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GMRS has historically been a utility, not a rag-chew hobby. While in very dense population areas there is a big social component, once you get outside population centers, it is very much still a utility. If you are looking for social communications, I would recommend amateur radio. Specifically either a General or Extra class so you can use the most amount of HF voice spectrum.

I hear that. We've had a few storms that didn't necessarily take down the cell systems but took out the power. Which can limit your personal options for communication.

Great answer, and although (as you understood) was really asking the OP, I will take your hint that it might be a good general topic. I’ll start a new thread for it.

Steve this is a really good question. I know you didn't ask me but here goes. Curiosity. I had no idea what to expect. Yes, I think it was my curiosity about GMRS. I've been a licensed ham since 1988, and a full time QRP CW operator since 1998, and I am an Extra class licensee and POTA is my favorite amateur radio activity. In March 2020 my employer sent all us IT types home to work, pandemic and all, and then they sold our building and decided to leave us working from home...thing was I enjoyed listening to and participating in the local drive time 2m traffic...but...here we are with 20+2m repeaters and the largest majority of the day, they are dead. Sometimes in the morning you can catch some conversations, sometimes in the drive home time but not always. So early last year I bought a pair of GM-30 Chinese wonder rigs for cheap, and taught my wife how to use them. I was able to monitor GMRS traffic and stumbled on a couple repeaters I could hear but couldn't hit. BUT when I go fishing at a pond a mile away, I can talk to my wife simplex. When she goes out walking the neighborhood with her sister, she can talk simplex to me. So really I got a GMRS license out of curiosity. Thanks to local upgrades to the repeaters near me, and my slightly better antenna, I can talk on the two repeaters but frankly, I just listen. It beats Bob and Tom in the morning. And there is more traffic on those two repeaters ALL DAY than 20 2m repeaters in the area. I joined one of the local GMRS groups and gave them some financial support (very little actually) and I am enjoying their system. When school is in session, I listen to the local maintenance guys on MURS as they have all the latest filthy jokes and they are a straight up hoot to listen to. I hope you had a good Field Day.

@JoCoBrian deserves full credit. In response to a post decrying the apparent lost of a repeater, I asked the original poster (OP) why he had gotten a GMRS license in the first place. JoCoBrian stepped up and gave a great answer and I realized this might be a good general interest question. I’ve been fascinated with radio as long as I can remember. My parents had one of those tall wooden consoles with a radio and record player and before I was school age I took it apart. Then in the 60s I became interested in two way radios while watching The Man from U.N.C.L.E. Every time a company came out with some kind of small walkie talkie I begged my folks for a set. In eighth grade I became interested in ham radio but I never followed through (a trait I still have). When I got into amateur rocketry a couple decades ago I noticed that people were carrying real radios. Eventually my mentor got a Garmin and I bought a less expensive Motorola Talkabout to talk to him. But neither of us were licensed. I signed up for an FRN in probably 2004 or 2005 but didn’t want to spend the money to buy the license. It took quite a few years but a few years ago (2021 I think) my conscience finally got the better of me. I got a license and started watching Notarubicon videos. Within a few months my interest in ham radio resurrected itself as well and in 2022, I took all three tests. But I still want a Man from U.N.C.L.E. communicator! So, why did you get a GMRS license?

You are in perfect land if I recall. Wide open at the top of a hill in barren county. I on the other hand live in the land of trees and hills. I live near a river so I am in a low location. At about 1/2 mile or so you can get static and crackles because of all the different obstacles in the path of the signal. I am talking about 5 watt HTs.

Because I wanted a birthday gift that wasn't related to my business. All my stuff is generally geared towards the woodworking business I have and this time around I decided I didn't want a new tool. That I wanted a new toy. On top of it, it's SHTF preparedness for me and my family. I got the license because the Ef Sea Seas demanded that I have their permission paperwork to transmit into the open ether that they so happily decided was their property instead of just the nature of things. And I figured it's only $35 for 10 years and no test so who cares. The repeater owners want you to be licensed so before I could ask permission I needed the coveted call sign assigned to me from the powers above. Generally I like playing radio. I did when I was much younger and now the prices of worthwhile radios is squat. When I was a kid some 50 years ago I remember a walkie talkie would cost $30-50 and you'd be lucky to get 100 yards out of it. Now 50 years later that same $35 gets you a pretty descent radio that can transmit 1/3 mile easily, to 1-5 miles or better depending on conditions. I did it for funz

I like 2 way radios. The more bands I am licensed to use within the bounds set for each band and license the better. Also the hope that my daughter would keep a GMRS radio at her house that is within range of at least 2 repeaters that also reach my house in case the cell system ever goes down AGAIN. If you didn't live thru it, you don't understand. Had handheld 1/2 watt walkie talkies back in the '60's and CB's in the 70's. Learned how to tune antennas and improve grounding etc with the CB's.

I'm dizzy

That’s usually an inadequate power supply. The voltage sags and the radio reboots.

It’s purely speculative on my end, but this issue REALLY sounds like whatever power source you’re using cannot supply adequate amperage to the radio while keyed on high..

For anyone advocating for the use of AllStar or similar Linked repeaters, I've got just one question that sidesteps all the issues regarding networking and "wireline" definitions: How are you monitoring all those remote links for local non-linked traffic prior to keying up all repeaters in your network? What are you doing to avoid stepping on active local conversations that are not happening on your linked network, but are already taking place on non-linked repeaters? Monitoring for traffic prior to transmitting is one of those bedrock assumptions in the shared service frequencies - at least in any conversation I've had with FCC types. If your linked network routinely tramples on someone else's active conversation, I don't think the FCC would care if you're using microwave, Internet, or the Public Switched Telephone Network for wireline links.

No, but I did wire his tower building, mow the grass there every other week since 2019, painted the outside of the building, cut brush. Dragged thousands of feet of hardline to the site ranging from new 1/2 inch to several 200 plus foot lengths of 7/8 and 1 5/8 line. repair radios for him and a number of other things that I can't even remember right now. But I figure I should do that.

Well, because I wasn't comfortable with bootlegging. Matt (the guy that owns the tower) had his license for several years. We were using GMRS both on a repeater and simplex for tower operations. He would be up the tower and we used radio's so we didn't have to holler up and down the tower. I didn't feel comfortable about it so we were gonna switch to Itinerant's. He told me to just get a license, but I didn't really want to spend the $70 at the time. So I get an email from Paypal that I had a deposit from him for $70. So I got my license. Then I got nuts. We put up the dual feed DB420 and connected it to the two 4 port transmit combiners and I put up the 675 and then found out about linking and put up the 600. Matt already had the 725 on the air, but it was running on a GR1225 repeater, so I put it on a 40 watt MTR2000. Then I put the 442.775 on the air on another MTR2000. So I have 3 UHF repeaters that went on the air in the course of a month. But if Matt hadn't sent me the money for the license, I may not have ever bothered. But I am glad he did at this point.

Got the license after my wife gave me the radios. We use them to communicate on some rural property (hiking, riding atvs, tractors, etc.). Now at home, it’s part of our plan for communication after a disaster or emergency.

While it's a good courtesy, realistically monitoring for co-channel traffic works for backyard repeaters, but as soon as you put up even a standalone machine on a mountaintop with a 100+ mile footprint, no user can adequately monitor for co-channel traffic on any significant area of the total footprint. Of course linking makes the monitoring footprint bigger and thus enhances the issue, I'm not saying there's no correlation there, but it exists on just about all repeaters to some degree and especially so for high-coverage machines. By nature repeaters exist to cover areas that you cannot monitor with your HT/mobile/base alone, and most repeaters (being duplex) cannot do BCL on their own transmit frequency without some external receiver that interlocks on the transmit frequency (which has other technical challenges, such as locking out on natural interference, or self-interlocking with its own carrier). The monitoring rule is intended to have users avoid getting a repeater to step on another station elsewhere in the coverage footprint by monitoring first, but this cannot be realistically ensured for even a decent standalone repeater, so this issue is not exactly linking-specific.

Entirely possible. I meant to say "this weekend I noticed..." Not "I noticed that this weekend they added..."

That's very cool.

I also started with CB back in the early 1970’s and found it very useful until the early 1990’s or so. I considered getting the HAM ticket, but never took the time. When building out my new 4Runner I found YouTube videos that highlighted GMRS and thought it would be a good addition. After a bit more than a year the “radio bug” bit me and I now have a couple Icom radios and will be taking the test soon, to finally get the HAM license. My son & I both have mobile radios and we have several handhelds between us. The overall clarity, range, and repeater capabilities make this feel like an excellent option for us.

Oops rather than anxiously awaiting my guess is you are eagerly awaiting. Anxiously indicates fear, dread, foreboding, worrisome and the like. Anxiety and anxious are derived from the Latin word Angere, its meaning was to choke and strangle. Hope this helps you and others.

I had gotten my first GMRS license long before I was licensed in amateur radio, '87-'88 timframe. I was looking for an alternative to CB, that was quiet and family friendly. It was mostly for road trips with my family, as several times a year we would caravan 1,000+ miles to states around the country. I had let me original license expire due to lack of use, but got interested in Ham radio back in the early 2000's. As my son got older and started driving, he wanted radios to keep in touch. Especially because of the camping g and 4wheeling. At first we used CB... but he asked me if there was something like Ham radio, but without having to take a test. I remembered how well GMRS worked, so, I got a new license for the family to use. Just like the old days, it was for caravans with the family and noodling around when there was no cell coverage. Today, I still use it for the same reasons... caravans, wheeling, keeping in touch around town. It's a good service.

Why did you get a GMRS license in the first place?

Tell us how you really feel.

@SteveShannon Understood. Just asked you because you were one of the very first to welcome me on here. I’ll keep my questions to the main forum. Thank you for the info.

Explain this. What map are you talking about ? Better yet if you know who it is just share it if its that easy to find.

Typical guest hit-and-run. I doubt they'll be back.

@WRUU653, @SteveShannon thank you guys. I had To be schooled on call sign formats in order to sign up.

I started going to Field Day with the Holmesburg Amateur Radlo Club K3FI nearly 20 years ago. Of course, I've several Field Days with Penn Wireless Association W3SK. For a while I haven't felt like doing anything in Amateur Radio. A lot of great friends of mine, both Amateur Radio Operators and non-hams have passed away. I realize I shouldn't allow myself to fall into a depression, but sometimes a break is necessary in order re-spark the interest to a hobby, whether it's in radio or model railroading. 73 to all!

Yes, VHF/UHF. Mcbazel Surecom SW-102 Digital VHF/UHF 125-525Mhz Antenna Power & SWR Meter (https://a.co/d/00tIGLvZ)

And you should have a number for an off-road towing & recovery company for the just-in-case you are within cellular coverage and know what GMRS repeaters that may be nearby. If you are not in a group while off roading you should be scanning all 8 GMRS simplex channel or at least be monitoring Ch. 16.

This is pretty much my sentiment for linked GMRS repeaters.. It's antithetical to the entire point of everything. Why become accustomed to leaning on a component of the very mode of "mainline subscriber based" infrastructure that might not be intact in a disaster to tie in radio repeaters? The very first thing people need to do is completely remove the idea of very long range comms from their mind as it pertains to GMRS. It's a fallacy to think that these linked repeaters will be of any use in an instance where radio methods of communication are all that remain operational. If you think of things in terms of scale, these linked repeater systems are merely turning our GMRS radios into a big cordless phone arrangement. We possess the handsets, and the repeaters are just the phone base that are then plugged into a WIRE in the wall.... We aren't doing radio when we're doing this!! That wire which is sending the communications traffic is just flowing across the same infrastructure as everything else that we're concerned with being down or overwhelmed in a disaster. So why bother? Just to have this "chat line" for old guys? Like 90's era AOL chat rooms? Firstly, not only is it just kinda lame , but it's also generating a lot of annoying traffic on the repeater pairs around the country. I don't have the slightest bit of interest in chatting with a bunch of randos over a VOIP line, just for the sake of it.. Standalone repeaters in a metro area are at least a much more manageable entity, and frankly are enough. I'm pretty happy to use the big repeater in my area to be able to communicate across a pretty vast area in my region. It serves the UTILITY that I need it to. If people want to make phone calls, do that. I'm sure there's some VOIP ptt application or windows program that people can download to fulfill the same exercise as is being done on the linked repeaters. They can even yell out WHISKEY SIERRA BRAVO TANGO 5 2 2! While they're doing it to continue acting like they're doing a "radio thing".. But i'm in favor of getting this off of the GMRS.

Agreed.. I dont leave home without it.

So whats odder is back in the old days when we had a repeater for home use we had a "remote" at our house for control of the repeater. It used a RTL (Radio Tie Line) from our house to the mountain top. I know in those days it wasn't cheap. Autopatch was a thing then on ham big time but you could not add that to GMRS. But wants needed as Dad would call and mo would tell him to get xyz on his way home. Later on control stations took over for remotes. Just funny how stuff progresses. Isay just enjoy GMRs for what its built for and fdont try to make it something it never was. Jeep riding, talking to kids in a park, hiking, caravans home use is what 90% of the folks who use GMRS use it for. Its only folks here that have to have linking and nets.

In a truly remote area (like the kind of places I go every weekend) there will not be any difference between a $18 Baofeng and a $300 50-Watt GMRS radio because neither will do any good.

Collapsed? If one of my friends who worked for an enforcement group called me and gave me a heads up that might keep me out of an enforcement action, I would not argue. I would simply say “Thanks!” And take their advice. An early warning system is nice to have. Why argue with them?

Poppycock! I for one think that more threads with links to those videos are what society and the world needs! Think of the children!

I have an opinion, but it is just that - an opinion. I consider GMRS as super-FCS, not HAM lite. I have no issue with local repeaters, but if you feel the need to "rag chew" with someone four states away, take the test and get your HAM license. But that is just my opinion.

My thinking is more along the lines that something is coming down and they don't want alternate means of communication to be in place. Single repeaters are just that, somewhat localized. The string repeaters cover large areas that are normally covered by more elaborate systems that when down effectively quash communication. Ya, I'm one of those.

This! If a person only goes where there’s guaranteed cell service (that’s not overlanding!), and only wants to talk to one person at a time (possibly two) and doesn’t want the convenience of pushing one button, and doesn’t need to monitor others in the party, then cell phones are fine.

Also,.. Stop erecting new repeaters for the sake of it.. Just because YOU want to admin a public repeater. If that metro area is well covered by other machines, what even is your motivation for doing a new one, and to the extent that it's annoying another one? It wreaks of a person just wanting to have a "thing to lord over".. Stoppit.

The NotARubicon Institute Research Staff is digging deeper and there IS something to this story - and the results may shock you... Stay tooned for the upcoming video.