Mobile with 12v adapter recommendation?

[Marius1195]

Plan on getting a new vehicle next year and don't want to hassle with wiring and I know I will want to get rid of my Mag mount if I have to wire something up.More time investment than I want to put in. Any rec's on what's out there?

[wayoverthere]

Sounds like the perfect use case for the anytone at779uv/radioddity db20-g/retevis ra25 triplets. 20 watts on high, small package. The btech gmrs 20v2 would fit the bill, though being a newer model, there isn't a ton of feedback out yet. The anytone/radioddity, on the other hand, has a fair bit of exposure, including among the membership here. (I have 2 of the anytone's, actually...1 in the truck for gmrs, and a 2nd in the beater unlocked for ham use).

The Midland options (mxt115, mxt275) are there as well, if their limited feature set meets your needs.

[MichaelLAX]

Radioddity DB20-G/Anytone AT-779UV +1

I personally do not recommend the Retevis Ra-25 clone, as reports here have shown it will not work with code plugs designed on the Radioddity/Anytone versions; many of them are published for easy usage.

They are just so easy to use right out of the box, including programming tones using the keypad and hence not requiring a computer to program (although more sophisticated features will require computer programming).

[gortex2]

Midland mxt115 or 275 are ideal for what you wanting to do. All depends on expectations. If simplex use is your most use case excellent units.

[KAF6045]

6 hours ago, gortex2 said:

Midland mxt115 or 275 are ideal for what you wanting to do. All depends on expectations. If simplex use is your most use case excellent units.

If one can live with 12.5kHz NFM rather than the 20kHz FM bandwidth allowed for GMRS.

[gortex2]

Thats why i asked about use case. Thousands of folks use the midland and midland is selling them like crazy. Other than die hard GMRS users 90% of those that buy this radio dont care or even understand. I went with them for my parents and they work great for the purpose. People on this forum get all worked up over them but they work solid and to my knowledge are the only GMRS mobile that is designed for GMRS. All the others are CCR mobiles with various software packages. Good bad or indifferent Midland does have a market. 

Oh and a midland will work fine on a repeater in narrowband mode. 

[MichaelLAX]

17 hours ago, Marius1195 said:

Plan on getting a new vehicle next year and don't want to hassle with wiring...

Correct me if I am wrong, but both of those Midlands require direct connection to a 12v source and do not come with hassle-free 12v "cigarette lighter" plugs.

[Lscott]

20 minutes ago, gortex2 said:

Oh and a midland will work fine on a repeater in narrowband mode. 

I seem to recall reading a few messages on other boards about problems with some repeaters not opening up due to the low volume of the access tone in narrow band mode.

[gortex2]

I guess my message was vague. A narrowband repeater (12.5Khz) will repeat the midland fine. I have 3 repeaters all running in narrowband and the midlands have been rock solid along with the other MSI gear on the channel. 

I am sure some wideband repeaters may not open if the PL modulation is too low to decode. 

[MichaelLAX]

How prevalent are narrowband repeaters on GMRS?

What happens when someone with Wideband attempts to use one of your repeaters?

UPDATE: I did find these statements:

Quote

When using a repeater, generally 5 kHz deviation (wide mode) is used. Check with the repeater owner/operator to see if their repeater is operating in 5 kHz deviation or 2.5 kHz narrowband deviation. There are some advantages to running a GMRS repeater in narrow mode (2.5 kHz deviation). This is especially true in urbanized areas and other locations where the GMRS repeater input frequency is subject to large amounts of adjacent channel interference from simplex activity on channels 8-14.

GMRS Wiki

Still curious: What happens when someone with Wideband attempts to use one of your repeaters?

[wayoverthere]

52 minutes ago, MichaelLAX said:

Correct me if I am wrong, but both of those Midlands require direct connection to a 12v source and do not come with hassle-free 12v "cigarette lighter" plugs.

The current photos of the mxt115 show it with the lighter plug, and the older one I have in a box does a well. Can't find it in the photos, but the "in the box" for the 275 references it including a 12v adapter as well.

https://midlandusa.com/products/mxt115-micromobile-2-way-radio

[gortex2]

All of mine came with lighter plus as well. I have a pile of them in my barn cut off the radios 

 

[gortex2]

4 hours ago, MichaelLAX said:

Still curious: What happens when someone with Wideband attempts to use one of your repeaters?

Don't really care as they are not welcome on my repeaters. They are mine and are closed for my family use. I'll be honest and say I have never tried to use a wideband radio on the repeaters.

In the public safety world we had alot of issues with wideband on repeaters when we switched. We did find that guys who talked quietly in a mic seemed to not have issues other had. In the end it took us some time to find all the wideband radios to get swapped out. 

[MichaelLAX]

3 hours ago, gortex2 said:

Don't really care as they are not welcome on my repeaters. They are mine and are closed for my family use. I'll be honest and say I have never tried to use a wideband radio on the repeaters.

Given the OP's interest (in another thread) of using repeaters in Dalton City, IL and perhaps others (but not yours of course!), I would have to recommend away from radios such as the Midlands, which seem to embrace Narrow Band FM.

[KAF6045]

21 hours ago, MichaelLAX said:

Correct me if I am wrong, but both of those Midlands require direct connection to a 12v source and do not come with hassle-free 12v "cigarette lighter" plugs.

The MXT-115 has a cigarette lighter plug (fused -- with a second in-line fuse should one cut the plug off and direct wire; also have a quick disconnect up near the radio so even if direct wired one can easily slide it out of the mount and hide it away).

From the manual of the 275

Quote

1. The power cord supplied with the MXT275 is equipped with a cigarette lighter adapter for easy installation. Simply plug the connector into the vehicle’s cigarette lighter. If a “hard-wired” installation is desired, connect the power cord to the vehicle’s electrical system as follows:

• Cut the power cord just after the cigarette lighter adapter.
• Connect the positive lead (RED wire with in-line fuse holder) to either (a) the fuse block or (b) directly to the positive post of the vehicle’s battery.

 

[MichaelLAX]

1 hour ago, KAF6045 said:

The MXT-115 has a cigarette lighter plug...

Ah, going back to their website (for the 115) one must scroll the photographs to see the addition of the removal cigarette lighter plug.

[Marius1195]

Thanks for the feedback all. Had a boo boo off road and put a dent in my oil pan right where the drain plug was so when I went to change the oil I found I needed a new pan. Ended up using my radio funds for that little mistake. I will be aquiring one, but probably early next year. Thanks again and happy holidays!

[SteveShannon]

1 hour ago, Marius1195 said:

Thanks for the feedback all. Had a boo boo off road and put a dent in my oil pan right where the drain plug was so when I went to change the oil I found I needed a new pan. Ended up using my radio funds for that little mistake. I will be aquiring one, but probably early next year. Thanks again and happy holidays!

Keep an eye open for sales. Sign up for the Radioddity and Midland announcements. Black Friday is just around the corner. Last week Radioddity had a 20% off sale. I picked up two of the DB-20G radios. They’re usually $110 each but I got both for $175 total. They’re pretty slick looking but I haven’t had a chance to power them up yet. 

[wrtq652]

3 hours ago, Marius1195 said:

Thanks for the feedback all. Had a boo boo off road and put a dent in my oil pan right where the drain plug was so when I went to change the oil I found I needed a new pan. Ended up using my radio funds for that little mistake. I will be aquiring one, but probably early next year. Thanks again and happy holidays!

 

1 hour ago, Sshannon said:

Keep an eye open for sales. Sign up for the Radioddity and Midland announcements. Black Friday is just around the corner. Last week Radioddity had a 20% off sale. I picked up two of the DB-20G radios. They’re usually $110 each but I got both for $175 total. They’re pretty slick looking but I haven’t had a chance to power them up yet. 

Agreed there, now is the time of year I've picked up a number of radios, the DB-20G is a reasonable priced radio that works well for the feature set.