WRPE755

I know this is an old thread, but just in case someone is still reading it: - there are a LOT of MURS radios out there now. Radioddity has a good one that goes for around $30 - as with any 2 watt vhf radio, any discussion of range is meaningless. The range of a MURS HT is somewhere between 1/10 of a mile and 10-12 miles. It all depends on a multitude of factors. But my personal experience is that the rubber ducky antennas are good for about 1-2 miles over water, up 3 miles with external mag mount antennas. - being able to use external mag mount antennas makes MURS far better than FRS when it comes to vehicle to vehicle communication. It is great for maintaining group comms when traveling in a “pack”.

I think that an FRS radio might serve your needs just as well as a GMRS radio. I use several Midland and Retevis water proof FRS radios when I take groups out on river and hiking trips, and they are usually good for a mile or so. They have proven to be rugged and “kid proof”. They aren’t the cheapest radios on the market, but they have served me well. They would work well on a bike, as well. I have gotten soaked on more than a few rides. Water proof is good! They might be over-kill for casual use, so you might want to look at a Retevis 49 or something similar. Or you can always check out MURS radios. I like their ability to use mag mount antennas when using them for car-to- car communications. For short range work either would be just fine.

I am lucky enough to have several GMRS repeaters in the Harrisburg PA area, and at least one very active GMRS club. Plus I live near a major highways, and can hear people talking car-to-car as they pass by heading to New York. I even offer advice and help if they want it (“does anybody know what river we just went over? It must be a mile wide!” and “Where are we? What happened to I-83?” I hear those a lot). There is plenty of GMRS traffic on my radios. Having said that, I don’t think GMRS is necessarily the best system for just meeting and chatting with people. Ham radios are better for that (as others have mentioned) due to their greater numbers. One of the main reasons for getting a ham license is to make as many new contacts as possible (at least that’s what my Ham friends do!) On the other hand one of the main reasons for going with GMRS is that the license covers the whole family. If the cell phones and power go out due to flooding or snow storms I can still communicate with my family members in the area, either on simplex or via a conveniently located repeater with emergency back up power located on a nearby ridge top. And the GMRS radios make it easy to stay in contact when traveling, hiking, and kayaking. No one in my family is going to get a ham license, but they are more than willing to use a GMRS radio and my call sign when it suits them! IMHO, Ham radios are (in most places) best if you want to talk to people in general. GMRS is best (in most places) for communicating with specific individuals.

There is a rather active Broadnet GMRS Repeater System that is centered in the New York City area that I listen to on Zello. There are 22 active on that Zello node, and there must be more than that listening on their radios. Just introduce yourself and see if anyone answers. Or just listen and see what you can hear. https://broadnetgmrs.net/

It wasn’t quite that simple. First I went into the CSP and set both the A and B channels up to be in channel mode, but when I loaded the data back into the radio the changes didn’t take, and B was still in VFO mode. I then used the function button (after making channel B the main channel) to go through the menus, and B was indeed supposed to be in channel mode. I set it to frequency mode and then back to channel mode, and voila! It came up in channel mode. Weird, but whatever. You have to expect some glitches when working with an inexpensive radio with lousy documentation. Good radio, though!

Din’t read this if you aren’t a rookie! I don’t want to be sued for boring anyone to death! I have noted that there are a lot of people like me out there. I have been using GMRS HTs for a couple of years, but am now getting a bit more into the hobby. For those other newbies out there, this is an account of setting up my DB-20g. The physical set up was easy. I have a mag mount antenna outside my window, so I hooked it up to the radio. Next I plugged the radio into my Jackery power station. Rather to my surprise it started right up. I then tested it by transmitting on one of my HTs. The radio received just fine. But when I tried to transmit nothing happened. Sigh. It came with CTSS codes installed on all channels. No problem. I booted my computer and downloaded the CPS. After unzipping the files I hooked up the included programming cable. Once again, everything worked fine. The software loaded and ran, no problems, and it detected the correct com port. Having used CHIRP, the software wasn’t hard to figure out. Let’s face it: GMRS makes it easy. I set up my preferences, programmed in my local repeaters of choice, and wrote it all to the radio. No issues. I put the mic back on and asked for a radio check on my favorite repeater, located 25-30 miles away. I got a report back right away. Not bad for a 15 watt radio and a cheap dual band mag mount antenna! Everything was nice and clear. All in all, a very easy install. Far easier than I expected. So now I need to set up my usual receive only frequencies: Marine VHF, MURS, several local ham repeaters. And figure out how to set up channel B! The manual is now 27 pages, and generally useful, but I can’t figure out how to set channel B up. Oh well, something to work on! I would like to thank all of those who recommended the DB20g to me. It certainly does what I need it to do. It used very little power, and runs cool to the touch. I like that I can choose any of the repeater frequencies I want, unlike my HTs, which only let me choose from banks of frequencies. I wish that CHIRP worked with it, as inputting all of the programming data was a minor annoyance, but other than that I am happy with my new radio.

Thanks, folks. I appreciate the advice. I will probably send it back and get the DB20. I was trying to choose between the two anyway. Sounds like I chose “poorly”. No big deal. It is easily rectified!

TOM47, if you don’t mind, what issues did you have? I only have 30 days to return it, and it would be nice to know what to look for!

I just ordered a Radioddity DB25g off of Amazon, and after doing so started hearing about a batch of bad units, which do not allow for the programming of addition repeater channels. Has anyone noted or heard of such issues? According to reviews one is supposed to be able additional repeater channels (yes, I know that just means differing CTSS codes, not actual channels) up to the limit of open memory slots, which total 200. This capability is why I ordered the radio!

I know this is a relatively old thread, but I believe that the F150 is made out of aluminum, so a mag mount antenna would be problematic.

Faced with the same issues I bought a pair of Retevis RB26s. They are simple radios. No screen, no keypad. You turn a knob for in/off/volume and there is a rocker switch on the side for channels. Basically you tell the user what channel to keep it on and that’s it. Only the basic GMRS channels and 8 repeater channels, and they have to be programmed via computer (they come with codes in every channel ?. They use the usual k type programming cable, not included) and they are only 3 watts (although they seem to have the same range as my 5 watt HTs), and the antenna is not replaceable (no hex screw) but the battery lasts all day, and they are dead simple to use. And they can be inexpensive. I bought mine for less than $20 each.

I know you are not looking for a base station, but I have a $19 Midland mag mount antenna that I use with my UV9G. At home I have it going out through a window onto a metal plate. In the car I just stick it on top of my car. A simple $2 adapter makes for an easy connection. The antenna makes quite a difference when it comes to range: repeaters that my regular antenna can not touch are easy with the mag mount. A cheap radio plus a cheap antenna = a base station, a mobile station, and a still usable HT. That’s a lot of utility for just a little bit of cash. i haven’t had any fitment troubles with the three antennas I have tried out, but I have heard that there can be issues. There are a couple of YouTube videos out there and the “sandpaper around a pencil” approach looks like a winner.

As a GMRS newbie it took a while to get my head around repeaters. In GMRS they are pretty easy to set up, as all you really need to know (in general) is the frequency and the tone(s). Using Chirp to program my radios helped me to visualize everything far more clearly. BTW, I have a UV9g as well. Love it so far!

I am not certain that we need a travel channel. Most of the tasks we used to use CBs for (traffic checks, speed traps, open gas stations, calling for emergency assistance, etc) are performed far more efficiently by our cell phones. GMRS is fantastic when traveling with a group of other cars, and I enjoy being able to gab with people on our local repeaters, but CBs died because they no longer filled a need. I don’t see how GMRS radios are any different in that regard. Having said that I still scan through the channels while driving. I hear plenty of other people talking while on the road, so perhaps I am just missing something!

How are you trying to program the repeater? Through the key pad or via computer. Using the computer is a lot easier, at least for me!