Sidebar Sidebar
  • You can now help support WorldwideDX when you shop on Amazon at no additional cost to you! Simply follow this Shop on Amazon link first and a portion of any purchase is sent to WorldwideDX to help with site costs.

The truth about FRS and GMRS


Just depends on what you are looking for. If short range, great. If long range, forget it. Sort of a characteristic of VHF/UHF radios/bands. There are exceptional 'times' like with any band, mainly determined by propagation (and antenna height for FRS/MURS, VHF/UHF), but those 'times' are not all that common.
For some people they could be the greatest things in the world. For others, a complete waste of money. The same thing can be said for Dodges! (that ought'a start something :))
- 'Doc
 
I use mine with the kids for camping and for work with my son. We work on commercial jobs and you can end up quite far from each other. Come in very handy. With the VOX they are nice for hunting also. I have also used them while riding motorcycle.
 
They can be really handy for tuning antennas--one in the shack with the TX, one with the antenna to make adjustments.

I've also used them for catering jobs, and for big events at places I've worked.
 
there very nice when camping and fishing.i also have regularcb handhelds with
the extra long telescopting antenna from rat shack works very well but the
frs radio fits in my pants pocket without damaging the antenna.yes i like my
frs radio very much.its not a dx machine but it serves its purpose very well
 
Highlander, you are correct about the antenna tuning. I forgot about my wife and I using them while tuning my groundplane. Sure beats trying to holler back and forth and is real handy for keeping the signals straight so a surprise keydown doesn't happen while a hand is on the antenna ! LOL :)
 
our equivalent of your frs is our pmr446 often the same sets on a different band, oures do 350mw on rechargeable batteries or 500mw with fresh duracells, the makers claims are not that specific but they work way further than claimed over the right terrain, indoors or in heavily built up areas they are pretty poor maybe a few hundred yards or less, out in the open they whup any cb handheld easily in side by side tests, my best for pmr446 between two areas of higher ground is 25miles as the crow flies on 350mw both ways, yes you lose the signal every 6" as you move the radio but hold it just right and you make the trip, when you test them around town you would bet ya last dollar they would not work over long distances, get them out in a field on high ground and you could be amazed
we tested a couple of your gmrs radios from ebay, on frs they suck maybe a little worse than our pmr446 but on the higher power band they soundly beat our pmr sets and eat batteries for fun.
 
Sonwatcher said:
Highlander, you are correct about the antenna tuning. I forgot about my wife and I using them while tuning my groundplane. Sure beats trying to holler back and forth and is real handy for keeping the signals straight so a surprise keydown doesn't happen while a hand is on the antenna ! LOL :)
Click to expand...


Before I got my MFJ-269 I would set my HF rig to about 5 watts in AM mode and set it to VOX on low sensitivity.I would place one FRS radio on top of the microphone and take the other one with me outdoors to the antenna feedpoint where I had the SWR meter. When I needed to take a measurement I would simply ID and announce a test.I would of course find an empty freq first and hope it remained that way for the duration. Usually 5 watts in AM mode would not cause much of a problem anyway. I DID say USUALLY. :D

Oh,I forgot. We also used to use them when making adjustments to the broadcast antennas at the AM sites.In some cases the TX was a couple hundred feet away from the tower we were working with.It was VERY important to make sure we were clear of the tower and ATU when the other fellow hit the PLATES ON button. :eek:
 
<img src="images/smilies/set1/scared.gif" border="0" alt="" title="Scared" class="inlineimg" /> :eek:
 
Its not bad, distance from the rat shack to rat shack, grnd plane antenna is 20 miles, so far, just good to talk to a friend, so can't complain.The old rat shack business band radios are great, and I have 2 of them, so can't complain..
DOCTOR/795
 
It all depends on how you use them
frs are extremely short range
GMRS with external antennas can do quite well
MURS with external antenna can do quite well also

my blister pack FRS/GMRS work great for antenna tuning
(even with my antenna tuner)
 
GMRS might get you 12 miles, with a repeater subscription.

FRS definitely short range. Although during hunting season a buddy and I took a pair of Cobras along to try them out. Way out away from any noise sources you could go a mile maximum under normal circumstances. At one point we were blown away when we got over 4 miles out of them, truck to truck, my buddy in a draw and myself coming down a ridgeline about a thousand feet up. I could see his truck through the binoculars. No way this would happen near any power lines or RF like near town.
 

dxChat
Help Users
  • No one is chatting at the moment.


      Top Bottom
      Back