Howdy: GMRS Appropriateness for Task & Sanity Check

[Guest roo_ster]

Good Day:

I had a GMRS license & call sign many years back and plan to refresh that sucker ASAP, in case GMRS is the answer.

 

GMRS APPROPRIATENESS

My family is going to go on some longer multi-day backwoods hikes.  Definitely going to work up from shorter/easier to longer/harder.  We also hunt and fish, but for those the hike is to get to the objective, not the objective itself.  We want commo for these outings as ranged and reliable and as reasonable as we can manage.  Part of the working up is choosing trails that intersect maintained (dirt and/or gravel) roads and shadowing the hikers with a truck that totes heavier gear, more extensive first aid, chow, etc.  The two technologies I see as contenders are CB and GMRS.  Many of the best places to hike are hilly/mountainous, and thus line of sight may be difficult to come by at times.  I don't think I will take our 4x4 pickup deliberately off-roading.  For me, 4x4 is a way to get somewhere (or out of somewhere), not an objective in itself. 

 

SUPPORT/VEHICLE

1x Vehicle-mobile device with more power and a larger antenna as primary.  Want to be able to easily transfer it from vehicle to vehicle.

1x Handheld device as backup.

 

HIKING PARTY

1x handheld device as primary.

1x Handheld device as backup (kept OFF unless/until primary goes tango uniform).

 

(I must confess a lack of faith in many/most commercial electronic devices, so backups all around.)

 

OTHER

Once I get my license renewed, I will search more deeply in the past threads and then likely (if GMRS is the answer) post a hardware question.

 

Thank you all for your time.

 

Regards,

roo_ster

"Think of something pithy and mildly profound, and then assume I used it as a quote to end my signature block."

----Somedood

[WRXB215]

@roo_ster Welcome back to GMRS. I haven't been at it for all that long but have use it quite a bit since I started. CB doesn't have nearly as many offerings in HT as GMRS. I've used GMRS in the mountains around Cloudcroft NM and didn't have any problems. Although it is "line-of-sight" it isn't like a laser. My son was constantly out of sight around fingers and over hills and we never lost contact.

The only problem I have had so far was trying to penetrate all the trees and houses in my neighborhood. That's were more power really helps. Bumping up from 4 watts to 7-8 watts made all the difference in the world.

[JoCoBrian]

Forget CB.  Most  portable CB's are bulky, and the antennas need to be large to be the least bit effective. 

How far away with the SAG vehicle be from the hikers? 

 

[OffRoaderX]

1 hour ago, JoCoBrian said:

Portable CB's are bulky, and the antennas need to be large to be the least bit effective

The KG-S72C CB radio is roughly the size of a UV-5R.. Not bulky by any measure..

But yah, you do need a very big antenna for it to work well...

[NoExit]

Lets be honest, thousands of truckers still have them. They may not use them as much but I can assure everyone... they have them.  

When the SHTF (we all can see it coming) I think people will be quite surprised what's on the air and what's not.   

I think its a wise idea to stash one or two away.  

[Lscott]

On 12/12/2023 at 2:12 PM, Guest roo_ster said:

Good Day:

I had a GMRS license & call sign many years back and plan to refresh that sucker ASAP, in case GMRS is the answer.

 

GMRS APPROPRIATENESS

My family is going to go on some longer multi-day backwoods hikes.  Definitely going to work up from shorter/easier to longer/harder.  We also hunt and fish, but for those the hike is to get to the objective, not the objective itself.  We want commo for these outings as ranged and reliable and as reasonable as we can manage.  Part of the working up is choosing trails that intersect maintained (dirt and/or gravel) roads and shadowing the hikers with a truck that totes heavier gear, more extensive first aid, chow, etc.  The two technologies I see as contenders are CB and GMRS.  Many of the best places to hike are hilly/mountainous, and thus line of sight may be difficult to come by at times.  I don't think I will take our 4x4 pickup deliberately off-roading.  For me, 4x4 is a way to get somewhere (or out of somewhere), not an objective in itself. 

 

SUPPORT/VEHICLE

1x Vehicle-mobile device with more power and a larger antenna as primary.  Want to be able to easily transfer it from vehicle to vehicle.

1x Handheld device as backup.

 

HIKING PARTY

1x handheld device as primary.

1x Handheld device as backup (kept OFF unless/until primary goes tango uniform).

 

(I must confess a lack of faith in many/most commercial electronic devices, so backups all around.)

 

OTHER

Once I get my license renewed, I will search more deeply in the past threads and then likely (if GMRS is the answer) post a hardware question.

 

Thank you all for your time.

 

Regards,

roo_ster

"Think of something pithy and mildly profound, and then assume I used it as a quote to end my signature block."

----Somedood

Have you considered using any of the license free MURS radios? While limited to 2 watts max at VHF they do a bit better in terrain that's a bit hilly and tree covered.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multi-Use_Radio_Service

Some examples of MURS radios.

https://www.retevis.com/murs-radios

https://www.buytwowayradios.com/business/murs-radios.html

There is also a mobile magnet mount antenna that is usable for both GMRS and MURS in case you decide to carry both types.

https://dpdproductions.com/products/dual-band-gmrs-murs-mobile-antenna

 

[Guest JRAY]

Does GMRS have the "suitability" for your needs? I'd say probably so, depending on the expected distance you're going to need (assuming you are relying solely on simplex). If you don't mind getting a ham license and studying for and taking the test, 2m on simplex will outperform GMRS in varied terrain. However... this would require every person using the system to be licensed on the ham bands, unlike GMRS which is a family license.

There are other considerations I believe are more important.

1) Make sure your vehicle has a high power mobile AND the best quality external  antenna (with a proper ground plane) that you can afford. All the power in the world won't do you any good if you cannot receive the much weaker signal from your HT in the field. My late buddy who was an Extra class ham once told me, "Don't be an alligator... big mouth with little ears!"

2) Don't cheap out on the HT. Get one that has a superheterodyne receiver and also purchase a 5/8 wave (15") antenna for it. You need to get the most out of your HT to be successful. IMO, if you get good quality radios, you won't need the spare radios, just the extra batteries. Unfortunately, Yeasu and Icom (Japan) do not make GMRS radios, so you have to do the best that you can, and that means from China.

Personally, I would not even consider a CB radio. They can be cumbersome, and the noise on that frequency is intolerable.

Just as a side note (in case you are looking at all the options), there are ham radio HT's that will transmit on the GMRS frequencies (with a MARS/CAP mod for example), but with rare exception they are not Part 95 type accepted, and in their default state are not tuned for 462-467. So not only are they illegat to use on GMRS, they generally have poor performance on the FRS bands.

And to clear any confusion, here is a post regarding antennas from an Extra class ham (these guys know their S**T)

"A full wave for CB radio (27MHz) is 36'. A 1/2 wave is 18' and a 1/4 wave is 9'. A 5/8 wave is 22'.

A full wave for GMRS (462MHz) is measured in inches, so 24". A 1/2 wave is 12" and a 1/4 wave is 6". A 5/8 wave is 15".

A 1/4 wave antenna has no gain. A 1/2 wave antenna has a gain of 2.1db and a 5/8 wave has a gain of 5db...approx for each. Think of gain as an amplifier or volume control. It takes your radio signal and increases it.

Most CB antennas are 1/4 wave because they could get too big if they were 1/2 wave. Some say they are 5/8, but thats bullshit. They are playing on words.

In the VHF and UHF bands the frequency is high enough that their physical wave length is small. So its easy to have a 1/2 wave or a 5/8 wave, or a colinear which is one antenna stacked on top of another.

They all have their advantages and disadvantages. A 5/8, while having the most gain, may not work as well in a canyon as a 1/4 wave with less gain due to their antenna patterns."

--JR--