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Recommend me some family radios?

I use Signal Stuffs dual band and it works great on gm30, they are super flexible and can't break his website talks about shortening for gmrs but mine has worked great without shortening and I move it back and forth to my handhelds. I've tried about half a dozen mag mounts on the cars and to be honest (I know I'll be accused of crazy) but the little short cheapy from Midland workers as well as any on the cars.

Also I love the yaesu ft65 radio easy to unlock for gmrs use if you chose, great little radio for ham too.

Added link mxta-13
https://midlandusa.com/products/micromobile-mxta13-replacement-antenna-2-1db
 
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Working on the Ham Radio license. I have a Baofeng UV-5R to start me off when I finally get my Ham license.

Playing with it today and getting annoyed because I can't get these to hit any of the repeaters in Vegas. Uploaded a picture of the programming chart.

GM30 Programming.png
 
Here is one of the repeaters for mine

[462.650000/+5.000/250.3]

Your numbers are definitely different than mine for the repeaters, but I renamed a few of them.
 
Ch 31 is RX 462.700 but TX 467.525 (should be .700);
Ch 32 is 462.675 but TX 467.525 (should be .675)

In fact none of what you have on the screen shot is +5mhz except the Rat625 repeater. I forget what the PL is on that but if that repeater is up, most of Vegas should be able to hit from outside of a building. If you are inside of a building, maybe not so much.
 
I agree with titans response all your tx freq are incorrect except rat625. I checked my radios and plntones you have are correct for ch 31, 32, 33 I don't use other repeaters so can't confirm.
 
PL tone for the 462.625 RAT repeater located on High Mt. Potosi is as shown in the chart above, 141.3.

and just to clarify for newbies, that chart shows the frequencies BACKWARD from the way a HAM states them.

When we talk about a HAM repeater (and GMRS is the same) we state the frequency the REPEATER transmits on, and the shift direction (shift is 600 KHz plus or minus for 2 meters, 5.0 MHz plus or minus for UHF HAM band, and ONLY PLUS 5.0 MHz for GMRS) and the PL tone.

So, if I asked you to meet me on a repeater you didn't have programmed, I would give you the information like this for that 462.625 RAT repeater: 462.625 (+) PL 141.3.

This indicates that your radio should SHIFT upward by 5 MHz when you push the PTT button, and it should transmit the subaudible PL tone of 141.3 Hz.

If programmed correctly, when you hit the PTT, your radio would transmit the 141.3 PL tone on 467.625 MHz which is the correct 5 MHz UP (Positive, plus, +) frequency from the repeaters TRANSMIT frequency of 462.625, and when you release the PTT, your radio will LISTEN on 462.625 MHz.

All GMRS repeaters are a full 5.0 MHz POSITIVE (+) shift UPWARD, that means that the repeater LISTENS on a frequency 5 MHz HIGHER than what it transmits on.

So, your radio needs to shift UPWARD (+) by 5 MHz when you press the transmit key.

That software lists the higher frequency as the TX (Transmit) frequency, which it is, but it is the transmit frequency for YOUR radio, not the repeater.
That RX (Receive) frequency shown is the frequency the repeater TRANSMITS on.

I have no idea why some of these software programs do it this way, in the radio world (HAM, commercial, etc. ) we always define what the REPEATER does, what frequency it TRANSMITS on, and the shift and the PL tone (if required, not all repeaters will make use of a PL tone if there is no other repeater near by on the same frequency or one very close to it, there is no need for the PL tone.

PL stands for Private Line, a Motorola® trademarked term.

A repeater LISTENS on one frequency, and if it is programmed with a RX (Receive) PL tone required, when it hears that subaudible tone on the carrier from your radio, then it instantly couples the output of its receiver to the input of its transmitter and activates the transmitter.

If it doesn't hear the PL tone it is programmed for, it doesn't do any of that.

Some repeaters will pass the PL tone on via their transmit frequency, so that you can have your radio programmed to receive multiple repeaters on the same frequency in the same geographic area, but you will only hear the one you select from the radio's memory that has the PL tone set up for RX as well as TX.
 
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And remember folks, I can supply you with the study questions for all three classes of Amateur Radio License, where to take free practice online exams, and where to take the real exams, frequently with one of the LAUREL VE teams, those are free, all other VE teams charge $15 per exam.
 
Thanks for pointing that out!

An update for those who buy this brand and want to program it with the software: It doesn't automatically update the transmit frequency *unless* you use the dropdown for the receive frequency (I've been manually typing in the frequencies). And you can't specify the transmit frequency because it's greyed out but using the dropdown will auto update the transmit frequency correctly.

*sigh*

I hate this propriety Radioddity software you need to program the radios. You would think being a budget brand they'd make it easier to play nice with other resources out there instead of trying to lock you in.
 
That looks like the standard Bao Feng software to me, and it is a pain , easier to program the radio manually using the key pad and menu.

The Radioddity GMR30 is much easier to program, can be done in a couple of minutes using the keypad.
Learn to program any radio manually, in the field, in an emergency, you are not going to have the laptop and software handy.

OR pick up a Yaesu FT65R or FT4X and use the codes to open them up so that they will transmit on GMRS as well as the Amateur 2 meter and 70 CM bands.
Yaesu radios are about the easiest to manually program there is.
I own Yaesu, Kenwood, Icom, Alinco, Bao Feng, and have programmed TYT, HYT, Wouxon, etc. for others, the Yaesu is hands down the easiest and fastest to manually program.


 
I got a Nagoya rb-50 nmo mag base and it's been good.
 
I just picked up the Tidradio TD-H3 after some research. Your can program via Odmaster via Bluetooth, makes it easy

Some of the conversations on the local channels are “interesting”
 
Does Midland make any decent radios? I ask because I can get a deal on that brand

Also, NYECO you linked the GM30 on Amazon... How about the GM30 Plus? A two pack is $70.
 
GMR30 plus is also a great radio.
Midland 50 watt mobiles are solid radio's, I have a Midland MXT500 50 watt mobile, great performance, easy to program, solidly built, but not cheap at $399
 
Awesome. Me and the son in law bought a set each to play with. I might put one in my truck as well. I always had a CB in the truck in my teens and 20's.
 
pmn357 said:
Awesome. Me and the son in law bought a set each to play with. I might put one in my truck as well. I always had a CB in the truck in my teens and 20's.
Click to expand...


I still keep CB’s in my vehs for monitoring chatter and coms as needed for emergency or localized events. More CB’s and operators or potential operators on the road than the other radio options.

One of the best ways to gather real time boots on the ground intelligence when something happens. CB was Twitter before Twitter was Twitter ( or X).

https://youtube.com/shorts/g6pdngo6Yl0?si=QaK0lBs4FrpGUbJQ
 
OK quick first impressions of the Radioddity GM30 Plus....
The son in law and I both bought the two pack. Overall, they work pretty good. In Reno I think we were getting almost 3 miles range in town.
They are pretty easy to operate. After reading the manual and watching a few videos I can find my way around all the features. Programming on the laptop is very basic but not difficult.
In addition to the GMRS/FRS channels you also get NOAA, FM, and GPS. FM is cool I guess but why no AM? That's where the road condition channels are.
My real complaint is the GPS. Now first of all I don't know these had GPS when I bought them. In fact it isn't just GPS, it's the Chinese version as well known as BeiDou. No Russian GLONASS. If they didn't have GPS at all I would have bought them anyway. Fact is, the GPS sucks. At least on the two radios I got. My son's radios will connect in about 2-3 minutes. One of mine takes 20 minutes, the other one never connects. We tested this with all four radios running exactly the same settings, all set out on the deck under a clear blue sky. Once the radios get GPS you should be able to transmit your coordinates to other radios. We never got this feature to work.

For the price its hard to complain. All the other features work well, decent range, good battery life, dirt cheap.
 
AM reception would add a good bit of circuitry, and AM stations are a dying breed, while they do use less bandwidth, their audio quality isn't that good and they are more susceptible to manmade noise, like power line noise, older car ignition and alternator noise (FORDS!), plasma TV's etc. So that's probably why it isn't in there.
Also, in FM mode the data rate is higher, so no advantage to AM there.

Even the top of the line Yaesu, Kenwood, Alinco and ICom hand helds generally don't have AM capability.

As for the GPS feature, probably a faulty circuit, software or a piss poor antenna, that's the usual problem with GPS under clear skies, send them back and demand either your money back or one that all the features work.
It should work as advertised, the folks here in Pahrump who use the GPS have had no problems with theirs as far as I know, at least the ones I have asked about it haven't had any issues.
 
I was on Motorola Talkabout T265s today. My dad AA5BM got a 4-pack for my family years ago before I knew there was something between his ham license and FRS. And I didn’t even know FRS was FRS then.

I was in their manual today looking for instructions on handsfree/vox usage and I realized they have FRS+GMRS capability.

Anyway, someone was doing a comms check on 462.6250 (ch 18 on my unit), and it was clear as day. Super cool! I didn’t write down the call sign before the conversation ended.

I plan on picking up the GMRS license pretty soon and will get some units with a little more programmability.
 
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