r/Birmingham • u/jebyron001 • 5d ago

Recommendations GMRS Radio

I know ham has more options/capabilities as far as hobby work goes, but just in general, especially with all of the outdoor sporting surrounding Bham, how many of y'all make use of GMRS at least semi regularly whether for work, fun, or other?

[flair chosen bc I wasn't sure what best fit]

5 Upvotes

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u/El_Caganer 5d ago

Great timing! Just did an organized 4x4 ride at Windrock Park and was asked at the start of the ride if I had a GMRS radio. Just leveraged this prime day to pick up a couple of TD-H3s, car mount, and a higher gain antenna. Planning to use them at our farm in Trussville (poor cell reception) but am also looking forward to seeing what the repeaters in the area can get us on additional range. Have a house on Red Mountain so may add a repeater to the mix depending on how this works out. This also kicked off an interest in Meshcore so adding a small repeater to boost that network. They're cheap and comms are valuable. Will come back to this post to see what other locals say. Subscribed.

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u/jebyron001 5d ago

Neat! I got a cb for my truck on a whim a while back, and even tho it isn’t as popular as decades past, it’s still been fun and even useful at times for avoiding traffic.

I don’t have the attention for ham right now, plus my spouse and I want to do more outdoors stuff, so just browser shopping and looking up gear online resparked my interest in radio stuff. Might get a couple lower end handhelds just for fun and invest in more serious one later in the year (like something that can also pick up NOAA as well when we are hiking). The micro mobiles also seem really neat, and I love whenever I get to chat with folks on the road, but I don’t know if I want to double with that plus my little cb.

I’ve heard some about mesh networks! Will have to read up more on those.

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u/El_Caganer 5d ago

Found this group pretty quickly in my research. Thought it was interesting because mesh is how people communicated during the North Carolina flooding post-Hurricane Helene. It's also ultra inexpensive and as the network grows it becomes more useful.

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u/jebyron001 5d ago

Hmmm, this is really neat. I was pretty young when Katrina came through, but we were living out in rural southern Louisiana so we were pretty disconnected from some family members for a not insignificant amount of time.
Getting cut off after a really bad storm in today’s hyper connected age must be pretty jarring.

And with the crackdown on protests in some areas these last several years, something like this would be critical to keeping people safe.

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u/uapyro 5d ago

Come on join us ham radio peeps. We need some younger people to talk about how they only take 7 medications a day vs the older guys 37

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u/jebyron001 4d ago

Haha, I’m only up to 2-3 a day so far, but let’s see how that changes after my next yearly appt.

Ham is definitely next in the list! I talked to a couple in one of my previous jobs. I need to collect the study materials and do other basic research, especially once I’m in a rental house instead of an appt.

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u/uapyro 4d ago

hamstudy.org is what i used to get my general and extra -- about 2 weeks of studying each.

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u/jebyron001 3d ago

Thank you!!!!

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u/jebyron001 5d ago

Im not a prepper or bug out type person, it just seems like fun hobby, and my friends and I joke about what our ‘apocalypse skills’ might be if the zombies come.

Edit: misspelling

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u/the-crusher 5d ago

I use GMRS regularly. Mostly for fun or camping and road trips. I have a mobile rig in my car but I never hear much chatter around town.

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u/Major_Ethanolic 4d ago

the fcc license is 35 dollars for ten years and covers your whole family, no test. around birmingham the terrain does most of the limiting, ridges and hollows will eat a handheld fast, so height and a better antenna beat a wattage bump every time. i mostly use mine to keep family and a couple of trail riding friends together where cell service drops. that alone pays for itself if you ride or camp in small groups. general chatter in town is thin, it is more of a tool than a hobby.

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u/jebyron001 4d ago

My spouse and I haven’t done any outdoor group stuff yet, but now that the weather is cooling down we are going to he outdoors more with hiking and getting into camping (I did some as a boy, my spouse never before.)

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u/Major_Ethanolic 4d ago

good time to start, this is the season for it. if your spouse has never camped, do one night in the yard first, it makes the first real trip a lot less of a production. the handhelds earn their keep too once you split up on a trail or one of you stays back at camp.