Originally Posted By: Russ
Do the GMRS only handsets have better antennas than the FRS/GMRS hybrid radios? IIRC the FRS/GMRS hybrid radios allow more power on the GMRS channels while the FRS channels are limited to 1/2 Watt. But on a hybrid radio they share the same antenna so they would both have an antenna limitation.

Would going to a pure GMRS radio give you more power and a better antenna? The Icom IC-F21GM (pdf download) looks like a good radio. I wonder if it has the antenna limitation...


As a rule of thumb, height is worth ten times antenna, which is worth ten times output power.

GMRS only units may have a better antenna or an antenna connector that permits a better antenna. They also may have more output power. Hybrid units must use a fixed antenna (to be type-accepted for FRS, a lousy fixed antenna is a requirement). I haven't seen a hybrid unit with more than one watt of output on GMRS.

So in other words, a pure GMRS radio could have a great antenna on it and five Watts of output in a handheld format, which would result in much better range performance in most terrain.