MURS handhelds?

**jasons** · 01-06-2012, 01:01 PM

Thinking about replacing my 10+ year old FRS handhelds and am looking at MURS. I'll be using them to communicate while hiking / walking trails (mostly in the Middlesex Fells,) and at the range to talk to the pits during practice. Seems like VHF's lack of a requirement for line of sight would make them good for hiking. Thoughts?

Also, can I buy any 2 watt VHF handheld and have it programed for MURS frequencies and be legal or does it have to specifically be marketed as a MURS handheld?

(To be clear, I have no HAM licenses or anything like that. I'd much rather avoid licensing issues if at all possible.)

**one-eyed Jack** · 01-06-2012, 01:28 PM

If I remember right, you can't transmit more than 1/2 watt without a license. GMRS is pretty good and you can do up to 5 watts, but they want you to buy the license. Nobody buys it anyway and I don't think they enforce it. Jack.

**drgrant** · 01-06-2012, 01:30 PM

The best thing to do is get business band gear and get it reprogrammed for MURS, or just cut a diode in a VHF Ham HT, put the channels in and go to town.

Now the type acceptance cops are going to come down on me... but honestly... the FCC is not going to care about a couple of 7 watt or less FM handhelds on MURS freqs. They've relegated them to part 95 and its pretty obvious they don't care.

BTW there is still a line of sight requirement, of sorts, its just that a VHF HT will go further over open ground than say an FRS unit or even GMRS. If you're on the wrong side of the mountain the signal is still going to get blocked, though.

-Mike

**jasons** · 01-06-2012, 02:07 PM

Originally Posted by one-eyed Jack

If I remember right, you can't transmit more than 1/2 watt without a license. GMRS is pretty good and you can do up to 5 watts, but they want you to buy the license. Nobody buys it anyway and I don't think they enforce it. Jack.

2 watts for MURS according to what I read on the intertubez, for what that's worth. I would think that would be about as much as a handheld could do without a mega giant battery anyway. I looked at the GMRS radios too but they're UHF and so would be more sensitive to line of sight issues wouldn't they?

Originally Posted by drgrant

The best thing to do is get business band gear and get it reprogrammed for MURS...

Any recommendations on decent handhelds that won't break the bank?

**hikerlt** · 01-06-2012, 09:49 PM

check this guy out

http://www.murs-radio.com/

**jasons** · 01-06-2012, 10:12 PM

Originally Posted by hikerlt

check this guy out

http://www.murs-radio.com/

Saw them, but those Dakota radios get horrible reviews

**Zappa** · 01-07-2012, 10:16 AM

Here are the frequencies:

151.820 MHz
151.880 MHz
151.940 MHz
154.570 MHz
154.600 MHz

There's a ton of VHF radios out there that'll operate in this range.
I wouldn't worry too much about the 2 watt restriction, most handhelds only do 5 watts max anyway and the power can be turned down if you want.

**rob_ma** · 01-08-2012, 04:13 PM

Originally Posted by jasons

Saw them, but those Dakota radios get horrible reviews

Those reviews (wherever you saw them) are contrary to my experience and the feedback I get from my customers. (I'm the murs-radio.com guy, BTW.) There was a small period of time many years ago that there were quality control issues but that is no longer the case. Besides Motorola's Motorola RDM2020 and Ritron's JMX-146D at about $200 each, these are one of the few MURS legal radios out there available new.

The radios are consumer grade but are very reliable and perform very well. I have compared them side-by-side to commercial VHF hand helds (Kenwood, Motorola, and Vertex) and range is comparable. You won't hammer a nail into a 2x4 with these like you could an older model Motorola but you also aren't paying the premium for that either.

Without trying to sound too commercial here, I did have a NES classified post offering these at a discount for NES folks and I have a few base and hand helds left if interested. They do come with the factory warranty and a 30 day money back guarantee. You can try them out yourself to see if they fit your needs.

And to anyone else, PM or email me if you are interested in those or anything else on the website. I've got a new shipment of Puxing and TYT radios coming in soon, too, that are great for ham radio use. Just let me know that you are from NES and I can offer a discount on most items. I stand behind what I sell and if you aren't happy with it you get your money back with no BS.

- Rob

**jasons** · 04-23-2012, 03:49 PM

Ended up picking up a couple Kenwood TK2100 radios from ebay for what I thought was a fairly reasonable price. They're only two channel radios but so far I've been all alone on 154.570 MHz and 154.600 MHz. No traffic from the Walmart blister pack FRS radios is a good thing.

They seem to get decent range, certainly good enough to talk from the pits to the 600 yard line, and they seem rugged.

**twortley** · 04-24-2012, 06:10 PM

Pick up a Wouxun 2m/440. It will do all the above frequencies for about $100. Even cheaper is the new Baofeng UV-5R for $65. Both are unlocked using the freely available software and work great on MARS frequencies. I wouldn't know about MURS or GMRS use. No I wouldn't, not at all.

-Tim

MURS handhelds?

Thread Tools

Display

MURS handhelds?

Posting Permissions