Hi! Career Firefighter with public safety radio experience but brand new to GMRS. Interested in learning and suggestions on good starting points. Brand new GMRS license in hand and waiting on Wouxon KG-935 Plus to be delivered in the next few days. I live in Central NC and enjoy exploring and hiking in Western NC.
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Hi! Welcome to the forum!
Lots of firefighters and ex-firefighters lately. Coincidence … or my laptop has been spying on me. (I just finished writing an article for Canadian Firefighter Magazine on responding to EV crashes.)
Lots of great advice on GMRS here on these forums. You are starting with a great radio. If you hike with others, budget for more radios. You will get hooked. (They all don’t need to be as high-end as the 935 Plus.)
To summarize the advice we give others (much of which you probably know already) is to understand the limitations of GMRS. With no repeaters in your area, they will not perform like your public safety radios. Range is highly dependent on terrain, obstacles and quality of the receiver circuitry (and interestingly enough, less dependent on raw output power) but you can expect anywhere from about 1/4-mile on a hike, to maybe 2- to 3-miles in open terrain.
The advertised “range” of the typical bubble-pack GMRS and FRS radios is highly exaggerated, and those “30-mile” ranges are more like 1/8-mile unless both are standing on two mountain tops with nothing else in between you. Radios in the VHF and UHF spectrum are all line-of-sight, meaning on level terrain, the farthest theoretical distance is limited by the curvature of the horizon, which is about 5 miles maximum. (But this is also why a handheld two-way amateur radio can talk to the International Space Station when it is overhead and a ham operator is onboard and on the air.)
Also, GMRS is not like CB radios in which there used to be people to chat with almost anywhere. They are designed for radio-to-radio communications at short range for business, family or recreation. They should not be relied upon for emergency communications because there is little likelihood of anyone listening at the other end, especially in remote areas. (Trust me; this is why you will soon buy two.)
As for programming, they come already programmed. There is nothing you need to learn about programming until you get into custom frequencies for repeaters in your area. When first starting out, you don’t need the software or a programming cable. Save your money for more radios.
If you decide you want the software and cable to learn more about programming and perhaps make your own custom channels (with specific custom names) for local repeaters, make sure you buy a cable with a genuine FTDI chip instead of the cheaper counterfeit Prolific chip. With a FTDI cable, it is truly plug-and-play. Trust us on this one. We get LOTS of inquires about computers not recognizing their radios, and I would estimate 90% of them are because the user cheaped out an a $8 cable instead of spending the $18 on a good FTDI cable (such as the XLT Painless cable from our forum hosts at buytwowayradios.)
Another way to save money is to ignore anyone who says you need to upgrade your antenna. I have tested almost everything available in aftermarket antennas and have found very few that led to increased range. (With some of them, the SWR numbers were almost high enough to damage your radio!) Sorry, but ignore all the Youtube videos. The factory antenna works just fine. If you want a longer one for slightly increased range at the cost of less convenience, there are a couple of good ones available, but the bottom line is that you will get better range just by getting it away from your body and held higher. (The body is an effective block of RF signals, and if you wear the radio on your belt, you will get markedly better range if it is on the same side of your body as the other radio you want to talk to.)
When it comes to aftermarket antennas, just save your money for more radios.
Hope this general advice helps. If you have more specific questions, there are some great experts in this forum who would be glad to help.
Welcome to the forum. I think you’ll find your radio useful when hiking with others.
Very sensible advice. Antennas especially. A few years back i bought one of all the ones i could find, and 99% were terrible. Totally agree.
Agree as well antennas especially