Those GMRS radios look sweet! Man I wish we could make the move to that!
I like this unit...but would hate to give up the NOAA weather stations and P/A on my CB.
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Those GMRS radios look sweet! Man I wish we could make the move to that!
All micro mobile units have the NOAA weather station on them that’s way CLEARER than the CB’s. And I believe a few have PA functionality.I like this unit...but would hate to give up the NOAA weather stations and P/A on my CB.
View attachment 2045727
Nearly 7,000 miles later, I arrive back home in one piece. Now its starting to hit me.
You guys want to pay $70 for a GMRS license versus paying $15 and answering 21 out of 30 questions correctly? In some cases, you can test for free if you find the right club giving the test.
The HAM test is pretty easy. 10 year olds take it and pass. You can take practice tests on your phone for a week straight and get a passing score. There's no need to re-test and the license is good for 5 years.
It's tough to get clearer communications than HAM.
-end rant
All micro mobile units have the NOAA weather station on them that’s way CLEARER than the CB’s. And I believe a few have PA functionality.
But the famous words of the little girl on the Old El Paso commercial come to mind: “Why dont we have both?”
View attachment 2045816
Wouldn’t matter to me which way we went. If we could get rid of CB I would be up for adopting either one.You guys want to pay $70 for a GMRS license versus paying $15 and answering 21 out of 30 questions correctly? In some cases, you can test for free if you find the right club giving the test.
The HAM test is pretty easy. 10 year olds take it and pass. You can take practice tests on your phone for a week straight and get a passing score. There's no need to re-test and the license is good for 5 years.
It's tough to get clearer communications than HAM.
-end rant
Wouldn’t matter to me which way we went. If we could get rid of CB I would be up for adopting either one.
Yes, but GMRS requires no testing, family members can piggyback on the control operators license (if they don't want to get their own).
HAM was intended (quite properly) to be a Technical Hobbist's radio. Too many folks these days quickly study the testing, regurgitate it in order to pass the test and in the process...learn little to nothing. IF that is done simply for sake of clearer, farther communication than CB, then to me GMRS makes more sense. Especially for infrequent users and 'groups' needing only communication over relatively short distances.
Both systems have their place and appeal.
My bad, I assumed all the micromobile radios had the same features. I run the MXT275 which does have the weather functionality. 15W of power suits me just fine, unless you need the range of the 40W model, the MXT275 might be a better option.I'll look into it further...but the model I posted and have interest in has neither function.
I wish there was a way we could do a poll to see how many attendees would be for or against moving to a new standard. I believe the overwhelming majority would be for it. CB is already pretty much required for the event but it’s obsolete and useless everywhere else. Heck, it’s almost useless at HIH.
When I had a short in my coax this year and had to run to Durango to get a replacement, one guy at an auto parts store laughed at me and said 1970 is calling and wants it’s radio back!
I ended up going to 3 auto parts stores, 1 rv parts store, and finally a specialty car audio shop before I found coax. After all that it still sucked on the trail.
Communication was the only bad part of HIH for me, and it should be one of the best parts . Listening to chatter between the guys, especially @bluecruiser and @paflytyer is awesome. It’s too bad that CB makes that difficult if not impossible sometimes.
A lot of people do have both already . I doAll micro mobile units have the NOAA weather station on them that’s way CLEARER than the CB’s. And I believe a few have PA functionality.
But the famous words of the little girl on the Old El Paso commercial come to mind: “Why dont we have both?”
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Whats nice is that HAM radios can tune into the higher frequencies of GMRS radios. Thats what we ended up doing on our final runs. I was happy to turn the CB off.My borrowed trash radio (CB) died the first morning of trails so I ran HAM the whole event without any issues. Enough of you are HAMs that it made it easy. Andy was my trail leader a couple times and went out of his way to make sure important things were repeated over HAM as well. Everyone was flexible. I was even talking to other attendees running nearby trails which added a whole different level of safety.
All that said it looks like GMRS is what off-road events/clubs are slowly moving to and I see its upside for the casual user!
Yikes...I guess I opened a can of GMRS worms! LOL.
Glad you made it home, Enrique. You somehow beat @aaronrules home despite having 3x as far to go.