warehouse and acreage around the facility. Some were in low power mode, others high power. Sent them some trusty old but great condition Motorola EX500's at higher power. Just needed licensed freq's for commercial use.

I had this issue with my GM-30 handheld when I got it as well. However, I had bought the GM-30 handheld/DB-20G mobile combo online. My original intent was to use the DB-20G for home use (even though I had a Motorola CDM1550LS+ in use as well, I like the smaller size and easier programming), and the GM-30 for my smaller daily commute car. Well that USB cable fell out often. I then realized the DB-20G fit perfectly in a "pocket" in the console made for an iPhone. On a slightly different note, I had a friend that bought the GM-30 handheld, and spent about a week charging it with the USB cable, and complained that he could not program it properly. I found out he was trying to program it via USB as well. He also wondered why it came with two "programming" cables. His laptop also never found the "drivers" for that USB C cable either. He is on the right track now.

I can credit Notarubicon for getting me into GMRS once again, after years in commercial and amateur radio. It was one of his videos on the new license process, and a Midland mobile. $70 dollars to the FCC via credit card, a couple of days later, I received the email with the new license. Then it was a couple of days and registering on this site,and confirmation maybe a day or two later. I recall some FCC database issue going on at the time, so it took an extra day somewhere in there to confirm call sign and become a member of this site.

If you can't afford the $70 license fee you likely can't afford to buy a radio either. That solves both problems. At $70 that's just $7 a year or $0.134615 per week. You likely have spent more than that buying something at the local Golden Arches food emporium.

@PACNWComms I have a portable repeater to use in the field and a repeater at my house. Neither of them get turn on unless I need to use them and no one outside of my ARES/RACES team and my household members know how to access it.

Outside of license costs, I am glad that the hardware has come down considerably over time. Old school amateur/GMRS radio thirty-forty years ago was very expensive. Now, a person can get started for a fraction of the cost. Saying this as I look at my old 1980's Cobra 2000 GTL AM CB radio that has aged like wine, and is now worth about $1200.......when I paid $400. Or the Realistic Pro-2006 scanner that used to sell for $400 in the early 1990's, now worth about $50-100. My first true FRS/GMRS radio was the original Motorola TalkAbout, and those on sale cost $50 each, so $100 to get started since I needed a second radio/person to talk to. Now, they proliferate the market at the price and lower.

Look at it this way: I’m a ham and a gmrs licensee. Once the GMRS license comes down and the ham license goes up, I’ll still be paying exactly the same average cost for comm licenses. ?

I understand your perspective. As an SAR person, GMRS would not be part of your plan. I'm glad. But I don't see that as being the perspective of the question. I see the question as being from the perspective of the average GMRS user, not someone who's already involved in emergency response. We don't go towards emergencies like emergency response people. Emergencies happen to us when we least expect them. Nearly always we would be calling 911 on our cell phones for an emergency, but what if we don't have cell service? Because we are GMRS owners/users, that might be the only communications tool we have available. So, from the perspective of someone who has an emergency or stumbles into an emergency and only happens to have a GMRS radio, how do we use it effectively? This is an area where you professionals could help us neophytes.

This is a very good thread, and well worth our time, so I'll add my comments. There has been for some time now something called the 3-3-3 Plan, which in an emergency situation, everyone who agrees adheres to. Basically it advocates turning on your emergency radio for 3 minutes, every three hours, on channel-3. More info can be found here: https://radiofreeq.wordpress.com/2013/07/15/3-3-3-radio-plan-for-shtf-communications/ It's a more detailed read, so here is an excerpt of the best benefits of the plan: 1. Easy for everyone to remember the “Rule of Three”. 2. Conserves precious battery life for walkie talkies. 3. Gets everyone on the air at the same time. 4. Sets a schedule of 8 times per day to call each other. 5. Avoids impractical hourly schedules that can be a burden in real-life scenarios. 6. Enables the use of short transmissions for optimum success and security. 7. Three hours between contacts is enough time to rest in a survival situation. 8. A person can walk 8 miles in 3 hours, the practical distance limit of handheld radios over average terrain. 9. 3-3-3 is fully interoperable and compatible with the alternative 3-2-1 plan. "Channel 3 is CB-3, FRS-3, or MURS-3. CB, FRS, and MURS are the most common types of radios used by survivalists and preppers." FRS-3 is the same frequency as GMRS-3, so is available on GMRS radios. Could also include Marine-3. The site also mentions Ham national call freqs, since Ham doesn't have channel numbers. In summary, I think there is no need for us to reinvent the wheel trying to decide to use FRS-1, or GRMS-19 or 20, or CB-19, or whatever. If everyone agreed to the 3-3-3 plan, there would no need for all the back-and-forth discussion about what to do on what service and on what channel. Agreeing to this 3-3-3 emergency plan does not negate, promote or interfere with the GMRS channel 19 or 20 travel channel debate, IMO. Thomas ...

Yo BugKiller, in my opinion the only dumb question is the one not asked. I'm still a noobie, as well, so we are all learning as we go. That said, the length of my rat-tail (aka-counterpoise) was just random. I just tried to match it to the length of the antenna. It seems to work very well, I've even had it coiled around the belt clip to keep it from dangling and it still works great. Don't be afraid to explore and experiment with your gear, it'll teach you alot, along with many here that have lots of knowledge to share. 73