GMRS Question

[darjo242]

So after last weekends trip with members of the Rocky Mountain group from here, I am looking at purchasing a GMRS radio. Looking at hardwiring a Midland MXT115 into my Jeep. My question is this, can I use a HAM antenna to transmit/receive communications, or while I need a separate antenna for it?

 

[Prerunner1982]

Are you wanting to use the same antenna for ham and GMRS at the same time or swap the coax from one radio to the other as needed?
Two radios at the same time is possible but easier to just run an independent antenna, they are small.
If you are going to swap the coax between each radio as needed then yes you can use a dual band or 70cm ham radio antenna for GMRS.

 

[1Louder]

Keep the separate. The radio comes with a very short simple mag mount antenna that works fine for trail use.

 

[Sparksalot]

I already had the ham antennas so used them. I do have separate antennas however, I’m not trying to feed two radios into one antenna. I use dual band ham antennas for gmrs, because run what you brung. The swr is not an issue.

I do tend to swap them out depending if I’m at home versus out in the wild, due to garage clearance. The ones on the right side of the roof are the antennas in question.

 

[Downs]

So after last weekends trip with members of the Rocky Mountain group from here, I am looking at purchasing a GMRS radio. Looking at hardwiring a Midland MXT115 into my Jeep. My question is this, can I use a HAM antenna to transmit/receive communications, or while I need a separate antenna for it?

You could always look into the MARS/CAP mod for your specific radio. If you aren't willing to go down that route though then yes you can use a HAM dual band antenna on GMRS. Its not ideal but will give good enough performance and your SWRs will probably be around 1.5-2.0 depending on what part of the band you are on and how well it was tuned to start with for HAM.

As stated above if you are wanting to run both radios off the same antenna at the same time it will take a bit more equipment to make it work. You'd be better off just running a second antenna.

 

[darjo242]

I think after reading here and some discussion with a friend that’s heavy into HAM, I’m just going to mount a 2nd antenna and avoid any hassle or potential issues. Probably safer anyways.