Cruisertrash
Rising Sun Member
The 115 also has a speaker output, though I don't know about switching. Incidentally the Midland speaker fits above the glove box of a 60, directly underneath the unused speaker grille in the dash.
GMRS Options?
- Thread starter PVCsnorkel
- Start date
PVCsnorkel
Lifted
I ordered a 115 and it surprisingly came in time for the Train trip this weekend. Fits nicely on the bottom of the dash and the speaker is plenty loud. I didn't have time to hard wire it yet, but that will be coming.
DouglasVB
Rising Sun Member
Does anyone have experience with non-Midland GMRS mobile radios?
It looks like there are several Chinese brands gaining market share and a variety of USA-based companies selling rebadged private level Chinese radios.
I'm particularly interested in units where I could stuff the main body under the seat and have the faceplate mounted somewhere on the dash. Or with the interface entirely in the microphone.
It looks like there are several Chinese brands gaining market share and a variety of USA-based companies selling rebadged private level Chinese radios.
I'm particularly interested in units where I could stuff the main body under the seat and have the faceplate mounted somewhere on the dash. Or with the interface entirely in the microphone.
This one gets a lot of positive reviews:
The FTM-6000 is a HAM Radio, not GMRS
Rugged Radio has several options for GMRS
Overland and Jeep Radio Communications
Rugged Radios offers communications for any environment including offroad, UTV, Jeep, Bronco, Tundra, Tacoma, Raptor, F-Series, racing, motorcycle, dirt bike, industrial, fire, and aviation. Products include business band and GMRS two way radios, intercoms, air pumpers, GPS, helmet and headset...
www.ruggedradios.com
RDub
Locked
This Wouxun mobile unit gets great reviews.
www.buytwowayradios.com
Wouxun KG-1000G Plus GMRS Base/Mobile Two Way Radio
The Wouxun KG-1000G Plus takes the GMRS experience beyond limited capabilities of the typical GMRS transceiver, and without an exorbitant price.
BritKLR
Vice Commander
Hey Damon-This one gets a lot of positive reviews:
Looking for something this. Why do you like it.
DaveInDenver
Rising Sun Ham Guru
I'm not aware of any current production mobile GMRS radios that can run a face separation kit. There may be one just not sure.
Assuming you want to stay legal by using a Type approved radio and not modify a ham radio. You could do it the way I do, which is to use an older business/public service radios that carried a GMRS approval. There are many Kenwoods, a few Motorola and Vertex Standard that are options.
In my case I have a Kenwood TK-8180 that was GMRS approved and therefore grandfathered in 2017 with the rule revision. Kenwood sold a KRK-10 kit to split the face from the body. Realize that this is not a super simple option. You will need to program the radio, so a cable and software. That's after actually finding the radio and split kit.
But if you persist it's possible to do and you will have a reliable GMRS station when you're done. There's also a couple of newer Kenwoods that might be easier to find now, the NX-800 (I think that's right, should be basically the digital version of the TK-8180) perhaps, which wouldn't be nearly as far out of production.
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This one doesn't need a removable faceplate as all the controls and speaker are in the Mic.
https://midlandusa.com/collections/mxt/products/mxt275-micromobile-two-way-radio
This one is 15 watts, they also have a 50 watt unit
Very happy with mine
https://midlandusa.com/collections/mxt/products/mxt275-micromobile-two-way-radio
This one is 15 watts, they also have a 50 watt unit
Very happy with mine
DouglasVB
Rising Sun Member
I've considered this but Google search is so horrible for me now that I've found very little info on unlocking newer radios. I've found a little on pre -2019 radios but since then only some forum posts saying it can't be done etc etc. I suspect I'm not finding the right forums that discuss this.
Yes I've considered this! It looks like a viable option for me although I haven't found much good/reliable info when googling because Google suddenly sucks for me. Can the CTCSS tones be programmed in? And repeaters, etc? Can it be setup so you can adjust repeater settings and whatnot without needing a computer (like when driving across the country)?
I've thought about getting something like that Kenwood radio as my UHF/VHF rig as well. My uncle has used one in the past with good results but only for VHF. Did they make dual band versions of these business radios?
Midland sells a few as does Woxun. There is even a CB radio with a remote face plate now. It seems to be getting more common I think because newer vehicles just don't have the room to be shoving complete radios in the dash.
DaveInDenver
Rising Sun Ham Guru
It's illegal to use a ham radio on GMRS. There is no exception to this in the FCC rules and no one in the club officially recommends doing this.
There's practical downsides with tuning the radio for the band splits necessary to cover both amateur radio UHF and GMRS, so just because you might be able to force the firmware to transmit GMRS doesn't mean the manufacturer populated the radio with the filters require to do it or tuned it during alignment for it.
Please just get a GMRS radio.
GMRS repeaters are easier to set up because the offsets are more uniform and there's only 8 input frequencies. It's really just tones that change. To that extent it can be a bit of a pain to change tones on commercial radios. GMRS repeaters are definite weak spot but it's not just with old surplus radios like this. There's not many new radios that can do repeater are all so many compromises. But also realize that GMRS repeaters are almost all private so you have to contact the owner for the tone anyway, which is unlike ham repeater owners who almost all make them open and all you have to do is search the Internet for them.
No, there are extremely few multiple band commercial radios. The ones that are use multiple RF decks, e.g. multiple radio "bodies" that one face controls. My TK-8180 can actually do that but I'd have to physically have a UHF body and a VHF body under the seat. There's two coax, two antennas usually, too.
Going with a "smart mic" radio like Ken shows would be a lot easier. Getting one that is repeater capable, that I don't know.
BTW, the radio you may be referring to is the Wouxun KG-1000. It's a dual TX GMRS radio. It's only GRMS but can do two GMRS channels at once and can split. I forgot about that one. Sorry.
Although this a case where the radio itself is probably highly capable. It receives NOAA weather, which is VHF, and can receive airband VHF AM. So I wouldn't bet against it being limited in firmware to only GMRS with other versions (at least of the base PCB) being made for other kinds of radios.
But just ticking a button or pulling off a resistor to make it wideband TX I would almost 100% guarantee won't work without changing filters on the board, too. Nevermind that making hardware changes negates it's FCC approval. You can make any changes you want in software, e.g. if Kenwood gives you the option to program a radio to TX on GMRS then it's legal to do it. Just not if it requires hardware changes or if it requires Kenwood (or Motorola, etc) giving you a software key (software "entitlements") to do it.
Introducing the Wouxun KG-1000G Professional Mobile GMRS Radio
A year ago we launched the Wouxun KG-805G GMRS radio. Its popularity confirmed for us that there is a market for high end, professional grade GMRS equipment. We\'re taking the...
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RDub
Locked
The Wouxun KG-1000G pretty much checks all of the boxes. That’s why I linked to it in my previous post. It’s not inexpensive but it does a lot. I also like the idea of the Midland radios that have all of the controls in the mic.
DaveInDenver
Rising Sun Ham Guru
You did in fact. Not sure how I missed the post but you are 100% on point.
The only thing I've seen is it might not fully use all the available bandwidth allowed for GMRS. The FCC requires FRS to be narrowband, 12.5KHz, while most of GMRS is allowed 20KHz bandwidth. A lot of radios only do narrowband, which makes sense to default to the common denominator if you might be in a mixed FRS and GMRS scenario. However if you're doing all GMRS having the full bandwidth is nice to improve signal-to-noise and some repeaters won't open properly if you're overly bandwidth limited.
FWIW, if anyone wants to double check me the FCC ID for it is WVTWOUXUN20.
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I don't know anything about it. Just saw on the GMRS forums that I watch that a lot of others like it.