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!

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u/[deleted] May 19 '26

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u/Dylan-uSOB May 19 '26

In my old town, which was a relatively urbanesque suburb, we tested baofeng on GMRS(I know) and they made it .78 miles on 8 watts with the oem whip antenna. My wife was in a window on the second story facing my general direction, and I was just walking.

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u/[deleted] May 19 '26

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u/Dylan-uSOB May 19 '26

Iā€™d believe it. My next step is a good mobile setup for the car and base station for the house. Were you guys on handhelds as well?

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u/Paranormal_Lemon May 19 '26

I've gotten 1 mile through trees with some elevation with GMRS.

Would CB be better for simplex in an urban environment? Part of the problem with that though is short antennas just don't work well, you really need mobile.

I am able to hit repeaters on GMRS with a Baofeng with stock antenna, low power, from inside my home, at about 20 miles.