New to GMRS Loving It So Far, Looking for Advice on Mobile Setup

[WSIK420]

Hey all,

As the title says, I’m new to GMRS, and so far, I’m loving this hobby! I only got into it about three weeks ago, but let’s be honest: I’m not made of money, so I’m trying to be smart about what to upgrade next.

That said, I think my next step is a mobile unit. I’ve been doing a lot of research and ended up finding this forum, so I wanted to share my beginner setup ideas and see what advice you all have.

I’ve been looking at the BTECH GMRS-50X2 with a programming cable. From what I understand, I probably don’t need 50 watts, since watts alone don’t get you distance — it’s more about the antenna and setup. But the radio seems to have solid reviews and a decent price point, so I’m leaning that way. Would love to hear your thoughts on it.

Now, I know the antenna is key. I really don’t want a mag-mount, so I’ve been looking into mounting one on my truck — a 2005 Chevy 2500. The problem is, I can’t seem to find a proper NMO fender bracket. Most of what I’m seeing are CB brackets with a 3/8" hole instead of NMO. I know there are clip-on styles, but I’d prefer to bolt it in for a cleaner and more secure install. I would remove the 3/8 part for the NMO-style antenna.

I found a coax cable from HYS (part number TCJ-N1) that looks interesting — the NMO connector comes apart so it can sandwich between a bracket. It’s 13 feet long, which I think might be enough if I mount the radio on top of the dash, but if I go lower (like near the center console), it might fall short. I’ve seen extension cables, but I’ve also read that more fittings = more signal loss, so I’d rather avoid them if I can.

As for the antenna itself, I’ve narrowed it down to two options:

• HYS pre-tuned antenna (B0CZL5DY4T)

• Midland MXTA26

I like both because they’re close to 3 feet tall. I daily-drive my truck, go through car washes, and hit up drive-thrus, so I don’t want an antenna that’ll be smacking everything in sight.

The specs on both seem decent. I usually haul a camper around with a convoy of friends (hoping to convince them to get GMRS licenses soon), and we often go over mountain passes and travel all over. That said, I’ve read that 3 dB antennas are better in hills, while 6 dB works better for flat areas because it flattens the signal. Would I notice the difference much as a beginner?

I’ve also been trying to wrap my head around ground planes. Since I’d likely mount the antenna near the windshield (up on the fender or cowl area), I’m not sure how much metal it will actually be over. That plastic panel under the wipers concerns me. Do I need to add anything to improve the ground field? Or would a solid hood/fender bracket be enough?

I know a pre-tuned antenna sounds great, but I’ve also read that checking SWR is important. I don’t have an SWR meter yet, and I'd rather hold off on that expense if I can. Maybe I could borrow one from someone nearby? Everyone I’ve met in the hobby so far has been super nice, so I feel like someone might be willing to help me check it.

I don’t want to waste money on low-quality stuff or end up frustrated. I’d rather spend wisely and enjoy the hobby long-term. I’d love to hear your thoughts or any suggestions you have for a good first mobile setup.

Thanks for reading, and I hope to keep learning from everyone here. Hopefully I’ll catch some of you on the air one day!

Thanks,
WSIK420

[WRTC928]

On 6/3/2025 at 8:25 AM, Majik said:

I’m running the MXTA25 ghost on a hood-hinge mount on the passenger side. Absolutely not the best location for it RF-wise, but it was the best spot for me since I wasn’t prepared to drill the cab roof. 

I’m happy with this so far. I’ve been able to get into repeaters with low watts at distance so it’s working for me, despite the non-optimal config.

Sometimes you can mess up something that works well by pursuing perfection. "Good enough" is a valid concept.

[Lscott]

22 hours ago, Majik said:

I’m running the MXTA25 ghost on a hood-hinge mount on the passenger side. Absolutely not the best location for it RF-wise, but it was the best spot for me since I wasn’t prepared to drill the cab roof. 

I picked up a no-name one at a local swap a long while back just for fun, it was really cheap. Tested it and I wasn't impressed with this sample. Likely better ones out there.

https://forums.mygmrs.com/gallery/image/428-stealth-dual-band-with-swr-scanjpg/?context=new

 

[Lscott]

13 hours ago, WRYZ926 said:

I did purchase the spring for my 2x4SR since the antenna is on my SxS.

Good idea for anybody who is going to routinely use this antenna mounted up high. I picked one up at the Hamvention last May for mine for future use. I would install it if I planed on using the antenna at some point. Right now I have my old CA-2x4MB on the ride. That monster is about 60 inches tall.

https://forums.mygmrs.com/gallery/image/471-mobile-mount-with-antenna-rear-view/?context=new

The match on it is something else. This was done when I had it on my old Jeep. It looked better than the newer CA-2x4SR. The one on the ride the fold over string is shot, that's the black electrical tape you see, the antenna is at least 20 years old. I do have a new one still in the green plastic sleeve, never been outside of the house. I purchased both at the same time.

https://forums.mygmrs.com/gallery/image/223-ca-2x4mb-jeep/?context=new

https://forums.mygmrs.com/gallery/image/282-ca-2x4mb-scansjpg/?context=new

I've been looking around for a possible replacement for it. After testing the CA-2x4SR and N240CA, on my roof rack mount, either one might be a good replacement, and they are only 40 inches tall. I might go for the NR240CA, yeah it's more expensive, but the SWR match looks a bit better over the ranges I'm interested in.

One thing people don't talk about here, or elsewhere for that matter, what the match looks like in crummy weather, like moderate to heavy rain or fog. It's going to get worse to some degree. If you start out with a really low SWR it likely won't deteriorate nearly as bad in less than ideal weather. Modern radios are designed to tolerate SWR's up to 2:1 at full power. After that the radios, with SWR protection circuits, will start to fold back power to protect the output power stage.

 

[WRYZ926]

3 minutes ago, Lscott said:

One thing people don't talk about here, or elsewhere for that matter, what the match looks like in crummy weather, like moderate to heavy rain or fog. It's going to get worse to some degree. If you start out with a really low SWR it likely won't deteriorate nearly as bad in less than ideal weather. Modern radios are designed to tolerate SWR's up to 2:1 at full power. After that the radios, with SWR protection circuits, will start to fold back power to protect the output power stage.

This is very true. Some antenna designs are worse than others about the SWR changing in rainy weather. I deal with this all the time with my 6m-20m cobweb antenna. The cobweb design is more susceptible to SWR changes during rain than other antenna designs. The SWR changes are normally within what the radio's builtin tuner can handle. 

I would love to run a longer antenna such as the 2x4SR on my Ford Escape full time but adding 38-40 inches to the top is a no go since I park the Escape in the garage with 7ft tall doors. I know they fold. but as you mentioned, the fold over will wear out if used all of the time. And I am also afraid that I will forget to fold the antenna and mess it or the vehicle up. The Comet SBB1 just barely clears the garage door as is.

[dosw]

On 6/2/2025 at 8:43 AM, Lscott said:

Looks like you've done a fair job of researching your options.

Lets start with the antenna system.

First off I wouldn't worry too much about a few extra feed of coax cable. Likely the mount you will use has RG-58 type cable. A few may use the thinner RG-316, noticeably higher loss, but easier to route through small holes and other tight spaces. With RG-58 the difference between 13 feet verses the typical 17 foot long ones isn't worth worrying about. More on that later.

The antenna is where you shouldn't compromise. The same goes for the location on the vehical. Your usage case may justify two antennas. You would use a cheap quarter wave, about 6 to 7 inches tall, for local communications and repeater access. Then a much taller higher gain one for out on the highway traveling. Both would be better off mounted in the clear on the roof. The quarter wave is so short you could almost forget it's there, even when parking in a garage. While swapping antennas is a bit of a pain some of the folks here do it depending on where they are going to spend most of their time. Oh, the quarter wave is likely the best option when traveling in mountainous or hilly terrain. The radiation pattern gives much better coverage when two or more stations are at significantly different altitudes.

About an extra connector or two and comments about extra losses. I see people frequently get two things mixed up in that area, SWR matching and power loss. Good quality connectors have very low losses when used within their design frequency range, about 0.1 to 0.2 db. The real issue is the typical SO239/PL-259 "UHF" connectors are NOT really recommended for use above about 200 to 300 MHz, but you see them all the time used on UHF, on the back of radios and on the ends of the coax from antenna mounts. The problem with those is the "impedance" doesn't match the coax impedance of 50 ohms. This results in a higher SWR. The more of these you have the worse the match gets. Myself I try to stick with "N", BNC or RG-8x mini type connectors. Those are all 50 ohm types, and have very low power loss.

If you want to go down the rabbit hole with the antenna system design evaluation I did one for my current ride as an example. Most people don't do this, and likely wouldn't need to anyway. I did it just out of curiosity.

https://forums.mygmrs.com/gallery/image/483-cx-5-antenna-system-analysisjpg/?context=new

For antenna choices the CA-2x4SR from Comet gets mentioned frequently. It's a good high gain wide-band antenna. If you ever plan on getting your Ham license it's usable on the VHF and UHF Ham bands as is. The price is very reasonable.

https://forums.mygmrs.com/topic/7914-how-is-the-comet-ca-2x4sr-antenna/

There is a very similar antenna now available from Diamond, of course more expensive. Be careful, I see two slightly different model numbers. I believe the one you want is the NR240CA. I see the NR240C sold too, which I think is tuned a bit different. I asked Diamond about this and never got a reply. The spec's for the NR240CA seem to show a slightly wider bandwidth than the CA-2x4SR.

Now lets talk about radios.

As mentioned a 25 watt radio would be good for most every day usage. A higher power radio would be a good idea if you had to communicate through heavy foliage, trail riding on your 4-wheeler for example.

A lot of good recommendations for radios here by other members. Personally I stick with commercial grade radios. A number of the cheaper consumer grade types, including some modified Ham gear, I've played with suffered from poor sensitivity, and worse, poor selectivity and de-sense issues in moderate to high RF environments. The commercial grade radios tolerate the later two much better. I have a large collection of mainly commercial grade hand held radios if you have any questions on these I would be happy to answer them.

https://forums.mygmrs.com/gallery/image/249-my-radio-collection/?context=new

This is typical of some of the Kenwood mobile radios.

https://forums.mygmrs.com/gallery/image/250-nx-820ghjpg/?context=new

 

 

CA-2x4SR.pdf 97.16 kB · 0 downloads NR240CA.pdf 1.81 MB · 0 downloads

I've been looking for days for a source for the NR240CA.

I have a CA2X4SR-NMO but it's not quite right for the ground plane I have under it. Instead, I'm using a Laird TE B4505CN for GMRS, and a 2m/70cm no ground plane antenna when working in amateur bands. But it's got a higher SWR (>2.4:1) at 462-468. One antenna that is a no-ground-plane antenna that covers the range advertised for the NR240CA would be ideal. Nobody's got it advertised for sale, that I can find.

[Lscott]

30 minutes ago, WRYZ926 said:

I know they fold. but as you mentioned, the fold over will wear out if used all of the time.

The Diamond antenna is a bit different. There is a locking collar you have to unscrew to lift up the antenna to fold over. No spring to wear out like on the Comet design. Another reason to go with the Diamond antenna for those interested in it.

[Lscott]

46 minutes ago, dosw said:

I've been looking for days for a source for the NR240CA.

https://www2.randl.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=2_1240&products_id=76310

I got mine at the Hamvention last May from a vendor. I forget who it was, but the source in the above link has them.

[Lscott]

48 minutes ago, dosw said:

One antenna that is a no-ground-plane antenna that covers the range advertised for the NR240CA would be ideal.

The antenna is a 5/8 wave design, and really does need some kind of ground plane to work. For whatever reason it seems to work rather well on my roof rack mount. I suspect there is some coupling, capacitive, through the mounting strap to the rail plus the metal roof on the vehical.

A close up photo of what the mount looks like with an antenna installed on it. Note I use the UHF type mounts whereas most people like the NMO type. You can clearly see the electrical tape on the base of my old antenna since the fold over spring is worn out. I've been driving around like this for years. The mount is on the driver's side so I can reach it and unscrew the antenna when necessary.

https://forums.mygmrs.com/gallery/image/473-close-up-of-mobile-mount/?context=new

 

[dosw]

9 minutes ago, Lscott said:

The antenna is a 5/8 wave design, and really does need some kind of ground plane to work. For whatever reason it seems to work rather well on my roof rack mount. I suspect there is some coupling, capacitive, through the mounting strap to the rail plus the metal roof on the vehical.

A close up photo of what the mount looks like with an antenna installed on it. Note I use the UHF type mounts whereas most people like the NMO type. You can clearly see the electrical tape on the base of my old antenna since the fold over spring is worn out. I've been driving around like this for years. The mount is on the driver's side so I can reach it and unscrew the antenna when necessary.

https://forums.mygmrs.com/gallery/image/473-close-up-of-mobile-mount/?context=new

 

Thanks. I'm going to order it.

 

I don't have a true "no ground plane" situation, just a hood-fender mount, so it's an incomplete ground plane. And I've found that the CA2X4SR has too high of an SWR in the 462-467 range. It's even pretty high in the upper 420-450 range, on this vehicle. It really does like a good ground plane.

[WRYZ926]

47 minutes ago, Lscott said:

https://www2.randl.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=2_1240&products_id=76310

I got mine at the Hamvention last May from a vendor. I forget who it was, but the source in the above link has them.

That's a good price. And it is only 10-20 dollars more than the 2x4SR. The Antenna Farm has the best price I found for the 2x4SR at $62 and DX Engineering was $70

[Lscott]

43 minutes ago, dosw said:

Thanks. I'm going to order it.

[Lscott]

4 hours ago, WRYZ926 said:

That's a good price. And it is only 10-20 dollars more than the 2x4SR. The Antenna Farm has the best price I found for the 2x4SR at $62 and DX Engineering was $70

I paid close to $100 for mine at the Hamvention. Who knows, might have been due to the tariff crap then. R and L Electronics, which seemed to have the best price, was out of stock when I looked a while back. Plus they didn't have a booth at the Hamvention, which I though was sort of strange since they are one of the better known Ham gear vendors.

This is a link to a photo I just added to my album with the testing results and a photo of the antenna in it's protective sleeve. Note the antenna is clearly marked as a NR240CA. I've seen the NR240C being sold. Not sure if they are the same or not.

https://forums.mygmrs.com/gallery/image/613-nr240ca-roof-rack-mount-swr-and-photojpg/?context=new

 

[WRTC928]

9 hours ago, dosw said:

I don't have a true "no ground plane" situation, just a hood-fender mount, so it's an incomplete ground plane. And I've found that the CA2X4SR has too high of an SWR in the 462-467 range. It's even pretty high in the upper 420-450 range, on this vehicle. It really does like a good ground plane.

Yeah, my truck has crap for ground plane and the 2x4 doesn't like it, but on the roof of my car, it has spectacular SWRs on GMRS, MURS, 2 meters, 70 centimeters, and even 1.25 meters. Yes, 1.25 meters. I don't know how well it will actually perform on 1.25m, but I intend to find out. SWR is well below 2.0:1, so it shouldn't hurt the radio. 

I also have a Comet SBB224 which is officially a tri-band (2m, 1.25m, 70cm) antenna and it approaches but does not cross 2.0:1 on GMRS. It also needs a ground plane, so it will go on the car if the 2x4 is weak on 1.25m. Or maybe even if it isn't. IDK

I can't find any single antenna that will give me all the bands I want with the lousy ground plane on my truck so I ended up adding a dedicated 1.25m radio and antenna in addition to a GMRS/2m/70cm/MURS radio and antenna. Add the CB radio and antenna, and my truck kinda looks like a spaceship. The car is going to get a tri-band radio/antenna and a second NMO mount so I can stick on a CB antenna when I get the whim. 

[Socalgmrs]

So the antennas you’re looking at are ground plane antennas. Not to be confused with chassis ground.  The radio will work great. The mxta is a great antenna. But needs 12-18” of steel or aluminum around it. Now some people will tell you it will work but it’s like neutering your set up.  Why spend money on a good antenna just to neuter it.  I know midland shows it in a lip mount but it is not a lip mount antenna.  That’s why I don’t like advertising.  If you actually ask midland they will tell you it needs a ground plane. The best possible way to mount any ground plane antenna is in the center of your roof with an nmo through mount or a mag mount if you don’t want to drill a whole.  I saw get the highest gain antenna you can afford/fit for height.  
 

I started with a cheap mag mount ut72. Worked great. As they aged I stepped up to the midland 26 made a huge difference.  As those aged out we went to the comet2x4.  Those made an even bigger difference.  We now run 5 trucks with the 2x4, one older truck with the ut72 and a 25w b tech.  And one of my hands is still running the 26 with a 50w.  They all get about the same distance in the 100mile range in the open.  
 

To the guys that don’t like facts and real world every day experiences, and you like to spend other people’s money by making them feel bad they don’t have a cruddy kg1000…. Kick rocks.  I use my radios more than all of you combined and I’ve had them all.