PACNWComms

Glad you have the right person....just now seeing this. I am in WA State, but often went to Alaska for the oil industry. My solar repeaters were for use on buoys and for oil spill response. Now, I manage radio networks for a private corporation with fire departments spread across the United States......taking much of my time right now as we are upgrading everyone to APX6000XE and APX8000XE handhelds, lots of work.

In my area, everyone seems to want to look like they "overland" but never even leave the pavement. I have even noticed the CB radio crowd mount two antennas, one on each side of their lifted Jeep or truck, but not even have a radio connected, as it looks cool. I show up with my old Blazer and a Phantom Antennex antenna, and they wonder if I even have any radio gear installed (helps with some of the hiking trail parking lot thieves too). Advertising cool gear in your rig may look cool, but does it work....some times yes, and sometimes no. I am amazed at Midlands marketing though, they are filling a niche for sure. But for those that know what I use, I'm just the "Motorolian Empire Warlord"....another person's words. (That does sound cool, I must admit). Whatever you use, make sure it works well, and is installed well (grounded, adequate power, less bends in low loss coax, good antenna), and you will be far ahead of many that just buy off of websites and plug things in.

Car I used to have, with an Antennex Phantom UHF antenna on the trunk, right next to a whisker VHF antenna. Less C pillar in the way, but still a metal ground plane, and managed to get about 12 miles range or so, depending on terrain. If you get that antenna up on your roof, picture looked like a possible camping awning up there, above that, you should get pretty good range out of that Midland antenna. A previous poster has a YouTube video comparing that Midland antenna with another similar style....the Midland is not bad for what it is. Just get it higher, and less obstructed.

My joking answer is, don't do it! Unless you want a hobby to become an obsession, profession, side gig, take over your life, etc. This leads to taking electronics classes, engineering school, geek related jobs, and taking over your life in some way shape or form. In all honesty, I have recently used FRS, GMRS and amateur radio to recruit future radio technicians, as this is a field that is not going away, and IT departments may only be able to take over some of the network connectivity aspects of larger radio systems.....but it can lead to a very lucrative hobby/career. The youngest technician I work with is 38 years old, came from Icom America, and will probably inherit an enterprise (nationwide) Motorola based radio network. Which started by him getting his amateur radio license as a teenager. (This was before the recent FRS/GMRS changes that took place in 2017, otherwise I would recommend starting with FRS and then GMRS - no test to take). Find a radio club, take the test, learn as much as possible (by doing as much as possible within time/budget) and one day it may pay the bills, fund the hobby/obsession.

Thank you WRKC935 for explaining vertical separation as well. Many get caught up on horizontal separation of antennas, with zero mention of vertical being an option and often used by commercial users on radio towers. For the OP, just get a duplexer, they are fairly cheap now and work better than two antennas, coax, and figuring out where to place them. Keep it simple and you will get better coverage/service with less maintenance and complexity as a result.

I still use two of these as Motorola radio programming computers. One had been placed on my boat, when I had one, for coastal navigation and Motorola related uses. A laptop replaced that use case on the boat though for a while. Great old school Motorola computers. The touch screens still work on mine, but one has the orange/Emergency button broken on top. Some firefighter tried to JBWeld it back and it became a programming computer at that point. Mine run WindowsXP, but still useful for what they are.

Just saw this on another radio related forum. Anything is better than nothing, as long as it is effective communications when it is needed. Seems like this topic goes around every few months. In the Olympic National Forest in Washington State for example, Channel 1 FRS with no tones is monitored and mentioned as often as possible. I know some military and Coast Guard helicopter crews still carry issued Garmin Rino radio/GPS units for this reason. Then there are those that do not realize that Channel 1 may not be the same on every radio (older FRS radios, and those by different manufacturers), or that post-2017 radios should have a standard channel/frequency plan. With cheaper radios proliferating, that require programming, this can confuse many people. I still carry my own Garmin Rino's when out and about, no matter which state I am in, as it does seem to be beneficial....and there always seems to be someone on FRS, even in remote areas. (I also use a Motorola XPR7550e and Anytone 878 variant as well).

Yes, although the Thales AN/PRC-148 and Harris AN/PRC-152 are the very early models. The Harris lacks the GPS module while the Thales lacks the dual RF module. My cost was just under $6k for those four radios total, while retail it should have been closer to about $24k. The Harris XG-100P was only $1200 as an IWCE pre-release sample. That included RPM12 and programming cable as well. Great deal I could not pass up. I still use the radio for amateur use mostly, and on corporate P25 Phase I for testing.

Great thread. I have dealt with Motorola, Thales, and Harris for a long while, and ended up working with Harris for field testing both the military AN/PRC-152 series and the XG-100P Unity radio for various agencies (my personal collection shown in the attached picture). Harris brought a multi-band radio with GPS to the table first, but then did not support it well when the sales did not take off (who could afford the XG-100P). In preparation for the 2009 Police and Fire Games, and Later the 2010 Olympic Games in Canada, many fire and police elements in northern Washington State were provided grant money for XG-100P/M radios. I bought a demo unit while working for the oil industry, being an intrinsically safe radio that allowed me to carry one radio instead of three (VHF,UHF and 7/800 MHz). However, I only have RPM12, so know I am missing out on some newer features. Compared to the military Motorola APX7000 (dual band I was issued), the Unity was a great radio. It still is for me now, but is heavy and lacks some refinement of newer Harris radio. They still come up on auction sites and used radio vendor sites for $800-1200 often though. There are people I know that use them for bragging rights as well, for those that want to flex on their radio geek friends. As mentioned by others the "mission plans" on the XG-100P are much like those on the true military AN/PRC-152 as well. Harris makes a great radio, but the price also reflects that. Now, if I could only buy AN/PRC-152's without dealing with export models (type of encryption or lack thereof) as having AM and FM (satcom, HPW and other military specific waveforms) in the same radio in very convenient, but comes at a huge cost many hobbyist can't afford. But, I see that like Motorola making Trbo DMR and P25 TDMA in the same radio, only a wish that may never happen, or will only happen a huge cost.

I admit to using: a Motorola CDM1550LS+ mobile, a XTS2500 handheld, and a XPR7550e handheld, adding in GMRS to make them more useful to me.

I started with an amateur license, as it helped when I was working interop with local Community Emergency Response Teams (CERT) and emergency communications auxiliary organizations while in the Air National Guard. Then came commercial licenses for emergency comms within the oil industry.....which was needed as I operated radio, satcom and dispatch gear on a fleet of ships that also had helipads on them. Aviation and marine radios. Last was my GMRS license, after the changes of 2017, and the proliferation of GMRs radios across the United States. The amateur license also allowed for scanners in vehicles, at least justification in states that do not otherwise allow for that. Covering bases, it is good to have both commercial and amateur licenses, especially if you have Part 90 gear in use in vehicles or vessels. In some areas, public safety and in my own experience Transportation Security Administration (TSA), they are also at railways stations, ports/piers and many oil transfer station, tend to get a huge ego if anyone else is using high end commercial gear near them. Things go easier if you can produce licenses in secure areas that fall under MARSEC levels for example. XTS5000's are great radios, used many of them while in government service.....although that is also why I would probably not buy one myself, I know how many of them were treated...lol.

Great thread, and thank you all for sharing. I also use many DTR410's as well as some DTR550/650 radios and always keep a watch out for compatible models that are cheap, but this has served as a warning "buyer beware". I like the range and privacy options of the DTR series radios and often see DLR series radios available for sale, but do often wonder on the reason they are being sold so cheaply. Have been describing to co-workers on global projects how the Motorola XPR7550e is the XiR8668 in Asia, and the DM4xxx series in Europe and how they differ even though they look the same. Then there is CPS.....another night mare at times.

Correct, 8300 analog OR digital, and 8400 analog AND digital. For those that may have a Motorola XPR8300 repeater, there are still many radio shops sitting on Entitlement ID's for adding that AND function to make a 8300 into a 8400 for a reasonable price too. Does not apply to GMRS, but still something to think about. Takes more rack units of space than the newer SLR5700/8000 (50W/100W) Motorola repeaters, but can be found at a lot lower price on the slightly used market. Places like SunnyComm sometimes even have a duplexer mounted to the top of some of theirs for around $1200 or so for UHF XPR8300's.

1 to 2 miles....do not even worry about any of this. Coil up the slack coax and secure it, leave the antenna where it is (do not worry about grounding), you will be fine. Having a SWR of 1:1.2 is great.

Always good advice. Have found some very nice test equipment (HP8920, Bird wattmeters, and antenna analyzers) cheap at hamfests. Also vintage tube type radios....although I would say that is a niche area of the hobby now. I always see something I never even heard of at local radio club meetings and vendor tables.

Another issue is that the more you are scanning, the less you are listening. If you know there is a local repeater, monitor those frequencies. Scanning the entire GMRS channel list (only option for some radios [scan ON/OFF]), means it may miss short transmissions. Many radios allow you to make Scan Lists where selected channels/frequencies can be scanned at a time. This may help too, scanning a few channels at a time.

I went back into the gallery and found one of my pictures, showing antennas on my old Pontiac. I had a Sirius satellite radio antenna, a UHF Antennex Phantom antenna, and then a whisker style VHF antenna mounted on the right side of the trunk lip. Original configuration was spaced out, but too many people thought it was a cop car (local PD's bought Pontiac's for their detective vehicles), and I was even pulled over a few times to find out how they could get the shorter antennas like mine. The local radio shop put larger antennas on those detective vehicles and they were not very discrete. Once I put all the antennas next to one another, people just thought it was the factory configuration and I never had anyone wonder (at least to me) after that. Worked well with a VHF and a UHF Vertex VX-3200 stack mounted in the console. It was nice having enough room to mount mobile radios in the dash, making them look like part of the dash. I miss that car.

If a small steel baking sheet can work, it is worth a try. That gap is not going to make much difference for UHF......you get up into SHF and then it will. Just mount the antenna with some steel under it and go on with life. More sheet metal and more uniform shape under the antenna will be better. I had an older Antennex "Phantom" antenna (probably where they get the "ghost" name from) the same size and shape mounted to the corner of a 2004 Pontiac Grand Prix trunk for about 14 years, everyone said that it would never work for GMRS because it was not in the center of the roof, center of the trunk, and the car fender sloped down to one side. I was able to get 10-12 miles easily with that small antenna, and often times more if I was on top of a hill. Even being on the trunk lip rather than the roof did not impact very much. The advantage of this type of antenna is that they do not get ripped off by car washes (no coil to grab), they look discrete and a lot like some vehicle antennas now, and many are sensitive to the electric and magnetic field that gives you a little gain (just stay away from the soup can VHF version of these antennas that are very narrow band and must be tuned). Ideal would be in the center of the steel roof, but barring that, just being on top of the roof will be fine. A good test would be a steel baking sheet mounted as you want, 8" off the roof to see how it works. Testing is always a good thing before mounting something more permanent. When finished show pictures and results here too, might help someone else.

+1 on slightly used Motorola XPR8300/8400 repeaters. These can often be had from Sunny Communications with a duplexer for a very reasonable price. They also have the Aeroflex/Viavi test equipment to make sure they work before selling them.

I had great luck with attic mounted antennas, until I replaced the old roof with a metal one of course Then metal foil faced insulation went into place. As for my VHF/UHF/7/800 MHz radio antennas, they all went to metal brackets on an 8 foot high fence. Even with lower height, but shorter coax runs (about 12 foot shorter on RG-58, and about 8 feet less height, I did not notice my range decrease to anything I spoke to via radio. In my case going from the attic to a fence was not a problem. What I miss though is the discretion. Nobody even knew I was into radio when everything was in the attic. I have only had one dog walking passerby ask about the antenna (I think he only saw one of them [Laird 1/4 style on NMO magnet mounts]), but it was better when nothing could be seen from outside the house. Being high on a hill I averaged about 17 miles LOS in VHF, 14-15 for UHF and roughly 12 7/800 MHz with attic mounted antennas. I seem to be getting the same now on the fence post.

This comes up often it seems. Here in my part of the Pacific Northwest, Channel 1 and CSQ seems to be common for calling and emergencies. Supposedly this is also the case in the Olympic Rain Forest on the peninsula of Washington State as well? Some Coast Guard helicopters were issued Garmin Rino radios to monitor for lost hikers in Sequim and Port Angeles areas as well, and FRS Channel 1 is often cited. As for GMRS channels or which is calling or emergency I do not know.