BigDaveZJ
Adventurer
I've used CBs for 20 years or so and have always been a bit disappointed. I've tuned antennas and all that, but never bothered with doing anything further than that. They work great on trail rides, everybody has one, no license, low cost of admission. I had looked for a while into getting a Ham license, and probably still will eventually, but have been quite happy with GMRS so far in my specific situation.
My family owns 10 acres in the mountains of CO, and we wanted a way to communicate while we are up there as cell phone coverage is non-existent. We also wanted to be able to travel off the land and still be in contact with those at the land. My dad wants to spend some time hunting up there and him having a way to get ahold of someone back at camp would be very nice. I started by purchasing the Midland GXT1000 handhelds and getting my GMRS license. The GMRS license is easy because it covers my whole family, not just me. And the cost of admission is pretty low. We have used 4 of the GXT1000 units now and I am quite impressed with their range and quality. Range is obviously a finicky thing, but I have tested the handhelds to be reliable for comms within 3-4 miles through hills and trees, and up to 10 miles with light obstruction. My main concern with the handheld units at this time is battery life. They do not seem to last very long, and they take quite a while to recharge. Another issue specific to my situation is I don't have a simple way to recharge them right now, but will be resolving that by adding a 12v outlet into my RV so that I can easily charge them with the docking station they come with. We usually only run our RV on 12v, so the 110v outlets are dead and won't charge the radios. That is 100% an issue on my end and has nothing to do with the radios themselves.
With how well the handhelds have worked for us so far, we will be expanding our GMRS arsenal. Last night I ordered the MXT115 with the tractor bundle to mount to our camper. I plan to mount the antenna to the ladder on the back of the 5th wheel to get it as high in the air as possible. I expect our ability to communicate from the camper to handhelds and vice versa will improve over the handheld to handheld we have been using. I'm looking forward to see how much it actually improves.
Once we test out the "base unit" and get a feel for its performance, we will likely purchase MXT275s and appropriate antenna combos for our vehicles. We'll still keep CBs in them, but as my wife and I each have modified Jeeps as well as a tow rig, we will probably end up using the GMRS to communicate with each other and then CBs for communicating with those in the group who don't have GMRS.
So far I have found GMRS to be a lot less intimidating than Ham, and easier/cheaper to get started. I am not in any way saying that Ham is an inferior system or anything like that, and I am by no means an expert in any of this. Just wanted to share my experience so far with GMRS when I have 7+ people needing to have access to a radio system where CB doesn't seem to quite cut it.
My family owns 10 acres in the mountains of CO, and we wanted a way to communicate while we are up there as cell phone coverage is non-existent. We also wanted to be able to travel off the land and still be in contact with those at the land. My dad wants to spend some time hunting up there and him having a way to get ahold of someone back at camp would be very nice. I started by purchasing the Midland GXT1000 handhelds and getting my GMRS license. The GMRS license is easy because it covers my whole family, not just me. And the cost of admission is pretty low. We have used 4 of the GXT1000 units now and I am quite impressed with their range and quality. Range is obviously a finicky thing, but I have tested the handhelds to be reliable for comms within 3-4 miles through hills and trees, and up to 10 miles with light obstruction. My main concern with the handheld units at this time is battery life. They do not seem to last very long, and they take quite a while to recharge. Another issue specific to my situation is I don't have a simple way to recharge them right now, but will be resolving that by adding a 12v outlet into my RV so that I can easily charge them with the docking station they come with. We usually only run our RV on 12v, so the 110v outlets are dead and won't charge the radios. That is 100% an issue on my end and has nothing to do with the radios themselves.
With how well the handhelds have worked for us so far, we will be expanding our GMRS arsenal. Last night I ordered the MXT115 with the tractor bundle to mount to our camper. I plan to mount the antenna to the ladder on the back of the 5th wheel to get it as high in the air as possible. I expect our ability to communicate from the camper to handhelds and vice versa will improve over the handheld to handheld we have been using. I'm looking forward to see how much it actually improves.
Once we test out the "base unit" and get a feel for its performance, we will likely purchase MXT275s and appropriate antenna combos for our vehicles. We'll still keep CBs in them, but as my wife and I each have modified Jeeps as well as a tow rig, we will probably end up using the GMRS to communicate with each other and then CBs for communicating with those in the group who don't have GMRS.
So far I have found GMRS to be a lot less intimidating than Ham, and easier/cheaper to get started. I am not in any way saying that Ham is an inferior system or anything like that, and I am by no means an expert in any of this. Just wanted to share my experience so far with GMRS when I have 7+ people needing to have access to a radio system where CB doesn't seem to quite cut it.
You can build a repeater for your camper (
