Handheld radios - GMRS vs MURS

[fremont]

I'm hearing more people on FRS/GMRS channels and am guessing many are using GMRS (5w) handhelds.  Anybody using MURS?

[Russ McDonald]

MURS is VHF and FRS/GMRS is UHF.  Going to be a bit harder and more expensive to use MURS radios.  With VHF even at 2 watts you will get a little more distance line of site.  In the right conditions you can talk 10 miles on 2 watts but that is a out max.

Sent from my SM-G998U using Tapatalk

[fremont]

MURS is VHF and FRS/GMRS is UHF.  Going to be a bit harder and more expensive to use MURS radios.  With VHF even at 2 watts you will get a little more distance line of site.  In the right conditions you can talk 10 miles on 2 watts but that is a out max.

Got 12+ mi using MURS through a Nagoya 200C on a 12' mast with 2w this past week.

Wouxon 805M https://www.buytwowayradios.com/wouxun-kg-805m.html is $100 with no licensing ($35 for GMRS).  A good GMRS HT easily costs more than that so I don't see a cost issue.  You also can use a removable antenna; Smiley makes a 48" telescoping which works very well for $25 https://www.smileyantenna.com/product-p/15510.htm

I non-scientifically compared MURS vs GMRS, and MURS won hands down in the Colockum area.  Lot less traffic, too.  That said, I love GMRS' repeater capability.  Great for safety if you can hit the Windy Ridge repeater, etc. if SHTF.

[Russ McDonald]

MURS is VHF and FRS/GMRS is UHF.  Going to be a bit harder and more expensive to use MURS radios.  With VHF even at 2 watts you will get a little more distance line of site.  In the right conditions you can talk 10 miles on 2 watts but that is a out max.

Got 12+ mi using MURS through a Nagoya 200C on a 12' mast with 2w this past week.

Wouxon 805M https://www.buytwowayradios.com/wouxun-kg-805m.html is $100 with no licensing ($35 for GMRS).  A good GMRS HT easily costs more than that so I don't see a cost issue.  You also can use a removable antenna; Smiley makes a 48" telescoping which works very well for $25 https://www.smileyantenna.com/product-p/15510.htm

I non-scientifically compared MURS vs GMRS, and MURS won hands down in the Colockum area.  Lot less traffic, too.  That said, I love GMRS' repeater capability.  Great for safety if you can hit the Windy Ridge repeater, etc. if SHTF.

Differnce it frequency between MURS 151Mhz range VHF and GMRS/FRS 462Mhz  UHF.  Your going to get a lot more distance when your in a mast.  2 watts on a  30 foot mast i can get 30-40 miles off a mountain top VHF.  The more height you get on an antenna the better range you get but it has to be tuned for the frequncy range.  You going to run a 17 inch quarter wave antenna on a portable radio.  Unless you like carrying something that will get caught up on brush.  Yup you can carry it on a chest rig or hip belt but your body blocks out the signal.  Comapring apples to apples hand held radio to hand held radio line of site hand down the MURS will out perform a GMRS/FRS radio.  That is why wild land fire radios are VHF frequncy band.  Yes you can get cheaper radio but you also get what you paid for.  I have a couple Baufengs same radios just different name.  Techically speaking they are a piece.  I tested mine on a service monitor all of them are not even close to specs.  The radios I carry and work on are in the VHF range. Back in the day I worked on plenty of red dot and green dot radios mostly Kenwood and Motorola.

Sent from my SM-G998U using Tapatalk

[fremont]

Differnce it frequency between MURS 151Mhz range VHF and GMRS/FRS 462Mhz  UHF.  Your going to get a lot more distance when your in a mast.  2 watts on a  30 foot mast i can get 30-40 miles off a mountain top VHF.  The more height you get on an antenna the better range you get but it has to be tuned for the frequncy range.  You going to run a 17 inch quarter wave antenna on a portable radio.  Unless you like carrying something that will get caught up on brush.  Yup you can carry it on a chest rig or hip belt but your body blocks out the signal.  Comapring apples to apples hand held radio to hand held radio line of site hand down the MURS will out perform a GMRS/FRS radio.  That is why wild land fire radios are VHF frequncy band.  Yes you can get cheaper radio but you also get what you paid for.  I have a couple Baufengs same radios just different name.  Techically speaking they are a piece.  I tested mine on a service monitor all of them are not even close to specs.  The radios I carry and work on are in the VHF range. Back in the day I worked on plenty of red dot and green dot radios mostly Kenwood and Motorola.

Sent from my SM-G998U using Tapatalk
[/quote]
All good points.  I have a harness on a backpack strap and use a 15" Nagoya 771G whip on my GMRS HT and a 48" telescoping Smiley on the MURS.  The 15" hasn't created problems for me yet and it receives well as the antenna is at a 45-60 deg angle pointing to the rear.  Yes, I hear you on the ChiComm radios; Kenwood & Motorola are in a different stratosphere.