The Golden Triangle (Beaumont, Port Arthur, Nederland)

The left (lower) antenna is the

$110 MXT105 - 5 Watt GMRS MicroMobile Two Way Radio - Off Roading Outdoor RZR Farm Trails Radio - External Magnetic Mount Antenna - NOAA Weather Alerts

MXT105. The upper roof mounted via MagMount is the Dual Band 144 - 176 / 440 - 470 antenna for 2m and 70cm (440).




The MXT105 is mounted and power is fed from the driver side. The passenger side feeds the dual band and I converted it to a SMA connector in side and hid it under the console so I just have this little nub sticking out. This screws into the antenna port on my

$63 BF-F8HP (UV-5R 3rd Gen) 8-Watt Dual Band Two-Way Radio (136-174MHz VHF & 400-520MHz UHF) Includes Full Kit with Large Battery

BF-F8HP radio.

 

What I was saying earlier is that you could get a TYT TH-9800 radio or something like that and get a quad band antenna, or just run the dual band and only do 2m and 70cm bands to just that 1 antenna up top, which would work for GMRS and 2m Ham.

I'm probably going to do just that, and since that will free up a spare

$110 MXT105 - 5 Watt GMRS MicroMobile Two Way Radio - Off Roading Outdoor RZR Farm Trails Radio - External Magnetic Mount Antenna - NOAA Weather Alerts

MXT105, 'll build a base station that runs off a small battery so we can leave a radio at the base camp and anyone who's there can communicate with us out in the parks.

 

But you choose either one to use right? So if your on a trail and some have ham and some have gmrs will it intercept to both, how would that work? Or better two have two seperate radios?

 

For now I'll keep both, and have the ability to have 2 going at once. In a way, it's like area chat (Ham) and group chat (GMRS - Walkie-Talkies).

But in essence, with better radios, such as a unit like this:
http://www.buytwowayradios.com/products/tytera/th-9800.aspx

It features Dual Watch.

Notice there's room for two inputs, a left and right side? You can setup Dual Watch on the radio, and it monitors two frequencies at the same time, and defaults your PTT (push to talk) to the last incoming frequency.

So it would work like this...

- Your TYT TH-9800 goes to just 1 antenna on your truck, the dual band one capable of 2m and 70cm freqs.
- You Setup your left side with 146.250 (or whatever 2m freq you want)
- You setup your right side with 462.575 (or whatever GMRS freq you want)

Jake radio's in on a walkie, the unit senses 462.575 and I hear Jake. If I key the mic up, it talks back on 462.575.

Meanwhile, Chris hits me up on 146.250, I key the mic and Jake can't hear me cause it switched to output on the last freq it heard, which was Chris on 2m.

--

If both people were speaking simultaneously, the "strongest" signal would likely come thru, which is probably going to be Chris on 146.250, unless he were really far away, and Jake was close (therefore transmitting a higher power into my receiver).

So, for now, the MXT100 / MXT105 are excellent, simple, and preferred for just straight up trail comms. Easy to work, easy to use, and I can toss a walkie at someone and they are instantly in the network with us.

I'd say having the ham, and being able to use vhf bands such as 2m would be beneficial in a convoy kinda situation, where we could get 10 miles apart and still have good communication.

 

Oh, and to answer what I think was your question, the way I will have it setup for now is:

My

$110 MXT105 - 5 Watt GMRS MicroMobile Two Way Radio - Off Roading Outdoor RZR Farm Trails Radio - External Magnetic Mount Antenna - NOAA Weather Alerts

MXT105 will do all GMRS comms, and I'll intentionally set my ham radio to NOT scan those frequencies. Otherwise you'd get a gnarly feedback when someone radioed in.

But would the antennas interfere with each other? In the scenario listed above. No.

 

I'll just call you on my cell..

 

A great option if you get service

I like the concept, but I don't want to make things so complicated it's not fun.

I'd say for keeping things simple GMRS is honestly the easiest, cheapest, and simplest way to go.

Ham is really just for nerding out and having a second way to communicate, with better distance. I'd always keep GMRS around because there's a good chance we won't all have ham licenses.

But does that mean there would be a ham-only super secret awesome radio channel? Yes. Yes there would be. It's 146.250 mhz

 

Fuck it I'll be running both radios

 

Why not tres??

 

Dammit I forgot I got the CB in there

 

Like a boss

 

I actually won't be doing a CB at all, with the better antennas the GMRS is clearer and simpler, no tuning required. Nothing at all against CB, but 2m + 70cm will cover my bases until I get into Quad Band and go 6m and 10m. Then we talking distance....

 

I will still run both I think.

CB is kinda hard to not run at like Jambo and bigger events where there is not as many people with HAM.

 

Lee,

Thank you for the great information. I'm fairly knowledgeable about the CB, well I thought I was, lol. You sir most definitely have a great understanding of the applications that we are looking for. I will have to get with you as I too will run a Ham radio. We don't need everyone in the convoy to have one but as long as there are at least two, one in front and one in rear we can manage.

 

How much clearer is the ham radio? Plus the more of us that have it the easier it is. Technically you need a CB liscense so not sure if it's worth getting the ham liscense? How can they track me down?

 

I'm with you and probably others

 

A good comparison is the quality of sound from AM to FM radio. Which is pretty relative because CB is on the 26 - 27mhz AM band and 2m is 146 - 148mhz FM, and 70cm is 440 - 470mhz FM band.

Here's an exerpt from a website that explains it best.
FM signals have a great advantage over AM signals. Both signals are susceptible to slight changes in amplitude. With an AM broadcast, these changes result in static. With an FM broadcast, slight changes in amplitude don't matter -- since the audio signal is conveyed through changes in frequency, the FM receiver can just ignore changes in amplitude. The result: no static at all.

TLDR: AM signals will generate a good bit of static while moving, speaking too loud into the mic, and while the antenna is whipping around alot.
FM signals just don't care, and filter out most of the static for a clearer signal that tends to penetrate objects better.

 

So I might be shopping for a detachable face ham radio. I was on the fence a few months ago about doing it and thanks for pushing me and I'm sure some others over

 

CB stands for Citizens band. There was a license required long ago but it's been dropped. It was never enforced anyways.
GMRS is essentially the walkie-talkie channels, and actually requires a license from the FCC to operate. No one enforces it, no one has ever been brought up on charges. It's like the CB channels.

Ham (or really Amateur) bands are regulated by the ARRL and often have people who server as monitors who are listening on repeaters and simplex channels. These guys are associated with the FCC and will very much come after you if you don't indicate your callsign when communicating (every 10 minutes during transmission and at the end of every call).

In fact, using beam antennas is a popular hobby of the radio operators in the area is to triangulate locations of people who are communicating without a license and visit them, or notify the FCC.

In other words, no one cares about CB, GMRS, FRS, or MURS regarding license.

People will scramble on Amateur frequencies.

Another reason is that fire, police, red cross, commercial (like ups), radio stations, and military use some portions of the bands you can access with a Ham radio, so intereference with these frequencies without knowing which ones you are on is a big deal. With the CB, GMRS, etc...you just have preset channels and you can't stray off them into someone else's territory.

A ham radio don't care, I could join a police dispatch freq and transmit.