Recent content by Bill Ruttan

In case this wasn’t already clear, a higher antenna in base camp will improve performance of radios that rely on ‘line of sight’ frequency propagation (e.g. VHF/UHF ‘ham’ as well as GMRS radios). Antennas can be elevated on lightweight telescoping aluminum poles that are attached to a tripod...

Just trying to regain, with what amounts to a low power HT, a capability that Radio Shack offered to the public years ago…

No, I am a simple voice😊

Indeed, the Midland MXT275 GMRS is about as close to a “plug-and-play” radio as you can get today (and is the model I have purchased for my next vehicle). Bill (WQXH544)

All true about GMRS and ham, but, back in the day, Radio Shack certainly found a market for their ‘plug and play’ 21-1850 vehicle mounted radios (even though such a FRS transmitter was then restricted to 25% of the current power limit)!

Yes, but that doesn’t help the “unlicensed masses” who would like to get better performance (through use of an exterior antenna) when using FRS radios inside their vehicles.

Thanks everyone, I do have dual-band ‘ham’ and GMRS radios (with external antennas) installed in my LR Defender. I will be getting a another SUV and began to engage in something of a ‘thought experimen’t’ to see how simple of an effective radio setup that I (and others without FCC License)...

Just trying to think of a legal way to gain the benefits of an antenna external to the vehicle under FRS rules. I am still missing my old Radio Shack ‘2150’ (?) FRS Radio that cleverly put everything (except the speaker/mic and radio controls) in a mag-mount pod on the car roof😊

Has anyone tried to mount a Back Country Access “BCA Link” FRS Radio to the rain gutter of a vehicle and then run the wire for its combination speaker/mic/control to the inside?

I think the Spot brand also has dedicated messaging for roadside assistance.

Just as you say, you must first send a message to everyone you can think of who might want/need to get in touch with you in a hurry. Even with that, Garmin makes no claims about the longevity of that number to “always” be able to send a return text in the future.

It is generally difficult or impossible for my relatives or acquaintances to initiate a message to my inReach Mini. To me this is the ‘achilles heel’ of the Garmin inReach ecosystem.

Addressing a message TO an inReach Device is even less intuitive than that (“actual contact” format is only valid for messages sent from one inReach Device to another).

The PLB and inReach radios should cover your emergency communications needs very nicely. To receive severe weather alerts, without having to listen to the continuous broadcast, some Weather Radios will automatically respond to the “specific area message encoding (SAME)” system that NOAA uses. I...