PACNWComms

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).

I only fly quad-copters for pleasure, and to get video and pictures of the area immediately around me. For me, if it becomes work, then the pleasure often fades very quickly. I was about to get into the Part 107, but work intervened. One of my radio warehouses became a swarming drone test building. Large fans were installed, curtains to contain parts of the building hung, and the sprinkler system was re-tooled to allow it to "rain" when wanted in various parts of the building. This is a three story building that looks like an Amazon fulfillment center (there are several in the area, and I think that was part of the idea [security through obscurity]). Great video by the way. Great to see yours following you down the road.Great video quality and stability.

Welcome OP, and glad to see others learn new things radio related. As for troublemakers, we are probably all in that list somewhere at some time, to include here in online forums. You will find a lot of information along with opinion, just look into the source a bit and you will figure out whom to trust. Good luck in here and with radio, whether that be amateur, GMRS, or CB (US AM [ok now also FM] 1970's "Convoy" style).

I voted "No" as having a dual band VHF/UHF antenna on the corner of my vehicles, I get lots of notice from people that are either amateur and/or GMRS radio users at many stop lights. The antenna is enough of a "beacon" and all interactions have been cordial so far. Very different from when I drive my plain white Chevy Tahoe work vehicle, that looks way too much like an un-marked State Patrol vehicle at times. Everyone slows down, gets out of my way, as the antenna configuration is very similar. So is the winch mount on the front bumper. I ask for company logos on the side doors often, and my employer owns the vehicles (they are not leased which could be a valid excuse for some), as corporate does not wish to "junk up" company vehicles with stickers.

I know some companies within the oil industry that tried to go cheaper, buying Hytera radios instead of Motorola DMR gear, and now they can't send broken radios in for repair, nor purchase replacements from Hytera. In recent conversations with some of my former co-workers in that industry, they even bought some of the Hikvision IP cameras that are also banned in this FCC release as well. Hikvision cameras often get rebranded as many other vendor's product, which makes them harder to identify unless you have the product in hand to look deeper.

Note, Grainger is making this right, as they should have checked these batteries as well before they were sold. IMPRES batteries are "smart" batteries that work with "smart" IMPRES style chargers, but when every battery has the same chip and serial number, it confuses the charger, hence odd charging/discharging/cycling actions taking place.

For those that enjoy using the Motorola XPR3xxx/7xxx/e series radios, here is one cautionary note. I had a group that wanted to buy new Motorola batteries but did not like the price or the delivery time, about 3-5 months wait to get them. So, instead they purchased two dozen batteries, what they thought were Motorola PMNN4409AR 7.4V Lithium-Ion batteries. They purchased these through Grainger, as someone in the group had a construction company and an account with them. Knowing that I often use a XPR7550e radio for GMRS, and working with radios for years, they asked me why the batteries often did not take a charge. Or the charger acted odd when the batteries were placed into them (single cup Motorola IMPRES charger and 6-bank versions). Users in this group said some batteries would charge, but maybe not charge all the way the next day. This was a group that was interested in starting their own community emergency response type of team. On a whim, I asked if the serial numbers were all the same on the batteries? they said they did not recall seeing serial numbers. I told them to look closer. They gathered half of the batteries and checked them. They all had the same serial number. Luckily, the person with the Grainger account was a good customer, and they will be checking this from whomever they purchased these from as well. Motorola batteries should all have a unique serial number.

Nice. Bought a Motorola XPR7550e after using an older XPR6550 for a while, but that needed to be hex edited due to the band split. I have many other radios I could use, with an Anytone 878 Plus being one of them. The only good thing that seems to add though is VHF capability. The XPR7550e also comprises the bulk of what I often support for work, so using a 7550e for GMRS just seems natural. Nice to see others going with a high-end radio that is very selective and sensitive RF wise.

My cheapest solution in the past for me was to use two Motorola CDM-1250 mobiles, and repeater interface "cable" from online auction sites. Using cheap magnet mount antennas and placing onto a desk was a cheap solution. These then ended up getting expensive after placing everything into a Pelican case, adding in Optima deep cycle marine batteries, Comprod antennas, high end tripod mounts for the antennas, and coax.

That is an option. Although, I must admit, I am very biased again all 5xxx series Kenwood radios. I used to be an engineer within the JVC/Kenwood Group.....and my current employer has NX53xx radios as part of a confined space radio project. I prefer Motorola (or in reality Harris military) radios over Kenwood/EFJohnson/Viking with only a few exceptions for several reasons. Kenwood has tried to do too much via software in the 5xxx line of radios, and you must be very careful hardware/software wise, that you get what you want when you buy the radio. Many municipalities for example could not afford P25, but grant money only flows for P25 capable radios. So, Kenwood said they would offer P25 as an add on option at a later date. When that time came, the radios needed to be sent back for an additional hardware module, so they could then be software updated for P25 capability. Kenwood and other parts of the "Group" hired to many Microsoft software engineers that thought you could update everything like a laptop computer, and most lacked any radio, dispatch, telephony, or even amateur radio experience. Majke sure you get what you want on the "NX" path, or you may get burned, more so if you buy hundreds at a time. (Might apply or not, this is a GMRS forum after all, if you only get one or two used units at a huge discounted price).

Definitely high end and will cover VHF and UHF,.....I just received 13 of these for work. Christmas came early, along with three APX8000XE handhelds. What did not show up was batteries, single chargers, antennas, belt clips, and the six bank charger for the APX8000XE's as Motorola is making the expensive items first. My employer does not pay on purchase orders until all line items arrive, they may get paid six month's from now at this rate.

That's funny. More like me thinking out loud. Even though I maintain a large radio network, I myself rarely even carry a radio unless I am troubleshooting. Many users are firefighters with speaker mics and holsters.....which would be radiating into the thigh or waistline, great joke. I do have some paranoid security workers too, former cops that had X-band radar on their lap in previous lives.....they think everything will make them sterile.

Many of "my" portable radios used in the professional environment are issued with remote speaker mics, and belt hosters.....so the exposure of RF to the head is minimized, as the radio is further away from a user's head. To me, this means exposure levels for users that operate the radio for work and use it in that regard, police, firefighters, medics and similar users, do not get enough exposure to have FCC RF exposure limits exceeded. It is probably buried deep inside of this link's information somewhere. https://www.fcc.gov/general/radio-frequency-safety-0 However, I do also often demonstrate that there is power in handheld radios by keying up 800 MHz P25 radios near bathroom paper towel dispensers, where they then dispense paper towels when I key the radio. For office workers using UHF Trbo based radios instead, many Plantronics headsets and earpieces go "off mute" when a Trbo UHF radio is keyed near them. The user may not get a headache, but I do not recommend keying the radio for long periods of time (the Timeout Timer is set to default of 60 seconds) and show that it is a good thing to use a remote speaker mic. They do transmit more than a cell phone, and some users are still scared of those in 2022. Occupational use to me means someone who is not using it for a hobby, on a workday basis of 5/5/90 model transmit/receive/standby, five days a week, and 8-12 hours per day. Where a hobbyist may be using it a lot more, or considerably less (depending on how much into the hobby the person is).....I know a lot of people that just listen, and never talk back or radio check anyone. Those types will not get as much exposure. then you have the "rag chewers"......on the other end of the spectrum. If anyone finds out what the FCC really means on this, it would be nice to know the details, I just do not have the patience for digging.