[46camper]

At the beginning of 2021 I’m going to order one of Midland micro mobile 40
watt radios. It’s a GMRS I’m not ready for HAM license.
Anyway plans for the micro mobile. Is to set it up as a base station. I’m also going to be using a bigger antenna.
As for a power bank /station . I was thinking about getting a portable jumper box that has the cigarette lighter charging port .
That’s will be temporary.
I would like to know if there is a better way then using a jumper box . Something a little more permanent/ or reliable. Later on I will also be adding couple GMRS hand helds.
Also I have seen a set up with the 15 watt micro mobile in a ammo can with the radio and battery so it could be carried and used in the field it also looked like the antenna was foldable.
I think with a base station set up at home a large antenna at least the max height allowed for GMRS . Then add in a couple hand helds . Plus the 15 watt made into a portable unit my group should be able to communicate almost any where in our hunting area .
Plus it would also make for good communication in a SHTF. At least for our group. If all they had was a hand held we should be able to communicate as soon as they reached 5 miles with in our area. As for the group it’s family and friends. I’m sure once I get set up they will also go for a set up themselves. Most of use only live 4-5 miles apart the furthest of our group lives 15 miles away .


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[neophyte]

46camper: Sir; good thinking
information. HAM Radio antenna heights 200 feet.
example. You have available (working the curve)
any hill works.
start with the highest spot on said property. Then add your antenna height limitations

view all with “line of sight” limitations. Earth curvature-valleys-buildings all impact signals

i share the above. Reinforce information to your clan

 

[Outpost75]

The small auto jump-start boxes have only a small battery of about 7-15 amp-hours and are designed only to provide a high surge current of short duration to turn over the starter motor. You want a sealed lead-acid, AGM battery of deep-cycle construction which can provide continuous current sustaining the load of your mobile radio on full-power transmit. A 40-watt mobile radio in transmit draws about 8 amps at 13.8VDC, and 2 amps at idle with squelch open. To have a reasonable battery life you need a battery in which the rate of discharge does not exceed about 5% of the battery capacity, assuming a 20-percent operating duty cycle over a 12-hour operational period, essentially 1 minute of full-power transmission and four minutes idle time listening only with 12 hours of daylight to the solar panel connected to keep the battery topped off, for continuous operation.

A BCI Group U1 34-ah battery, such as used for powering wheel chairs is about right in size and construction. To this I would connect a Schumacher 1.5 amp automatic battery maintainer, if set up in the house where the battery maintainer can be connected to the AC mains. At a hunting cabin or in your boat or RV not using shore powder, Connect the battery to a Siemen's SM20 solar panel to keep the battery topped off during periods of non-use. If the panel does not exceed 5% of battery capacity, you do not need a charge controller, but you do want to put a Shotky diode in line between the battery and panel to prevent self-discharge of the battery.

 

[ka5siw]

46 camper, You have a good solid starting plan. Outpost 75 has a good point about the sealed lead-acid batteries, they power radios real good. With you outside antenna be sure and use a good ground rod sunk several feet into the soil. At GMRS frequencies all signals are line of sight! For best range set antennas on high ground.

 

[46camper]

The base radio / house will be on top of a hill . It’s actually one of the highest points in the area


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[ka5siw]

With any radio system be sure and use good antennas and coax. Be sure and check the SWR of your antenna system every 3 months. A great radio connected to a bad antenna is just a paperweight. A antenna has to be designed to work at a specific frequency. You can't take a CB antenna and expect it to work with a GMRS radio. There are times and places that a big bright aluminum antenna will attract attention. Homemade "covert"antennas can work just as good as factory antennas. Building, testing and tuning antennas is one skillset of amateur radio. Making proper coax connections can be very difficult for someone learning radio. de KA5SIW

 

[46camper]

Thanks for the advice


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[Moroco Mole]

At the beginning of 2021 I’m going to order one of Midland micro mobile 40
watt radios. It’s a GMRS I’m not ready for HAM license.
Anyway plans for the micro mobile. Is to set it up as a base station. I’m also going to be using a bigger antenna.
As for a power bank /station . I was thinking about getting a portable jumper box that has the cigarette lighter charging port .
That’s will be temporary.
I would like to know if there is a better way then using a jumper box . Something a little more permanent/ or reliable. Later on I will also be adding couple GMRS hand helds.
Also I have seen a set up with the 15 watt micro mobile in a ammo can with the radio and battery so it could be carried and used in the field it also looked like the antenna was foldable.
I think with a base station set up at home a large antenna at least the max height allowed for GMRS . Then add in a couple hand helds . Plus the 15 watt made into a portable unit my group should be able to communicate almost any where in our hunting area .
Plus it would also make for good communication in a SHTF. At least for our group. If all they had was a hand held we should be able to communicate as soon as they reached 5 miles with in our area. As for the group it’s family and friends. I’m sure once I get set up they will also go for a set up themselves. Most of use only live 4-5 miles apart the furthest of our group lives 15 miles away .


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Back in the day, I would just tell you get a power supply from radio shack.
I have made power supplies before. Not that difficult ant the parts are avalible.Plent of u tubers showing you how. I made one once for my linear booster, from an old VCR power supply and a resister.

 

[rando]

I have a nice CB, HAM/SW , and a Marine radio in one of my garages. My power source on two of them are ones Ii found from flea markets. They are very heavy and not extremely large. I also have another radio connected to a small 120 power supply that I had in a box in the garage. I used to save the old power supplies from certain appliances and electronics. I found a few 120vac to 12vdc. Also look at the milliamp on them. They operate most radios fine. You can also buy a small solar pad or solar panel that will keep any car battery or deep cycle battery charged daily. I have a solar pad for my boat. Its good if you have no power and have to go to portable battery power. Also like listed above make sure good antenna and check with SWR meter,

 

[46camper]

Rando the Marine radios I don’t know much about them . My question is if I had a couple of them could I use them for regular communication like I wanted to do with the GMRS system. Also some of the marine handheld radios have the capability to transmit and receive GMRS frequencies. At least I think some of the ones Cabelas use.
Would I get more range?
I’m still learning plus I think it would be fun to set up a system for our group . We are in southern Ohio trees and hills . So I’m sure what little I have learned anyone that’s transmitting will have to be on top of a hill and to receive the same.


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[neophyte]

46camper: Sir; for reference. Reason why you shouldn't’. (In emergency; use anything/ everything you have access). Otherwise. overloading recreational Marine Band can happen.
it’s very narrow.
Typically-line of sight distant but monitored differently. Yes. Some recreational radios are using marine band

https://boatbeat.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/fact-sheet-communication-vhf-marine-radio-channels-for-recreational-boaters-0025.pdf

VHF MARINE RADIO CHANNELS FOR RECREATIONAL BOATERS
It’s important that boaters use the correct channel when communicating on a VHF (very high frequency) marine band radio.
Here are VHF-FM non-commercial channels recreational boaters may use in specific situations. Federal Communications Commission regulations require boaters having VHF radios to maintain a watch on either channel 9 or channel 16, whenever the radio is turned on and not communicating with another station. All non-emergency traffic should be communicated on another channel (not channels 9 or 16).
New Channel Number
Old Channel Number
Ship Transmit MHz
Ship Receive MHz

 

[TXplt]

Rando the Marine radios I don’t know much about them . My question is if I had a couple of them could I use them for regular communication like I wanted to do with the GMRS system. Also some of the marine handheld radios have the capability to transmit and receive GMRS frequencies. At least I think some of the ones Cabelas use.
Would I get more range?
I’m still learning plus I think it would be fun to set up a system for our group . We are in southern Ohio trees and hills . So I’m sure what little I have learned anyone that’s transmitting will have to be on top of a hill and to receive the same.


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There are many different brands:

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Your range is going to depend on line of sight between the transmitter and receiver; structures or terrain blocking it. Whether that's VHF or UHF.

What is REALLY important is to know the FRS/GMRS frequencies and what's allowed to transmit on. You can cause buffoonery and some havoc if you errantly program the wrong ones in. Unless it's a dedicated radio manufactured for FRS it doesn't know whether it's 'allowed' to be on any given frequency or not (and some cover everything from FRS to HAM to marine band to weather band to police freqs). There are some legalities involved in different bands with regard to power levels and licensing; I'll leave that up to you to research and act accordingly to what you think you should do. But the overriding principle is that you CAN cause interference and some havoc if you don't know what you're doing and select frequencies you're not supposed to be on or which others use.

None of the handhelds put out enough wattage to get true long distance communication (more than a few miles). I'll caveat that by saying if a person were on a mountaintop with unobscured line of sight or talking to an airborne entity they might be able to get some fairly long distance. The antennas supplied with most of the cheaper radios aren't particularly good though.

 

[rando]

The marine radios here will transmit far. Reason is we are at sea level. On the bay of course you can transmit far also because of no restrictions like buildings and mountains. I have communicated rather far with other boats. We mainly listen to the charter boats to hear what they are doing fishing wise and where at. You also need to get the proper and not a cheap fiberglass whip {antenna} You can only communicate on certain channels and the FCC will send you the correct channels. You have Coast Guard and emergency channels only for break downs or sinking etc.. Then you have weather channels which is nice from NOAA. Also remember it is illegal to transmit from a land base. You can use them if say on dock transmitting to your boats but not land to land. Dont get caught. I never stay on mine long because of others use the same channels some times and frequencies. You also used to be able to call a marine operator to connect you to your home phone or another phone. Then cell phones were invented and I never used that option after that. I bought one marine radio new from a boating center. The other I bought from the boat yards they have here. They sell some of the older quality radios removed from large boats with all the other electronics. They do this before scrapping them. You can buy this stuff cheap here. Also antennas. I am not sure how well they would work in a hilly or mountainous terrain though.

 

[46camper]

I’m going to go with GMRS . I just ordered two of the BTECH V1 GMRS radios. There both 5 watt hand helds . From what I read about them they only transmit on GMRS channels and the GMRS repeater channels. Those are all programmed in and those are also the only frequencies that the radios will transmit on. Also it will receive vhf frequencies but won’t transmit. So I won’t have to get a scanner to listen in on emergency services.
Then once I’m able to afford it I’m going to set up the base station. It will be a midland MXT115. That will have to do until I can afford the mxt400 .
Anyway plan is to test and see what ranges I get on our land . From hand held to hand held in the field then from hand held to base . I figure out the dead spots I’m going to build a repeater . Then I will test out the best area to put the repeater that should give us coverage of the whole property then all 3 units should be able to receive transmission from one another.
It will be a fun project. Plus GMRS is what the family and the rest of our little group has decided on.


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