WRYZ926

Well the old CSM was actually saving the government on hospital bills and/or funeral expenses when he had us destroy the M151's. They were quite dangers for those that did not know how to safely operate them. On the plus side of that clean up mission, we did revere some pretty rare vehicles and parts that the different military museums came and picked up. Those rare vehicles and parts allowed them to restore more vehicles for public display.

Ah the M151 MUTT. They finally made National Guard and Reserve units park those things for good around 1990. They were more prone to roll overs than any of the Willy's GP vehicles they replaced. We found a couple that only needed fresh fuel and tires out in the training area at Ft Irwin in 1995 while cleaning up all of the old hard targets. The base Command Sargent Major made us go park them on the M1 tank range so the next rotation could destroy them.

The military has always used 12 volt batteries in series or in parallel/series depending on the vehicle. The M38A1 and M170 used two 12 volt batteries. The HMMV, and most other wheeled vehicles use four 12V batteries. Most tracked vehicles to include armored personnel carriers, self propelled artillery, tanks etc, all use eight 12V batteries. The CUCV Chevy trucks and Blazers had both 12V and 24V systems. They had two generators on them. All military equipment has been 24 volts since the 1950's.

Other than Garmin GMRS radios, they are all made in China. When it comes to amateur band radios, even some Yaesu radios are now made in China. Unfortunately there is no getting away from Chinese products any time soon. All of our computers, cell phones, tablets, etc are all made there.

One had to run the engine to power those radios.The radio versions had bigger generators compared to standard versions. Military vehicles and equipment all ran on 24 volt systems by the time the M38A1 and M170 were first put into service. The US military used the portable 4.2KW generators for powering commo equipment when I was in. The 4.2 was small enough to fit in the back cargo area in the HMMV and the M577 Command Post Carrier had the 4.2 mounted up front next to the driver's hatch. It is possible that there was small 24v portable generators that were carried in the old radio Jeeps. They were long gone by the time I enlisted. You could always get a small portable 12V DC generator for your Jeep.

The NRA had their National Convention a few years ago in St Louis and a lot of vehicles were broken into during the convention. But you re correct, that goes for any big city.

@nokones if you are not worried about hauling passengers or cargo, then you can always turn your Wrangler into a military style commo Jeep. The M38A1 and M170 both had radio versions. The USMC even had a tall hard top version of the M170 for commo use. Here are a couple of photos for inspiration. M170 radio Jeep M38A1 radio Jeep

This is especially true when you have several people using the repeater that have the same first name. We have several Johns, Ricks and Rons that use our amateur and GMRS repeaters. Plus we have quite a few people traveling through the area that use our repeaters. Most of us will ID at the beginning of our conversation, every 10/15 minutes and then at the end of our conversations. I have not heard anyone ID after every transmission on any of the 2m, 70cm, and GMRS repeaters. The last time I used call signs after each transmission was in the military, but the was SOP.

Every brand of radio will have its positives and negatives. Just like every brand of GMRS radios are all made in China. Having a US company to deal is a definite plus if one needs to contact customer service. Yes there was a batch of Midland MXT500s that had low power output. But Midland did take care of those radios if the owners contacted Midland customer service. Midland radios meets the needs of some by being a simple to operate and program radio for those that do not want all of the bells and whistles. As far as why the MXT500 does not have a fan is probably part of it being IP66 rated for water and dust. And having an IP rating is a plus for use in open cab vehicles such as Jeeps and UTVs. It's simple, go with the radio that suits your individual needs and don't worry about what the Negative Nancy's and Nana NoNo's say.

Locks only keep honest people honest. If a thief wants something they will just take it. As others have mentioned, you can get creative on how and where you mount radios. Taking the antennas off and removing the hand mics can help. One of the reasons I like having radios with remote head units is that I can just unhook the control cable and rove the heads. I won't put anytime of radio or firearm related stickers on my vehicles. Firearm related stickers are a sure guarantee that your vehicle will be broken into if you go to St Louis.

I'm thinking he is taking all of the down votes as a compliment. Anyway. Don't be afraid to think outside the box for different ways to carry radios and gear. I was wanting a good case for my RigExpert Stick Pro and saw where others were using a hard side cordless toothbrush case. I ordered a case and it fits the RigExpert like a glove and protects it.

I figured that there was something available for commercial/government use. But it's probably very expensive for consumers.

@Lscott That would be nice if that could be done. Right now I use radios with detachable heads. The main units are stuffed under my seat and the head units are on a Lido seat bolt mount. The downside is I also had to connect external speakers to both radios so I can hear them. Just more stuff to mount. Space is a premium on any newer vehicle but its worse in smaller SUVs like my 2023 Ford Escape.

It really doesn't matter what brand or model of vehicle you have there just isn't a whole lot of room to add radios to any newer vehicle. Let us know what you come up with nokones.

Actually it should be 15 minutes per regulations. And I agree that having any repeater ID without any traffic is a bit much. We have our GMRS repeater setup to ID every 15 minutes only when there is traffic on the repeater.

I have several Apache cases from Harbor Freight. They will work just fine to protect radios. I trust them enough to put my handguns in.

Yes the CJ-6 shared the same frame as the M170. The tubs are different along with different fuel tanks and different seats. There are two easy ways to tell a CJ from a military Jeep. First is the headlights. On military Jeeps, the headlights are recessed into the grill while on CJ's they stick out from the grill. The other difference is the location of the glove box. On CJ's, the glove box is on the passenger side. On military Jeeps, the glove box is on the driver's side between the steering column and the door. @nokones sorry for the derailment of the thread.

Yes the guy I sold it to is in the process of finding all of the M170 specific parts for a full restoration. The closest civilian model would be the CJ-6. The tubs are the same length. But that is the only thing that is the same. The M170 had a cutout on the passenger side for the spare tire. The other main difference was the fuel tank. The M170 has a 20 gallon tank that goes up under the tub versus the smaller tank under the driver's seat. The hardest part to find is the passenger/medic seat. It is a two piece setup. The medic can sit facing forward or backward and both pieces can be hung on the windshield frame to make room for stretchers.

I got rid of my project JEEP a couple of years ago. It was a 1962 Willys M170 front line ambulance. It was hard to find the M170 specific parts since there was only about 4000 of them made. And those specific parts were totally different from all other Jeeps. DMR does see some use with other clubs in central Missouri but it isn't much. No one uses Fusion or D-Star around here. As I mentioned, we are removing DMR from our 70cm repeaters and will be installing Allstar nodes instead. Our plans are to keep all three 70cm repeaters linked at all times and also have the option to link all three to our 2m repeater when we want.

He has been asked what radios he uses multiple times and he has yet to answer the question. I think he's up to 999 or 1009 reasons why one should not buy certain brands of radios.

I wouldn't say that is a glitch with your radio. I have noticed the same thing when others are using narrow band and I am using wide band. It is more pronounced when talking through a repeater. I have heard that no matter if I am using an HT or a mobile/base radio. I tell them to switch to wide band and their transmissions are clear when they do.

Dang it, I ran out of reactions for today.. Nice setup. Our club is actually removing DMR from our 70cm repeaters since no one uses DMR anymore.

Yes the US Military has the equipment to monitor and transmit on all frequencies. This includes cell phones even though they are not suppose to listen to cell service in the states.

I have found that there is no one magic antenna that will work well and/or be an improvement over the stock antenna for all handheld radios. The Nagoya and Abbree 771G antennas did make a difference with my Baofeng GMRS radios but the stock antennas on my Wouxun GMRS radios did better than the 771Gs did. All you can do is try a few different antennas and go with what works best with your radio.

Just remember that any and all updates/support for Windows 10 will stop in October of this year. I think there is an option for continued Windows 10 support if you are willing to pay annually for it. Yes Wouxun radios do cost more than other brands but they are better quality and are generally clean as @RayDiddio mentioned. I have Baofeng UV-5R GMRS, handhelds along with Wouxun and Icom handhelds. The Wouxun is definitely better than the Baofeng radios and it is even better than the Icom IC-T10 I own.