gortex2

In my years of SAR we have had more finds from hunters or hikers on channel 1 than any other channel. For that reason the channel is in all our command posts as well as hand helds for rx.

Another control arm mount on a TJ ! Friday we had a front mount rip from the frame on Red Bird as well. Saturday we had an other TJ rear control arm mount rip of just at the top of Indian Creek before the meadow for lunch. Luckily he was able to follow the trail out during lunch and came back in to ride with another. How did you like the dozer tail gunner on Red Bird. Still amazed at how he jammed that 12v inside those fenders. I know in the end at least 3 TJ's broke mounts. 2 I know were fromn Ohio not sure the third. Rolled on Jeep as well on another trail. All in all awesome time as usual there. Just picked our 5 for next year. 4 on east coast and one on west coast. Oh and picked up a new JLU on the Friday before cumberlands...Now 3 jeep family. JK, JT, JL

I still have customers who do this yearly on subscribers. Now its more called a PM but same concept. Put on the monitor verify TX, RX and other functions meet specs then out the door it goes. When I was with the radio shop the old guys called it "FCC'd" as well. I think there are probably less of us that know that term than folks who know it now....

The 221 has agreat receiver but its still 2 mobiles in a box. It all depends on the use case. I have used the 221 as well as other radios for repeaters in a rack with real duplexers and not flat pack units. But I have used the Retevis as its simple quick and portable.

I have to laugh. Guys asks for a commercial radio and ther are multiple posts telling him a CCR is better. Many of us use commerical gear. Many reasons for that. All my radios allow FPP, but I dont know the last time I had to change a frequency in them. If you plan ahead its fine. There is only 3 ham repeaters in my county and the RACES team has a handful of simplex channels. As lscott mentioned Kenwood is a good choise as is Motorola. The XPR and XTS series are decent radios with over 100 channels.

Half of what is on this forum is not gmrs related but people keep posting...

Rugged Radio makes a roll bar mount. Thats what I used on our gold cart originally. I since moved it to our sxs utility vehicle. Is it ideal. No. does it talk to the house and other radios on the farm. https://www.ruggedradios.com/products/antenna-bar-mount-for-horizontal-bar They also sell a disc you can mount under it but I've not needed it in my application.

www.mygmrs.com

Great weekend in Uhwarrie. Wife wheeled most of the event but I got some wheel itme on Wednesday and Thursday before the event. Need to pressure wash, nut, bolt fluid check this weekend then off to Cumberlands JJ the following weekend. Also won the free Jamboree this weekend for next year so probably do 5 of them.

Many on this site talk bad about Midland but for the KISS method the radios are solid. I run them in all my vehicles for the simple fact of pick channel talk. But 99% of my traffic is simplex or on my own repeater. No need to be changing stuff pretty much ever. All my vehicles also have the APX8500 so if I need special stuff thats what I use. Last fall I ordered the MXT115 for the wifes Kubota UTV for the same. She uses it on the farm and just needs to talk. And love them or hate them Midland has been building GMRS radio before many users on this site were born

Yup. No rules you have to link. I know of many DMR sites that are standalone repeaters. My P25 stuff is the same way.

I've not been to Oak Ridge yet but was told it was private property. Dixie is at Windrock again this year. Trailfest in spring was at Colamont OHV Park. Think its moving to central TN next year. Uhwarrie is a mix of public (Forest) and private locations, which I like. Looks like it may be wet this weekend but at least my softop doesn't leak on the new JK yet...

What ? APRS is a HAM thing. Its not commercial and not GMRS. GMRS is UHF. On top of that what makes APRS what it is is the thousands of digi's, Igates and servers out there for the ham world. Even when we run sar events and switch to anther ham frequency we have huge holes in coverage and only use it locally to our command post. The majic in APRs is the infastructure thats been built for 25+ years. Our first digi went up in 1995 and was one of the first in the state. People get on here and complain about no good GMRS repeaters in their are already. How about we leave services alone and whats therei s there.

Disagree. GMRS was never a "homie chat". The original intent was family communications and each family had its own repeater. I've explained in the past our repeater was a xstal repeater as were our first Midland mobiles. Back then you paid a radio shoop to do all the work and it really wasnt cheap. Over the year GMRS has gotten popular and blown up as of late. Some folks feel repeaters should be available all over so they can talk on them like ham radio does. My family repeater (btw same frequency since my dad got it in the late 70's) is for my family. I probably use simplex way more than repeaters. Mostly on jeep trips and vacations. For me its a tool to talk between cars, jeeps about traffic, restroom breaks etc. If my parents call on the repeater I anser but its rarely used. As others have I have a ton of ham stuff I can use as well as public safety and business band stuff. So in the end I use GMRS for what I've used it for for decades.

Completely missed that on the calendar.SFWDA Dixie Run is this weekend at Windrock and hope to be there, then head to Uhwarrie for UhwarrieJJ next weekend.

So oehter things to note is majority of the time a -3 is a Digipeater. Minea re all -3 or -13 a I have multiuple for SAR stuff. Our SAR team actually maintains a few as well. We have used APRS for sar for almost 20 years. Back then it was an HT with a TNC and a GPS all in our back pack.Over the years we have changd stuff and tried various types of devises. Right now the go to it the FTM mobiles and portables from Yaseu. In the past the Kenwood TMD700/TMD710 mobile was king. We do use some HT's with android cell phones (aprs droid) for trackers. Mostly this stuff is used for "PR events, standbys'" such as foot race operations and other stuff in the woods. Our commandp ost has an FTM so from our mapping system we can track our CP as well as its ability to pick up units when out of cellular areas.

As said to each there own. I use P25 on ham stuff pretty much all the time. Other than APRS you most likely wont here me on any analog stuff.

Just remember if you take on the battle with HOA/Local Govt it could casue other issues later on as sometimes "your the one". I'll share my experience. I moved into a town near an airport. I was actually less than 1 mile from a large runway. There was a town ordinace that any tower over 25' needed permits. I applied and was immediatly told it was denied as they had something in the zoning about a distance from airport. As I was doing work for the airport I asked a FAA tech and he guided me to a form to fill out for FAA approval. I filled and send form in. Week later I had an approval letter. Took to town and they approved my permit. It was a $100 then. I paid permit and followed the rules. Inspector checked hole, checked concrete and also did final after it was up. All of it went smooth and efficiently. I never pulled my ham ticket card and never had to. Sadly it was only up for 6 months before I had to move and pulled it down. County I'm in now doesn't even inspect electric services so i went to the other extreme.

Must be your area. We were in TN for a jeep event and ended up with over 30 for the 2 days we were there. All are ina bin at home now. I dont leave them in the jeeps.

@Northcutt114 exactly what @nokones stated. When I loose LTE/5G coveraage I need another means of data for radios and computers. I ues it alot on the east coast. At least once a week right now. Contrary to popular belief there is alot of places in the US still not covered by cell sites. Google Quiet Zone for one....

The picture didn't show the 2 GPS Pucks either. So in that truck I had 4 APX8500 multiband radios, 1 Sierra Wireless LTE Modem and a Lowband radio. So technically 5 radios. My new truck has the same radios but have glass mount wifi, LTE and GPS antennas due to spacing on the roof. Waiting on a new cap and will have my Starrlink and some other antennas on that and most likely move my lowband to a ball mount. What reason. Beacuse I can. . But in reality they are for my job. In my volunteer life we run multiple radios for SAR (VHF, UHF, 700/800) and can have up to 4 radios in an officers vehicle. Most just run a VHF and UHF. Public safety is all over on the east coast so not one radio will do all. Even our multibands are nice but if dispatch is calling me on UHF trunking I can't hear a user on VHF calling command. So multiband only gives us the ability to have more options. Doesn't fix the need of a tool for each job.

Mine were all Motorola mounts. I use Laird/Larsen on all my SAR vehicles. Any decent NMO installed correctly will last for years. I have vehicles from 2008 with the same NMO in the roof still in use.

My solution was a NMO mounts thru the roof. Had 6 on my 2018.

Line A is still a thing. What has changed is GMRS frequencies are no longer part of the restrictions. I still have multiple FCC frequencies for public safety being held up in Canda.

I foget your in Maine ? Where abouts ?