Radio Compatibility

[WSHH887]

So I'm ready to move up on my handhelds. But lately I've seen posts about one brand not communicating with some others. So this seems to throw another dimension into radio selection. 
 

Are there models that are less prone to such things?  Also, I should mention, at this point in my journey I am not concerned about "unlocking" the radios. When I get to the point of wanting to deal with Ham frequencies I will just get a license and buy appropriate radios. 

[WRUE951]

10 minutes ago, WSHH887 said:

So I'm ready to move up on my handhelds. But lately I've seen posts about one brand not communicating with some others. So this seems to throw another dimension into radio selection. 
 

Are there models that are less prone to such things?  Also, I should mention, at this point in my journey I am not concerned about "unlocking" the radios. When I get to the point of wanting to deal with Ham frequencies I will just get a license and buy appropriate radios. 

no problem unless you start using talk groups, Digital and other special features of a given radio.  I use Hytera which is compatible with a lot of Motorola stuff but not all.  As far as analog use strictly, , no problem with compatibility between different brands.  

[WRDJ205]

1 hour ago, WSHH887 said:

So this seems to throw another dimension into radio selection. 

A lot of these complications are likely related to privacy tones or something similar.   I have radios from several different companies and have not had any issues.  (Wouxun, Tidradio, Motorola, and yes, too many Baofengs)

[dosw]

A true GMRS radio is not that complicated; you switch to a channel (1-22), make sure that neither radio has tones enabled, and then just start talking. If you add a tone (CTCSS / PL, or DCS), you will need both radios to use the same tone. Midland gives its tones different numbers than other manufacturers, so you might have to look up in a crossreference table in the manual if you have a Midland.

 

That's it for radio-to-radio communications. All GMRS radios should be compatible with all others at this level.

 

Then getting into repeaters, you'll need to select the correct repeater channel (sometimes named 15R, through 22R, sometimes R1-R8, sometimes R23-R30), and the correct tones for that repeater. But any repeater-capable GMRS radio will work about the same way, and all should be compatible so long as they support repeaters in general.

 

 

[OffRoaderX]

2 hours ago, WSHH887 said:

But lately I've seen posts about one brand not communicating with some others

This is not an issue. All GMRS radios/brands manufactured after 2017 can communicate with all other GMRS radios/brands, and most manufactured before 2017 can also.

There may be isolated incidents of one radio not talking to another radio, but those are.. isolated...

[amaff]

7 minutes ago, OffRoaderX said:

There may be isolated incidents of one radio not talking to another radio, but those are.. isolated...

And far more often than not, user error / misconfiguration stemming from not understanding how 'privacy tones' (I know, I know...) work.

[WSHH887]

Appreciate the info. From what I've read I intend to look into Wouxun and Baofengs to start.