Enough of the CB. What are the FRS options?

reggie2349

Joined
May 13, 2008
Messages
18
Location
St. Paul Park Minnesota
Bike
BMW R1200RT
Enough is enough. It is time for the CB radio to be replaced with FRS radios in our club. I hope that if there are viable options at various price points we can wean ourselves off the CB radios and transition to FRS within a few years. What FRS systems are you familiar with? What is the general price point and what are the pros and cons?
 
Get a HAM license and go 2 meter. If you are riding with other HAMs you can talk on 2 meter and you don't have to listen to every kid in every town you ride through yelling at his little brother! :) Plus, you can open up your HAM radio to talk with your FRS/GMRS buddies. It's pretty easy to pass the technician HAM exam.
 
I use Kenwood FRS radios with the Autocom system. The range is only about a mile or less but that is usually enough to keep in touch except on a large, spread out group ride. Otherwise, nothing but static free com with very, very little interference from other users. We're on the move so if we hear someone else, it's usually only for a couple of minutes and we're out of range, again.

I tried some higher powered radios but I had negative results. The small low powered units work just fine and the speech is clear. No potty mouth like on the CB radio. These radios certainly make the ride more enjoyable when you can share sights and thoughts as you travel. I always look forward to riding with my other friends who do have the com system so that we can communicate as we ride.
 
I use Kenwood FRS Freetalk radios also. Also use the Kenwood GMRS radio which the first 7 channels are the same as the FRS series radios. Nothing but good experience. No CB antenna and contending with ground plane or NGP issues and best of all, all the FRS and GMRS radios I use run off batteries so no alternator or other static or interference. I run the FRS/GMRS radio through the J&M integrator which also allows me to use CB when I ride with CB folks but with a simple 10 minute change of radio and cord, I can use the alternate system.
 
I'm with Adam on this. Look at getting a amateur radio tech license and going 2 meter vhf or even UHF. It just requires a little reading and passing a simple multiple choice test. They've made it as easy as they can to encourage people to try it. 2 meter radio range is many times that of FRS or CB with a far cleaner signal. Do you really want to listen to the local hotel staff talking to one another on FRS when you ride by? Your investment won't be any more than a CB system with far better performance. Instead of a mile at best, we are talking 5 miles and, by accessing the amateur radio repeaters (think something like a cell phone tower) that are all over the country, a range of 50 miles is no problem. I easily reach a repeater over 20 miles from me with my bike radio using 5 watts of power to a 30" antenna.
 
Thanks for the replies. I think FRS is more achievable for most in the club than Ham radios. What type of headsets and push to talk system are being used?
Ron
 
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