PACNWComms

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.

The aluminum tape idea is great. I have experienced many magnet mounts being thrown away before anyone had a look under that mylar. In Hawaii I took some off and saw that every mount had the center conductor corroded off underneath. I ended up re-soldering them and putting them back into service. Well, at least the ones that were not too corroded apart in other areas as well. These were mostly Laird brand. A co-worker used gutter tape (tar and foil based) available at the big box home improvement store across the street from Pier 34 in Honolulu.

This whole scenario played out for me recently. My employer has Aux Communications Service radio stations spread across the country. Everett, WA wanted money to buy a new Icom IC-7851 HF/50 MHz transceiver at around $13k. Because their two Yaesu FT-900A radios did not function. I had one of my radio technicians in Seattle check the Yaesu's out, and one needed the RF Gain knob cleaned with DeoxIt, while the other needed a new potentiometer that maybe cost $20 plus technician time in pay. These ACS stations are essentially corporate sponsored hobbyists that bring their amateur radio mindset to the equation. Not willing to repair an older radio, but wanting to spend a lot more corporate money on their hobby when they can get it to go through the bean counters (or under their "radar"). $13k versus some repair work. Now, would they have tried this had it been their own money, I have witnessed that as well. A co-worker of mine bought one of those Icom PCR-1000 computer controlled receivers. But, Icom ran ads that mentioned that if you wanted the world map paint job on the outer case, to contact them direct, and the cost would be $10k. Icom had several people that paid that price for a custom paint job on a $500 receiver. I bought the standard black cased unit and still use it to this day, even though SDR USB receivers are my go-to now.

Something else I "need" to have. I also wish more radios could be had with a handheld remote control head like this as well. Thank you for posting the link, I may have to spend some money myself.

Working for a local AuxComm/Emcomm type of organization, I still bring out my Part-90 Motorola Astro Spectra series repeater at times. It is the briefcase/suitcase style that has held up well for portable use. Great unit that could be had fairly cheap when I bought it, but now see them creeping up in price online once again as interest in GMRS grows (queue the Part-95/90 argument). Another option are the GR series desktop repeaters that I have been seeing re-tooled for current use with newer radios replacing the Radius based ones. These appear to be used often for CERT, but they are owned operated by individuals, so GMRS license holders use them with their call sign.

In the Pacific Northwest, pretty much every major city has GMRS repeaters, often linked via Internet, or some amateur group with a UHF repeater in use. UHF is virtually saturated, and 900 MHz ISM band radios even proliferated for a while to get away from the FRS/GMRS and commercial UHF crowd. It often hampers or assists in my testing of Radio over Internet Protocol kits I build for my employer, to be sent around the country to link sites to a "Global Security Operations Center" in a central location. Having amateur, GMRS and commercial licenses means that I am on several forums, to include this one. This forum has a nice welcome feel to it, but also some of the same issues other sites have.....one upmanship, and sometimes outright arguments, but also a great deal of information from people that actually use their equipment. In my own experience, I would rather see pictures posted o people using their gear, posting to forums, making contact with other users. On that note, local GMRS community and forums like this help a lot. Especially after the FCC changes to GMRS in 2017, more people have become licensed (and not having to take a test probably helps with this). The fact that an entire family can use the same call sign, cost of license (now anyway, I paid $70), and being valid for ten years, means GMRS and my local community has grown its footprint a bit. I agree that GMRS appears to be a middle ground between the chaos with AM CB and amateur radio, with a bit more inclusivity in forums and users within the community. A much larger radio related site I frequent often results in arguments about how some commercial gear should be set up, HAM radio "police" dictating the legality of everything, and an attitude that if you do not know as much as someone else, you should stay away. It should also be noted that many communities that have Community Emergency Response Teams (CERT), often begin their training with blister pack FRS/GMRS radios (pre-2017 style radios), which was a great introduction to radio use in emergencies and within their respective communities.

No never tried that in Florida, as I did not know of any foreign elements there at the time that crossed my path. But, I did monitor foreign military emergency medical organizations at Volk Field Wisconsin doing exactly what you describe. Huge exercise with medical units from all over the world, and needing lots of radio and satcom support. Many of us saw it as an emissions intelligence collection exercise, at least for us technical types.

Be careful, you might start using radios and then end up with an expensive hobby, then a passion, and next a career. Could be a good thing, and with a shortage of radio technicians and engineers, can be very lucrative if you really get into it. In Florida, it is also interesting to many to monitor the maritime VHF channels and vessel traffic. Tampa, you have a lot going on there, so a scanner and monitoring the local radio nets (GMRS and others) might get interesting. Like others have said, starting with a GMRs radios might be a cheap and fun solutions at first. Even a blister pack pair of radios from a big box store can yield a lot of listening in your area. During my last trip to Florida, and to Busch Gardens, Universal Studios , and Avon Park Bomb range, there was a lot of FRS/GMRS usage with families and people moving about. I was there for the military's and while all of that is encrypted P25 comms, everything else was not encrypted. AM aviation traffic allowed for listening of aircraft and FM FRS was in use all over the place. I recall hearing some people using them to communicated where they were in orange orchards and when trucks needed to be switched out, being full of picked oranges.

Yes, range will definitely help. In a previous life, I used VHF comms for oil spill cleanup operations, then UHF was for a "command net" which was slightly shorter range, not FRS/GMRS but there were many that brought their own radios that were FRS/GMRS (pre-2017 changes). I would only like to see FRS/GMRS compatible unit as it would augment what I already have, lots of Garmin Rino's. Thank you for sharing the links, I may have to save my pennies for more toys to use with my other toys.

If they add or even replace MURS with UHF FRS/GMRS, I will buy these for sure. I do have stock in Garmin though, as I own a lot of their products, and have for a long time. The Rino series radios are awesome! I am not even scared off with the $2k price tag for the power switch and 10" display package. I like that they are making products like this. And OP, thank you for sharing the links.

Yes, these ads make it look like I actually have a social life. (I get similar ads to this, minus the USB adapter).

If it isn't swearing and racial slurs, it is who is smarter, has better radios, antenna's, cars whatever. This happens on every type of medium. "Feeding" them often makes the situation worse in the long run. In southern California there are amateur types that even throw out their call signs bashing certain people, using profanity, and trying to get a rise out of other users. so much so, it is almost a containment frequency for those users. Never ceases to amaze me, but on my own network, have a radio ID and a logging recorder that helps keep people honest.

In my case a GMRS license allows me to give a cheap and useful radio to all family members, including those that do not wish to study for an amateur license. GMRS also has longer range due to higher output power than the 900 MHz ISM band Motorola frequency hoppers we also commonly use. I have also owned many Garmin Rino GPS/FRS/GMRS radios, which made this decision easy. UHF in my corner of the country is saturated with users; commercial, public safety, amateur and GMRS. This drove me to initially use the ISM band Motorola radios (DTR410/550/650) series. But with much of the national parks also monitoring GMRS for lost hikers, I expanded my use from ISM for voice comms and Garmin Rino's for location and the map that can show other users in my group, to going legit on the GMRS license and getting newer GMRS gear, to augment voice communications. Now, if only Garmin and Motorola would team up and make a 900 MHz ISM / UHF GMRS band radio with GPS and mapping on the screen, I would buy a few of those for sure. Amateur is more of an added option now for me, I work for a company that uses amateur radio to augment public safety radio networks and integrates amateur volunteers when they are willing to get FEMA ICS training. AuxComm and EmComm elements sometimes work, if the ego's are kept in check. I will still use amateur radio, but GMRs is more useful, and more people seem to get repeaters up to grow the local networks, maybe to our detriment.

I had a lot of trouble with APX8000 radios until I was made aware of this setting. Thank you for sharing as this is a great reminder for battery issues and types used on specific models of radio gear.

Grainger had stock on hand, while Motorola often takes six months to a year to produce and ship batteries, so the thought was that if they were sitting on stock the price was less of an issue. That site got burned in the overall situation, but until Motorola gets more product shipped, I myself am sitting on several hundred Motorola radios that can't be fielded until I get batteries for them (APX8000/6000/4000 series batteries and chargers right now, with a due in date of May 2023).