CB to GMRS Conversion?

This radio maybe overkill to someone new to gmrs. The 999 channels is a sales gimmick. You have 22 channels frs and 8 repeater channels. So you only have 30 channels to talk on. So basically a person spends hundreds of dollars for the scanner feature. That's okay if the company is upfront and says that on the box and brochure, and the customer is still willing to buy it. But I wouldn't recommend buying a high priced radio, not knowing if the person is even going to like it.

 

The repeater itself generally doesn't reach hundreds of miles. Especially on UHF. Of course you could talk that great distance if you link several repeaters together. But that's takes a lot more $$$$'s to build and maintain the repeater system. That's why gmrs isn't going to be much better than a CB radio out in the open areas of the country, if you want to talk long distance. You will probably have to wait many miles to get to a big city where the repeaters are.

Now what about MURS? I think they are limited to 15 watts, but I'm not sure. I don't think there are any repeaters involved. But it is 150mhz vhf service, which sometimes allows you to talk great distances when the band conditions are up. Just like skip conditions on 11 meters. That alone should interest some truck drivers. Plus no expensive license fees either.

 

Good Luck on finding Repeaters with open access availabe to the public.

 

Today in the mail I rec'd a Baofeng UV-82HP and a BTECH GMRS-V1. Unless someone tells me different, the BTECH is the throttled-back version of the Baofeng. The changes were needed to make the BTECH legal. I will carry one of them on a few trips to see if I hear anybody. Can't really transmit without a license so I'll just monitor until the license fee is reduced

 

Well put, Deadwood. I wonder if those who are advocating replacing the CB with GMRS have thought this thing through. I haven't seen any evidence of it.

Many Hams have made the same points when advocates try to replace the CB with Ham frequencies. The old phrase comes to mind: Be careful of what you wish for, as you may get it.

 

Re the talk of "repeaters", I would never dream of looking for a repeater while using gmrs in a CMV. All I would want is clear communication for a couple miles forward and back. I have no interest in long range while driving. Keep in mind I don't really have a dog in the fight. I only bought a couple handhelds for evaluation purposes and amusement. I think it will take Herculean effort to convert old-timers. Worst case scenario for me will be to simply use the handhelds when I'm doing activities with the family

 

As far as mile or two communitation, we have that now, as far as clear, we have that now. I use a couple of Yeasu handheld on (Ham Freqs of course) with the GMRS Freqs programed into them on the ocasion, for coordination of events as needed, like training a new driver, or blindsiding into a tight hole. So they have there place.
For going down the road, I use one of my CB's, mostly I grab the old Cobra 21. nothing fancy, always works audio is crisp and clean, and never touched by the golden screwdriver crowd at the truckstops.

 

Yup Powder, I've had and loved my CBs since early 70's. Just trying to keep an open mind and explore a little. On the little experimental gmrs handhelds I bought, I'm hearing what sounds to be business use on channels 1 and 20

 

I have been into myself once or twice, tuned to .75 watts deadkey, swings to about 15 watts, clean. recievers tuned to about .35 Uv.

 

Side note:. Sounds like the fast food joint ~1/2 mile from me is using channel 1 for carry-out/parking lot orders.

I seem to remember taking some blister pack radios to Six Flags in ATL late 90's. Must have been FRS. Had a half dozen kids with me. I used to like that place until they allowed the thugs to take control