GME making a move

[Datsun Man]

Well it looks like GME is starting to make a.move into the GMRS territory. They just released three different radios for the US market and the radios are made in Australia. Unfortunately the radios are only 5 watts, so they are a little weak to say the least, but hopefully GME will step up the game on that. I wouldn't mind making the switch if they got a 50 watt GMRS out.

For those interested in looking go to emeus.com for more information

 

[Peter_n_Margaret]

Unfortunately the radios are only 5 watts,

5W is the maximum transmission power permitted for citizen band radios in Australia, so that everyone gets a decent go. Not sure if that applies to GMRS.
Cheers,
Peter
OKA196 motorhome

 

[Datsun Man]

5W is the maximum transmission power permitted for citizen band radios in Australia, so that everyone gets a decent go.
Cheers,
Peter
OKA196 motorhome

Understanding that Australia only allows 5 Watts for CB, the US allows for 4 Watts on CB and 50 Watts for GMRS(this post is for GMRS). If GME had a more powerful radios(even 15 watts would be good) then I would consider switching. As for now I might only consider the antenna since it should be a higher quality over Midlands Taiwan need stuff.

 

[DaveInDenver]

FYI the website is

https://gmeus.com/

I agree, having a major brand alternative to Midland should be good for the U.S. GMRS users.

I'm not anti-Midland but more options is welcomed, especially as it comes to advanced users who might want flexibility with tones, bandwidth and using repeaters.

 

[Datsun Man]

FYI the website is

https://gmeus.com/

I agree, having a major brand alternative to Midland should be good for the U.S. GMRS users.

I'm not anti-Midland but more options is welcomed, especially as it comes to advanced users who might want flexibility with tones, bandwidth and using repeaters.

One of the key things I do like about GME over Midland is the place of manufacturing. For Midland being a US Company, the Radios are made in Taiwan and China....... GME on the other hand being an Australian Company has their stuff made in house in Australia! When you think about it, it makes more sense!

 

[DaveInDenver]

Country of origin is certainly a political point. But most of the radios your cops and fire departments are using are made in Malaysia and have been for a long time (Motorola, Kenwood, Vertex).

I like that GME has managed to keep everything in one place but ultimately the widget has to be worth buying in the first place so global manufacturing is less important to me. I've worked with domestic (USA) electronics contract manufacturing and our production is the same as China mostly, same machines, same process. Ultimately the design and testing upfront and after sales support are more important to me than who stuffed the PCBs.

That said, I think there's some room to bridge the quality gap between just slightly more than a toy FRS derived radio and full blown repurposed commercial radios, especially in the portable/HT segment. The GXT67 looked interesting to me.

BTW, Midland is ultimately an Italian company (C.T.E. International). What they offer in the USA seems to me a reduced catalog from what they offer in Europe, for example.

 

[Kingsize24]

Country of origin is certainly a political point. But most of the radios your cops and fire departments are using are made in Malaysia and have been for a long time (Motorola, Kenwood, Vertex).

I like that GME has managed to keep everything in one place but ultimately the widget has to be worth buying in the first place so global manufacturing is less important to me. I've worked with domestic (USA) electronics contract manufacturing and our production is the same as China mostly, same machines, same process. Ultimately the design and testing upfront and after sales support are more important to me than who stuffed the PCBs.

That said, I think there's some room to bridge the quality gap between just slightly more than a toy FRS derived radio and full blown repurposed commercial radios, especially in the portable/HT segment. The GXT67 looked interesting to me.

BTW, Midland is ultimately an Italian company (C.T.E. International). What they offer in the USA seems to me a reduced catalog from what they offer in Europe, for example.

I'm curious about the mental leap one would have to take to believe "country of origin" would be a political point? 🤔

 

[Datsun Man]

I'm curious about the mental leap one would have to take to believe "country of origin" would be a political point? 🤔

For me it's more of is the worker making said product getting a fair wage with benefits? It may be different for each country, but I am aware that China doesn't exactly have the best wages and benefits for all. Part of why you see a bunch of cheap knockoffs there.

 

[Kingsize24]

For me it's more of is the worker making said product getting a fair wage with benefits? It may be different for each country, but I am aware that China doesn't exactly have the best wages and benefits for all. Part of why you see a bunch of cheap knockoffs there.

Agreed, there are a number of reasons someone would pick a different country than China for a consumer product. Fair wage practices being one of many.

 

[DaveInDenver]

I'm curious about the mental leap one would have to take to believe "country of origin" would be a political point? 🤔

I guess I'm confused then since asking about country of origin is usually a question workers rights and environment not a technical one. Perhaps intellectual property theft straddles both. The actual quality of what they make varies too much from world class to pure crap to make a blanket assumption. Depends on what the contract demands. I prefer to steer clear of Chinese-made but it's too often not an option with electronics.

 

[Datsun Man2]

On my second account here for reasons, but I can say that I now have the GME XRS-330COB-U Outback Value Pack. I switched to this coming from the Midland MXT575(50 Watt)with a Highland Antenna(3Db).



When I opened the box to look at everything included in the Value Pack, I can say that I was happy. The Unit, Mic and Antenna has some way to say it was made in Australia vs Midland being made in China.







Today I took it upon myself to install it today. With the time it took to remove the old Midland, I'd say it took between 2.5-3 hours to complete.

I started with the Antenna first. Instead of having it mounted to the Bull Bar like most, I decided to stick with the Roof Rack. Thankfully I already had the Frontrunner Antenna Mount at the ready.





After the Antenna was mounted and the cable was routes, I was able to determine the best place to mount the main unit. I found the center console of the truck to do just fine.



After that was installed with the Antenna and Power attached, it was time to hook up the Mic and get things going.



Running through the Radio I found it to be a bit nicer compared to Midland. A wider range of the Volume Control. A display that doesn't try to mess with the eyes as much. A control panel that's fairly easy to understand. I did a radio check and one individual nearby was able to hear me clearly and respond well. I was actually impressed.

Later I took time to setup the privacy channels for the Front Range GMRS Repeaters. To say the least it was very nice. Unlike Midland where they do a 1-99 for the privacy code and a book to interpret, GME simply shows the exact privacy code on the display during setup. It was actually nice! I can also say that this radio is very clean and clear vs the Midland that had the most legal available power.

All in all I can say that it is a nice radio and worth the price. Even though the radio only has 5 Watts, it's an impressive 5 Watts. Definitely worth the cost

 

[kb1ejh]

Picked one up at Expo East. Mixed reviews so far. They have some great ideas and it is great to see something other than the other big marketing brand for a choice. They still have bugs in them that cause some disappointment.

The app seems good until you try to interface it with the radio. It will change the priority channel from what you had set in the radio or the app to a different channel, and at times to a non corresponding channel. The app says you can have 2 priority channels but only 1 shows up in the radio and again, not in the correct location so you need to manually change it.

The CTCSS set up is pretty good and pretty bad. The good is that you can toggle between the CTCSS frequency and the "privacy code number". So if someone doesn't know that code 22 is 141.3, all you need to do is toggle it over and vice versa. That's a good move. The bad is that if you turn on the CTCSS/DCS on the transmit, it is on both transmit and receive even if you have it set to "OFF" on the RX side. I am trying to get them to understand that the off is not off but customer service doesn't seem to be too well established yet...

Overall it seems like a better choice than what is out there for GMRS radios. I was able to program and use the radio without any manual and the remote head/controller has an intuitive menu in it. The zones are a good concept if you travel to different areas. You can set a priority channel for the zones but the scan list is pretty much universal. The good part is the nuisance channel delete works pretty good. The net scan is another great option for group rides. It would be nice to actually drop the power from 5W down to 1W manually but there are those that are fixated with using high power when there is really no need. I don't see many users using most of the features in the radio but if the radio has it, I tend to try all the features. I feel it helps justify the cost of the product if I can use everything they say it can do.

 

[Datsun Man2]

You are not wrong about the app. That is definitely buggy.

With that said the CCTS is always a RX and TX for just one code. DCS is individual based. That is normal for FRS and GMRS at least

 

[kb1ejh]

You are not wrong about the app. That is definitely buggy.

With that said the CCTS is always a RX and TX for just one code. DCS is individual based. That is normal for FRS and GMRS at least

The single tone is normal for the cheaper FRS and GMRS radios. The higher end radios usually can do split tones for repeaters. The GME rep indicated that the radios will do a split tone for those repeaters that take them. Some repeaters still have a tone only on the input but don't put out a tone, hence the need to have open or carrier squelch. GME radios have 2 settings for the tones one for TX and one for RX so I am assuming that it was their intent. Hopefully they will acknowledge the issue and let me know. I'll report back if I find out anything.

 

[Datsun Man2]

Remember that CCTS is not a split tone type privacy tone. DCS is a split tone type privacy tone. I have a cheap set of FRS Midland Hand Held radios that can use both. My Midland. MXT275 and MCT575 were able to use both CCTS and DCS. When in CCTS it was a single tone regardless. When in DCS it was a split tone for TX and RX. It was something I had to take time to learn.

With GME it is the same rule. If you use CCTS the. You are not using split tone. If you are using DCS then you are using split tone.