Garmin Rino and Friends

[Ian]

So, in another thread, I've been told that high-performance part 95 gear has already all been discontinued.

 

I think the Garmin Rino is the last of the wideband GMRS handhelds available.  There's the BaoFeng, at two watts.  There's the TERA, with one bank of 16 channels, and no way to program CTCSS in the field.  Then there's the Rino 700 series, which do five watts, 25 kHz, and repeaters and tones can be programmed from the front panel, per the manual.

 

Is this really the last high-performance handheld on the market?

[WRCY896]

I have been searching for a while.

 

I am not aware of any other GMRS handhelds that are repeater capable, where a person can change the tones on the fly.

 

The V-1 seems to have the best value and usability that I can see. I was seriously considering the Tera, but the number of channels don't match up for GMRS use and the Rino is out of my reach financially.

[marcspaz]

Reality is, there is not much demand, therefore not much competition. 

 

I personally would buy 10 BTECH GMRS-V1 before I bought 1 Garmin.  I love Garmin as a brand, but that device is way over-priced for what it does.  The first time you drop it... you will not be a happy camper. 

 

Not to mention, with the BTech, you can buy a UT-72 mobile antenna, U25d mobile amp, external mic and power supply.  That will give you unlimited duration mobile use at 20+ watts on the V1, with much greater range.  When you want to use it as a portable, just unplug it, slap the portable antenna back on it and go.  If by some chance the radio finds its way into a puddle or bursts into tiny pieces as it hits concrete... $50 later you're back in business.

 

I was really snobbish about the BTech/BaoFang radios until a friend of mine had one and totally out-performed my $350 mobile setup with his $50 handheld.

[Radioguy7268]

If a Baofeng/Btech portable out-performed your $350 mobile setup, I think you're doing something seriously wrong.

 

For less than $150  - you can buy a solid 40+ watt used mobile radio from one of the top 3 or 4 brands that will actually last, and it will sound good to boot. If you're really up against it - $25 and a cup of coffee will buy you basic GMRS programming at most any local radio shop if you supply them with your correct frequencies and codes.

 

If you're putting a Baofeng mobile amp onto a Baofeng portable - you're using one noise generator to amplify another noise generator. It's really not good practice, not at all.

 

There's plenty of viable Part 90 gear out there & available. Both portable & mobile units. Yes, if you do want "brand new" Part 95, you're going to be searching a long time, but open up your field of vision a little, and there's plenty of choices. 

[marcspaz]

@radioguy7268...  I had a MXT400... $250, $100 mount and $100 antenna.  The MXT400 is a poor performer on simplex.

 

I'm not using a BTech portable or Btech amp.  My friend has a BTech handheld and it works way better on simplex than my Midland MXT400.  Just using it for price/performance.

 

I would love to buy a quality radio, but I can't find anything in a "mobile" platform, wide-band and is new.

[Ian]

Marc, that's because there isn't anything that … well, wide-band and new are basically mutually exclusive.  BaoFeng is launching a new GMRS mobile, but I'm concerned about that for reasons of quality.

 

It wouldn't be entirely wrong to describe legal and high-performance radios as lost artifacts from a bygone age.  Unlike the fantasy version of that, you don't have to slay a dragon to get one, but you do have to know which compromises to make, which eldritch incantations (and what other "lostech") you need to program them to do your bidding, and if you don't, knowing someone who can is a good second-best.

 

Like I said in the beginning, there -- there are only three legal, available-new handhelds available.  There may be no mobiles or base stations that meet those criteria.

 

If you can find legal-on-business-band gear, odds are it won't be both new and capable of working on GMRS - new and wideband is another nearly mutual exclusive set of qualifiers.  It's still not something I'm happy about as another FNG, but I'm passing through the seven stages of irritation towards acceptance, and will likely be looking into used Motorola gear new enough to have wi-fi programming options going forward, as well as any other commercial gear that happens to catch my fancy.  (So far I'm batting 0 for 2 -- one "cb" I bought is 900 MHz public safety gear, and the VHF I bought at another garage sale doesn't include the amateur __or__ MURS bands.  Maybe 1 for 3, if you include the Radio Shack gear from eBay with big 'ol "blue dot" and "green dot" stickers on the box.)

 

 

BaoFeng has a new GMRS mobile the BT-GMRS-50X FCC ID: 2AGND50X1G. From what I can tell it has 40 watts and is 16K0F3E wide-band.

[coryb27]

@radioguy7268...  I had a MXT400... $250, $100 mount and $100 antenna.  The MXT400 is a poor performer on simplex.

 

I'm not using a BTech portable or Btech amp.  My friend has a BTech handheld and it works way better on simplex than my Midland MXT400.  Just using it for price/performance.

 

I would love to buy a quality radio, but I can't find anything in a "mobile" platform, wide-band and is new.

 

Motorola, Icom, Kenwood all make new radios that can be set to wideband. Motorola uses Entitlement keys, Icom can be set in the options, Kenwood I think requires a key.

[WRCY896]

Thanks for that information regarding that BTECH mobile. That is encouraging news.

 

I have been racking my brain for weeks trying to figure out what to do for mobile use.

 

The handheld portion was easy in comparison and I like those radios. This BTECH mobile just means I need to be patient for a while longer and it will all work out.