After I wrote the article on using real GMRS radios on-board vessels in the US I started looking for equipment to recommend. The problem is the retailers and manufacturers see GMRS as a chew-toy bubble-pack market. It is easier to sell a toy GMRS radio for $39.95 than a real repeater capable GMRS radio because repeaters are just not everywhere. Still, you would think someone is making UHF transmitting antennas for marine use since the rest of the world including Asia, Europe, Australia etc all use UHF marine channels which happen to be in part on the same frequencies the same as the United States GMRS!
The one or two watt GMRS bubble-pack radios are convenient and make excellent supplemental portable radios for a complete family GMRS system. The bubble-packs do not do repeaters and are of limited range. Despite what the inflated range claims say a bubble-pack will not talk back home if your home is eight miles inland on the other side of a forest. Use a bubble pack to stay in touch with your real GMRS boat radio while you are in port but don’t get more than a haf mile away for a reliable signal.
I checked the 2008 catalogs of the most likely sources for marine antennas. Both West Marine and Boater’s World have huge selections but not one marine antenna outside of marine VHF and marine SSB or cellular. I’m a big fan of both retailers. Each store is a terrific place to go for marine electronics and twelve-volt accessories.
Australia seems to be the most likely importer of real UHF commercial quality antennas for boats. A company called ZCG makes the ZCG Scalar brand UHF marine antenna. It appears from their website that they offer antennas made for other than the 477 MHz UHF CB radio. Plugging in the lowest GMRS channel 462.55 MHz and the highest 467.550 MHz puts one of their specialty antennas within their manufacturing range.
Please take a minute to email us if you are aware of other retail sources for UHF marine antennas in the United States. Send us photos of your own UHF GMRS installs on your boats and the pictures will be published here. Do a write up the magazine can share about how you did the install and how well it works.
PopularWireless would like to hear from retailers in other parts of the world interested in selling UHF antennas for the US GMRS. Tell us about your products and how US residents can obtain them.
What you can use right away, depending on available surfaces, are magnetic mount mobile antennas used on land vehicles. You have to have a flat metal surface on board that a magnet can stick to of course.
UHF mobile antennas come in short six inch unity gain and the taller 3db gain varieties. Antennex, Larsen, WIlson, Hy-Gain and many others can sell these types of antennas. A boating store might even be talked into ordering these for you OR you can order from advertisers here at the magazine.
The coaxial cable you use at UHF is a bigger deal than at VHF. I suggest using a good low-loss 50 ohm coax cable and not RG-58 or RG-8. There are excellent Teflon coated cables. I heartily recommend RF Cables in Maryland. A magnetic mount antenna will probably come with a short (six foot) section of cable attached which is fine if that’s all you need to use.
What about LMR-400? Or even smaller LMR type cable could be used at UHF for more flexibility. We used LMR-400 a lot in Satellite, Cellular, and WiFi.
It would be interesting to see if the popularity of GMRS would increase in the marine environment. But somehow I doubt it. Boats/Yachts have enough wireless stuff to install and contend with already. Boats that are going to talk amongst themselves will probably use VHF Marine. Those that are going to talk to shore are probably going to use Cellular Phone. I’ve seen Bubble Pack Radios on Yachts, used as a short range tool onboard replacing VHF Marine Handhelds. Most that I approached didn’t have a clue about the dual FRS – GMRS bubble radios, where the GMRS part required licensing. Many bigger yachts have Icom handhelds and some Land Mobile Channels programmed by the radio dealer. Not sure if they actually have a license for those land mobile channels or not. I don’t see them wanting GMRS added to their gear because they don’t have anyone to talk to on it anyway.
Smaller boats – more family oriented might be interested. But then again their budget for Toys or Radio gear is even more limited.
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