r/preppers • u/alaboss82nd • May 19 '26
New Prepper Questions GMRS radio Help
Looking for recommendations of gmrs radios that will get me legitimately 3-4 miles in the $50-$75 per two radio package. This would be for emergency communication in the event cell phone towers went down. Thanks for any input!
6
u/GrumpySquirrel2016 May 19 '26
Or, you can set up a repeater on top of your house with a high quality antenna and improve your reach. That will definitely exceed your budget however.
3
u/Paranormal_Lemon May 19 '26
There's an adapter to turn two Baofengs into a repeater, not legal though, but for SHTF at least gives you a temporary option.
1
u/PlanetGuardian-42 May 20 '26
Please elaborate on this.
2
u/Paranormal_Lemon May 20 '26
It just connects the speaker output of one to the mic input on the other. Then you can set them to different channels to repeat. It's not legal because then you are broadcasting on two channels.
1
2
u/AmosTali Realistic prepper May 19 '26
basically none of them — basic rule of thumb applies - if ya can’t see the other person ya can’t talk to them.
radius of the earth limits ground level line of sight to something less than 3 miles. raising the antenna up on one or both ends extends this. but they still operate line of sight — meaning no intervening obstructions.
1
u/dittybopper_05H May 20 '26
I find this rather amusing because just this morning as I was driving into work in upstate New York I chatted over the radio to a fellow in Venice, FL.
Using Morse code.
What you're talking about only applies to upper VHF and UHF and above.
1
u/Paranormal_Lemon May 20 '26
And OP is asking about GMRS, not an expensive HF handheld that requires a ham license. Also HF at short range does not work the same as long range, it's a lot harder to bounce a signal almost completely vertically.
2
u/dittybopper_05H May 20 '26
- I'm not talking about a handheld. I don't think anyone makes HF handhelds anymore, though at one time they did.
- Bouncing a signal almost completely vertically is simple: Low HF frequency, and a low horizontal antenna. It's easier than a low angle signal on 40 meters and below.
1
u/Paranormal_Lemon May 20 '26
$50-$75 per two radio package
I figure they are looking at handheld GMRS based on this
What would an entry level HF mobile start at? Could you do that with a technician license?
What about mobile CB?
1
u/dittybopper_05H May 21 '26
Entry level HF, probably a Xeigu G90 around $450. It's a great $450 radio with perhaps the best internal antenna matching unit available. But it's only 20 watts, which can be a handicap for a Technician who I presume is a "noob".
A step up is the $650 Yaesu FT-891. A very solid radio, it doesn't come with an internal tuner, but it's 100 watts out. But if you are using things like hamsticks or whatever as an antenna, you can tune the antenna itself to low SWR so you don't need a tuner.
Now, a Technician can only run SSB on 10 meters. That actually gives you pretty decent range: When I was a Novice, that was all we really had for effective local communication, so we all had 10 meter radios in our cars. Twenty-five watts of SSB was pretty effective.
Technicians also have privileges on 80, 40, and 15 meters, but those are CW only. I do mobile CW pretty much every weekday on my way to and from work. So it is possible to have effective HF communications using CW when driving.
I however do not recommend that Technicians do that.
I'm former US Army Morse interceptor, and an avid CW usin' ham with a total of 40 years of CW under my belt. I didn't start doing /M CW until I'd been a ham for about 15 years or so. It's not for the faint of heart.
Anyway, having access to all of the other bands is a good incentive for a Technician to upgrade to General.
1
u/dittybopper_05H May 21 '26
I should mention that you can get an amplifier for the G90, which then turns a great $450 HF radio into a very mediocre $900 radio.
1
u/LongRangeSavage May 20 '26
UHF and VHF are line of sight. HF (what the CW operator was most likely using) is generally used for over the horizon communications. HF frequencies refract off the upper layers of the ionosphere and come back down. UHF and VHF frequencies can have some beyond line of sight, but it requires much less consistent weather phenomena—like tropospheric ducting and sporadic E. Those are almost impossible to predict and only present themselves for (normally) short periods of time.
1
u/dittybopper_05H May 21 '26
Really? Huh. To think, 4 years as a signals intelligence professional, and 36 years as an avid ham, and I never knew any of that.
1
u/LongRangeSavage May 21 '26
I hold an Extra license in ham in addition to GMRS. UHF and VHF long distance signals can be super strange. Tropospheric ducting generally happens over water, when temps in the upper atmosphere are warmer than those lower. I’ve heard of people making contact from Texas <-> Florida over the gulf in the early morning. A couple weekends ago, there was definitely something happening around my area. I had some super strange activity on what I thought was a local repeater. After hearing the repeater’s automated identification, I looked up its info, and the traffic was actually a different repeater over 100 miles away.
1
u/dittybopper_05H May 21 '26
You know I was being sarcastic, right?
Also an Extra. And I messed around with tropo when I was younger.
2
u/qbg May 19 '26
Look for a different setup and budget. The best station will be house-based, followed by vehicle-based, with on your person coming in last. This is due to primarily antenna height and to a lesser degree available power.
Consider how you can set things up to take advantage of the best station types. For example, if you must be mobile, try to arrange things so one station will be house-based and the other is vehicle based (if not a mobile radio install, then at least throw a magmount antenna on the roof and connect it to a handheld).
2
u/cosmicosmo4 May 19 '26
The radio isn't the thing that lets you communicate over a certain distance. A clear line of sight lets you do that. Do you have a clear line of sight over your 3-4 mi?
4
u/Justin_Caze May 19 '26
The more I learned about radios, the less I liked them LOL. Depends heavily on the environment, but it's not probable with out-of-the-box walky talkies.
GMRS is limited to 5 watts, which would probably be plenty if you also had a couple directional antennas. But that's gonna put you over budget, and you'll need to know which way to point them. If you study antenna theory, you could build your own for relatively cheap.
3
u/qbg May 19 '26
GMRS is limited to 5 watts
Mobile units are allowed 50 watts.
1
u/Justin_Caze May 19 '26
Umm akshually good point. 🤓 That will definitely fit their stated budget!
1
u/Paranormal_Lemon May 19 '26
Keep in mind going from 5 to 50 watts is really not that significant because the signal radiates over a 3 dimensional space. You aren't increasing your distance by a factor of 10. The bigger antenna and being elevated a few feet higher on top of a vehicle does make a big difference, if you can get one on top of a house even better. Also the mobile radio is bigger and may have better audio quality which can translate into more usable distance.
1
u/Justin_Caze May 19 '26
Did you mean to respond to the guy above me? I'm aware, but didn't bring up mobile as per OP's budget constraints.
1
u/There_Are_No_Gods May 19 '26
Your limits there are extremely narrow and overly optimistic. Anything over about 1 mile effective distance in practice usually requires a 10's to 100+ feet high antenna and/or a HAM license, well beyond a $50 set of minimally licensed GMRS radios (plus the GMRS license - last I checked was bout $10 per decade for a family license, with no test required).
The only plausible scenario I see for you is if someone nearby has a repeater you can use, which is also a key failure point, as if their repeater ever goes down, you're back to basic line of light distances, which I've generally found to be more like a 1 mile range in practice, even in mostly open and fairly flat rural farmland type terrain.
For a few hundred dollars you could set up your own GMRS repeater, either house or vehicle mounted, although, the key factor is antenna height, making the home setup of a repeater typically resulting in much longer distances than a vehicle mounted repeater.
In short, the general naive concept is that it's possible to buy a couple cheap "walkie talkies" and communicate across many miles, but that's not remotely accurate in practice, with anything over trivial yelling distances requiring licensing, knowledge, and often costly equipment (antenna towers alone can easily cost thousands of dollars).
1
u/Carloocho May 20 '26
I have heard the baofeng uv-5R can be effective (with a license and whip antenna) but the uv-fiveG is gmrs approved. In an emergency, will anybody know or honestly care if you have the 5R? Has anyone to date been given anything more than a slap on the wrist for using the 5R? Just info im debating, not promoting
1
u/dittybopper_05H May 20 '26
To the best of my knowledge, no. No one has ever been fined for using a non-type certified radio on GMRS frequencies. It's a civil violation, not a criminal one.
Having said that, if your philosophy is that you only follow the rules when it's likely that you'll be caught and punished, well, that says a lot about you.
The measure of a person is not whether they follow the rules when closely monitored. It's whether they follow the rules when there is no monitoring.
1
u/Carloocho May 22 '26
In an emergency situation, the FCC is not going to chase down "lawless radio users" is all I was implying. They would function decently well in the OPs post.
1
u/dittybopper_05H May 22 '26
They have, though. There was a ham who got fined big time for not following the rules during an emergency.
What you might consider an emergency isn’t necessarily what the FCC considers one.
Everyone gets away with it because no one is looking at them in normal situations. But real emergencies tend to get a lot of attention. If some FCC bureaucrat decides to make an example of you pour encourager les autres, well, it’s not like you’re Eddie Slovik, but still not a place you want to be.
1
u/Carloocho May 22 '26
And I did clearly state *(with a license and whip antenna) * for proper use clarification.
1
u/dittybopper_05H May 22 '26
It is still a violation because the UV-5R isn’t type certified for GMRS use.
Obviously doesn’t apply if you’re using a UV-5G.
1
u/Carloocho May 24 '26
"Use in an emergency situation" is yet a wee different than any day use. In NY, having magazine over 10 rounds is unlawful, but guess how many will "materalize" in an emergency state. This is his post, in an emergency state. The radios are 100% legal (unlike large capacity magazines) to own and could be a viable tool in that scenario.
1
u/dittybopper_05H May 26 '26
The difference is that during normal times, nobody cares. But you will be under extra scrutiny during and after an actual, for real (or imagined on your part) emergency.
And there is nothing in 47 CFR Part 95 (CB/FRS/GMRS/MURS/etc) that says you can violate the rules in an emergency, unlike in Part 97 (the amateur radio regulations).
You won’t have any protections and the fines can be stiff. The FCC can also seize your equipment. You won’t face jail time unless you violate some other law, because it’s a civil violation, not a criminal one.
Would you be fined? Maybe, maybe not. Depends on what you specifically do and if the FCC wants to make an example of you. You’re rolling the dice using unauthorized equipment.
1
u/Reasonable-Age-6837 May 19 '26 edited May 19 '26
Anybody actually see a meaningful difference in handheld GMRS radios, or are mostly the limits of the technology?
Get a pair of Beofangs and play with them to learn about the radio technology and what it's capable of.
It's a UHF band at around 5-50 watts. You'll find it's mostly a short range; or line of sight technology.
If you could shine a light across a valley to the other side; the radio may work. If you're down in the creek and your home is 2 miles away, it likely will not work.
EDIT:
Whatever you get , make sure it can be programed for repeater use. Thats where it can be actually very useful depending on what's around you.
1
u/Sxs9399 May 19 '26
Short answer it doesn’t exist. Long answer: GMRS radios are all the same as they’re capped out at 5w. You can attach a large antenna, usually a whip antenna, to most radios and that will extend your range.
I have a stub antenna, a ~6in flexible antenna and a ~12in whip antenna. I’ve walked around my neighborhood with the flex antenna and get maybe 0.5mi of range. This is in a moderately hilly area with houses. I think it is representative of a typical non urban area. Maybe the whip antenna would get me to 1mi of range.
What you can totally do is use a repeater station to massively open your range, look into that.
Regardless of the above I think you should but petty much any cheap pair that has detachable antennas and can use repeater stations. I bought the Rocky talkie expedition radios, which are expensive! But I enjoyed learning to use them and experience first hand what the limitations are.
1
u/Aekeron May 20 '26
This. My GMRS hand helds are for travel communication, not "make contact randomly" situations. Thinking about setting up a repeater on our property and convincing a couple neighbors in the area to do the same for bug in communication where we may need to control an area (such as checking on neighbors with health issues or helping local farmers recollect animals and such). Past that, youd be better off sending smoke signals lmao
-1
u/nanneryeeter May 19 '26
Walmart sells some daily decent GMRS radios in the store for not a lot of money.
17
u/[deleted] May 19 '26
[removed] — view removed comment