Midland GRMS base stations

That is true, except you do not need a good ground plane. It may help but to be quite honest we have not been able to tell the difference in range with or without it. We have installed these in over 100 rigs so far and many Class A's are fibreglass construction and have found little, if any, difference in the range with or without a ground plane. With a CB it is essential, but these do not seem to matter. Getting them up onto the roof does help a bit. We have used them all over Mexico in a variety of terrains. Obviously the range is better on the flat. No issue with a license down there. We do advise customers to get one when back in the US. There is a 40 watt version but it requires purchase of a different antenna. Although we have used that version for Wagon masters & tail gunners, the increase in range is not that a big deal. We have tried the units with several customers who have existing CB antennas and have found in most cases the range is still acceptable even though the antenna is tuned to the wrong frequency range. I have yet to find a GRMS repeater in Mexico but these uits are compatible with them. They do use GRMS radios there, we have heard highways workers on them plus others. Most people down there seem to use channels 20-22 on the mistaken theory that the higher the channel, the higher the range. We use 17 or 18 and hardly hear anyone on them. Its handy in some ways since if its spanish we know they are not part of our group.