Handheld GMRS options?

[Rando]

the handhelds are big heavy crappy bricks by today's standards, thats what I used to use before China radios hit the scene.. if you need a radio you can beat someone to death with, sure.. but they really dont offer much more.. I use a couple of the Kenwood Mobiles for my repeater but that was just availability to build such a thing outta, they are okay.

All good points. I have some of the China radios as well, MD2017 for DMR and several BF-888 for GMRS loaners. The MD2017 is a decent radio, but is too complex to lend to a friend, and the BF-888s have poor audio and I have had 2 die (1 from trauma, the other cause of death is unknown) over the past few years. I would certainly never carry any of these backpacking, but was thinking a solid Motorola brick with only a volume knob and channel selector knob and good audio would be a decent loaner radio when convoying and would survive kicking around the footwell for a couple of years.

Seems like the issue with Motorola is programming, but Kenwoods can be programmed without expensive software, no? There is also some satisfaction in using a nice well built radio over something that feels like a walmart toy.

 

[dreadlocks]

Ive not done anything with my Zastone/Retrivis handhelds, just programmed em.. I bought 6 of em about 3 years ago now, and all 6 of em still work great.. My pot shop uses the same radios, so does the garden center we go to.. Ive spotted em out in the wild a handful of times since I got em.. they actually feel nice and solid despite being rather small and light.

With my GMRS Repeater I needed handhelds that will do duplex, so I've never really used bubble pack radios.. first it was old commercial handhelds, still got an ammo can full of em.. I did like em for for how robust and solid they felt, but since it didnt fit in my wife's pockets she'd never take the thing when she wandered off to go piss in the woods or anything.. then she'd be screaming for toilet paper.. Radios only work if people are willing to carry em, and they are far more effective if everyone has one on and in their possession all weekend, most of the time everyone forgets they got a radio in their pocket until someone keys it up.. If you dont need duplex, then just go buy some nice bubble pack GMRS radios.. You'll pay far more, but if you want some nice quality Moto GMRS handhelds just go get em off the shelf.

The old commercial handheld radios I'd only hand out now days as a temporary mobile setup perhaps.. get a battery delete/12v accy plug hardwire, an external microphone, and a small mag-mount.. then if your caravaning with someone you can slap the antenna on the roof, plug it into 12v source and clip the microphone to some paracord hanging off the mirror.. and this setup is mostly for a cheap radio thats quality enough it wont picket fence easily, and has a detachable antenna.. size is mostly moot, the bricks might actually have the advantage of sitting in a cup holder without flopping about.. belt clips on these are usually screwed on really solid, could mebe use that to bolt it to a phone holder mount so nobody gets a concussion in an accident or has to search for the radio on the floorboard after taking a big bump.