MXT115 Expectations....

[rsgagnon]

I am new to GMRS (as you can tell by my call sign) and my intention is to use these while on the farm in west texas.    When we work the field, really remote, we will have a simplex in camp operated by me on my radio.  I was expecting about 5 miles on the 15 Watt but see about 3 and from this forum, I expect some is cable loss, antenna height and just me getting educated.   In DFW I would like to access a repeater but my MXT115 in my little truck seems anemic. I have the Midland kit with the 6 inch whip.   What cable should I install in a vehicle to reduce loss?  What SWR expectation should I have (new digital GMRS SWR meter)? I just ordered a powerwerx antenna with 4.15 DB UHF gain, hope this will be better than factory.  On the base in the camp at the farm I intend to do a DPD base antenna.   Last, on a base (same radio in use) what coax is recommended.   (I can solder and I can set SWR, just not sure and you are the experts......

 

[mcallahan]

The 15W Midland is a pretty decent radio from what I've read, but the stock antenna is your bottleneck.  You should see a significant increase in RX and TX signal quality with a high gain antenna.  Make sure the antenna is cut to the right length as well.  RG-58 should be sufficient for short cable runs and you won't be breaking the bank.  The ranges you see people reporting here are about what you can expect. Assuming there are no obstacles between both stations (trees, buildings, hills, etc), and both antennas are about 6 feet off the ground, you should be able to reliably talk about 5-6 miles at 15 watts.  This range will obviously drop in urban/forested/hilly/noisy RF environments.  You may want to check out this VHF/UHF line of sight calculator to get a better estimate of range:

 

http://www.qsl.net/kd4sai/distance.html

[rsgagnon]

I think my radio is an issue.  Receive pops and breaks even with Squelch at 1.  So took a Btech GMRS-V1 (rubber ducky antenna) with me and listened to receive signal on it and was clear.   Likely bad radio.   Thanks for the reply 

 

Trying to get Midland to reply.

[Soladaddy]

Saw a comparison receiver test with the MXT115 and a 105. It showed the 105 having a much better receive and the 115 having issues. They were both on a base setup using same antenna and the other being an HT circling the base about a mile out. This wasn't the only receive complaint I've ran across about the 115. 

[rsgagnon]

UPDATE:   Sent radio in (was not happy had to pay shipping).  Midland replaced unit with a newer version, sighting a design issue in the original radio.  The new radio does not picket fence and sounds very clear.  Have built a 465 MJZ J-pole and this thing will hit repeaters on low power and is clear on the receive.   when driving with the stock antenna it works well it does have a slight increase in range.   thanks to all!

[Soladaddy]

Glad they corrected the issue. Wonder if there is a way to tell the difference between the newer units that have the fix and the older ones.