Jeep Wrangler GMRS

[J.W.]

Keeping the mount would be very helpful. If I go with the 15w GMRS mobile unit (Midland MXT275), what antenna would you recommend?

Any 70cm antenna should work well for GMRS. As for recommendations on a mobile unit, I can’t really say because I haven’t bought one yet. I still just use a cheap FRS HT to talk to GMRS users. I’ll probably pick up the Midland MTX275 in the future. It seems to be the most popular right now.

 

[JeepNamedSarge]

Any 70cm antenna should work well for GMRS. As for recommendations on a mobile unit, I can’t really say because I haven’t bought one yet. I still just use a cheap FRS HT to talk to GMRS users. I’ll probably pick up the Midland MTX275 in the future. It seems to be the most popular right now.

Thank you!!

 

[Blue Moser]

A commercial grade radio like a kenwood tk880h or a tk860Hg would work great for GMRS. For less money and more power.
Tk880h is 40 watts
Tk860hg is 35 watts

 

[Downs]

Pardon this dumb, question, but I have a CB in my rig and want to switch to a GMRS mobile unit. Would the CB antenna work on the GMRS radio?

You'll need a new antenna, a CB antenna wont' be resonant on the 460mhz frequencies. As for reusing the old mount I would just replace it with an NMO mount as the majority of antennas you will use for GMRS will be NMO antennas. For GMRS use I suggest going with a business band antenna in the 450-470 range since that's where GMRS is. A 70cm ham antenna will work but is less than ideal.

Here are my suggestions for an antenna. I've attached to a graphic that shows the radiation pattern of different types of antennas and you can get an idea of what would work better for you in different terrain. Don't get too wrapped up in antenna length or dB gain. Higher gain or a longer antenna isn't always better in many instances. Even though a longer antenna might look cooler it may not be the best tool for the job at hand.

https://www.theantennafarm.com/catalog/laird-technologies-qwb450-796

 

[Downs]

A commercial grade radio like a kenwood tk880h or a tk860Hg would work great for GMRS. For less money and more power.
Tk880h is 40 watts
Tk860hg is 35 watts

I do love my commercial radios but it's hard to beat the plug and play Midlands. Those kenwoods would be a great option but you'll either need to order from a place that can program them or setup to program them yourselves. Not hard to do but if you aren't interested in messing with radios past mashing the PTT button they may not be the best choice.

I've got a couple of Motorolas but they're harder to deal with as far as programming, Motorola is quite protective of their software.

If you want to stick with the Midland brand I'd step up to their 40 watt radio myself.

 

[JeepNamedSarge]

You'll need a new antenna, a CB antenna wont' be resonant on the 460mhz frequencies. As for reusing the old mount I would just replace it with an NMO mount as the majority of antennas you will use for GMRS will be NMO antennas. For GMRS use I suggest going with a business band antenna in the 450-470 range since that's where GMRS is. A 70cm ham antenna will work but is less than ideal.

Here are my suggestions for an antenna. I've attached to a graphic that shows the radiation pattern of different types of antennas and you can get an idea of what would work better for you in different terrain. Don't get too wrapped up in antenna length or dB gain. Higher gain or a longer antenna isn't always better in many instances. Even though a longer antenna might look cooler it may not be the best tool for the job at hand.

https://www.theantennafarm.com/catalog/laird-technologies-qwb450-796

Joshua, thanks VERY much! This forum has great people like yourself so willing to help the rest of us. I greatly appreciate all the info.

 

[Blue Moser]

The one issue with the midland branded gmrs radios are that they are narrowband. GMRS is primarily a wide band service. While you’ll pay more for the midland for “ plug and play “. It will not preform as well as other choices available.

When it comes to programming a kenwood. I offer that service free of charge. Minus shipping costs.
You can spend 249 bucks for a midland mxt400 or spend around 150 or less for a complete and ready kenwood and be further ahead. I also build mobile/deployable repeater units for people.

Side note: I believe the newest revision of chirp does allow programming to a tk880 version 1.

 

[Blue Moser]

Here is another great NMO antenna for gmrs. I’ve been installing these on other rigs for people in GMRS.


Browning 450MHz-470MHz UHF 3dBd Land Mobile NMO Antenna

 

[Downs]

The one issue with the midland branded gmrs radios are that they are narrowband. GMRS is primarily a wide band service. While you’ll pay more for the midland for “ plug and play “. It will not preform as well as other choices available.

When it comes to programming a kenwood. I offer that service free of charge. Minus shipping costs.
You can spend 249 bucks for a midland mxt400 or spend around 150 or less for a complete and ready kenwood and be further ahead. I also build mobile/deployable repeater units for people.

Side note: I believe the newest revision of chirp does allow programming to a tk880 version 1.

The narrowband issue with the Midlands is an often discussed/debated issue over on the GMRS forums. Seems that most people find it to be a non issue in real world use with exception of some earlier MXT115s which didn't play well with other radios.

But I agree that the commercial radios would be a better option overall. If the OP decides to go that route he just needs to be aware of potential issues or headaches going that route. Programming being the big one even if you have someone else to do it. Some people just don't want to deal with it. They just want to plug it in and have it work, one of the reasons a company like Rugged Radios is able to sell a 25 dollar radio for 80 dollars and people still buy them.