axlesandantennas
Approved Vendor
While at the Smoky Mountain Overland Rally this past weekend, I was poking around the other vendors and came across this new Garmin Tread gps/radio combo ($799)
In a nut shell, it seems to be a combo of a newer version of an Overlander and a MURS radio (more on that in a minute).
The vendor and I talked for while about the set up and it seemed very impressive.
The radio actually is a black box design that has no real controls and must be used with the GPS screen. It mounts to the back of the GPS like a larger version of a Ram Mount.
The GPS is slightly smaller than the Overlander and is called the Tread. The screen is super clear and seems to have very good response to touching and zero lag time.
Cool, so you can use it with ham radio or GMRS! No, not at all. And this is where they will have some issues.
MURS is Multi Use Radio Service and resides in the 152 MHz area of the radio spectrum. This puts it just above the amateur radio / ham radio 2 meter vhf band. It is defined by the FCC as license by use, which basically means that when you use it, you agree to the rules, just like CB radio. However, the FCC does not allow cross service use. So yes, while your 'race radio' baofeng can talk on it, you should not. Also, GRMS legal radios are in the 460 MHz area, so if you are using a GMRS/FRS legal radio, you cannot talk to a MURS radio, because, well, that's impossible.
The other big issue with MURS is that it is actually kind of difficult to find them. Looking around on the webs, your choices are limited and those that are around are kind of expensive. Why? Well, even though anyone can use MURS, it's mostly used for business and so the makers of radios charge a bit extra for that business. I guess you can say they are made better than the cheap radios you find in big box store.
So why did Garmin decide that they would use the 5 MURS channels for this setup? I don't really know and I really think this is going to be a hard sell because of that. The Garmin Rhinos have been around for a while and they run GMRS/FRS freqs, this means that they are totally incompatible with the new Tread. At first, I thought it had to do with the data transmissions that the Tread is doing thought the channels, but like I said, the Rhinos on GMRS have been doing this for years. Size? Does not make sense either as modern radio are tiny, and since this a black box radio, you don't even have controls to worry about.
The only thing I can think of is that Garmin wanted this to be a fixed mobile radio as opposed to a handheld. Keeping that in mind, small handheld radios that fall under the auspice of GMRS/FRS are limited to two watts of output AND are prohibited from having the ability to accept an external antenna. Since the line between GMRS and FRS can get kind of blurry when operating from a strictly hand held device, I think this may have been a factor for going to MURS as a radio.
MURS only allows 2 watts, same as FRS, but, and it's a big but, does allow for the use of external antennas. And Garmin has produced an external antenna for the unit. I was looking at the vendor set up at SMOR and I gotta say that the antenna looks really good. It's ready to go right out of the box and has a neat mount to it. Having a VHF antenna on the outside of a vehicle really helps you reach out and touch someone. It's also mounted on a few inch tall spring and seemed very bullet proof. I cannot find specs to it, but it appears to be something other than a standard 1/4 wave. The antenna is $120
Garmin does sell a MURS radio called the Group Ride Radio (really?) and it appears to be the same exact radio that will come with the tread. So, no buttons. As the instructions are a bit thin on use and reference an app, I assume that you make these changes using a smart phone app. But it's $350, so, yikes...
So here is where I am on this. For newer vehicles that are super hard to do radio installs, as I do as part of my business, I think this is great! Small foot print, external antenna, GPS/smart tablet control, and Garmin makes great stuff. Plus, VHF tends to get you slightly better performance in wooded areas, at least from my experience. It seems better at penetration of leaves and trees as opposed to UHF which seems a bit more likely to reflect and refract.
HOWEVER!!!! The cost is high. For the full blown unit plus the antenna, you are looking at more than a grand after taxes and nearly $500 for just the radio and antenna. That's a lot of coin for 5 channels that more than likely no one else has unless they are running pirate radios that come in blue....* For years, I have been beating the drum of abandoning CB and either getting on vhf/ufh ham radio freqs or GMRS/FRS. We all have. Even Garmin has been making their GMRS/FRS radios for years. So now they have a super cool product that I can almost guarantee you will be a hard sell to most. What I think they need to do is come up with a few hand held unit, like the rhinos, that are 1/4 of the price of the tread, can share data, and have the same 5 freqs. Oh, and put a mount for an external antenna. If they do that, and they probably have them in the works, I think they will have a winner. But it's going to be an uphill battle, at least from my perspective.
*Look, I'm not the radio police or the FCC but I understand why we need to stay in our own lanes when it comes to radios. Just next to our play zones in ham radio, frs, gmrs, etc, we normally find public safety services. I don't think many people operate there with intentional malice, but lots of people have found themselves on public safety freqs causing problems for fire departments, emts, ets. We have lots of free space to do our thing. Lets stay there. The vendor said that he was told from a rep that the Tread was compatible with ham radio. I mean, dude....come on. That's how bad information is spread and people get into trouble.
buy.garmin.com
In a nut shell, it seems to be a combo of a newer version of an Overlander and a MURS radio (more on that in a minute).
The vendor and I talked for while about the set up and it seemed very impressive.
The radio actually is a black box design that has no real controls and must be used with the GPS screen. It mounts to the back of the GPS like a larger version of a Ram Mount.
The GPS is slightly smaller than the Overlander and is called the Tread. The screen is super clear and seems to have very good response to touching and zero lag time.
Cool, so you can use it with ham radio or GMRS! No, not at all. And this is where they will have some issues.
MURS is Multi Use Radio Service and resides in the 152 MHz area of the radio spectrum. This puts it just above the amateur radio / ham radio 2 meter vhf band. It is defined by the FCC as license by use, which basically means that when you use it, you agree to the rules, just like CB radio. However, the FCC does not allow cross service use. So yes, while your 'race radio' baofeng can talk on it, you should not. Also, GRMS legal radios are in the 460 MHz area, so if you are using a GMRS/FRS legal radio, you cannot talk to a MURS radio, because, well, that's impossible.
The other big issue with MURS is that it is actually kind of difficult to find them. Looking around on the webs, your choices are limited and those that are around are kind of expensive. Why? Well, even though anyone can use MURS, it's mostly used for business and so the makers of radios charge a bit extra for that business. I guess you can say they are made better than the cheap radios you find in big box store.
So why did Garmin decide that they would use the 5 MURS channels for this setup? I don't really know and I really think this is going to be a hard sell because of that. The Garmin Rhinos have been around for a while and they run GMRS/FRS freqs, this means that they are totally incompatible with the new Tread. At first, I thought it had to do with the data transmissions that the Tread is doing thought the channels, but like I said, the Rhinos on GMRS have been doing this for years. Size? Does not make sense either as modern radio are tiny, and since this a black box radio, you don't even have controls to worry about.
The only thing I can think of is that Garmin wanted this to be a fixed mobile radio as opposed to a handheld. Keeping that in mind, small handheld radios that fall under the auspice of GMRS/FRS are limited to two watts of output AND are prohibited from having the ability to accept an external antenna. Since the line between GMRS and FRS can get kind of blurry when operating from a strictly hand held device, I think this may have been a factor for going to MURS as a radio.
MURS only allows 2 watts, same as FRS, but, and it's a big but, does allow for the use of external antennas. And Garmin has produced an external antenna for the unit. I was looking at the vendor set up at SMOR and I gotta say that the antenna looks really good. It's ready to go right out of the box and has a neat mount to it. Having a VHF antenna on the outside of a vehicle really helps you reach out and touch someone. It's also mounted on a few inch tall spring and seemed very bullet proof. I cannot find specs to it, but it appears to be something other than a standard 1/4 wave. The antenna is $120
Garmin does sell a MURS radio called the Group Ride Radio (really?) and it appears to be the same exact radio that will come with the tread. So, no buttons. As the instructions are a bit thin on use and reference an app, I assume that you make these changes using a smart phone app. But it's $350, so, yikes...
So here is where I am on this. For newer vehicles that are super hard to do radio installs, as I do as part of my business, I think this is great! Small foot print, external antenna, GPS/smart tablet control, and Garmin makes great stuff. Plus, VHF tends to get you slightly better performance in wooded areas, at least from my experience. It seems better at penetration of leaves and trees as opposed to UHF which seems a bit more likely to reflect and refract.
HOWEVER!!!! The cost is high. For the full blown unit plus the antenna, you are looking at more than a grand after taxes and nearly $500 for just the radio and antenna. That's a lot of coin for 5 channels that more than likely no one else has unless they are running pirate radios that come in blue....* For years, I have been beating the drum of abandoning CB and either getting on vhf/ufh ham radio freqs or GMRS/FRS. We all have. Even Garmin has been making their GMRS/FRS radios for years. So now they have a super cool product that I can almost guarantee you will be a hard sell to most. What I think they need to do is come up with a few hand held unit, like the rhinos, that are 1/4 of the price of the tread, can share data, and have the same 5 freqs. Oh, and put a mount for an external antenna. If they do that, and they probably have them in the works, I think they will have a winner. But it's going to be an uphill battle, at least from my perspective.
*Look, I'm not the radio police or the FCC but I understand why we need to stay in our own lanes when it comes to radios. Just next to our play zones in ham radio, frs, gmrs, etc, we normally find public safety services. I don't think many people operate there with intentional malice, but lots of people have found themselves on public safety freqs causing problems for fire departments, emts, ets. We have lots of free space to do our thing. Lets stay there. The vendor said that he was told from a rep that the Tread was compatible with ham radio. I mean, dude....come on. That's how bad information is spread and people get into trouble.
Garmin Tread™ | Powersport GPS with Ride Radio
Tread is a Powersport GPS for group rides on your off-road vehicle. Features include pre-loaded off-road trails & a group ride radio to track & stay connected.
buy.garmin.com
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