GMRS / FRS Real Effective Ranges

We’ve been testing the ranges of our various GMRS / FRS radios. We all know the silly and outrageous claims made by manufacturers about the ranges of these radios. Anybody who has used them in a real-world setting knows to “take their claims and divide by 10” for a more realistic estimate.

So… what is a realistic range estimate for GMRS / FRS radios?

Over the past year or so, Spice and I have used them in various locations, intentionally testing the range.

We’ve used them at The Place, in the Badlands, in the Sand Hills of Nebraska, in the rolling hills of western North Dakota, across bodies of water of various sizes, in cities, in buildings and around town.

We’ve used small FRS only units that claim “up to 26 miles in range*”, GMRS units that claim “up to 37 miles” and higher-wattage vehicle-mounted 40-watt rigs with external antennas.

For the GMRS / FRS advertisers, it’s all about the asterisk…

That little * is the key to all of the absolutely ridiculous claims made by the advertising departments of these radio companies. Every one of these silly range statement comes with a *(under ideal conditions) disclaimer. What are those ideal conditions? At night, if you are both on a mountain top facing each other.

I don’t know about you, but that happens to us every day. Not.

How many of the GMRS / FRS radios do we have and what kind?

We we have a GMRS license (yeah, I actually jumped through the dumb hoops, that licensing website is buggy as all get-out).

All told, we have about 10 waterproof GMRS / FRS radios of various description. Several of them are of the Cobra ACXT1035R models which I like because they are orange (easy to find when they are dropped), waterproof and they float.

We are out in all kinds of weather, and Spice always carries one with her when shes kayaking… I’ve never seen her actually use it when in whitewater, but it’s good to know it’s there, it floats, and she can just clip it on and go. We have a review of that Cobra unit here on 3BY (CLICKY) . We also have some waterproof camo radios with voice-activated headsets, when we don’t want to be orange.

We also have a few of the old, early generation FRS radios as well, that we have tucked away in an ammo can.

What’s the difference between GMRS and FRS?

I’m just going to bottom-line it here and say that, legally, you can use more power on the GMRS frequencies than you can on the similar but lower-powered FRS frequencies.

Yes, radioheads, there’s a LOT more too it than that, and if you are interested in a really nice rundown about the differences in the two frequencies you can click on this link and it will take you to a simple, non-techy article on another website that’s well written and that spills the beans in full.

So… the rubber needs to hit the road… what is realistic GMRS / FRS range?

Three answers:

1. Not much
2. Far less than you would think looking at the package
3. It depends… a LOT… on terrain

Let’s start with Number 1: In real use, the GMRS radios at our BOL have about a 3-mile range at max on the GMRS channels. We have tested this extensively by driving down the road, hopping out of the car and talking.

Number 2: Obviously, GMRS 3-miles max range (and by this we mean it’s the best we’ve ever gotten) is NOT what is advertised by these radios making a 37-mile range*. The advertising is complete and total hogwash. For FRS? Line of sight means “close enough to read the text on their t-shirts” type line of sight. OK, not really but… close…

Now we are on to Number 3, and this is where the information gets a little more complicated.

As stated above, the * range number is just stupid. Nobody uses these things in that terrain. So… let’s get real and use The Place as an example.

GMRS / FRS & Terrain

The road that runs past the place is entirely on a ridge top for 5 miles in every direction except for one steep dip where it drops about 150 feet then right back up. Once you get off the road, however, there are steep draws all over the area, including on The Place. Our cabin sits on one ridge top area (we put it there because it gets great cooling breezes) and we have one more ridge area, which we call “the long clearing”, it’s about 150 yards long.

As long as we stay on the ridge tops, out by the road or in either clearing, then both GMRS and FRS will cover us all over the 30 acres. FRS works from the driveway for up to one mile, as long as we stay on the road and out of the dip. The dip is about half a mile away from the place, and FRS dies there.

GMRS talkie-to-talkie range is, as mentioned, up to 3 miles on the ridge lines. It does cover down into the draws for the entire range of “The Place” and it’s 30ish acres.

What about other places?

Walkie-to-walkie, GMRS in open country? We really don’t get more than 3-miles consistantly there, either. They may work hit-and-miss for a bit longer, but not much. Here in town, where there are a lot of houses and trees? About 8 blocks.

The longest range we’ve ever gotten out of them was across Clear Lake in Iowa, talking across it the long way, about 6 miles as the crow flies… and the sound was good,.

Vehicle based radios to GMRS talkies range

Once we get into vehicle-based radios and radios installed in structures with external antennas, it becomes a lot more about the antennas than anything else. Honestly, when one starts getting into building a rig with a serious antenna, it’s time to put GMRS behind and get that HAM license and get a “real” radio setup.

Still, we have vehicle mounted radios available to use with our hand-helds, and the range is somewhat greater for the “mutual talk” setup… where both sides can talk and hear. We are regularly able to get 5 mile range in this area with that setup. Beyond that range, the person in the vehicle can be heard, but the person with the handheld cannot.

Vehicle to vehicle, again it’s all about the terrain, but 5-8 miles is pretty much always available unless there’s a lot of overhead trees (tree tunnels are common around here).

Hey, Salty, I remember reading that book “Patriots”, were those radios Rawles talked about GMRS or FRS headsets?

Ah, the old Radio Shack TRC-500’s. I’ve actually got a bunch of them, I got them from two different churches that retired them… fortunately they were on the same frequency. They are stored away in my preps, in case we need them, but alas, no… they are not GMRS / FRS.

Interestingly, about the only thing that uses the TRC-500’s frequency nowadays are baby monitors.

If you read Patriots and are tempted to pick some of them up, I’ve got some bad news for you… they’ve been out of production for a very, very long time. You can still get them on “the bay” but realize you are buying 25-30-year-old technology in a 25-year-old device. If you decide to make a core prep of them, buy a LOT of them… and pay attention to making sure you only buy either an A frequency or a B frequency, else they won’t talk to each other. Also, buy some new ear cups, the old ones will surely fall apart on you in no time, the foam doesn’t age all that well.

What other options are there out there?

There are lots of options, including MURS and CB. Paranoid Prepper wrote an article here on 3BY that talks about some of the options in communications, click HERE to check it out, it’s pretty good.

We also did a podcast about CB’s, you can listen to it by clicking the button below.

So… since these GMRS / FRS radios have really short ranges, why do you have some many, Salty?

We have so many because, contrary to what most people think, in a “SHTF” situation, short range is often good.

Here’s the thing… you don’t really want everybody else to know your business, you want to talk to your people but don’t want to broadcast your stuff all over the country. You don’t want people with scanners listening into your business. You don’t want to be DF’d (located by people using direction finding gear).

In a SHTF scenario, you want to make as little electronic noise as possible, and that means keeping the power low. When I’m at the place, I want spice to be able to hear me call her on the walkie. I don’t want people in Oskaloosa, Iowa to hear me call Spice on the walkie.

Think about it.