Convince me to get a GMRS radio

[sarguy1941]

I run the Larsen NMO150/450/800 from Antenna Farm on my JT. Its a solid antenna, has a spring and works great in GMRS and ham bands.

LARSEN

May be worth looking at. Personally I find antenna's by commercial antenna vendors to work much better than Midland, TRAM and Comet. I guess everyone will have a preferred vendor but I'm a strong believer in you get what you pay for. I also believe if the antenna is good enough for a police car or fire truck its good enough for me. JMHO

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[OHJeeper]

I run the Larsen NMO150/450/800 from Antenna Farm on my JT. Its a solid antenna, has a spring and works great in GMRS and ham bands.

LARSEN

May be worth looking at. Personally I find antenna's by commercial antenna vendors to work much better than Midland, TRAM and Comet. I guess everyone will have a preferred vendor but I'm a strong believer in you get what you pay for. I also believe if the antenna is good enough for a police car or fire truck its good enough for me. JMHO

That's a great suggestion... I actually found this one on Amazon as I was browsing @Radio Guy's suggestions. I'm going to give it a try (free returns, why not?). I like the 16" mast and spring, too...

 

[Radio Guy]

I run the Larsen NMO150/450/800 from Antenna Farm on my JT. Its a solid antenna, has a spring and works great in GMRS and ham bands.

LARSEN

May be worth looking at. Personally I find antenna's by commercial antenna vendors to work much better than Midland, TRAM and Comet. I guess everyone will have a preferred vendor but I'm a strong believer in you get what you pay for. I also believe if the antenna is good enough for a police car or fire truck its good enough for me. JMHO

I have several of the Larsen tri-band units and they do work ok on GMRS but the match in the 2m ham band is a bit high. They are only a 1/4 resonant on any band so on GMRS they are similar to a 6" whip which only costs about $12. These tri-band antennas are tuned more in the public service bands and they cost a lot more.

I found the COMPACtenna tri band scanner version works a little better than the Larsen tri-band on most frequencies and its only about 9" tall.

 

[Undecided]

In the past before AUX switches, yes:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B08CD6QDRC?ref=ppx_pt2_mob_b_prod_image

I installed a midland 275.

Heads up -
I could not get this thing above to work for me, even tried 2 of them. Anytime I plugged it in my 12v back-light would come on but nothing would power in it and the wire in spot never gave me power. Not sure if dumb luck or I was somehow doing something wrong.


Ended up buying longer wires and ran power through the driver hole and to the battery.
Mounted the GHOST on the hood with the midland mount. I have zero clue on radio tech, but I read that the GHOST was better for hill and tree areas and it "broadcasts in an arch" up and over things instead of the whip antenna it came with that was just straight out/line of sight. No idea if that is even accurate but oh well. It looks nicer to me.

 

[OHJeeper]

I like that mount!

 

[ShastaJT6]

There was some talk of roll bar antenna mounts so thought I'd throw my hat in the ring here. I'm running the Midland MXT275 with a Browning antenna.

I ordered a Tram NMO wiring kit originally, but ended up using the Midland NMO cable instead because theirs is made with a coax connector that can be disassembled easily to simplify the routing.

I haven't checked it with an SWR meter yet (I know, I know!) But it has worked well so far. Still working on sorting out interference I am experiencing from some of my LED lights but during normal daytime driving without the lights on it works great.

 

[sarguy1941]

I have to imagine your SWR is a mess with the antenna that close to the roll bar. You should have it at least 6" away from that bar at a minimum.

 

[sarguy1941]

I have several of the Larsen tri-band units and they do work ok on GMRS but the match in the 2m ham band is a bit high. They are only a 1/4 resonant on any band so on GMRS they are similar to a 6" whip which only costs about $12. These tri-band antennas are tuned more in the public service bands and they cost a lot more.

I found the COMPACtenna tri band scanner version works a little better than the Larsen tri-band on most frequencies and its only about 9" tall.

Agree but I thought he was talking about Weather Channels. For commercial LMR its a good antenna. On HAM its on the edge but my Midland is hooked up to the one on the cowl and works great. I run a second on my 8500 on my back rack but thats all LMR. I carry a 1/4 wave for ham if I really care to use it. Mostly my 8500 is scanning if its not on the local TLMR system.

 

[ShastaJT6]

I have to imagine your SWR is a mess with the antenna that close to the roll bar. You should have it at least 6" away from that bar at a minimum.

Would you mind expanding on that? I've got a lot to learn in regards to two-ways, would like to know the why and the how of this.

 

[Radio Guy]

Would you mind expanding on that? I've got a lot to learn in regards to two-ways, would like to know the why and the how of this.

There are almost too many things wrong with the antenna install to list. An antenna should be mounted in the clear of nearby metal objects and should have an adequate amount of ground plane under it and for GMRS about 12" square or round area around the base of the antenna.

When the antenna is mounted right up against a metal object for its entire length or most of it like the roll bar, it makes the antenna very directional in the opposite direction of the metal. In this case the antenna looks to be sandwiched between two roll bars and a flat metal plate which will greatly alter its radiation pattern in a bad way.

The close proximity of all this metal will change the tuning and VSWR of the antenna and in some cases you may not be able to get a useable match on the antenna. The range of this install would be greatly reduced and if the match is bad enough the radio may back down its power if it has automatic protection, or prolonged transmissions could damage the transmitter.

 

[ShastaJT6]

There are almost too many things wrong with the antenna install to list. An antenna should be mounted in the clear of nearby metal objects and should have an adequate amount of ground plane under it and for GMRS about 12" square or round area around the base of the antenna.

When the antenna is mounted right up against a metal object for its entire length or most of it like the roll bar, it makes the antenna very directional in the opposite direction of the metal. In this case the antenna looks to be sandwiched between two roll bars and a flat metal plate which will greatly alter its radiation pattern in a bad way.

The close proximity of all this metal will change the tuning and VSWR of the antenna and in some cases you may not be able to get a useable match on the antenna. The range of this install would be greatly reduced and if the match is bad enough the radio may back down its power if it has automatic protection, or prolonged transmissions could damage the transmitter.

This is really interesting, thank you.

I've used this setup to talk to other guys on road trips, and my thoughts were "Welp, it's working, I'm good!".

I think there's a lot more going on with these things than some of us realize - I only recently learned that an improper antenna setup could damage the radio, as you mentioned on your post. Its a no brainer that connecting to a power supply with the wrong voltage or type of current could fry it, but I had no idea that the wrong antenna setup could cause damage, I had just thought of it as better / worse / no reception.

Need to order an SWR meter and do some more googling. I keep finding articles / links about functional GMRS / cb use, but I need to learn more about the science and how it works to get that foundation knowledge. Thanks.

 

[OHJeeper]

Forgot to ask, what hood-clip mount is that? I've seen a few online but a lot of them complain of rust...

 

[Undecided]

Forgot to ask, what hood-clip mount is that? I've seen a few online but a lot of them complain of rust...

Midland's Mount here.

I didn't really look at reviews honestly, just bought the midland mount for the midland radio.

The antenna is ever so slightly lifted off the hood, so the only scratching spot I think would be along the edge. However, it's smooth there and on snug enough I am not expecting it to move and scratch. Guess I'll find out in a year or so though.

I'd say just some clear 3M would be all you need to prevent it 100%.

 

[Radio Guy]

Forgot to ask, what hood-clip mount is that? I've seen a few online but a lot of them complain of rust...

I believe most of the commercial brands are stainless steel including the set screws and they don't rust. Most also have a thin amount of rubber padding on the part that rests on the paint which prevents scratches.

 

[doc-ketamine]

Installed my 50W Midland setup … separate post here¸.

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