I've spoken with a friend of mine who is a communications specialists and he had a few vary interesting things to say.

I've got a Garmin Rhino GPS and radio built into one unit. The neat thing about the Rhino's is they have borrowed some military technology and integrated that into the radios. The Radios are able to send GPS coordinates via GMRS frequency radio band and also track others Rhino users courses.

However, tracking others users courses are not automatic like military systems.
Secondly it does not transmit their course info from their way points log but only sends a way point position. The Rhino tracks their way points " received" and creates a course from that. I stress the word " received " because if the Rhino GMRS radio did not receive the pole sent then it not getting the info.

Instead they are only able to communicate coordinates if the other users manually sends them. There is a function that will "alert" the other user that they are being polled "queried or asked" to manually send their position. You can communicated to many users not just one and get their positions all on the GPS. Matter of fact the pole function sends out to all Rhino users your position and poll quarry so there is no selective option who can get the transmission.

From the feature options the Rhino has it would appear that this is one cool highly usable tool for communicating with multiriders on the mountain.

Well how well does it work? Is it rider friendly? The answers are not as great as you would hope for.

First I'll tell you about the radio side of the Rhino. The Rhino has the ability to talk on either GMRS or FS frequencies. The GMRS is a radio band that use to require a GMRS Radio license from the FCC to broadcast on. A good example of GMRS radio band use are the radios many apartment complex radio use to talk to the staff like engineers or grounds maintenance crews. The rental office is usually the location of the base station and the individual radios are carried by the crews. The base station has an amplifier to boost its signal up to a certain range, and its not intended to boost a very high signal to keep the frequency transmitted very localized to a small area. There are towers and boosters that have the ability to transmit the GMRS signal much farther but those base stations are not portable. The reason GMRS are regulated by FCC is obvious that when you purchase the license to use a
GMRS frequency you don't want cross interference from others. There is a CB band for open public use to communicate on and they want you there instead.

So about the GMRS, it is a UHF frequency. And the FRS is a VHF frequency. The Rhino can be set for either radio reception and transmit. How powerful is it? Well the first Rhino series the 110,120,130 all transmit with a 1 watt amplifier and its fixed stubby antenna. That power is barely enough to do much. Second both GMRS and especially the FRS signals are both in the high frequency range which is very limiting having almost no penetrating ability.
The FRS and GMRS used on the Rhino 110,120,130 have about a two mile range in perfect line of sight. Now get in a forest with trees and your range is best considered not far past line of sight. Key up your buddy around the other side of a mountain and is isn't going to catch him. Wide ATV trails with no heavy tree cover and you might get someone at 300 yards if they are in the wide open. Get in a flat forest with heavy tree cover and its useless in most common ATV riding When your buddies could be spread apart by two to three hundred feet while moving. Get a rider brake down and the rest of the group keeps going and they have lost you radio and GPS.

The next generation Rhinos are out going by a larger model number and I've forgot which they are right now. But what they did was address the amplifier inequity by boosting the power to 5 watts. Now claiming a ten mile range in line of sight. The power might have increased when you have perfect optimal conditions for GMRS but it still cant penetrate or receive from around the mountain or average mountain riding conditions. Please keep that in mind when considering buying one for riding use.

Additionally there needs to be the use of the GPS discussed. The GPS built- in Helli antenna is not able to pick up satellite signals through tree cover. And it also has to be moving to be able to triangulate your position. You cant just turn it on and get your position. Since the satellites are on low and high planes across the horizon you also need a nice open area to get it to work correctly other wise your signal strength diminishes fast and you lose the lock. Once you lose the lock of minimum of three satellites your GPS could tell you that you are in a different part of the country all together.

I've contemplated what could improve the Rhino if they change the design for ATV riders. First would have to be an external amplifier then an external radio antenna patch.
Next would be an external GPS antenna for greater signal strength as well, similar to marine applications.
Then I would change the poll feature to be able to automatically send polling information at several selective rates of send. When you are riding ATVs you transcend farther distances far faster than walking. Accurate courses need to be polled every few seconds and not occasionally. Since your hands are on the handle bars you cant be reaching over to hit the button to poll. It must be automatic or it renders this awesome feature useless.

Next would have to be a 3 inch screen verse the tiny 1.5 inch screen they are presently using. Then maybe one of the most aggravating problems is a good ATV vehicle mounting system for the unit. The lame bike attachment mount they have optional is so crappy, a good bump would snap the bracket. It was intended for ten speed bicycles not off road use. It is also unusable and so poorly thought out. Custom making one yourself is even nearly impossible due to the location of the buttons and optional outside 12v power source.


What I've discussed with my buddy is how to rig amps and antennas to the radio. Its not worth to try and its illegal. He explained that there are GMRS radios that have 25 watt power ratings but those are very pricey. He also said that from what I've explained how the conditions we riders are subjected to, why bother with GMRS anyway. Its frequency is to high up on the bands to get it to cut through forest or around mountains and such, those bands cant penetrate well anyway.

CB radio bands are what you should be using. Get a strong antenna and external amplifier. CB bands run in the low UF frequency range and have great penetrating signal ability with a strong booster amp and antenna that would be optimal for our needs.



I don't know why Garmin wants to use GMRS or FRS signals, I would be curious to find out why. But it would appear that they are developing their technology in the wrong direction from what I understand so far.

Just an interesting discussion.

Aaron