It seems Midland has offered a handheld FRS radio with a separate, mag-mount antenna for in-vehicle use. Model 75-510XLM
We had some discussions before about mobile FRS, with the antenna mounted outside the vehicle. Summary: a handheld works fine inside a vehicle, but moving the antenna outside should show at least some gain in performance, and arguably increased safety by eliminating the RF emissions inside the vehicle.
The problem is that the FCC rules on FRS (at least, at the time of our previous thread) forbade remote antennas. The antenna had to be mounted directly on the radio.
And, as some of you may recall, we discussed the short-lived Radio Shack mobile radio that basically had the radio built into the magnetic antenna base, with a really long mic cord. Basically a strange design to get around the FCC rules. The Shack didn't offer them for long, and I believe the FCC probably made them stop, since it violated the intent of the rule. The mic cord was really fat (I think it was 8 pair), and hard to route out a window without crushing. In addition, the cord was permanently attached at both ends, so doing any kind of through-hull mount was challenging.
Anyway, I don't know if the FCC has changed its rules, or if this Midland unit will be short-lived as well, but it looks like a much more appealing design, with the radio inside where it belongs, only a single coax to route, and the coax is detachable.
We had some discussions before about mobile FRS, with the antenna mounted outside the vehicle. Summary: a handheld works fine inside a vehicle, but moving the antenna outside should show at least some gain in performance, and arguably increased safety by eliminating the RF emissions inside the vehicle.
The problem is that the FCC rules on FRS (at least, at the time of our previous thread) forbade remote antennas. The antenna had to be mounted directly on the radio.
And, as some of you may recall, we discussed the short-lived Radio Shack mobile radio that basically had the radio built into the magnetic antenna base, with a really long mic cord. Basically a strange design to get around the FCC rules. The Shack didn't offer them for long, and I believe the FCC probably made them stop, since it violated the intent of the rule. The mic cord was really fat (I think it was 8 pair), and hard to route out a window without crushing. In addition, the cord was permanently attached at both ends, so doing any kind of through-hull mount was challenging.
Anyway, I don't know if the FCC has changed its rules, or if this Midland unit will be short-lived as well, but it looks like a much more appealing design, with the radio inside where it belongs, only a single coax to route, and the coax is detachable.
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