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This is why it is very important to always wear clean panties when transmitting!

There are a lot of variables that affects range. Buildings/structures, terrain, foliage/trees will all affect the range of GMRS and other UHF radios. Hand held radios will also be a little handicapped due to the low power level and short antennas. People in urban areas or hilly and heavily forested areas will have less range versus someone living in the desert or plains with good lines of sight. A few blocks to a mile or two is normal for talking between two hand held radios, rain it depends on location.

Very helpful information. Thanks everyone!

Reception on GMRS is line of sight. Check out this tool, it may help you with expectations. Trees, buildings, even moisture can impact your signal.

Not to disagree with my esteemed colleague Mr. @nokones, but, i disagree.. I have led groups of up to hundreds (HUNDREDS) of Jeeps/trucks off-road, and a large majority of them use cheap/narrowband FRS radios, while many of us transmit on wideband at high power (because we can).. and never once has anyone complained about having trouble hearing/understanding what we are saying - and in tests I have done, it is usually rare for normal people (with untrained ears) to notice or hear any difference.

As the title says, I have entered the domain of GMRS. My spot in the corner of mom's basement has been secured and the chicken nuggies are warming in the oven. My license has been received from my overlords at the FCC and I have been accepted by the very knowledgeable and fine people of MyGMRS. Thank you for having me. I have wired up my Midland MXT400 and dropped the stubby little antenna that came with it on the bumper of my 1997 Jeep TJ (arguably the greatest offroad vehicle ever produced by man). I'm sure the ground plane is next to zero, my SWR is probably 5.83 repeating 3, and my radio will be fried within a month or two. That said.... Do I turn ON or OFF narrowband for channels 1-8? Likely only to be used to hear a sweaty middle aged individual standing feet away saying, "little more driver...little more... no too much driver...." or someone else calling for help further along the trail because they stuck their rig in a hole filled with mud. Midland has pre-selected narrowband to "provide optimum communication and spectrum efficiency with both FRS and GMRS radios". Which sounds very fancy. But, I can turn it off if it isn't as fancy as it seems and I seem to remember watching a video somewhere at sometime about narrowband on midland radios being the devil. TIA Greddy

I might add it has been said testing SWR of an HT antenna with a surecom is at best problematic. I have not bothered. I’ll let others chime in about how good the testing is. I’m one of those guys that’s happy if it works.

Several years ago I was on a solo motorcycle trip to east TX. I was east of El Paso on I-10. It is a very boring stretch of highway, fast but boring. I got a call and because I couldn't see who it was from I answered it. It was an "IRS police officer" telling me I need to pay my late tax bill or they were going to come arrest me. I kept him on the line for 30 minutes asking questions and sounding worried. about 20 minutes in I got belligerent and very sarcastic. The last 30 seconds of the call he was cussing me up one side and down the other in his heavy accent. He finally told me he would have a team come to my house. I told him that would be great and asked that he be the number one man in the stack. He loudly invited me to have sex with my self one more time and hung up. That phone call made my day. The FCC is pretty much worthless when it comes to scam calls.

Fixed that for you Queen. [emoji41]

As long as you have your FCC approved Belt Clip, and are wearing it on your belt, you are OK. As close as you want on the panties, but beware the palm slap of doom from the wearer if they dont like it. My stubby antenna works perfectly fine, at least, thats what she tells me.

We despeartely need your expertise over on the most excellent FB Group "a group where we all pretend to be amateur radio elmers" Randy would also love it as we really send up the "Some People" crowd!

I started answering unknown calls with "this call may be recorded for quality assurance". They always hang up after that.

@GeauxGreddy greatest presentation of a question ever For what it's worth I like em wide...

I have a Nagoya NA-701G, and a Nagoya NA-771G. I just wanted to point out some observations about the two. The setup: Antenna -> SMA Female to PL259 Male adapter -> Surecom SW102 -> PL259 Male to SMA Male adapter -> Baofeng UV5G The adapters don't use any cable, they're solid connectors. Methodology: Cradle hand behind the radio as I would when transmitting, select a channel, PTT and observe the SWR. I tested the NA-701G and NA-771G antennas with a Baofeng UV-5G connected directly to a Surecom SW-102, connected directly to the antenna. I also tested with a stock antenna. First test was a real world test: I drove around to a few locations within five miles of my home and tested sound quality (I was recording at home using SDR++ with an RTL-SDRv4 connected to a Comet CA2X4SR). In each of my tests, the sound quality recorded was best with the NA-771G, with the stock Baofeng antenna in 2nd place, and the NA-701G in last place of the three. I would expect the NA-771G to outperform the stock antenna, but I would not expect the stock antenna to outperform a GMRS dedicated antenna like the NA-701G. Next I tested the SWR with the Surecom meter and direct connections. I carefully held the radio as I would hold it when speaking; nearly vertical, hand cupped around the back of the radio, a few inches from my face. The SWR on the NA-701G ranged between 3.0:1 and 6.0:1. These are really awful numbers for an antenna that is advertised as <1.5:1 SWR.. Then I tested with the NA-771G, and it got a nearly perfect score of between 1.0:1 and 1.03:1. Excellent. Finally I tested with the stock Baofeng antenna. It got between 1.01:1 and 1.06:1 across all GMRS frequencies. My NA-701G and NA-771G both came in the same type of Nagoya antenna packaging. They appear to both be genuine, not knockoffs. Yet the 771G performed so well, for a handheld antenna (yes, it's quite long), and the 701G performed worse than a stock antenna. I'm not sure if perhaps I got a defective 701. It's rather hard to make a defective rubber-duck style antenna, I think, though. So this one is probably not going to get used now that I've tested its characteristics. On the positive side, it's about a quarter inch shorter than the stock antenna, and a lot more flexible. So the form factor is nice. The real silver lining is the NA-771G. Great antenna. I also tested the NA-771G on MURS, and it maintained an SWR of 1.4:1 or 1.5:1 across the MURS frequencies.=

An eight year old girl armed with a soccer ball will knock that radio right out of your hand! No comms, no comms for you.

Ahh, let the spending begin! The best hand held/mobile radio are the ones that meet your needs - and no, you don't need a repeater!

I was being over the top for humor with that part. my main point was what is the best reach out and touch someone if there is a dire strait. I missed that attempt apparently.

What do you mean “serious emergency comms”? Who do you think you will talk to if a riot breaks out at your 8 year old daughter’s soccer game? Riots don’t interrupt cell phones; call 911.

Just got my license and a couple handhelds. Still learning the basics and looking forward to belonging to this forum

And be certain they aren't too tight as it chokes the functioning.

Welcome to the world of GMRS! Sounds like you're on the path of discovery in trying out the radios for range. As far as not getting responses to your radio check calls, understand that, for the most part. Most people use GMRS as a point to point, short range communications service within a small circle of family and/or friends, and are not listening for, nor responding to, other users on the air. If you are receiving the other radio you have, you do know they work. So factors such as terrain, obstructions and antennae come into play for the amount of "Fars" you will get. He gets his share of grief from "Some People", but look up notarubicon on Youtube. Randy is a wealth of knowledge for both GMRS and Off-Roading. Enjoy, check back in often!

At the hips?

As said its all about use case. I've only used 1-7 to talk to folks with FRS radios as its low power and is really local to me.I have my repeaters narrowband as family has midland mobiles that only did narrowband. I do have a second bank with wideband if needed but not sure the last time I used it. 99% of my comms are to a jeep in front or behind me or a trail guide 50' away.

Im going to make some popcorn and nuke some Hot Pockets. Im wideband all the way baby! Rails are coming off.

Most of the Jeepers normally buy FRS radios for their Trail Comm and the FRS radio channels are forced to narrowband emissions only. If a user is transmitting on a channel with wideband emissions most of the narrowband radios will receive the transmission either garbled, sound like it is over modulated, or missing syllables. Some of the super cheap FRS radios may receive the wideband emission with no problem at all because the receiver is real loosey goosey with very poor selectivity and sensitivity . This situation occurs more often then you think in large Jeep groups because some users just don't know what to do.

There really isn't anything to 'not do right'.. It's either the correct antenna connected correctly, or it isn't.. So my first guess is that your antenna is a counterfeit/defective.. have you tested the antenna on another radio?

OMFG, I would PAY to see how that plays out! OMG, OMG, what if EVERYBODY started to do that?!

If there is at least one FRS radio in the group, set all to narrow. If there are NO FRS radios in the group, set all to wide.

Depends who you're talking to. Talking to other people w GMRS radios? Leave it wideband, that's how they're likely setup too (unless they're using some of those weirdo ones that don't). If you're talking to people with FRS radios, set it to narrowband. Which is to say, you want the radios on both ends to match bandwidth.

1-7 are authorized for 20 kHz 8-14 are authorized for 12.5 kHz 15-30 are authorized for 20 kHz

Though in theory it shouldn't be this way, performance of a given radio on Narrowband vs Wideband can vary by make, model, and in some cases, individual radios. Personally, I program all of my GMRS radios for Wideband on channels 1 thru 7, and the eight repeater and/or 50W simplex channels. Channels 8-14 are I believe, hardwired for Narrowband per FCC regulations. Hopefully, OffRoader X will reply as he has a metric ton more experience in the off-road world than I.

After getting license, what should I do? -- Start talking with your friends Can I buy GMRS trancsiever? -- You always could, anyone can. Please let me know how to use my call sign?-- Press the talk button, say your callsign in plain, normal-person english, then start talking Should I say my GMRS callsign when I talk by transceiver like radio amateur? -- Give your callsign at the beginning of your transmissions or at least once every 15 minutes Please let me know the process after getting license. -- The process is: start talking to your friends on your radio

You may have missed the real joke here… but it’s okay. It wasn’t meant maliciously.

I've done ok.. PS: I have never owned a Kenwood radio in my life.

If I remember correctly the default used to be “my repeaters” equaled owned repeaters and this is a change Rich made to try and make it more clear from how it used to be. Seems pretty clear now so who knows why people do what they do.

You're welcome.

I just purchased a couple of 3D printed HT stands for my 935G+ radios. I normally have one sitting on an end table next to me. I don't know how many times I have reached for the radio and knocked it over some times landing on the floor. The stand fits perfectly and has a cutout on the back for the USB-C port. The stand holds the radio at a good angle and is very stable. When I pickup the radio the stand comes with it which is a positive for me. That way I'm not dropping the stand. I got them on Etsy from a shop called BlackLodgeCreative. I believe the owner of the shop is a member here. He has stand for a bunch of popular HTs and a couple other pieces of radio associated equipment. I am going to purchase a couple more for other radios soon. I am not associated with the Etsy shop owner in any way other than being a satisfied customer.

I set my KG20+ up as a base station using a Pyramid Power supply. The description fooled me into thinking this was a 7 amp power supply when it is really a 4.5 amp. 7 amp is the surge rating. Either way, it works fine and I have full output from the transmitter. I get between 20 and 25 watts out depending on the frequency. I don't transmit that much on the base station as it's more for the wife to listen. But so far the power supply has performed to spec and the radio works just like it should.