Learning to use a two-way radio

[hedgehopper]

Recently I bought a pair of Midland GXT1000VP4 GMRS Two-Way Radios so my wife and I can communicate with each other when she is hiking and I am at our campsite. Based on your many comments we still have not decided if they will serve this purpose.

In the meantime, we are trying to learn how to use them. The instructions that came with them are not very helpful. Can you suggest a source that might be more helpful?

Thanks.

[Gdetrailer]

Youtube video for your Midland..

Basic Setup and button functions..

HERE

Distance test

HERE

You will find lots of other videos on your unit on youtube from those links above.

[Gdetrailer]

Should work fine right out of the box..

Radios should have some "default" setting when first powered on, typically default setting will not have "group" or "Privacy" modes turned on.

My suggestion is to make sure you do not have a "group" setting or "Privacy" settings turned on.

See page 10 of your manual for how to turn on/off the group setting and turn it off if it is on. This way you can ignore setting group codes, IDs, caller IDs and ring tones as you are not using them in a group setting.

Basically you are setting the radio to "Standard Mode", see bottom of page 11 in the manual.

Do not set "privacy codes", you want this feature OFF, top of page 12 explains how to turn on/off privacy codes..

Enabling group and privacy modes puts the radio into a Tone squelch mode, the squelch will only allow sound to come through the speaker IF the proper sub audible tone is transmitted. This only works IF you have BOTH radios setup correctly, each radio will have to have the same sub audible tone turned on and at the same frequency.

The biggest downside to having group and privacy settings enabled is if for any reason one of the units settings get changed by accident you will no longer hear each other basically making them 100% useless..

The online manual can be found HERE

If the direct link above doesn't work, you can find the manual from Midlands website HERE scroll to the bottom and you will see product support and the manual..

[Second_Chance]

An important thing to remember is that, with HF/UHF FM portable radios, the range is roughly line-of-sight + 10%. You don't know that you're out of range until you are and hills/obstructions are show-stoppers. Periodic radio checks while she's out and about are a good idea to make sure you can still communicate before an emergency arises.

Rob

[wa8yxm]

Those radios are rather simple.
Select the same channel on both radios FOr this do not select any "Tone" or "Private" settings.. just the channel 1-4 are FRS low power as I recall *not sure of 14) the higher channels need a license and are higher power.

You have 3 or 4 basic controls On/off (often combined with volume) Volume, Squelch and Push to talk. Volume you know PTT.. Well hold that button (on the side) while talking.. Squelch set it so the receiver is silent when the other party is not transmitting.

There is also (often) a monitor button.. this is only used with Tone or Private channel settings (press this and listen for a bit before you PTT)

Finally speak normally and generally across the radio not into it.

Advanced: Private channel or tone settings.. If you select this it must also be the same on both radios.. What this does is transmit a continuous subaudible tone. (Well for most folks some can hear it) say 100 Hz... It also "Listens" for that tone. and if it does not hear that tone. the receiver remains silent.

In this case you should push the monitor button for about a minute before making a first call.. I do not use this feature on my receivers.. I do on some transmitters (on my gear I can set both independently) for assorted reasons.

[MarkTwain]

hedgehopper wrote:
Recently I bought a pair of Midland GXT1000VP4 GMRS Two-Way Radios so my wife and I can communicate with each other when she is hiking and I am at our campsite. Based on your many comments we still have not decided if they will serve this purpose.

In the meantime, we are trying to learn how to use them. The instructions that came with them are not very helpful. Can you suggest a source that might be more helpful?

Thanks.

Figure out what the distance generally will be between the 2 radios and what the line of sight will generally look like. The answers will tell you how effective your radios will function in your situations.

[bgum]

YouTube or a radio shop or a ham club member

[KD4UPL]

They probably have several channels. Some of the channels are probably the same as FRS and don't require a license. These channels will be limited to only 1/2 watt power. The other channels are GMRS and do require a license and allow for a higher output power.
You can also set up tones that allow you to only hear a transmission with the appropriate tone even if you're on the same channel as someone transmitting with a different tone. This allows you to not be bothered by other people using the same channel. But, you could also cause each other interference. In rural areas where there is likely not many other users I wouldn't use the tones as they are probably not needed and may prevent you from hearing someone else in an emergency.