WRTC928

My AR-5RM will work on MURS, but that's a little too expensive to just pass them out to all the volunteers at an event. FRS-compatible radios like the 888s are about $10 each.

Channel 1 is allowed 2 watts and a lot of the radios come out of the box set for that. Most FRS users never change anything on the radio, hence my guess that it's 2 watts. But it could be 0.5 watt; there's really no way to know. Either way, 2-5 miles is pretty good. It probably can only happen when the stars align just right.

All the slack in the back of my jeans is used by my big backside. I usually put it in my left jacket pocket but a couple of days ago, I snagged an antenna getting out of my truck and bent it beyond repair. That's the first time I've done in that in at least 2 years, so maybe I'll decide it's not a big deal, but there's no harm in exploring options. I sometimes use the belt clip, but by the time I've put a firearm and one or two magazines on the belt, adding a radio makes me feel like my pants are going to fall down.

Lose 'em. That's what I'm going to do. That's why I need to get them cheap. Almost every time I change an antenna, I lose the stupid O-ring. I don't know why; I don't typically lose other small parts. The $6 for 100 of them is cheap enough to avoid the frustration.

Right now I'm listening to a couple of kids on 1. One of them said he's "over by the red house" and there's not a red house anywhere near me -- certainly not within a mile. That's pretty good for an FRS radio. Radio waves are funny. There's a repeater about 25-30 miles from my house with which I can usually contact people with a 5 watt HT in my back yard. I can't even kerchunk the same repeater from my driveway with a 20 watt mobile and a 47" antenna. The only apparent difference is that my house is in the way. I'm on a 40' bluff above a river and it's entirely possible the kids are in the town across the river east of me about 5 miles away. Edit: One of them just said, "I'm at the school." That puts him about 2 miles away if he's in my town and about 5 miles away if he's in the town across the river. Not bad for 2 watts, especially if he's in my town, because there are a lot of houses and other buildings between me and the nearest school.

I understand the rule to mean that you are allowed to identify the individual by a unit number or letter, by their name, or not at all according to what works for you. If there are only two of you, there's really no need. None of my family was ever interested enough for it to matter. In the military and law enforcement, it was the rule to identify yourself at the beginning of a transmission and I've just (mostly) carried that habit over into civilian radio. I always open with my call sign on a repeater because essentially, I'm a guest there and it just seems polite to tell the owner who is visiting.

I get great results with the 771G, but it's not a "pocket friendly" antenna.

So...about what I figured; you'll lose some distance. Back in my (23 channel) CB days, I noticed that electrical length was never quite as good as physical length on an antenna, but on a CB it didn't matter much because your distance was either annoyingly short or ridiculously long (due to skip). I think the Slim Duck is pretty comparable in length to the Nagoya 701G. I have a couple of those and I'm pretty happy with them. Mostly if I can hit a repeater with a 771G, I can hit it with a 701G but signal quality suffers a bit at longer distances. My reason for asking the question is that I'd like to have something I could put on a Baofeng f8hp and stick it in jacket pocket without worrying about damaging the antenna. I expected a bit of loss of distance, but if everyone was saying they could get about 10 feet and the signal sounded like wadding up aluminum foil, then it's not even good for that. Sounds like it may be okay for what I want.

I see that Abbree and Baofeng have very short antennas for HTs. The Baofeng claims 3 dB gain, but I'm pretty skeptical of that. The Abbree claim of 2 dB gain is a little more believable. The idea of such a short, rigid antenna is appealing, but I wonder how much performance would suffer? Have any of you tried one of these or a similar product from another brand?

That's why I prefer something like this over a UV-5r (which right now is cheaper than the 27V) for events or groups. Pick it up, turn the knob, and you're up and running. You can't accidentally lock/unlock the keypad, enter the menu, enter VFO mode, etc. Most people don't care about all the whiz-bang features of the radio, and if you give them something complicated, it'll just confuse them.

Thank you. The reason I was hesitant is because the ad copy that accompanies the radio on Amazon specifically states that they can only be used with other Retivis radios. I messaged the company, and their rep responded that the radios are programmed by default with the 5 MURS frequencies without codes but can be customized using the provided software, which I took to mean the software comes with the radio. If it's programmed by default with the MURS channels without codes, it logically seems that it should communicate with other brands of radios. I've ordered one to play with. If it interfaces seamlessly with other MURS radios, I may want to have a couple of them around. They're still more expensive than the 888s or Arcshell, but at $16 each, they're cheap enough for a group.

Good to know. Thanks!

Okay. Still a PITA. What are the limitations of their firmware? I'm not buying 10 radios unless I have more information. It might be workable. At least they're getting close.

For essentially the same price as the RT27Vs, you could buy 10 Baofeng UV-5Rs and program them for MURS, but part of the appeal of the Arcshell or 888s is its simplicity. There's really nothing for the user to futz with or mess up. Just program them and hand them out.

I haven't seen any.

I hadn't seen them that cheap before, but even so, they can only communicate with other Retevis R27V radios, which is a non-starter as far as I'm concerned. So somebody shows with another brand of MURS radio and they're out of the loop? Nope. The Arcshell and similar Baofeng 888s are fully software-programmable. If the R27V was CHIRP compatible, I'd be all over it.

I wish you could get something like this in VHF for use on MURS. They're 2 watts, reasonably reliable, and so cheap as to be almost disposable. It seems like there are no really inexpensive options for MURS like there are for FRS. You could buy a 6-pack or a 10-pack and pass them out at a gathering or event. Perhaps it's a chicken/egg thing -- they're not available because MURS doesn't get much use and MURS doesn't get much use because cheap equipment isn't available.

I've noticed that the QC on inexpensive radios can be quite erratic. You can buy two "identical" radios and they perform radically differently.

I understand that. I was responding to @WSFN233 comment that he got useful traffic information in his area. When I took a long trip, I figured I'd leave it on just to see if anything of value came across. It didn't. Regardless of what anyone may think the service is "intended for," there's no reason people couldn't find it valuable for that purpose. In fact, that's actually the topic of the thread. Try to keep up.

It must depend upon where you are. Last month, I drove from Oklahoma City to San Antonio and the next day on to Port Aransas, TX. I monitored 19 and 16 the whole way thinking those were the most likely places to hear traffic reports. In Austin I heard a conversation between people who seemed to be trying to find some place in the city, but other than that, it was a very occasional signal from some business I was driving past. GMRS is useless for traffic information in Oklahoma and Texas, as far as I can determine. That's why I also have a CB in the truck; there's a lot of trash going on, but it's still the best place to find road reports. I'm not sure how practical it is to try to put two radios in my little car, though.

At that price difference, I don't care if they're round or flat. I have a touch of OCD, but just a touch. I lose the darned things, which is why I had to go looking for something to replace the ones that came with my Nagoya antennas.

It's an identical neoprene ring and it costs $0.22 whereas the ones I bought cost $0.06. If it fits and forms a good seal, it's the right gasket.

This question was prompted by watching videos of people doing it and I thought, "If it's really that easy, why does anyone buy a repeater? Apparently, the answer is that it isn't really that easy -- which I suspected. Nevertheless, a 6' monaural audio cable is $5, so I'm going to experiment a bit. If it can be made to work even somewhat, it might be something to have in my bag of tricks.

I spent the $50 for the Ham Radio Prep course because it uses multimedia, self-study, and practice exams and I do well with that sort of format. I have no regrets; it's a great course, IMO.

If the practice exams are an indicator, I should have no problem. Most importantly, I want to be able to go to NotaRubicon's YouTube videos and tell him I know he's wrong because I'm an official ham.