No, Ham Radio.
My Dodge D3500 recently had a Wouxun KG-1000G GMRS radio installed in it. GMRS is not Ham. Prior to that, I swapped the MXT115 I have back and forth between the Jeep and the D3500.
So what, you may ask.
Well, radio is a bit addictive in some ways.
Which leads to this thread.
The last time I had anything to do with a vehicle mounted radio, it was a military radio. The PRC 77, to be specific.
PRC 77 radio (top) with KY 38 encryption device in Vietnam.
And that's to say that I know nothing at all about radios in a real sense.
The PRC 77 would jack into a vehicle mount, after which it clipped into a big whip antenna. It had great range, I thought, but according to Wikipedia its actual range was five miles. If that's correct, well that's really pretty sucky, frankly.
Anyhow, it was a giant sized field radio that could operate from your Jeep or truck or whatever. I called in a lot of artillery with the PRC77 from a ground mount and giant ground antenna.
When the kids were small, I picked up hand held "walkie-talkies". I thought they'd be really cool for hunting and fishing and, in fact, they really are. The entire time, I kept thinking that I wish I had a vehicle mount that would work with them.
In my naïveté, I thought that they were all "CB" radios. Nope, they're not. Not even close, as it turns out. CBs are in the 27 MHz range and are technically really low powered shortwave radios. No license is required to use them. The little hand helds, on the other hand, are low powered FRS radios in the UHF bands. They have much superior performance, apparently, than CBs do/did. As they're up in the 462 to 467 MHz bandwidth, they don't communicate at all with CBs.
And then there's GMRS.
GMRS is up in that range as well, in the upper range, but can go up to 50 watts of power. The little FRS radios put out a fraction of that. GMRS radios require a license to operate.
I had no idea of that until I bought a truck mounted Midland, the aforementioned MXT115. Reading the stuff that came with it (yes, I actually read the owner's manuals) I learned I needed a license. So, I got one, and a nifty call sign and all of that.
The MXT115 is a 15 watt GMRS radio. I had meant to get the MXT400, but I saw the MXT115 in a sporting goods store and assumed that's what it was. Nope, the MXT400 is a 40 watt radio, and as I was soon to learn, that's not the only difference.
Anyhow, the MXT115 was and is neat. Now I could call the handhelds from my Jeep or pickup. And the range was better. . on the broadcasting end. On the receiving end, it's incredibly dependent upon line of sight. Something in the way, it's going nowhere. But I was happy. I got 25 miles on it with one test, and that was to and from a handheld.
On the other hand, only getting 2 or 3 miles is pretty common as well, it is in town.
And then I went to Denver.
Around here, there's little radio traffic in the FRS/GMRS bandwidth. But in Denver there are piles of it. But oddly, I couldn't check in on what I was hearing. "Radio test" brought no replies. How odd, I thought.
Well, in looking it up, I found out that this is because the Denver radio traffic is all on repeaters, with programmed in input and output. The MXT115 receives and broadcasts on the same channel, which makes sense, but repeater clubs don't like that, so use "split tones" to restrict their broadcasting and reception.
Which caused me to learn that the GMRS folks in repeater clubs have all programmed their radios. In looking that up, I learned, after much searching, that the MXT400 . . . of that era (a mere couple of years ago) could be programmed, but you really had to do a bunch of workarounds to learn it. Apparently, actually doing it is really simple. Midland didn't seem to want people to do it, but it can be done.
And that led me to believe it can be done for the MXT115 as well. Indeed, as I frankly suspected, but don't know, that the difference between the MXT115 and the MXT400 isn't all that great, I was, and am, tempted to try it now that I know how to do it with the MXT400.
I have done it for my Wouxun KG-1000G, although I'm not quite sure if I did it right.
The reason, I'm not sure, is since then I bought a new MXT115 (radios are addictive) and it was easily programmable. And it now picks up repeaters that are far beyond the range that I'm supposed to be able to pick them up at.
Why did I get another?
Well, I received as a gift a unit built out of a small ammo can that makes the MXT115 into a mobile radio, for use basically as a camping base station.
And I do use it.
But using it meant that I had to pull the radio from my Jeep. That was okay if I was using the Dodge, but not the Jeep. I bought, therefore, a second MXT115, but that was right before they introduced the programmable model.
Fortunately, um. . . unfortunately, that one was defective, so I soon bought the programmable one. I love it.
And now Midland has dropped its MXT500, which brings me back to this thread which has been pending for months.
I really love my Wouxun KG-1000G, but I'm tempted by the somewhat more expensive MXT500 as it appears to be a radio, like the MXT115, that I can simply pull from my vehicle when I'm in town so that it doesn't get stolen, something that's a useful feature for a convertible.
Now, practically anyone anywhere in the GMRS radio world is on several GMRS Facebook forums and some websites. And, no matter what, you're going to get these conversations on them.
The new MXT500 just dropped, anyone getting one?
Argh, you dumb bastard, why would you buy Midland, you should buy a dozen old Kenwoods and reprogram them yourself using Subotai's Underground Programming modual from Ulaanbaatar. . .don't you know any better?
But I just want a good radio out of the box.
What are you, some kind of lazy slug, while when I had the Radio Rating as a Mess Mate from my service during the Spanish American War. . . um, anyhow, get some used Kenwoods from Bob's Country Radio Bunker and program them yourself.
But Kenwood programming sucks, Dave, you know that.
Sure it sucks, but Midlands are crap.
Why are the crap?
Because they're easy to use right out of the box, you ignorant sot. Why when I reprogrammed the radio on the Yamamoto in 43, say has anyone seen the Japanese Hentai Yamamoto. . she's hot.
This will go on for some time.
Sooner or later, you'll get this.
Skip GMRS, go for Amateur Radio.
But I want to be able to talk to my friends and family when we're camping and. . .
Oh nonsense, if your friends won't get a Ham License, they aren't your real friends. . .and you can always get a new family.
Probably all hobbies are like this.
Now, there are some super GMRS folks out there, particularly the folks who run the websites, so I may be casting way too broad of net. And they're super helpful. But this does occur. . .
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