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Short answer is no. Longer answer that is significantly more vague... Given most 50w models are closer to 45w, and you have to quadruple your power to increase your signal 1 s-unit, I would say no, not really. You really need to jump to 80w-100w before it makes a real difference, but those numbers aren't available in GMRS. Other side of the debate, I am a power junkie and you never know when that extra few watts is going to be the difference between reaching who you need to talk to or not.

I have both the 20W Wouxun and 50 watt Wouxun. I love them both. That being said, there are some days when the weather conditions are right (or wrong I guess) when the 50 watt will hit the repeater 17 miles away that the 20 watt has a little struggle to get through to it. Most days though, my 5 watt HT gets through to it. Hope this does'nt muddy the water....

The first thing I would do is check the tones. Start by removing them all and then if you want to use tones, make sure they are the same on all radios.

I am running an XTL5000-UHF remotely mounted in the back of a 2022 Ford Bronco 2-Door. There is an O5 head connected to that radio, mounted on the passenger side. The radio is connected to a Rugged Radios GMRS-Point5 NGP Tuned Whip antenna mounted on the front mirror. I also have a second XTL5000-VHF on a second O5 head that I use as a P25 scanner. That radio is connected to a Rugged Radios VHF 1/2 Wave NGP Antenna mounted on the spare tire mount. Each radio has its own speaker mounted behind the front seats. The VHF antenna works terrific but the UHF antenna setup doesn't work well at all. With the radio set for 50w output I can't get more than a few miles. I know that NH terrain plays an important role here in the sucky range but I think this mount/antenna combo is trash. I just don't have a better place to mount a UHF antenna with a ground plane.

Wide/Narrow has nothing to do with it because that would not prevent them from transmitting/hearing each other. The issue is he is trying to transmit in frequency/VFO mode, which you cannot do on UV-5G radios.. Assuming there are no incorrect tones, putting the radio in channel/MR mode and set the correct GMRS "channel" should make everything work.

@WRFN864 and @WRUU653 All I noticed was the small additive funnel. What does that say about me?

In my RAV4, I have a ProClip for the KG-1000G faceplate and mic. It takes up the middle vent. For an antenna, I use the Nagoya NL-770G-NMO in a hood lip mount. The radio is wired directly to the battery and I have a smallish external speaker mounted below all this. This setup seems to work just fine for me. Haven't noticed any issues at all.

For future readers like me: Everything explained here is indeed very accurate. Antenna manufacturers often do not provide proper data sheets or certifications to back up their claims. Some numbers, like dB, are sometimes altered for marketing purposes. An easy way to understand dB is through a water analogy: High dB is like a water pipe with a pressure nozzle - it reaches a longer distance but with less flow. Low dB is like a water pipe without a nozzle - it delivers a lot of water, but at a closer distance.

In actual testing, compared to the larger MXTA26, the ghost antenna performs VERY well.. Surprisingly well... IF you can mount it in a good location. If any part of the ghost antenna is being blocked by parts of the truck, it works terribly.. Basically, if you can mount it on the center of the roof, its great but anywhere else, not so much.

Going off the BTWRs article, Which Wouxun radios are superheterodyne?, I created this spreadsheet and added the BetterSafeRadio versions. Thought somebody might find it useful. Excel or CSV format. Feel free to change or add, or suggest changes. wouxun-radios.xlsx wouxun-radios.csv

GMRS was dead near me so I got my amateur license. Now I have many, many more channels to hear silence on

You could try co phasing antennas vertically, one at the the height you know works for the one repeater and the the other at the other available height. The antennas would need to be the same and the harness feeding the antennas would need to be 75ohm. The distance of each feeder cable would need to be equal and in odd 1/4 wave lengths. just a thought and it would give added gain vs the single antenna if done correctly

With ham radio you BYOR “bring your own radio” and there will be other people to talk to if that’s what you want. With GMRS you have to BYOOP “bring your own other people.” That’s not to say that you’ll never talk to complete strangers in distant and exotic neighborhoods not so far away, but it’s not really why GMRS exists.

I have an XPR2500 in my pickup. The majority of my mobile units are Motorola PM400 and MCS2000. My handhelds are CP200 and PR1500. My repeater is a Vertex VXR-7000 with the antenna on top of a 100 foot grain leg. I use my system for LMR and recently reprogrammed to GMRS for dual functionality. I have all the programming software and cables because my nearest Moto dealer is 50 miles away. I do use a Baofeng UV-5R for testing new programming on my own system and when I program other peoples radios. The UV-5R is super handy because of its flexibility on being field programmable without the need of a computer.

I am currently using a Motorola XTL5000 and a Diamond NR-7900 antenna and together they are fantastic. I have had great luck with the KG-1000g and MXT500. The Gen 2 Midland MXT400 isn't bad, but the price vs lack of features and difficulty of programming push it lower on the list. I would need to get one at about 30% of retail before I would buy one over the other two. I would 100% buy the Gen 2 MXT400 over any mobile Baofeng/BTech mobile radio. Some people love them (and I like their handhelds), but I have had several of them break within days... even minutes of installation. With regard to antennas, I have also had great performance with the MXTA26 and the Tram 1126-B.

My personal setup is a bit overkill for anyone new to radio. I run an APX8500 and a Comet 2X4 antenna. So that being said. A good starting configuration for the folks just getting into GMRS is gonna be an NMO mag mount with a unity gain whip. That is by far the least expensive option and will still give reasonable performance to get you on the air and talking on the local repeaters and some simplex as well. One of the things that people fail to understand, especially with mobile setups is the amount of available gain in mobile antenna's from unity gain to the highest numbers available is only about a 9 dB difference. Now while that sounds like a ton of gain, when you are looking at signal levels in a radio and what is receivable and whats solid copy all falls into a range of about 6 to 9dB. If your squelch is set to -118dBm which is pretty typical, could be as high as -110 dBm but that's pretty tight. When you are at -118dBm you are gonna be about 25% noise. But if you open the squelch up more and go down to -120dBm signal level you are now at 50% plus noise with your signal. So down at that level it matters. That being said. If you increase from -120 to -110, you are typically going to be perfect copy, and by the time you are at -107 you are solid. Any increase from there is NOT going to have any effect on your signal. You will sound the same from -105 to -50dBm. The reception just doesn't change. Point is this. If you have a local repeater that has a signal level of -100dBm in all the area's that you travel, putting a 9 dB gain antenna gets you NOTHING for increased signal. And UHF is finicky. Hills and valleys will block the signal no matter the antenna gain. I have two radios in my truck. One is an XPR4550 with a unity gain whip. The other is the 8500 with the 2X4 Comet. When I start loosing the repeater on either radio due to topography, both radios suffer equally. The signal is just blocked and there is nothing that can be done about that. And there are places that I can't talk on my repeater that are less than 10 miles from it, but there are places I can talk on my repeater that are 60 miles from it. So bear that in mind when your signal fades out and comes back and you feel you would be doing better to go drop $100 on a wiz-bang high gain mobile and antenna and mount thinking it's gonna cure all your problems.

Lol theres a lot if info about him just in that image. We know his name, address, and favorite football team! And he's an amateur extra, but doesn't hold a GMRS license.

Should probably point here: https://forums.mygmrs.com/guidelines/ The other link was from before a pretty big site/forum upgrade, I suspect things have shifted around a bit. They're also in the menu in the top right, under the "browse" submenu, at least on mobile view.

I cant wait to use the STUN/KILL function on the next guy that tries to road-rage on me!