Any mobile radios that do 2 Watt FRS TX/RX?

[CoffeeTime]

Trying to assist someone...

He is looking for a mobile radio recomendation.  He wants a Mobile rig to use with FRS at 2 Watts and GMRS 5Watts  for Comms with his rock climbing friends. They all have Rocky Talkies and he wants a Mobile that will work with Rocky Talkies-- both the FRS and GMRS versions.

He threw out around a Mobile in the 10-15 watts unit-ballpark.

Any ideas on a GMRS Mobile rig that has that 2 watt pwr. option for TX on FRS and is not locked out on FRS?

 

Thank you!!

Best Regards!

[SteveShannon]

42 minutes ago, CoffeeTime said:

Trying to assist someone...

He is looking for a mobile radio recomendation.  He wants a Mobile rig to use with FRS at 2 Watts and GMRS 5Watt and above for Comm with his rock climbing friends. They all have Rocky Radios and he wants a Mobile that will work with Rocky Radios.

He threw out around a 10-15 watts unit-ballpark.

Any ideas on a Mobile rig that has that 2 watt pwr. option for TX on FRS and is not locked out on FRS?

 

Thank you!!

Best Regards!

His request doesn’t make sense. Any GMRS mobile radio will talk to FRS radios except for channels 8-14 which may only be handheld portable units by regulation. GMRS handheld radios can talk on 8-14. 

[nokones]

If he is a licensed GMRS users he does not need to lower his power down to 2 watts to legally communicate on FRS channels 1-7 and 15-22. He is allowed to use 5 watts on channels 1-7 and 50 watts on channels 15-22 even if he is communicating with a FRS user on those channrels.

[GreggInFL]

^ This. Just have your friend use something other than 8-14.

[WRYS709]

9 hours ago, CoffeeTime said:

Trying to assist someone...

He is looking for a mobile radio recomendation.  He wants a Mobile rig to use with FRS at 2 Watts and GMRS 5Watts  for Comms with his rock climbing friends. They all have Rocky Talkies and he wants a Mobile that will work with Rocky Talkies-- both the FRS and GMRS versions.

He threw out around a Mobile in the 10-15 watts unit-ballpark.

Any ideas on a GMRS Mobile rig that has that 2 watt pwr. option for TX on FRS and is not locked out on FRS?

Your best bet is the Radioddity DB20-G a/k/a Anytone AT-779UV 20 watt GMRS mini-mobile, cigarette lighter plug, and now supported by Chirp! $89 - $109

[dosw]

I don't know why someone would specifically want a mobile radio that transmits at 2w. Nothing wrong with 2w if that's all you need, but it's a weird requirement. But the MXT-105 is 5w max, and has a low setting that is probably very close to two watts. I haven't measured, but guestimated using paper napkin math and hunches, based on its advertised power input requirements at low and high.

 

If someone has this whimpy radio and a power meter, they could confirm. But they'll likely find low is about 2 watts.

[WRYZ926]

I have tested a few 20 watt mobile radios and they only go down to 4-5 watts on low. And that is why mobiles are not allowed to use channels 8-14. 

Every Part 95 certified GMRS hand held will transmit on channels 8-14 and they will automatically transmit on low power even if you have them programmed to hi power, or at least that's how my Wouxun GMRS hand held's are.

All bets are off when using unlocked/modded radios. An unlocked amateur mobile will transmit on channels 8-14 on any power level the radio has. 

As others have mentioned. just use channels 1-7 and 15-22 and yo will be fine. Someone with their GMRS license can use a 50 watt mobile to talk to someone using an FRS radio on those channels without issues.

[Lscott]

17 hours ago, CoffeeTime said:

Any ideas on a GMRS Mobile rig that has that 2 watt pwr. option for TX on FRS and is not locked out on FRS?

As pointed out FRS channels 8-14 are low power, 0.5 watts max. That's why mobile radios don't include them since they generally can't lower their power to the legal limit, otherwise GMRS and FRS radios use the same "simplex" frequencies. FRS does not have access to the repeater input frequencies whereas GMRS does.

Second if you have a GMRS license it's perfectly legal to communicate with FRS radios, even above 2 watts. On channels 1-7 you can use 5 watts max, and on channels 15-22 it's 50 watts max.

The point to remember is FRS radios use exclusively narrow-band FM while GMRS uses normal, wide-band, FM. If it's possible using a GMRS radio the bandwidth should be set to narrow-band when talking to FRS radio users. I use mainly commercial grade radios for GMRS. Those have the ability to use either bandwidth. For those radios I program in two banks of frequencies, one wide-band for GMRS, and the other narrow-band for FRS.

FRS-GMRS combined channel chart.pdf

[SteveShannon]

9 minutes ago, Lscott said:

As pointed out FRS channels 8-14 are low power, 0.5 watts max. That's why mobile radios don't include them since they generally can't lower their power to the legal limit

Manufacturers could design mobile radios to put out half a watt, but because FRS regulations require handheld radios and because GMRS regulations limit 8-14 to handheld radios, mobile radios could not be certificates, even if they complied with the output power requirements.

[dosw]

22 minutes ago, SteveShannon said:

Manufacturers could design mobile radios to put out half a watt, but because FRS regulations require handheld radios and because GMRS regulations limit 8-14 to handheld radios, mobile radios could not be certificates, even if they complied with the output power requirements.

Absolutely correct.

FCC rules for GMRS

Channels 8-14 have the following restrictions:

• Only handheld portable units
• The effective radiated power (ERP) of hand-held portable units transmitting on the 467 MHz interstitial channels must not exceed 0.5 Watt. Each GMRS transmitter type capable of transmitting on these channels must be designed such that the ERP does not exceed 0.5 Watt.
• Bandwidth: narrowband; 12.5 kHz for GMRS transmitters operating on any of the 467 MHz interstitial channels
• Deviation:  on the 467 MHz interstitial channels must not exceed ± 2.5 kHz, and the highest audio frequency contributing substantially to modulation must not exceed 3.125 kHz.
• Accuracy within 2.5ppm of channel center

Also, you cannot design a radio to have a maximum effective radiated power of 0.5w if you don't control what antenna is used, since antenna gain is a factor in ERP.  So it might be an oversight but I don't see in the regulations where it says that on 8-14 the antenna must be a fixed antenna.

I just noticed today that even channels 1-7 are supposed to have their power calculated by ERP. The "mains" don't have that limitation; 50w is the maximum permissible on repeater inputs and primary 462 channels, measured at the feed line, not in ERP (and nobody cares, nor should they).

 

Anyway, no type approved GMRS mobile radio would be approved if it could transmit on 8-14.

[SteveShannon]

3 minutes ago, dosw said:

Also, you cannot design a radio to have a maximum effective radiated power of 0.5w if you don't control what antenna is used, since antenna gain is a factor in ERP.  So it might be an oversight but I don't see in the regulations where it says that on 8-14 the antenna must be a fixed antenna.

It’s not really an oversight. The manufacturer simply has to present data for certification that shows adherence to the ERP value as manufactured.  Users are required to comply with the regulations but don’t and as we know, the FCC does nothing about it.

[Lscott]

2 hours ago, SteveShannon said:

Manufacturers could design mobile radios to put out half a watt, but because FRS regulations require handheld radios and because GMRS regulations limit 8-14 to handheld radios, mobile radios could not be certificates, even if they complied with the output power requirements.

That's correct.