Motorola GMRS bubble packs

[Shriekmau]

Ah, then as Logan said, it is not a big deal and does not break any rules on GMRS.

[walkabout]

I know that those bisterpac radios have there place for sure. Being able to communicate at all in some situations is much better than having nothing at all. i say this because one of types of radio's was instrumental is the rescue of a good friend of mine who took a terrible climbing fall in an area where there was no cell service. Someone on the summit witnessed the fall and started calling for help, luckily there was a search and rescue group in the area doing a exercise. being able to put that call out shaved hours and hours off the time it would have taken them to get on scene.

just my two cents. I don't now what model was used but i believe that they where another mountaineers group, seems like all of the Mountaineers use Motorola radios and they have been very durable.

[WQPE714]

I have a pair of the MS350R . I was able to hit Verdugo & Harvard from Riverside with them. (provided your standing in the right spot) The sound is ok. You can split the PL's as well. Durability seems good, one of them has hit the pavement a couple times now and still works fine

Yeah I got in on the verdugo peak repeater in seal beach with on of those before. Than i started seeing a bunch of baofeng and wouxun mobiles on amazon.

[mellowcream]

I have the Motorola MS350's. They do work with repeaters and go a decent distance. The battery life is terrible, just use AA or some other rechargeable packs.

[Guest spd641]

I just bought 2 of those Motorola MS350 waterproof radios and I am surprised.Those things get into my repeater almost as good as my 5 watt  and I tried them at a good distance and even indoors they worked.I was amazed at the coverage plus I got these for a steal $17.99 a pair since they are discontinued from my local RS and I will be buying the other 2 pairs they have in stock tomorrow,they were a good friend deal and I am going to get all I can...William

[zap]

I talked to a guy on our 675 repeater using the Motorola MSR350. He sounded okay, he was about 5 miles closer to the repeater than I was though. Little quiet, which would leave me to believe that the Motorola bubble packs are all narrowband radios. What that means, the FCC claims that 2.5 kHz deviation is equivalent to -3 dB of signal with 5 kHz deviation. Some 3rd party repeater contractors have shown the number to be equivalent to nearly -6 dB in real world tests. So using a 2W narrowband radio is equivalent to a 1W wideband radio (per the FCC) and no better than a .5W wideband radio per 3rd party testing.

 

Personally, I'll stick with my 4W Icom and Motorola's. As far as the BF-666/777/888 goes…some of them won't actually narrowband and none of them have Part 90 grants. The FCC has acknowledged and stated that they are not interested in pursuing people using Part 90 approved (or even older Part 90 wideband only) equipment on GMRS as long as they are using it properly within power limits and not causing harmful interference.  I own a BF-888, though I haven't hooked it up to my Bird (have to find a low power slug first) I have calculated the transmitter through FSPL to be closer to 3.5W and not 4W or even 5W. I did find with the 888 that it's a 3 dB improvement if you use a $8 Motorola Jedi series UFH antenna.