MURS Band FM Mobile Radios?

The maximum legal power on MURS is 2 watts.

 

Mad Dog is correct. MURS is limited to 2 watts max, not 50.

Though with MURS, you are right about the antennas. You can run a slightly trimmed 2 meter antenna which is maybe 5 feet at 5/8 wave and under 19 inches if kept at 1/4 wave. I'd run a 5/8 wave unless you drive primarily in the mountains. Even on 2 watts you should be heard for a good 5-10 miles and you most likely wouldn't have to deal with height restrictions.

You are also right. With MURS you use FM which beats the pants off of an AM CB radio any day of the week. No skip to have to put up with. No cracking noises over the radio when lightning flashes or you are near a fluorescent lamp. Reliable communications all the time. IMO VHF (where MURS is) should be what truck drivers use for CB.

What's the "prepper community"?

I wasn't aware they made mobile MURS rigs. I was under the impression they were all walkie talkies. Where did you see a mobile MURS radio?

I don't believe there is a standard MURS channel/frequency for truckers. I do know that Wal Mart uses 154.570 and 154.600 (channels 4 and 5 respectively) for in-store communications between mangers. I also know that Wal Mart gets irate if they hear anyone but them "on their channels".

But here's the good news: the FCC has your back. MURS is free for anyone to use. Wal Mart uses a MURS channel that isn't theirs, though they "think" it is. So in other words, you can use that channel too. As long as you're not interfering with them, there's nothing they can do about it...other than find another channel, OR....get smart and figure out what CTCSS on a radio is.

 

No skip on MURS????? I've worked stations in the mid-west from New York.

 

Good conversation.....I've always thought we needed a LADD type system for truckers. But I've never seen a MURS mobile to be had. What about FMRS ? Same limits ? And tough for Wally, let him get some CB walkie-talkies to conduct his business on or he can break down and buy some private stuff.

jmo

 

You have what's known as tropospheric ducting on VHF where you can hear signals hundreds of miles away.

 

FRS is "ok" but the range on FRS is shorter since it operates on UHF. FRS is nice if/when you're inside a building. GMRS is also UHF but on GMRS you can run up to 50 watts, which might be what the OP was originally thinking of. The downside is a license from the FCC is required.

 

Tropo is not "skip" ... then what is it ??? There are actually several more types of "skip" on VHF+.

 

Not sure if it's technically legal or not.

But if you can find some older VHF Mobiles, they can be programmed for MURS pretty easily.
I have a Kenwood TK-280.
Kenwood TK-780 is it's Mobile Cousin.
Software to program is cheap ~$50.
(Some of the eBay sellers will do programming for Free.
They may not want to program MURS or might just program MURS on Low Power since it's 2 watt Max.)
Cable can be found pretty cheap as well.


Older because, a lot of places are going to different systems.
Digital, Trunking.
And Statewide Trunking Systems.
So they are going to be unloading their old VHF Stuff for cheap.
Newer ones would work as well, but will be more $$s.

 

Nope, can't be done. the radios have to be accepted for use as MURS radios, and there is an odd mix of modes that can be used with it and a mix of bandwidths through the 5 or so channels.