GMRS radio Help
Posted by alaboss82nd@reddit | preppers | View on Reddit | 24 comments
Looking for recommendations of gmrs radios that will get me legitimately 3-4 miles in the $50-$75 per two radio package. This would be for emergency communication in the event cell phone towers went down. Thanks for any input!
Carloocho@reddit
I have heard the baofeng uv-5R can be effective (with a license and whip antenna) but the uv-fiveG is gmrs approved. In an emergency, will anybody know or honestly care if you have the 5R? Has anyone to date been given anything more than a slap on the wrist for using the 5R? Just info im debating, not promoting
Sxs9399@reddit
Short answer it doesn’t exist. Long answer: GMRS radios are all the same as they’re capped out at 5w. You can attach a large antenna, usually a whip antenna, to most radios and that will extend your range.
I have a stub antenna, a ~6in flexible antenna and a ~12in whip antenna. I’ve walked around my neighborhood with the flex antenna and get maybe 0.5mi of range. This is in a moderately hilly area with houses. I think it is representative of a typical non urban area. Maybe the whip antenna would get me to 1mi of range.
What you can totally do is use a repeater station to massively open your range, look into that.
Regardless of the above I think you should but petty much any cheap pair that has detachable antennas and can use repeater stations. I bought the Rocky talkie expedition radios, which are expensive! But I enjoyed learning to use them and experience first hand what the limitations are.
Aekeron@reddit
This. My GMRS hand helds are for travel communication, not "make contact randomly" situations. Thinking about setting up a repeater on our property and convincing a couple neighbors in the area to do the same for bug in communication where we may need to control an area (such as checking on neighbors with health issues or helping local farmers recollect animals and such). Past that, youd be better off sending smoke signals lmao
Justin_Caze@reddit
The more I learned about radios, the less I liked them LOL. Depends heavily on the environment, but it's not probable with out-of-the-box walky talkies.
GMRS is limited to 5 watts, which would probably be plenty if you also had a couple directional antennas. But that's gonna put you over budget, and you'll need to know which way to point them. If you study antenna theory, you could build your own for relatively cheap.
qbg@reddit
Mobile units are allowed 50 watts.
Justin_Caze@reddit
Umm akshually good point. 🤓 That will definitely their stated budget!
Paranormal_Lemon@reddit
Keep in mind going from 5 to 50 watts is really not that significant because the signal radiates over a 3 dimensional space. You aren't increasing your distance by a factor of 10. The bigger antenna and being elevated a few feet higher on top of a vehicle does make a big difference, if you can get one on top of a house even better. Also the mobile radio is bigger and may have better audio quality which can translate into more usable distance.
Justin_Caze@reddit
Did you mean to respond to the guy above me? I'm aware, but didn't bring up mobile as per OP's budget constraints.
Mission_Reply_2326@reddit
I think the antenna really matters. I have an antenna on my car that I can connect to a handheld and I definitely have gotten 5 mile range out of my tidradio TDH3 Plus 5W. The antenna was a mag mount GMRS antenna I got on Amazon for like 30 bucks.
GrumpySquirrel2016@reddit
Or, you can set up a repeater on top of your house with a high quality antenna and improve your reach. That will definitely exceed your budget however.
Paranormal_Lemon@reddit
There's an adapter to turn two Baofengs into a repeater, not legal though, but for SHTF at least gives you a temporary option.
noone512@reddit
Or you can buy a radio that works as a cross band repeater like a tyt 8000d. Get a battery eliminator and plug it into your car
G00dSh0tJans0n@reddit
That range is overly optimistic depending on where you are. I have GM-30 and they can get 3 miles in mostly open terrain, 1/4 miles in urban environment. Might get 5 miles if zero tress going from hilltop to hilltop line of sight. That's pretty much the case with most GMRS radios without a repeater.
Paranormal_Lemon@reddit
I've gotten 1 mile through trees with some elevation with GMRS.
Would CB be better for simplex in an urban environment? Part of the problem with that though is short antennas just don't work well, you really need mobile.
I am able to hit repeaters on GMRS with a Baofeng with stock antenna, low power, from inside my home, at about 20 miles.
Dylan-uSOB@reddit
In my old town, which was a relatively urbanesque suburb, we tested baofeng on GMRS(I know) and they made it .78 miles on 8 watts with the oem whip antenna. My wife was in a window on the second story facing my general direction, and I was just walking.
G00dSh0tJans0n@reddit
I've had very different experiences based on location. Just a couple blocks (about 1/4 mile) in an urban area with Radioddity GM-30, but also about 3 miles though lightly wooded area with good line of sight.
Dylan-uSOB@reddit
I’d believe it. My next step is a good mobile setup for the car and base station for the house. Were you guys on handhelds as well?
G00dSh0tJans0n@reddit
Yeah just out of the box GM-30s. Overall they work good, but just need to know what to expect range-wise with them. I also have a Baofang UV-5R that can hit the local Skywarn spotter repeater so I listen in to their chatter on that.
cosmicosmo4@reddit
The radio isn't the thing that lets you communicate over a certain distance. A clear line of sight lets you do that. Do you have a clear line of sight over your 3-4 mi?
qbg@reddit
Look for a different setup and budget. The best station will be house-based, followed by vehicle-based, with on your person coming in last. This is due to primarily antenna height and to a lesser degree available power.
Consider how you can set things up to take advantage of the best station types. For example, if you must be mobile, try to arrange things so one station will be house-based and the other is vehicle based (if not a mobile radio install, then at least throw a magmount antenna on the roof and connect it to a handheld).
There_Are_No_Gods@reddit
Your limits there are extremely narrow and overly optimistic. Anything over about 1 mile effective distance in practice usually requires a 10's to 100+ feet high antenna and/or a HAM license, well beyond a $50 set of minimally licensed GMRS radios (plus the GMRS license - last I checked was bout $10 per decade for a family license, with no test required).
The only plausible scenario I see for you is if someone nearby has a repeater you can use, which is also a key failure point, as if their repeater ever goes down, you're back to basic line of light distances, which I've generally found to be more like a 1 mile range in practice, even in mostly open and fairly flat rural farmland type terrain.
For a few hundred dollars you could set up your own GMRS repeater, either house or vehicle mounted, although, the key factor is antenna height, making the home setup of a repeater typically resulting in much longer distances than a vehicle mounted repeater.
In short, the general naive concept is that it's possible to buy a couple cheap "walkie talkies" and communicate across many moles, but that's not remotely accurate in practice, with anything over trivial yelling distances requiring licensing, knowledge, and often costly equipment (antenna towers alone can easily cost thousands of dollars).
AmosTali@reddit
basically none of — basic rule of thumb applies - if ya can’t see the other person ya can’t talk to them.
radius of the earth limits ground level line of sight to something less than 3 miles. raising the antenna up on one or both ends extends this. but they still operate line of sight — meaning no intervening obstructions.
Reasonable-Age-6837@reddit
Anybody actually see a meaningful difference in handheld GMRS radios, or are mostly the limits of the technology?
Get a pair of Beofangs and play with them to learn about the radio technology and what it's capable of.
It's a UHF band at around 5-50 watts. You'll find it's mostly a short range; or line of sight technology.
If you could shine a light across a valley to the other side; the radio may work. If you're down in the creek and your home is 2 miles away, it likely will not work.
nanneryeeter@reddit
Walmart sells some daily decent GMRS radios in the store for not a lot of money.