20 Best Ham Radio For Overlanding (2023 Updated)

I just got this last week and installed it over the weekend(took just a few hours) I went ahead anf got the 32 inch antenna as well due to my mounting location. In general I wasnt sure how well the radio would do but I figured the only way to find out was to give it a shot and see for myself.

The other day I was on Medano Pass by myself for a fun trip. While using the scan function I started to hear a group coming from the other direction. I could hear them fairly well and it got better as we got closer.

As. my guess we were about 10 miles from each other there were plenty of trees in the way. Just from that alone I was impressed. I also tried the NOAA Feature and really like it. I was most likely 35-40 miles out from a few towers and still picking up signal.

In general I feel its a great combination for those simply wanting a good radio for group communication in a OffRoad Trip. Yes you could get a more powerful unit but if you dont have the need then I suggest sticking with a lower powered unit like such.

I bought this for my Ram 2500 Power Wagon. The install was straightforward. I went back and forth on the models I wanted. I decided on this version, so that I didn’t have to look down to see what channel I was on, etc.

Mounting the micromobile on top of my radio was not an option as I have seen others do. I have a bulletpoint phone mount that takes up that area and I was not giving that up. I hope to use this in Colorado this year.

I will update my review if anything changes. The mount I used for the Ghost antenna I found on Amazon. I powder coated it to match my truck as close as possible. The mount that came with this kit would not work on my truck.

I will use it on my side by side for something I’m sure. I won’t dock this a star, but I did have a question on how to run the extra antenna wire I ended up with, roughly 10 feet. I called and left a VM with support and never heard back from them.

I am a little disappointed in that. My question to them was can I roll the slack and zip tie it? Or do I need to find a way to run the extra wire so it’s not coiled together. Or do I find someone that can cut it to fit? I have heard that in some instances coiling coax antenna cable could cause some issues.

The MXT275 is the latest addition to the Midland Micro Mobile GMRS 2-way radio line up, with an all in one handset that allows for numerous mounting options. We pushed this unit to the Tx/Rx limits while communicating with the Midland MXT115 and X-talker hand-held in various circumstances and environments.

Communications were consistently readable up to threshold in spite of background static or chop. Like any GMRS, exchanges will vary considerably, as affected by user interface with mic, terrain, buildings and equipment setup to name a few.

Communicating with another Micro Mobile was superior to communication with a lower wattage handheld with fixed antennae. Car to Car was readable at 1. 5 – 2 miles in residential / urban environments.

Good clarity to 5 miles with line of sight over water. Tx/Rx Car mount to handheld cut these numbers roughly in half. The handset is a comfortable size with a solid quality feel and a noticeably tactile mic key.

I appreciate the ability to hold the back-lit display at a comfortable reading distance as opposed to leaning in to read a fixed base unit. The option to select the mic and / or the base unit as a speaker allows multiple installation options.

Bonus: External speaker jack, USB port and weather band with weather alert option. GMRS communications are essential to my business. For my vehicle mount GMRS, the MXT275 just moved to the head of the class.

It came sooner than expected. I followed the Quick Start Guide on the RTL-SDR Blog site. It proved easy to set up, so long as you follow the instructions properly. The reception of anything other than FM isn’t as good as I might have hoped with the supplied antenna.

While I have been able to listen to some short wave stations and also to some air traffic channels, they are far from clear, and I found one ham channel that was broadcasting on two different occasions, although I could only hear one side of the conversation.

This may be a combination of my inexperience and the need for a better antenna. So far I have just put the antenna on my desk indoors and moved it around a bit, nothing very scientific. Overall, I am happy with the purchase as an inexpensive and interesting way to get into radio, and I hope to learn more as I go on.

See the info image. Essentially you install gqrx-sdr which automatically installs gnuradio–an advanced SDR program where you generate software by dragging around flow-charts and what not. I’m using this SDR to experiment with high-speed data transfer via physical SCPA.

I’ve cut the antenna wire and applied it to RAM pins on running laptops, as well as to the SATA data wires of a busy spinning-disk hard drive. And I see beautiful order in chaos. Recording the I/Q data yields raw files which grow ~10MB per second–in “RAW I/Q” mode.

That’s plenty of processing for a tiny device like this. In this case, I set the frequency to 1. 635GHz for maximum contrast & minimum noise. I will provide more details of files produced using this SDR on github: compromise-evident.

I had it working within hours of the mailman dropping it off. I followed the quick start directions from the Web site printed on the SDR. I had SDR# working right away on my Windows 8 desktop. I later tried on a Windows XP notebook but the software options for that old operating system are more limited.

It still worked with the appropriate software. I have also tried the RTL1090 software to decode aircraft ADS-B beacons. It worked well for this, I was able to pick up aircraft more than 80 miles from my location (I’m near an airport and so there are lots of aircraft to look for).

This is with only the little dipole antenna in the package, stuck to a window that doesn’t even face the airport. I’ve also found ham radio APRS software that can work with this SDR. I can see transmissions by local police/fire services on the 770 MHZ band that my dedicated scanner doesn’t cover, but of course I can’t decrypt them.

I can pick up the ATSC digital TV pilot carriers at XXX. 310 MHZ – I set the “frequency adjust” to +1 ppm and these come in accurately on frequency. Wish I could demodulate at least sound. someone out there is working on that, I’m sure.

A few drawbacks. I’d like to get a bunch of these to use for chasing high-altitude balloons with APRS beacon transmitters – itcould work very well, directly receiving from the balloon instead of relying on spotty Internet coverage.

However, you need a laptop with sufficient horsepower, and there are rather a lot of software pieces to put together. I am just using the package antennas and I find there are very very many spurious and intermodulation products, such as in the FM broadcast band – and many narrow spikes at various UHF and VHF frequencies, Pretty sure these would get better if I installed an FM band filter.

I was surprised how warm the dongle gets – I would not recommend buying similar products in plastic cases. This is normal, the SDR draws 0. 3 amps from the USB port and that turns into significant heat.

I found the dongle stays much cooler even resting on a table top or any solid surface that conducts heat away from it. I’ll probably set up some kind of heat sink or fin to keep it cooler. All in all, tremendous fun value for the dollar spent, and it even got into my hands a little quicker than I had expected.

It’s great fun to play with receiver bandwidth and modes – to do the same thing when I graduated university would have taken a room full of gear, now you can illustrate all these principles with a low-cost dongle and free software.

I’m looking forward to getting this working ona Rasperry Pi – maybe I can single-handedly improve APRS coverage for next balloon season. And I haven’t even started looking at GNU Radio and the things it can do.

I bought this Two-way to go in the combine on our farm. Installation was quick and easy, and I powered the unit with the DC power adapter plugged into the cigarette lighter. We have a couple of the handhelds that we use together with this unit and they work great.

Range with those is up to 4 miles in our area. Rural but quite a few tress and houses in between. One thing that we have trouble with is talking into the mic. Sometimes it is hard to understand the person that is talking on the Two-way.

I think most of it is inexperience in how to hold the mic up to talk so I am hoping this gets better the more we use it. Another thing I wish was available was a connector with flying leads to wire into the power point that the combine has.

I know most people probably cut the 12V adapter off and wire it directly into the power point, but this limits the places you can put it in the cab. I am sure a quick google search and I could find the connector, but if Midland offered this as an option when purchasing, I am sure many people would get it.

I really like the MXT115 radio. I am picking up transmissions 90 miles away using the MXTA26 Whip Antenna. I appreciate how small and powerful it is. It takes up very little overhead space on my Overhead MOLLE Panel.

I was able to mount the MXTA26 Whip Antenna very conveniently next to the drivers door of my JL Wrangler and cut the length of the MXTA24 Low Profile Antenna Cable to the perfect length and add a new PL-259 Male-Plug Crimp Coax Connector to plug in the back of the radio and have power is hardwired to an ignition active wire with no wiring showing.

I bought both this President McKinley and also a Uniden 980SSB at the same time. Although the Uniden is OK, the President McKinley oozes quality and is in my opinion the better radio of the two. Construction is good and the case, which is embossed with the President logo, has a thick and glossy polymer surface finish which resists scratching.

Overall the impression is of a radio which has been well designed and assembled with care. The microphone is a little on the puny side, but even so, it appears to work well and have a nicely balanced frequency response.

Controls feel nice and tight, and the display, although not as pretty as the Unidens, is very clear from any angle and even in strong sunlight. This is very important in mobile installations where the sun can drown out displays.

The Uniden 980SSB display is hopeless in strong sunlight and at anything other than directly in front of the viewer. The McKinleys Performance seems good with nice clear audio both on receive and transmit.

Sensitivity appears to be very good and surprisingly the received audio dosent suffer from much white noise, unlike other modern CBs Ive used. The 980SSB was also good in this regard. My President McKinley arrived slightly off frequency on LSB but this was easy to adjust internally (you can download the service manual on the net from President- unlike Uniden who selfishly refuse to make servicing data available!).

This is a great CB for in-car mounting due to the front-mounted speaker, and with its quality construction, should I think stand the test of time. Im happy with mine, and I feel that it is probably the best AM/SSB radio on the market at the moment.

Congratulations President for producing a quality radio, for releasing the service manual, and for providing a design which suits in-car installations.

Great packged radio for a AM/SSB mobile, RX is pretty good even through the little front speaker, clear and with certain “tone” settings , comfortable to listen to. Now for the TX, Its stable (no drifting on ssb mode) but the power out put on this unit is very little.

Out of the box its out put was 3 watts on AM with around a. 5watt fwd swing. Its clear but not very loud audio. The SSB power out put, was the same, peak power was 3. 5 watts. Most of the AM/SSB radios I have used would do around 12watts on ssb and around the same on AM 3 to 4 watts.

There is only 2 adjustments that can be made by a person for the 12 watt out put on SSB. If your not familiar with tuning and setting power out put, best leave that to a radio tech. I did manage to adjust mine to do 12 to 14 watts peak on SSB and on AM I left the carrier at 3 watts and was able to achive a decent 7-8 watts by voice (peak power) All in All a fairly simple radio to run even while mobile once the menu settings are to your liking.

Recomend it out of the box? no, but after a adjustment is made its not a bad value. The Board looks fairly solid (inside) so if its in a rough riding truck / jeep/4×4 Id say it would take a beating.

Compact size fits in most locations in car or truck. Controls set thru menu like new am-fm radios. When paired with a good antenna rx and tx are acceptable for cb band. Weather band is useful for on road alert conditions.

Don’t recommend any President brand antennas use Wilson or Firestik antennas for more adjustability for lower tuned SWR readings with this radio. Front firing speaker has enough volume in dash except for the most loud truck cabs.

Built in swr calibration is ok for spot check just not as accurate as outboard unit Dosy tr1000 meter.

I have several of these radios, all have been dependable , and simple to use for family members that are not around radios often. However the fact that they will Not store more than one repeater with a tone on each of the 8 repeater pairs, or allow nameing each of thise repeaters is not good! If you travel you cannot simply change to another saved repeater in the area you are going to, without stopping, and physically deleting tones you have already saved for one area, then adding the new tones for the area you are going into.

A PITA ! That said, If you only want a basic GMRS radio, that will cover 8 repeaters programmed for immediate use without changing yout set tones, and a radio that is very good on simplex. This IS my choice ( I now own 2 Wouxun KG- 1000G radios!!!!!!! These are in our vehicles that we use when travelling , you can have lots of preprogrammed( and Named ) repeaters.

Please Step up your game Midland).

The MXT400 Bundle came well packaged and intact. Shipping was quick and efficient. I was pleased with the products when I opened the package regarding their heartiness and quality feel. Unfortunately, a few days after receiving the MXT400, the MXT500 became available, so I ordered the MXT500 and returned the MXT400.

I preferred the IP rating and dust proof aspects, and felt the additional cost for those items along with the additional 10W of power were well worth the extra cost. I anticipate good things from this setup once completely installed.

Bought the Midland Micro Mobile GMRS 2-way radio MTX400 in late August to set up as a base station in my home. After all other components purchased and installed, the unit became operational in early November.

Had to replace a protected breaker with a regular breaker. Worked great for about 2 weeks then noticed I wasn’t receiving any transmissions. A quick test revealed the internal speaker no longer works.

Several friends purchased this same unit and have had no issues.

The Midland Micromobile radios are definitely money well spent. Our farm recently decided to try Midland’s micromobile radios in our harvest equipment. With adding more acres each year farther away from home we decided that it was time to upgrade our communication systems to a system with more range.

We looked at multiple systems that ranged from $700 to $100 and we ended up buying four MXT105 from Midland. The price is affordable and the quality is great. The main reason our farm bought these radios was for the extended range that we needed and they work great we can talk to the truckers from the home farm and be 10 to 15miles away and they can still hear us clearly.

The radios are small and fit about anywhere a person might want to put one. The sound quality is loud and clear. The MXT105 radios have 15 channels to choose from plus the weather channels to get the forecast for the day.

In conclusion if a person is looking for a quality radio with good range and clear sound for a good price the MXT105 is a great radio to purchase. I know our farm will be purchasing a couple more in the near future!.

I bought two MXT105, one for my truck and the other for a base station using the LPX-14 power supply for the house. I also bought a few other misc items. While I like the radios, I was disappointed in a few ways.

First, the packing was pretty bad. The outer box was too big for all of the items inside. Sure, there was some packing material, a few air bubble pouches, but not nearly enough. All the items inside the box move/slid around inside the box.

I’m surprised the equipment was not damaged in transit. Second, both of the MXT105 radios were in packages that clarly had been opened. They both were re-taped shut, and had an orange tag taped on them with the markings “Clam Open WHS.

5”. Probably these were returns, I don’t know. Maybe they were new, just in a damaged box, but either way, I should have been advised I wasn’t getting NEW equipment. Very disappointed! I was angry and almost sent them back.

So far however, I like the MXT105 radios but I do have a few complaints/suggestions (sorry to be so picky, but you did ask me to write a review). 1) The volume control is digital (0,1,2,3,4…etc. ) instead of analog.

On the lowest volume setting (#1), the volume is still too loud for my truck. I realize this may be a benefit to some people, but for me, I have had to tape a noise reduction baffle over the speaker on the radio to reduce the volume.

2) Even when I turn the BEEP setting to off, when the radio is turned off and then back on again next time I use it, I still hear a BEEP. Very annoying when I want to be in quiet mode – not very quiet, eh? 3) When I went to buy the radios off the MidlandUSA.

com website, the MXT105 bundle with MXT1050 and/or MXT3VP3 were not available, even though listed on the website. I called customer support because I couldn’t find how to “Add to Cart” for those two listed bundles.

I was told it was be they are no longer available. So I ask you now, why were they still on the website as a bundle option? I would have bought two or more bundles if they had been available. Finally, yes, I ordered two MXT105 radios, and I got them.

But I really wanted several of the more powerful radios, like either MXT115, MXT275 or even the MXT400. The reason why I ordered the MXT105 radios is because of the hand held microphone having no radio controls on it.

The MXT115 and the MXT400 both have radio controls on the microphone itself, which is un-safe for driving, very annoying, and can cause accidental setting changes. If the MXT400 would have had a microphone like the MXT105 (no controls on mike except PTT), I would have bought two or more MXT400 radios.

As it stands, I am watching for more powerful radios from other makers that have the radio controls on the unit itself rather than the microphone.

I was recently in the market for a base station I could also use portable. I only operate SSB and am learning CW. I am not at all interested in any digital modes of operating. I did extensive research comparing different radios to suit my needs, and narrowed my choices down to the Yaesu FT-891, Icom 7300, and Kenwood TS590G.

Living in a Rural HOA subdivision, I still have a lot of RFI and was constantly at an s5-7 noise levels with my first radio a Yaesu FT-77. My main option I was looking for was the ability to filter out a lot of the noise so I could hear the weaker signals.

I watched a number of videos online that showed the FT-891 had superior filtering than the Icom or the Kenwood. I went ahead and bought the Yaesu FT-891, and I could not be more happy. Not only was it half the cost of the Kenwood and $400 cheaper than the Icom, it did exactly as I saw in the online videos.

After spending an hour or so acquainting myself with the navigation of the extensive menu system and connecting it to my Alpha Delta DX-EE installed in my attic, which is a very good antenna for attics if you have the space, I was able to get the noise levels consistently down to s3 or below, and I must say I am very impressed with the Yeasu, and have zero regrets buying it.

One of my initial contacts was in Zamibia over 8500 miles from my QTH. With the filtering off, I could not even hear that station, but they were crystal clear after adjusting the DNR and IPO. My previous longest contact before the FT-891 was a little over 5000 miles using an old Yaesu FT-77.

Overall I would definitely recommend this radio. So many people put it down because of the menu system, but if you take a little time to acquaint yourself with it, make all your initial adjustments to your liking, it is really an easy menu to operate with.

Most functions are set them and forget them, so after initial setup, I basically just access the different filters. I set the 3 “quick” buttons to TNR, DNR, and IPO, since they are the functions I use the most.

The IPO basically turns the preamp off, and I usually like the preamp off while operating at home. In the field with less noise, I will leave the IPO off. Since the FT-891 doesn’t have a built in tuner, I paired it with the MFJ 939 which is a pretty good antenna tuner.

Once setup, you just press and hold the TNR function on the 891, and it automatically tunes. The only other upgrade I made to the radio was the purchase of the Timewave ANC-4. After the initial learning curve with the ANC-4, I can consistently get the noise levels in my shack down to s1-s0!! Best purchase I have made in a long time!! I have only taken this radio remotely to a couple parks trips in the country, and the first time I did, I thought I had it hooked up wrong.

Using my MFJ 2286, I had S0 levels across all bands and it was dead silent with no static!! I made a lot of good contacts in the parks, and it just reaffirmed my decision to purchase the Yaesu FT-891!!.

I made the mistake of not doing proper research on these transceivers a year ago before buying what appeared to be a Baofeng UV-5R that turned out to be a dangerous, defective, and poor quality clone.

This clone was dangerous because it gave me a few annoying electrical shocks after its first charge or randomly while handling it. While trying to manuslly and program it with the cable and software it would transmit on its own without touching the button which could have gotten me into serious trouble.

Disappointed and angry I tossed the clone into the trash. After that first experience I wanted nothing to do with any cheap radio ever again. Not long ago a amateur radio enthusiast friend who I trust 100% told me to buy a Baofeng UV-5R for my first FM entry level transceiver while studying for my license.

So I did my research on various websites learning more about the Baofeng UV-5R. Reading many great reviews which still did not impress me. So I went and talked to more people I trust who are licensed amateur radio enthusiasts and got their opinions which were all positive so I ordered this one.

By all appearances and according to my research it is 100% genuine. I did my best to manually program it by watching videos on youtube because it did not come with the programming cable. Iam enjoying learning more about it and looking forward to getting my license soon so I can legally operate.

I would recommend buying this model for anyone who wants to get licensed. I would recommend this model as a gift to a friend who is licensed so they can have a backup. I do not recommend this model for anyone who has no respect or common sense.

I do not recommend this model to anyone who is not willing to learn because this transceiver is not a “walkie talkie” or a toy. If in the wrong hands this could be dangerous causing serious legal problems along with fines and jail time.

Reminder: you need an FCC license for each radio service that you use this radio for. It is NOT like CB radio. I wish that I had this 10 years ago. The Amateur/Ham radio 222 MHz band is not as well used as the others but when you need it it is nice to have a Rx/Tx with a decent power output.

Before buying this one I had 2 Wouxun dual band hand helds & used them very hard. This BTech Baofeng is better than the Wouxuns and my Alinco hand helds. The optional Li-ion higher capacity battery is icing on the cake during extended heavy duty use when you can not recharge.

Definately get the computer cable for ease in programming, especially if you have a lot of repeaters available to you. The extended receive (& Tx) is excellent during emergencies like hurricaines when multiple radio services become unavailable.

Those other radio services can be programmed in prior to emergencies. The memory capacity is sufficient for all the Ham radio frequencies AND the other services frequencies so you can be always prepared.

If you go to or live in a city with major events, like the Indianapolis 500, the extended FM radio frequencies go low enough to pick up the transmissions between the event broadcast truck and the TV or Radio station that is handling the broadcasts for the event (usually 72 to 76 MHz).

Antennas are available to cover multiple radio service bands simultaneously. I keep one extended frequency antenna on my BTech and in my car I plug it into my cigarette lighter socket and my car’s multiple frequency antenna in less than 60 seconds.

-N9MJB-.

This has got to be the bargain of the year. The radio is fantastic. I bought it as a back up handheld vhf for my yacht, cheap enough to not worry if it gets dropped in the sea or left on the table in a pub.

It was delivered all stuffed in a “jiffy” bag rather than a nice glossy printed cardboard box so my hopes were no very high but as I put it together I was impressed with the quality of the unit. All mouldings were properly finished and the complete unit feels robust and very well made even the charger and docking station are above average quality.

The instruction book is printed in pretty good English though it is in tiny print and is rather too concise for my liking. The buttons and switches are good quality and have a very pleasant feel when using and the beep reassures you that the input is working so on quality it is as good or better than the big names.

Then come the features!!!!! It is utterly brilliant, 2 way programmable ship to shore, FM radio for tunes in the cockpit, amazing sound quality for such a little unit, torch, strobe, voice activation and loads more.

The manual is not the best but after a bit of trial and a lot of error I worked my way round it all and programmed the main UK marine channels in on their normal numbers so CH 16 is the marine distress etc.

Dual watch works well as does the scan. This unit packs a raft of features. The range is good on the low power so I have never needed high power but I am sure it will be equally impressive. For just over 20 this has to be my Best Buy so far this year, the only way it could be better would be if they did a waterproof version, but an aqua pack works fine especially with the voice activation.

Buy one (or two) and I promise you will love it.