Mobile radio communications (often referred to as “RF” communications, for “Radio Frequency”) is a vital part of the off-roading and motorsports communities. It serves as a vital link to your travelling companions, your spotters and pit crew, and the rest of the outside world.
In fact, many off-road parks and race events now require a specific type of radio that operates on what is known as the “GMRS” frequencies. Short for “General Mobile Radio Service”, these GMRS radios are becoming increasingly popular for mobile communications around the country.
So to get the skinny on all types of mobile radios, we reached out to the Amateur radio (AKA “Ham” radio) professionals at DX Engineering, a company that specializes in radio communications equipment.
Enter DX Engineering technical support specialist Dan, Ham callsign WB7OXP.
Not only has Dan been building radios since childhood, he’s also a veteran off-roader who’s competed in the Baja and several other prominent off-road races. Better still, he lives a mere stone’s throw from the famed Rubicon trail in Nevada.
Suffice it to say, he’s the perfect dude to talk to for advice on off-road and racing radio communications.
And talk to him we did. For over 30 minutes, we covered a range of radio topics, from the value of RF comms, to some general mobile radio install tips and techniques. You can listen to the whole OnAllCylinders Podcast interview in the embedded player below, and we’ll also include some snippets from our conversation underneath as well.
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A Conversation About Mobile Radio for Off-Roading & Motorsports
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Can You Describe the Evolution of GMRS?
“So when when I was a kid, CB radio was probably the first thing we were seeing in the Jeeps and in the off-road trucks. CB radio had a lot of great things going for it, it would go, 15, 20, 30 miles pretty easily.
“But it had a few problems. And the biggest was called ‘CB Skip.’ The way the CB radio waves act and the frequencies it’s on, you’re often capable of reaching around the world. But when you’re trying to talk to the guy next to you and you’re hearing the guy from a foreign country instead, it gets hard.
“As a result, some other frequencies became more popular. GMRS is one of them. The purpose of GMRS, similar to CB, was to make radio really easy to use and easy to obtain—either unlicensed or lightly licensed. GMRS is licensed these days, CB isn’t, but it’s a really easy-to-obtain radio service that gives people a way to communicate.
“GMRS lives on some frequencies that’ll go one to two miles with handhelds and maybe up to 10 or 15 on mobile radios between vehicles.”
What’s the Family Radio Service (FRS) Then?
“FRS and GMRS share 22 channels—16 depending who you ask—but they share some channels. They are somewhat interoperable to various degrees. FRS is family radio service. It replaced CB and the little channel 14 walkie talkies.
“For the most part, they’re very low power radios with very strong rules about what they’re allowed to do—at best, FRS will go a mile.
“The other problems with FRS radios is that their batteries don’t last very long. And most of them are not physically very robust, so they get destroyed pretty quickly.
“I generally recommend GMRS if I’m working with people that don’t have a lot of radio skills.”
Why Do We Need Mobile Radio if We All Have Smartphones?
“Remember why you have a spare tire: You can’t count on any one thing all the time. So it’s important not to only have one form of communications.
“The smartphone is fine for what it’s fine for, but especially off-road and in areas that are highly mountainous, you get the dreaded ‘No Signal.’
“When you have no signal, you have no cell phone, so you have no communications. The radios go radio-to-radio, so you’re not looking to a cell tower or anything else but yourself and the equipment in your truck.
“The Jeeps I build usually have at least three radios in them, plus more in other bags and stuff, because I don’t count on any one tool ever.”
Talk About the License Requirements for GMRS & Ham Radio.
“For GMRS, the purpose of the licensing is mostly so that there’s some identification of what transmitters are out there. Getting a GMRS license is merely a matter of applying for the license, which can be done online. It costs $35. It’s good for ten years.
“And unlike other services, GMRS is actually for the whole family. So one GMRS license covers the whole family, and all you have to do is go on the FCC site, register to create a profile, and then apply for your license.
“A Ham radio license—an Amateur radio license—requires testing.
“Right now there are three Ham license levels: Technician, General, and Extra. Each one requires a knowledge test, covering electrical/RF theory and FCC rules. And they get progressively harder as you move up the Ham license tiers. As you move up, you get more and more privileges, and the the most privileges you’ll ever get will be the Extra license.
“The Ham tests are reasonably hard, reasonably comprehensive—but they’re certainly doable. I actually even encourage most of the people around me to get Ham licenses, because it forces you to learn that part of physics. So Ham licensing is fun, you’ll understand the radios better, and you get lots more privileges as you work your way up the ladder.”
If you’re interesting in earning a Ham radio license, begin here at the ARRL website.
To Get Started Fast, Would You Recommend GMRS?
“Absolutely. If you don’t think you’re going to enjoy the radio hobby and you just want to enjoy off-roading, playing in the park, talking between your boats, whatever—hang gliders are real popular behind me—GMRS is a great way to go.
“The commercial offerings on the GMRS radios are so nice and so varied. From tens of dollars up to hundreds of dollars. You can just get a lot of communications for not a lot of money.
“GMRS is certainly much easier to use. One of the things I really like about GMRS is that it’s channelized, which means if you go to some store and buy a GMRS radio and your friend goes to another store and buys a different GMRS radio, your ‘channel one’ and their ‘channel one’ are the same.
“So there’s just very little skill required to operate the radios. You push the mic button and talk.”
What Are the Pros & Cons of a Handheld Radio vs. One Mounted In Your Truck?
“GMRS handhelds are super easy to use, you just turn it on and they’re on the channels. As long as you have a license, you can legally use it. You’re on the air pretty quickly. Handhelds are great. They’re mostly convenient, some will fit on your belt, or in a shirt pocket.
“The real downside of the handhelds is they don’t go very far. And so instead of tens of miles, you’re only going to get one or two miles off a handheld. But you know, it’s not an either/or thing. A lot of off-roaders will have handhelds for their people if they’re out there, spotters and stuff, and then a mobile rig for the truck itself.
“Mobile rigs are great. They’re fairly easy to install, as long as you follow good electrical practices. And they are up to 50 watts, compared to handhelds which are only five watts. So not only are you going to have more power, the antenna is going to give you a lot more range and a lot more functionality.”
Does More Power (Watts) Directly Translate to Better Range?
“It certainly directly correlates. The other big advantage that mobile radios have that most people sort of ignore is the antenna. And it’s part of physics—not because of any deficiency. The antennas on the handhelds just don’t work very well, so there’s a lot to be gained by the mobile antenna and the mobile radio.
“One other option, and we see it a lot in the off-road community, is mounting an antenna on your vehicle—not mounting a radio—but using the handheld connected with a cable converter to let the radio talk through a much better antenna mounted on the vehicle. And that does improve your on-trail behavior of the radio.”
What is a Repeater—and Can GMRS Radios Use Them?
“The frequencies that GMRS uses is in the 400 MHz range, and that range is very ‘line of sight.’ So because of that, the radios are greatly affected by the terrain and any kind of foliage or anything in between the radios.
“If you put another radio up high—in our area, that can be thousands of feet higher—then the radio can talk up to that repeater, essentially another radio up on the mountain, and then any other radio that can see that repeater also, can hear it and talk to it.
“So in my area, repeaters can often add more than 100 miles of range.
“And this works true for the handhelds too. So a very small signal that can see a mountaintop can communicate much farther. Because all that has to happen is the two radios need to both be able to see that radio tower up on the mountain. In other areas without mountains, you might be able to gain tens of miles.
“And it works really well. Right behind me is the Rubicon—there are repeaters up on the Rubicon that offer full coverage of that trail from beginning to end on the GMRS frequencies, so you can talk to your friends as they’re beginning and ending.
“One of the great, great advantages that GMRS has, is that it does permit those repeaters, and it even permits 50 Watts of power. So GMRS has a lot of advantages over the other radio services.”
What Advice Do You Have for Someone to Begin Using GMRS Radios?
“Probably the first thing to do is to apply for a license. You can apply for a license before you own a radio, so we’ll call that the first step, right?
“For getting into GMRS, you’ll see radios probably starting in the 30 to 50 dollar range. You’ll see some higher end radios, especially like the Rugged Radios Summit Racing carries. They’re physically made to really tolerate the trails and the off road abuse.
“The nice thing with GMRS is that ‘channel one’ is ‘channel one’ on every radio.
“You can really never have too many. There’s always one for the friend, one for the kids, you know? So if you go in and you decide you want to go up or down in complexity, no problem. An extra radio is not a big problem. And since they’re channelized the way they are, you can just hand it to someone and off they go.
But getting started, if you have a friend that already has a radio and they like it, that’s always a good place to start because then you got someone to call.”
Is There a Good Resource to Help with Radio Communications Tech?
“Certainly. You can call any of us at DX Engineering. Every employee is a Ham radio operator, from the engineers all the way to the customer service reps. So everybody is familiar with radios and radio installs.
“One of the great things with DX Engineering is lots of us have very, very different experiences. I tend to get all the West Coast truck and Jeep calls, but other people are more familiar with what goes on in other areas. So we’re a good resource if you’re looking.
“And then, both Summit Racing and DX Engineering have great lines of radios, mounts, intercoms— all those kinds of things that help you make for a cleaner and more usable install.”
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Like what you hear? Listen to dozens of more episodes in The OnAllCylinders Podcast section.
And you can learn more about GMRS and radio communications in these articles:
- Mobile Ham & GMRS Radio Installation Tips with the Roamin’ Gladiator Jeep Truck
- Overlanding Essentials: Cell Phones, Mobile Radios & Off-Road Communications
- Check out the DX Engineering Amateur radio blog here too: OnAllBands
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