marcspaz

Hey folks! I know I said I was going to wait a few days... possibly a week... before my GMRS-50X1 features review, but I spent hours using this radio today and I had a great time. I figured I would just go ahead and get it out there. For the features review, I am going to start with the Cons this time. Since the quasi-tech review ended with the focus on the negatives, I would like to end this review with a positive vibe. Please keep in mind, this is purely opinion based after using the radio. There are tons of features... I am only going to cover what I believe would be the most common/popular to use among most people. Cons - 1.) While talking simplex to a station that is closer than 2 miles, I had to use low power, NFM and turn the mic gain down to 1. If not, the person I was talking to complained about audio clipping and audible popping sounds. After 2 miles, I could turn the mic gain back up and use WB FM. 2.) The display is going to be both in the Pros and Cons section. As some are aware, I daily drive a Jeep Wrangler. For at least 50% of the year, my Jeep has no roof and no doors. That fact brought out a big drawback for me. The display has no means of adjusting the brightness. Regardless of what I did, while the sun was out and the roof and doors were off, the display was 100% washed out. I literally could not tell the radio was on by looking at the display. At first, I put the soft top on, and the display was still heavily washed out, but was usable. I had to put on my top and my doors with 20% light transmission tint on the windows, before the display was good to use. Another drawback for the display is, there is a lot of very useful information in a tiny little spot. It takes a bit of focus to look at the display and get a feel for exactly what is going on. This is not good if you are driving and want to make a quick change. I found that I had to pull over to be safe while making minor adjustments. 2.) They advertise that it has NOAA radio built-in, but it really doesn't. The VFO covers a frequency spectrum that includes those frequencies. Not a big deal, but it is up to you to manually tune to those channels and save them to memory. 3.) You can't add new GMRS saved channels that are capable of transmitting. On my iCom, I have multiple saved channels for channel 15, for example. One with no DPL, one with tone coding and one with digital coding. Depending on who I am with or the group I am talking with, I need to use different values. With the BTech radio, I will have to manually change it every time. I am assuming this is so they could get FCC type approval. 4.) You can't transmit in VFO mode, at all, not even on GMRS frequencies. This was probably needed for FCC type approval. Still a drag that you can't manually dial to a GMRS frequency and use it. 5.) There are a lot of unneeded features and unusable functions that are locked out. Seems pointless to even have them because they will likely add a lot of confusion to new operators. Examples are Remote Stun which remotely disables transmitting and Remote Kill remotely disables transmit and receive. These are typically repeater management features that a typical GMRS mobile user just doesn't need. While the aforementioned features are present and function, there are a ton of other repeater related functions that are still in the menu, but you can't change them. It almost seems like they took a shortcut and used UV-50Xx software and just tweaked it for this radio. Pros - 1.) Range.... My son and I ran a field test today; both simplex and repeater use. Anyone who has read my quasi-technical opinion review, knows I was less than impress with what I saw. That said, going from my BTech mobile to my son's HT inside his car, we easily talked 5.5 miles in rough terrain and while I was on the blind side of a hill, 100 feet+ below the top of a hill and there were lots of trees, buildings, etc. between us. I was pretty impressed that we got that range with my son's radio "inside" his car, while driving, and he was using an HT that has a maximum power of 8 watts. That was more than twice as far as the results we had with another brand mobile I own... using the same HT. Once we were out of simplex range, we switched to a local repeater. I am 22 miles from the repeater as the crow flies. I was using low power (2.5w) WB FM. My son was 19 miles away from the repeater using the HT, on full power and WB FM. My son gave me the the same signal report as others. He said there was some noise on low power, but when I switched to medium power (18w) I was full quite and great audio quality. Given the RF signal quality I observed with analyzing tools, I am seriously shocked. 2.) While the display washed out very easily by the sun light, the display colors are extremely flexible, allowing the user to adjust the color contrast, making it easier to read as well as using font color to further segment the many items displayed on the screen. 3.) The owners manual states that the device has a 50% duty cycle. There is no power level specified, but I assume in low power. My son and I talked for more than 30 minutes, with most of my transmit time being at medium power and at about 35-40% duty cycle. During our conversation my son reported that there was no noticeable deviation of carrier or modulation. My receive quality stayed great the whole time as well. 4.) The radio only draws 3.5 amps while using the radio at full power, with the cooling fan running. The radio came with large gauge power wires. They are not labeled, but they measure about 2mm. They are likely 14 gauge, rated for 15 amps. That's a plus, as you are less likely to have voltage drop over the length of the wire and the fuse will pop long before the wires become a fire risk. 5.) While its not very useful for most cars/trucks, it does receive commercial FM Radio. This is great feature for vehicles that don't have a radio, such as ATV's, older work trucks, construction equipment, etc. 6.) You are able to monitor up to 4 frequencies and/or channels at once. The ability to mix monitoring VFO and Memory channels can be pretty handy. 7.) A cool feature that this radio has is, you can sync the displays in pairs of two. This can be a pretty neat feature. I set display A (top left) and display B (bottom left) to be in sync. This means when I change the channel on Channel A, channel B changes as well. The inverse also occurs. This allows a user to do things like have the channel Name displayed and the frequency displayed at the same time. You don't have to guess where you are if you are using channel names. 8.) This unit displays the DPL code and method on the screen. This is awesome, because you don't have to guess if your DPL is set or to what value. Its right there to read. 9.) This unit has a feature that is getting more popular; DPL scanning. If there is a group that is using DPL and you want to be part of the conversation, you can have the radio scan tone squelch and DCS values while the other station is transmitting and the radio will detect the value that the group is using. Indifferent - Something that is not really a pro or con... since we can only transmit on the hard-coded GMRS channels, 225 additional memory channels does not make a lot of sense to me. I'm sure some will love it. With the exception of programming the WX channels, I likely wont use any more than that. Summary - Quasi-tech review aside, if you are willing to tolerate some of the technology shortcomings I noticed in my radio (noted in another thread), for a low cost radio, this can be a lot of fun to play with. Sadly, the display washout is a deal-breaker for me, personally. However, I think I am in the minority there. In short, I am not going to recommend or condemn the radio. It's not for me, even with all the cool features. That said, I leave it to you to use my two threads as a tool to make an informed decision. I'm just 1 guy with one radio... but there it is. Thanks, Spaz

Hi David! Thanks for stopping by. I strongly recommend joining the forum and looking through the many threads that include equipment reviews. There are many options and varying opinions. Some of the topics may fall inline with what your intended use, and give you a chance to ask some more specific questions. What, specifically are you trying to accomplish? Such as, what will the radio be used for, type of terrain, what kind of distances are you looking at with regard to the repeaters you want to reach, etc.?

Do you have everything you need? Cable, latest version of CHIRP and laptop? If so, I may be able to meet you somewhere and can help you with your gear.

There is a loose interpretation of the rules that say something like "in an emergency, forget all the restrictions you just read." Again, a loose interpretation... but that is the basics of it. That said, it never hurts to practice, practice, practice. The two best pieces of advice I ever got was... the worst time to look for a lawyer is after you need one, and the worst time to learn how to use emergency equipment is during an emergency.

Kind of surprising to hear. I had a harmful interference issue not too long ago. I went to the owner's and they fixed it in a day. They had patch on the tower and just fixed it. I would think people would want to have their gear working correctly and not causing interference. Saying the FCC doesn't care about GMRS is just plain ignorant. There are groups of volunteers that look for PRS violations and report them to the FCC... and the FCC does take action.

Great suggestion. Great summary of your post too. You reminded me of two items I would like to touch base on again, as well as expand on something else you touched on. First... for non-licensed options, CB radio should not be over looked. It is still HF and when configured properly, you can get outstanding simplex communications, even with the low power restrictions. I have a Galaxy CB with AM and SSB. I have a properly tuned antenna transmission line and a perfect match on a 1/4 wave ground plain antenna (113.5"). On AM with 1 watt RMS carrier and 2 watt RMS modulated power, on a properly tuned system, I am getting 13-15 miles in rough terrain. On SSB, with 11 watts peek power, I am able to talk 22-26 miles, depending on the weather conditions, in that same rough terrain. The second item is, don't be afraid to include a GMRS repeater; even if repeaters in the area have been destroyed in the past. When I was an emergency volunteer, I had a two dedicated, stand-alone mobile repeaters in my truck. One VHF and one UHF. I could either run them from wherever I parked, or I could dead-drop them anywhere with their own batteries and then drive to where I needed to work. Each unit was in a vented container that kept weather off of it, twin 115 amp sealed lead-acid batteries and a 35' portable antenna tower with an omnidirectional antenna AND directional beam antenna to support local repeater comms and long-range point to point comms. The portability is a very affordable add-on to any low power repeater. On 10 watt low power with 50%-60% duty cycle, they lasted for days before the batteries needed to be recharged. Even 50 watt mode, they would run on batteries for more than 24 hours before needing to be recharged. HAM Response - I used to be an assistant emergency coordinator with ARES and answered directly to our local county government Emergency Coordinator. I am NIMS and ICS certified. I think one of the reasons Amateur Radio emergency response seems overly complex for first responder support is because groups and services like ARES are NOT first responders. ARES and groups like them are focused on supporting multiple municipality, mass casualty events and we bring in all aspects of technology to support extended operations in extended responses. The Northeast Blackout of 2003 and Katrina are great examples. We provided phone, video, internet, radio, formal traffic, responder escorts, etc. We had to be not only self sufficient, but able to provide a service in areas and conditions that are worse than being in wilderness with no outside resources. In a situation where OP is discussing... none of that is initially needed and grossly over-complicates the main objective of notification of an inbound crisis that is either occurring or about to occur. That is why the ENS was created. A simple alert system on commonly used platforms; radio, TV and smartphones. Once the event has occurred, that's when the more complex solutions need to be brought in.

My knowledge is limited in the area of "best brand/model", be it HT's or Mobile radios. I would tend to stick with major brands... but I found that even major brands, there are differing opinions. For example, if a user has no skill to do things like soldering or programing a radio, Motorola and Midland would be my first and second choice. However, if you are even moderately competent with a computer and soldering pencil, a whole new world opens up. Based on personal experience, I would stay away from Baofeng, BTech and other divisions of that company. Midland Micro Mobile radios are okay, but they are all narrow band radios. As a side note. I would never discourage new users, but you are much better off with 10 meter radios and 100-200 watt amps. to cover the distance you are talking about. I live in an area where there is rugged terrain all around and I can talk simplex, ground wave, 40+ miles with 120 watts RMS. In my opinion, most UHF radios you will get for FRS and GMRS are the wrong equipment for the job you are talking about without a repeater. You are going to be limited to a mile or two with handhelds. Even mobiles are heavily restricted in rugged terrain. At high elevation line of sight, you can get 50 miles or more with mobile simplex GMRS. Say from a 3,000 ft ridge down into a town in the valley. However, at sea level and low line of sight, you are looking at more like 3 to 5 miles due to ground wave propagation issues at that frequency spectrum. Just an opinion.

I have two BF-F8HP. Those show up in GMRS search results on Amazon, too, but they are advertised as amateur radios on the product page itself. It may be a paid advertising service being provided. Kind of like when you search for a dishwasher, but specifically, only Cascade detergent products are included in the results. The BF-F8HP's have great range for only 8 watts. While standing in my driveway, I can reach a VHF repeater about 20 miles away as the crow flies, and a UHF repeater about 22 miles away. My biggest complaint is, both radios have static come in over the receive, even if me and the other station are 100 yards away. But they were $60 instead of $10, so I was hoping for better audio quality. But, for messing around in the mountains, I'd rather break a $60 HT than a $300 HT.

For an omnidirectional, I would tend to agree, generally speaking. There are only so many "tricks" you can do to make up for a lack of redirecting/focusing energy. Keep in mind that dBi is originally focused around directional antennas. Seeing 100+ dBi gain in a directional antenna is not uncommon. Especially in low power services such as cellular and Ham radio 1 watt global comms.

BoxCar is correct. DB scales (I think there are 7 of them) are all based on a random agreed upon standard. RF is typically measured in DBi. The " i " in DBi stands for isotropic, referencing the standard performance of an isotropic dipole antenna (omni-directional antenna). The power gain of an isotropic antenna is 1.0. Here is where the problem comes into play... true DBi gain is comparing a isotropic dipole antenna to a directional antenna. So, the makers of omni-directional antennas that claim a specific amount of gain, are actually comparing the general performance improvement of their antenna, to that omni-directional dipole baseline. They use size, shape, materials, coils, etc, to get a net improvement in the transmit and/or receive performance and use that measured improvement to advertise its relative DBi gain. That improvement is, for every 6 dBi in gain, you double the range of the antenna when compared to an isotropic dipole antenna tuned for the same frequency. That said, you should be getting a legit improvement that matches that advertised DBi improvement. Mobile vs. base is not relevant. To borrow BoxCar's phrase... gain is gain, and the standard you are testing against doesn't change. Also, keep in mind that as atmospheric conditions and terrain/obstacles change overall performance. If you plan on doing any field testing, you are going to have to test both antennas at the same time, with both stations being in the same location, on the same mount/height/cables/radio/etc.

You are obviously making an assumption based on a collection of multiple posts I have made... and your assumption is wrong. Actually, the radio in question is rated for a 10% duty cycle; 6 minutes transmit, 54 minutes receive. And I mentioned using the radio in extreme use conditions as a cheap/easy means of detecting if the radio will stay within its maximum deviation. If they can have a 20 minute conversation and not hear any deviation, the radios are performing very well. If they don't get the full 6 minutes of transmit before hearing a deviation, then there is a problem. I said that BTechs are junk because I have owned several mobile radios that failed within days/hours of ownership. I never mentioned the models, how I used them or what their duty cycle is rated for. Just to be sure there is no confusion.... I had two UV-50x2's which are rated for 100% duty cycle to build poor man repeaters (also has all remote control features built into it for remote management). I was only using them as mobile ham radios with light-duty use. They both broke extremely quickly while used, literally, for initial testing and configuration. Both radios had less than 20 minutes of total transmit time. The reason I think the handhelds are junk is because they are built with cheap plastic that has basically zero impact resistance. Also the transmit audio quality is terrible. For the same price as the BTech, I can buy something like an iCom or another mainstream, amazing performer that is also durable. The fact that the BTech units drifted a bit after the duty cycle was exceeded was never a consideration in my opinion of the handhelds. If you had good luck... God bless you. I haven't. I think after using radio's for work, recreation, and working in Electronics and IT for 27+ years, I'm pretty well experienced enough to develop a opinion on what is junk. You are welcome to disagree and have your own opinions based on your experiences, but please don't put words in my mouth.

I'm sorry... where did I say that? I must be missing something. Can you show me where I wrote that?

If you have two radios, you can do some informal testing. Get far enough away that you are 2x5 to 3x5, high power, wide-band, and talk for a little while. 20 minutes or so. Try to keep about 50% duty cycle. As long as no one changes location/position, you will be able to hear frequency shift if its bad. You will start to hear some distortion and the signal strength will weaken. Word clipping is more noticeable than the signal strength. Two of my mobile ham radios shifted permanently and became unusable. The first one after 4 days. The second in less than 4 hours. Both of my handhelds worked great for about a month, and then they would drift after 10-15 minutes, but would recenter after being off for 20-30 minutes.

I have to disagree that BTech is some kind of saving grace. First... I have purchased several BTech / Baofeng radios and all failed within weeks. The extra time and money spent trying to get them to work was ridiculous. Second, Motorola, Midland, and several other companies are selling much better quality radios for literally the same price as the BTechs. Last... and this is just my opinion... if a one-time investment of an $150 vs. $60 is a deal-breaker on a hobby (and again, you don't have to spend $150)... I think you have bigger things to consider in life than which radio you're wanting to buy.

I owned 2 Baofeng ham radios for a combined total of 2 weeks. I wouldn't give one to someone I don't like, because its too cruel. Do yourself a favor and forget they exist. Just my opinion.

The MXTTR is a neat little radio. The bundle is nice, too. I tried out the MXT115 and may buy one to install in my 2016 Challenger. I love the small form factor. The MXTA11 antenna is a great antenna. I go back and forth between a Tram quarter wave and the MXTA11. I use the Tram for short distances, truck to truck, while we are off-road in a group, but I run the MXTA11 when I need to talk longer distance or to use a repeater. It has a great match on the 467 MHz frequencies compared to the 1/4 wave Tram. That portable power supply looks really neat for a stationary unit. Could be a fun and useful tool to have setup at a camp site, etc. Kind of expensive for what you are getting... but has a wow factor as far as appearance goes, which is always a plus. If you are looking for a bit more range in the vehicle in an over the counter solution, the MXT400's are nice, too. I ended up buying three MXT400's to put in my off-road vehicles. There are a few folks here that don't like them for repeater use, but I have had really good luck with them. Using the MXTA11 and 5 watts, truck to truck in a densely wooded and hilly area, I get about 2.5 miles on the regular bases, and upwards of 5.5 miles. When I am at a high elevation (2,500+ ft) use high power (advertised 40, measured 35) I can talk 50+ miles and have full copy with no problems. I would recommend waiting for a short time before buying another new OTC radio. There are a few new radios that are in the process of getting type approval from the FCC that will likely perform a little better than the Midlands with regard to audio and transmit/receive on the upper channels. The Midland radios are all narrow band, but the upper channels are approved for wide band use. I know at least one of the radio's pending approval provide support for wide band use on those upper channels. I'm still fairly new to GMRS myself, so my experience is somewhat limited. There are some folks here who can give you some great advice on other radios that are available on the used market, which require programing, but perform very, very well. Hopefully, one of them can cover those options for you too.

What Midland bundle did you get? Radio and antenna? What models? What do you mean buy "upgrading"? What do you want to upgrade? Get better accessories or antenna? Can you tell us a bit about your primary and secondary use goals?

Glad to hear you are having luck with the Stryker. Environmental conditions will play heavily into how well your radio can receive a weak signal. If you have a received signal that is only 1 S unit, but you have 3 S units of stray noise around you, you will never hear the 1 S unit signal. If you drive out of the high noise area, even if you get further away, the reduction is RF noise will allow you to have a conversation with that station, even at 1 S unit, and be able to have a 100% copy. As far as placement goes, as long as they are spaced in a way that one doesn't fall within a physical harmonic, you should be fine. It's damn near impossible to do on purpose. It's very unlikely that you will do it by mistake. I have noticed that when I key my GMRS while in high power, the noise level on my HF gear goes up. Nothing unreasonable, but when the squelch is open, I can notice it. That's all. When the squelch is closed, there is no impact. I have a 120 watt RMS amp on my 10m radio. Whenever I use the amp, I turn the GMRS gear off. Though, I have never actually experienced any of my HF gear causing issues with my VHF or UHF gear. That sounds like an awesome setup!

CB is making a major comeback around here too. I am just south of DC and the OTR truckers use them for entertainment, assistance with getting around traffic without violating their route permits, etc.

Unless you only need to consistently talk a mile or two, you're wasting your time installing a CB antenna that is not a 114" whip. I have tested every single possible configuration on everything from motorcycles to a new 2019 Cascadia tractor. Even with the most well placed antenna and the best performing equipment, bottom loaded, center loaded and fiberglass wound antennas are all poor performers. The absolute best talking CB antenna that I found (aside from a 114" whip) is a 4' Firestick (5/8 wave) mounted on a 12" solid steel extension acting as part of the antenna (like a top-loaded antenna). That talked 11 miles as the crow flies, on AM, when mounted on the top of a tractor, 8 feet above the ground with 4 watts RMS. Same vehicle and radio with a 114" whip talked 42 miles as the crow flies on AM, using only 2.5 watts RMS. I don't know how far it could on low or high power, because we got tired of driving and gave up. The next two best antennas I tested are the Wilson 5000 and Wilson 1000. The only benefits to using those over the Firestick is you can also use them with a 600 watt PEP amp or 200 watt PEP amp (respectively) on 10 meters... assuming you're also a ham and are trying to keep your antenna count down. EDIT: To help improve your chances of getting good performance on the CB, be sure to buy a very high quality 18 foot transmission line with 259 connectors on both ends, and use a HD stud with a 259 input. The impedance balances out perfectly for a half wave. The half wave cable and the quarter wave ground-plain antenna give you a perfect full wave length from the output of the radio to the tip of the antenna.

Taking the lack of understanding of the rules out of the picture for a second... I think it's being discussed in GMRS groups because of channel sharing with FRS. I also think there is a lot of confusion due to the name "Family Radio Service". The name implies that it is for use by families, not businesses. Lets be honest... most people live by the concept of "when all else fails, read the directions." If purpose and rules are occasionally misinterpreted by the people trying to understand by reading them... you can imagine that people who don't, would be exponentially more confused. Just a thought anyway.

Welcome! Below is a link for the rules for GMRS. It should help a bit. Basically, plain English is fine. 10 codes are okay, but I never hear anyone use them except on CB. Most people just speak casually, as if on the phone. Roger, Mayday, and other radiotelephony on-air protocol and voice procedures are all acceptable. Especially in high signal to noise ratio comms. From what I gather, deceptive or coded comms to hide meaning is not aloud. In general, round robin in group chat, be courteous and most importantly, have fun! https://www.ecfr.gov/cgi-bin/text-idx?SID=97171040479f3204c959e615b906317d&mc=true&node=sp47.5.95.e&rgn=div6

The story in that link is pretty awesome! I love hearing about stuff like that.

I was thinking WiFi for the repeater remote control. Not for internet relay of GMRS. As far as point-to-point radio relay of the two repeaters, I agree... go for it. Unless there is something I am missing in the statutory code, the transmitter output power of a repeater is limited to 50 Watts, but there is no limit to ERP. If you build/buy a +20dbg directional antenna, you're able to get close to 5,000 watts ERP. With enough elevation, you should be able to talk to someone in Texas from Washington, DC.

The furthest I ever got a 800mw WiFi link was 17 miles. You need great, high gain directional antennas, but its inexpensive and supports a but of encryption methods.