For over 20 years, our club has been using CB radios for car-to-car communications on road trips.
Since we can have 20 cars spread out over a mile in traffic and hills, with no cell coverage; range is important. CB sometimes requires a car in the middle that will relay to the cars in the back.

One member has suggested GMRS radios. Midland makes some GMRS that are similar in size and cost to an "all in the microphone" CB like the Cobra 75, but should have much greater range.
How well does GMRS work compared to CB? Is it worth the expense and hassle for everyone to switch from CB to GMRS?

We can save some bandwidth and skip the discussions about cellphones, cellphone walkie-talkie apps, Family Radio walkie-talkies, etc. We've tried all of them and, for our uses, CB was still the best.
But GMRS might be a worthwhile improvement. Who has used it?
Thanks!

 

Our club has been using the FMRS radios for about 10 years and we feel it is better than the CB. We had some members who did not want to drill holes in their car to mount the CB. The nice thing about the FMRS is that you can find a freq that nobody else is on. You can't hardly do that on a CB. Also we just clip the radio on the sun visor and it is then out of the way. Most of our members use Midland radios which work great. Midland claims to have about a 15 mile range under perfect conditions but about 3 miles is the best that we have ever done. It all depends on hills, trees, buildings etc. Some times we will have up to 25 to 30 cars on a drive out which will require a relay car somewhere in the middle.Our club will also use the radios for club events such as car shows etc. The radios are sold in pairs so everybody has two. Almost every drive out somebody will forget theirs which is no problem because there is plenty to share.

 

^^^
My original post had a typo. At one point I wrote "FMRS" when I meant "GMRS".
That's confusing, just corrected it now.
To make it more confusing, some GMRS channels can also talk to Family Radio handsets.

In your post above, are you saying you use GMRS or Family Radio?
We've tried Family Radio and it's very convenient, but range is even less than CB (with an external antenna), under most conditions.
Midland also make little walkie-talkies that operate on GMRS and those might work for some people if they have greater range.

 

We use GMRS in our club and the range is no farther than a good CB rig. I have a rig that can put out a good wattage range ( 5/10/20/35W) but I keep it set at 5W to not be a **** and mash other radios. The distinct advantage I have is an external antenna (hidden) and never have the batteries die as the radio is running on the car battery power. I also have a mounted speaker in the cabin to hear the radio and not rely on the handset speaker. My handheld unit is a Midland GXT1000/1050 Series. Battery powered and maybe a mile on a good day.

https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums...post1589862556

Elmer

 

Concerning my previous post, our club uses to Family Radio handsets. Most of the club members like it for the reason you don't hear all that trucker talk that you will get on the CB no matter what channel you are on. With hundreds of channels to choose from, it is easy to find a channel that nobody else is using. Don't know anything about GMRS, which might be better, but for now, we are happy with the Family Radio set up. If you find that the GMRS is the way to go, please post your results. We are always looking for something that is better.

 

Then there's this which is really good. Quiet channels to talk on and not listen to garbage talk.


Elmer

 

Our club uses GMRS radios for road runs. They work pretty well. Get the highest wattage available for maximum range. I use Cobra brand.

 

Our Corvette club uses GMRS radios and they work well.

A couple of us installed the MXT 400 (Midland) radios in our car and must say we were relatively disappointed in its performance. These are 40-watt radios and really don't carry voice as well as the 10-watt handi-talkies many use. We've tried several different antennas and all seem to perform about the same, so I settled on this one that doesn't require any holes to be drilled and is relatively obscure.

There is a convenience factor involved however by having a permanently attached radio and not having to keep a handi-talkie battery charged.

Good luck!

 

Not a fan of thru-glass antennas. They are absolutely not as efficient as hard mount ones....

 

A few members in the club have the rear mount antennas like yours, some have through the glass similar to mine. Quite frankly, the 10-watt handi-talkies do every bit as well as either of our 15-40 watt "mobile" radios regardless of antenna used.

I'm sure you're aware that power (wattage) and antenna effectiveness aren't linear as far as distance in both transmission and reception. We conducted quite a number of tests using different antennas and power settings (My MX-400's power can switch from 15-40 watts for example). Switching power from low to high increased transmission distance by less than a mile in our tests. The different antennas may have made a mile's worth of distance change as well.

Anyway, that was our experience for whatever it may be worth.

Regards.

 

FYI; GMRS is not license-free like FRS, MURS, and CB are.

There's no test to take to get a GMRS license; mainly as long as you send in the correct amount of $$... you'll get one.

 

There is a faction of our club now pushing GMRS. The rubs right now are licensing and requiring members to pitch the CBs as a number of members have them already. CB has performed well for us over the years and if for some reason we get spread out too much a quick cell phone relay works until we get back within a couple of miles.

 

Here's a place to get some facts on FRS Vs GMRS; https://wiki.radioreference.com/inde..._Radio_Service There are plenty of links off of this page also.

I have been using Two Way Radios from my childhood plus spending some time in Uncle Sam's Army learning how to repair them. Our club uses the FRS channels over the GMRS because the GMRS is limited to 1/10 of a watt output while most FRS radios will transmit using 1/2 watt unless you have one of the very new 2 watt radio's....and here i'm talking about Legal power without needing a licence. You can get a FCC licence for $75 (no test needed) and run up to 5 watt's on FRS.

Personally I use both a hand held from Amazon that works on 1, 4, and 8 watts; it's a ham radio that will tune to the FRS/GMRS freqs. I also run a mobile radio with external antenna when I lead NCM MiM tours; using this setup I can talk 30 cars back using 10 watts......it isn't the power as much as it is the proper antenna! setup. The major plus for UHF over CB is noise or the lack of noise; High Frequency FM is so much more quiet than AM low Freq CB....no contest! The down side is UHF will not bend or bounce over hills like CB will (if you add enough power). I still have two CB units in a zip lock bag that haven't seen the light of day in 20 years.....enough said!

 

I'd bet many are used that aren't licensed
(I'm a long time 1st Class RadioTelephone w/radar endorsement holder, now a General RadioTelephone w/radar holder)

 

Elmer,
This is my mount I made for my car.....currently showing my 1/4 wave base load for normal travel when I don't need long range reception. The 1/4 wave will tend to keep the signal flatter (on the ground) than my 5/8 Tram center load antenna. The 5/8 will pull in voice that people next to me are not hearing at all.....works super for long convoys; down side, it tends to whistles at freeway speeds. I also (for what it's worth) built a ground plane using 3/4" braided ground strap around the back window grounding the antenna base and also connected to Battery Ground. I know in theory one can get away without a ground plane on UHF but because I also can use the same mount for my Fire-stick (CB antenna), it does help cover the lower freqs.

Don't worry about 35 Watts reacting to the rear of your car; that isn't enough power to cause any damage at all....now 35K watts, different story. My mobile will go up to 50 watts but I have never needed to run more than 10 watts. If we get too many hills where we start to loose line-or-sight between lead car and drag, or close to it, it doesn't really matter how much power you have, that's were repeaters come into play. Years ago when out off-roading in the mountains I would take two of my handhelds and set them up as a repeater.....worked quite well when running a group up a long canyon with a lot of wench points.

BTW, I would get your antenna up a little higher to clear the metal in the rear of your car.....as is, you are getting some reflection off back end so your signal will tend to cover more to the rear than the front of your car.

Someone above made a comment about holding a Ham Licence; just to be clear, a Ham Licence does not cover FRS/GMRS frequency's, to run more then the 2 watts on FRS channels, a licence is available for $75 with no test needed. I doubt if very many people really hold one that are using higher power.....and as long as you are not a bucket mouth and tie up the channel, most likely you will never be tagged.

 

1/4 wave? Never heard of a base loaded 1/4 wave before. If that's UHF, that is not a 1/4 wave

 

We are using channel 7 or 462.7125 MHz. I also have a convertible. CB, channel 19 is 27.185 MHz.

I wonder if something like this would work better than my license plate bracket?
Problem is, how do I mount it on a convertible?

Elmer

 

Ken Horse,
I'm only repeating what the box said; I can't find the same link I used to pursed my smaller antenna from (it's been a few years) but this is the same (with a spring added), https://www.pciraceradios.com/produc...loaded-antenna At any rate, it is a base load type NMO mount and according to this link it is a 1/4 wave.

Elmer;
You are lucky having a rag top; RF doesn't reflect off cloth like it does with a coupe/carbon and glass. Browning makes great stuff....will it be a night and day difference over what you are using??? I would expect some improvement, especially if you can get the base on the same plane as the trunk lid. I have a fellow club member that is using a thin stick-on metal plate (something like He placed the metal plate right square in the center of the trunk lid and also rand some braided ground strap in a large "X" on the underside the grounded the strap to the mount and battery. He has a few more meters than I do to check antenna radiation output and says it looks good using a mag base mount.

Just as a note: the same friend did some testing using a handheld inside of a coupe and found a pretty good reduction in signal because of the CF roof and Solar Glass used in the C7 cars. Again, lucky you if you own a vert and using a handheld....your output will be better than your friend driving a coupe.

There are as many brands as opinions on the best antenna's and where/how to mount them. I can only go with my personal experience; I didn't realize how much better my 5/8 wave, center load worked until I was parked next to a car using an 8 watt handheld; I could talk to a car about 3 miles back when the handheld couldn't hear the incoming signal.....I call that field tested.

Be safe and enjoy the ride.

 

Well......if you read the cutting chart, for use on UHF frequencies (especially the GMRS ones), the whip length should be around 3 1/2 inches. As that is short for a true 1/4 wave at those frequencies, I suspect that loading coil is in effect to some extent. Either way, yours is way too long and I bet the VSWR is horrid

 

Incorrect Ken, my SWR's for all my antenna's are quite flat at 1.3 or less.....in fact my CB is so flat the needle doesn't move. Call it as you wish Ken, the fact remains that the SWR's are good and the antenna setup talks very well as tested in the field.

Enjoy the ride.