Does anyone have any experience, opinion, information on these radios? Gander Mt. has these radios on sale. I can’t find any information other that what is on the Gander Mt. website.
Also, if I have a GMRS license, can I have several radios (more than 2) on it as long as they are being used by family members (stated by the FCC)?
Thanks
First important response: Ignore the range claims from the seller/manufacturer. They are lies. Your actual range will be 1/2 to 2 miles in urban areas, somewhat more in open country out to maybe 4-6 miles.
Range is line of sight.
A GMRS license allows you to have as many radios/people operating as you have that meet the FCC definition of ‘family’. Heck, they don’t even have to be in the same city!
The ‘extra’ channels are no such thing. The channels over 22 are just the same channels over again, with pre-picked CTCSS/DCS tones, which you could have selected on any of the first 22 channels already. Marketing scam.
With that being said, is this Midland radio one you would recommend? Or is there another Midland radio you would recommend? I will be using them for hunting on fairly flat ground and just general use with the family. I find it strange that I can’t find any info on the GXT 799 model, not even on the Midland radio website.
There’s a lot of turnover in these bubblepack radios, it’s probably just an obsolete model, and Midland doesn’t list it anymore. The manufacturers seem to replace their whole lines every year, even though it’s really the same radios, just with ‘more marketing range, even though we decreased the power’, etc.
Any of the bubblepacks is really pretty much equal to the others, in terms of range. Just the extra features that matter, really, like having NOAA weather channel receivers, etc.
You could pay more, for higher quality gear from Icom, more like $150 a radio, but they really don’t work that much better, except for being possible to use with repeater systems, especially ones that require split tone use, which none of the few bubblepacks that allow repeater use allow.
Do you know if ‘NOAA weather alert radio’ is the same as having ‘NOAA weather channels’? I want a radio(s) where I can get the weather forecasts and not just weather alerts.
You will want the channels as well. The alerts are just those short emergency weather notifications most of the time.