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Recommend me some family radios?

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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So I got a new set of those Gm30+ radios and both of these will find GPS in seconds. Even inside my garage under fluorescent lamps. I guess the first set I got were lemons.

A little side note, the GM30+ isn't supported by CHIRP. Turns out it uses the same software as the Baofeng UV17ProGPS, which is CHIRP compatible.
 
pmn357 said:
So I got a new set of those Gm30+ radios and both of these will find GPS in seconds. Even inside my garage under fluorescent lamps. I guess the first set I got were lemons.

A little side note, the GM30+ isn't supported by CHIRP. Turns out it uses the same software as the Baofeng UV17ProGPS, which is CHIRP compatible.
Click to expand...

On a 2022 GMRS thread a member said he couldn’t get his 30+’s to hit Potosi even w considerable ham experience under his belt.

Curious if repeater setup goes as easy for you as the GPS activation. I’m liking everything I read about the + and hoping the other guy’s experience was a fluke.
 
rpd83lv said:
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
Click to expand...

I Have a few of the older Motorola talk about's... don't remember model number. I was playing around a few months back and discovered that the privacy codes were CTCSS tones (most commonly used for repeater comms) not dcs. I programmed the pahrump repeater up and it worked.
 
rpd83lv said:
On a 2022 GMRS thread a member said he couldn’t get his 30+’s to hit Potosi even w considerable ham experience under his belt.

Curious if repeater setup goes as easy for you as the GPS activation. I’m liking everything I read about the + and hoping the other guy’s experience was a fluke.
Click to expand...
The son in law and I were trying to hit some repeaters the other day. I could hear him but he couldn't hear me. That was with my lemon radios so we'll see if these new ones work better.
 
CTCSS (Continous Tone Coded Squelch System) tones are standardized for HAM, FRS, GMRS, MURS, etc.
They are ANALOG system tones used to open the squelch circuit in a radio and allow it to hear an incoming signal.
Kinda like a PIN code at the ATM for example.

DCS (Digital Carrier Squelch) does the same thing in a digital mode.
Here are the CTCSS tones, notice they apply to HAM, FRS, GMRS.

1735588159422.png

And here are the DCS Tones
Notice Wouxon has to be a bit different!
1735588290845.png
 
NYECOGunsmith said:
CTCSS (Continous Tone Coded Squelch System) tones are standardized for HAM, FRS, GMRS, MURS, etc.
They are ANALOG system tones used to open the squelch circuit in a radio and allow it to hear an incoming signal.
Kinda like a PIN code at the ATM for example.

DCS (Digital Carrier Squelch) does the same thing in a digital mode.
Here are the CTCSS tones, notice they apply to HAM, FRS, GMRS.

…
Click to expand...
I’ll be darned, there’s more to my Talkabout Channel + Call Tone than a random combination my hiking partner and I agree on.

Thanks for the wealth of knowledge in these threads, @NYECOGunsmith. “For he’s a jolly good fellow”
 
rpd83lv said:
I’ll be darned, there’s more to my Talkabout Channel + Call Tone than a random combination my hiking partner and I agree on.

Thanks for the wealth of knowledge in these threads, @NYECOGunsmith. “For he’s a jolly good fellow”
Click to expand...
Whata guy! On the one hand, he thanks me, then in the next sentence he insults me! Jolly good fellow my @$$, I'll have you know, sir, there are those here who could and would testify to the fact that I could easily give the Grinch lessens in Grinchiness! :alien::devilish:

Holler if you have more questions, if I can't answer them I will find someone for you who can.

Safe and happy holidays guys, be careful if you leave home today / tonight, gonna be a lot of drunks on the road.
 
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