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I normally don't respond to posts or spend a bunch of time on forums. I found this interesting with lots of differing opinions and some good points. My thoughts on radio and its use are shaped by a carrier in public safety, emergency management, and my personal use of Marine VHF, GMRS and HAM, within licensure guidelines. The FCC states "95.1703 Definitions, GMRS. General Mobile Radio Service (GMRS). A mobile two-way voice communication service, with limited data applications, for facilitating activities of individual licensees and their family members, including, but not limited to, voluntary provision of assistance to the public during emergencies and natural disasters." As mentioned, I have both GMRS and HAM licenses. I also own a local GMRS repeater that has a large footprint, and am involved in HAM repeater systems that are part of the SKYWARN network. No, GMRS was never meant to be HAM. But all things evolve over time, it will not become HAM (nothing will become HAM, it is literally an experimental license that allows HAMs to do many, many things), but its use has and will evolve (grandfathered licenses for example) just like CB radio did. In my opinion, GMRS has some distinct advantages over HAM. The biggest being that once license covers a family. Repeater linking is not allowed in GMRS, so that keeps comms more local. A big benefit to GMRS and GMRS repeaters in particular, is the ability to provide alternate and emergency comms for families and friends. Most of the people who want access to my repeater specify they want it for emergency use to communicate with family and friends. Something a lot of people don't realize about cell phone service. Cell providers, and really all of telecom, are not required to provide long term emergency power for their sites or nodes. Most only have battery backup that doesn't last very long. My area gets hit with some severe weather once a year that causes widespread outages due to power and telecom lines being down. The first thing that happens is the cell towers get loaded up and bandwidth drops. If you have a cell provider that is not a big company that owns its own network, you are the first to get dropped from the network / site. Most people also don't realize that most "landline" phones are now VIOP. When the node goes down because its batteries are dead, so is you phone and internet (assuming you have power). As soon as the cell site without a generator looses it battery backup, its off the air and your cell is out. This can last for days. In contrast, the "big" repeater sites, both HAM and GMRS, are on UPS and gen power. My GMRS repeater can run a minimum of 24 hours with moderate use before I need to plug it into the generator. All the HAM sites I'm familiar with are the same way and are usually on commercial towers with gen backup. In order to use radio for emergency comms, you need to be familiar with radio and be fluent in its use. You need to know your radios work, you need to know the repeaters you programmed a year ago are on the air, and you need to know where you can use them from and who you can communicate with on them. You also need to have a plan for using radio to communicate when cells and landlines are down. Radio checks, general conversation, and rag chewing on repeaters helps ensure this.

I’m seriously curious. Obviously you’re not here to ask for help, you inject negativity into the threads started by people who actually do help, and you make zero effort to get along with people socially. So, why are you here, Devin? Do you actually like the negative attention you receive? Is it somehow better than no attention at all?

Seems a lot of people make this mistake as a newbie GMRS user. I'm seeing several topics on it. People not hearing you? Here's my explanation. CTCSS - Continuous Tone Coded Squelch System DCS - Digital Coded Squelch Both of these serve the same purpose: To isolate conversation. Be warned, however, some radios advertise these as "privacy tones." They have nothing to do with privacy. They do not "hide" your conversation in any way. For example: If you connect to a repeater using 462.725MHz (Channel 22. Repeater channel 22 is 467.725MHz), and the requested CTCSS is 141.3Hz, then anyone listening with that tone code will be able to hear you. Without it, they won't hear you at all. However, if you're listening, and you're not using a tone code, you will hear EVERYTHING (hence why tones have nothing to do with privacy). The CTCSS code ensures that only traffic using that transmit tone code will be heard on your radio. Anything else not using that code or using a different code your radio will ignore. While it's not necessary to have a receive code since you will hear everything, it's because that you'll hear everything that you may not know who's actually talking from that repeater, or who just happens to be using that frequency. That may end up causing confusion with conversations. TL;DR: If people aren't responding to you, it's probably because they can't hear you because of a missing CTCSS code for your radio. Double check with the repeater owner to see if a transmit CTCSS or DCS code is required. Do note that not all GMRS radios support repeaters or CTCSS/DCS codes. WSCL244/KF0QNM

Today was my first day reading this thread. Great topic and it was fun reading. I feel like it's pretty easy to use it properly. By definition, it's for facilitating activities of individual licensees and their family members. So, follow the rules and use it however you like. I realize some people don't like long-winded rag chew between a friend or three, and that's okay. You don't have to participate like that. If you are using exclusively for staying in touch with family, that is fantastic, too! If you're sticking to the rules, there is no wrong way. Me personally, back in the late '80's and early '90's, my family used to caravan up and down the east coast or out west several times a year. We used GMRS to talk RV to RV and around whatever park we were at. It was mostly to get away from what was (at the time) very busy CB radio. When my son got a little older, he started driving and asked me to get a new license and some radios so we could stay in touch while driving around or if we were using multiple vehicles to go somewhere. The last 6 years, I have also been using GMRS for communications with our offroad groups, using mobile radios for the extra power and no need for internal batteries that need regular replacement or charging. That said, I have a lot of friends in the area and I run a GMRS club. A lot of us use GMRS for staying in touch, filling in silence while we drive, and some people even use it to try to find new friends. I think all of that would be considered using it properly.

This is very true. But "some people" just can't behave or be polite.

Yes, but people who behave politely get plenty of attention here, too. All you have to do is impart some useful information and you'll get kudos. Unlike the toddler, there are other ways to get that attention in this group.

socalgmrs’s GMRS callsign is WRXP381. Here’s a website that will tell you whether a GMRS licensee is also a ham: https://gmrs.app Feel free to try it with my call signs: WROM258 is my GMRS call sign. AI7KS is my ham sign. Virgo is my astrology sign.

There’s nothing wrong with you talking to people using your GMRS radio. Have fun and welcome to the forum.

I’m relatively new to GMRS. I was in Atlanta over the recent weekend and was able to hear chatter over 60 miles away on my HT Baofeng UV5G Pro. Seems like a vibrant GMRS community in the Atlanta area. This is encouraging to me because, although I enjoy tinkering with my radio and learning, it is also fun hearing people engage over the air. I know, I know…if I wanna talk to people then I should be a Ham and if I want to talk with my friends while outdoors, then I should use GMRS. Why can’t it be both? Haha

It's not just some overlap. The simplex channels are *the same* frequencies. And 8 of the simplex channels are repeater outputs. So, yeah it can get a bit messy when little Timmy is using his $20 FRS radio to make animal noises at his little sister, the road crew down the road doing traffic management, and people talking on repeaters are potentially on the same frequency.

We are new to GMRS . We recently had a bad snow storm with a several day power outage. This brought up a renewed interest in emergency comms. We have poor to none cell phone signal here and have to drive about 10 miles to get a good signal. We installed Starlink internet a while back and that has been rock solid for us even in heavy snow. I can talk to my wife on my GMRS handheld through a repeater when I go to town which is about 30 miles away but she prefers text messaging. That's ok but if she is not at her computer it may be sometime before she reads the message and she rarely uses her cell phone. I prefer the radio because she can hear me right away. I have to find ways to make it easier for her. I ordered a plugin handheld mic/speaker so I can keep the radio out of her way. That should help. She used to like the radios when we would caravan on trips but she has become disabled and rarely goes out anymore. Luckily we have some new friends on the mountain we live on that are interested in radios and that has peaked her interest a little.

Here is a chart that shows the eight repeater channels in the red box (23-30, aka RPT-1 through RPT-8) as described by @OffRoaderX.

Page 32 of the manual tells which menus to use to set the transmitting CTCSS or DCS. Menu 8 or 9, depending on which you need.

He’s a one trick pony and he doesn’t seem to answer direct questions like this. I have started looking at his comments as if they were from a bot that only has one type of response… it’s just incapable of doing anything else.

He is like the toddler that acts badly to get attention from the parents that otherwise ignore the child. He has definitely earned the Negative Nancy nickname.

The Arizona GMRS Repeater Club has an Emergency Services Group with trained members and has on-going field training and involvement with community events throughout the year. Now, you are aware that there is a comparable service with a GMRS organization.

Excellent post!!! Maybe the best first post by a new member! Welcome to the forums!

I admire your concern, but there's a few things I'll point out: 1. I prefer to be nondestructive to my vehicle, at least on the surface. I've done only a small hole puncture in the grommet of my firewall. 2. I've done a large amount of research before making my purchase, and I've learned quite a bit. 3. I'd prefer constructive criticism as opposed to discriminant condescending tones. Only Notarubicon is permitted to do that. Have a nice day.

Are you using a programming cable or trying to program through the radio itself. For my Radioddity GS-5B both computer and blue tooth programing are pretty intuitive and easy to figure out. Not sure if the GM-30 is blue tooth capable, but they do offer programming cables. As OffRoaderX brought up. It sounds pretty basic, but is your repeater fairly close? Sometimes hitting a repeater from a handheld can be a challenge especially from inside your house.

First: NO, not necessarily - it depends if they are talking through a repeater or direct radio to radio (simplex) Second: If they are using a repeater you need the "tone" required to activate that repeater and you need to enter it into the correct repeater channel on your radio - There are 8 repeater channels - SOME radios list them as Repeater 1 through 8, other radios list them as channels 23 through 30.. So if you do the math, on your radio that would be Repeater channel 2.

Not meant to be a divisive or abrasive topic. It's laid out pretty clearly what the spirit of GMRS is. Not 70cm lite.. Less for "rag chews" and "making contacts" and more for having radios in the family cars to home. Or a group or family on a ski trip, event, or off roading keeping track of eachother... Repeaters meant to be more local to get up over a hill... Not for yelling "WHISKEY SIERRA ALFA TANGO 423 Monitoring!". For people with some other stated goal and using radio as an aid, and not just "being on the radio". Functional use..

I like to Write down the channels I want to add in Excel and group them accordingly (for future export/import and other radios code plugs) Keep space between Categories of Channels for ease of growth later!

Setup the radio for the Bartow repeater (462.725 141.3 tone). Easy to reach from Lakeland even with a HT and is one of the more dominate repeaters in the area. On Tuesday nights at 7:00 there is a net you are welcome to check into with around 30-35 folks checking in a week. Have fun!

WSHJ950, nice job. Most of us knew what you meant. Learning how to use repeaters with their radios is a stumbling block a lot of new users encounter. So I am glad things seem to be working out for you.

If you go to www.azgmrs.org and click on "AESG" there is limited information available to the public regarding the Emergency Services Group that might help you.

Pretty sure he means that he has the frequency and tone correct.

An awful lot of schools use FRS. I suppose this is because it's relatively inexpensive and the "license free" designation makes it's seem low-hassle. I've worked at school sites before where they used some Motorola radios, if I recall correctly. Probably business band, but it was a long time ago and I didn't know a lot about it at the time. Each school site in the district used a different channel.

There are about four or five repeaters that I venture near to add to the radio. I also figure if there is ever a firmware update (and I "need" to install it), being familiar with the native software is probably a good idea.

Thanks to those of you who are leaving positive feedback.

Mostly hear kids talking back and forth. Also hear contractors / road crews. During the school year I pick up transportation coordinators at our local schools talking to bus drivers and staff. The school traffic is the most entertaining as the transportation coordinators often talk to the bus drivers like a general coordinating a battle plan. Who would have imagined getting kids on to school busses could be so intense.

I agree that most GMRS radios are repeater capable and support codes. But, while pretty rare, some GMRS handhelds are not repeater capable. So those new the GMRS world should at least confirm your possible purchases are repeater capable. As an example, my Midland GXT1000s handhelds are technically GMRS radios, but they are not repeater capable. I never viewed this as a negative as my use case includes FRS as well as GMRS. And I was in the market for some more FRS radios. In other words I knew what I was getting into and understood their limitations when I purchased them. But if I was new to GMRS and was leaning exclusively toward GMRS, I would have been disappointed if I was expecting to hit repeaters with those units.

Oh yeah, I recognize his type of personality. He needs help.

Thank you so much for your help !!!!!!

WSHG974, If you already haven't figured it out OffroaderX,s youtube channel, "Not a Rubicon" is a good place to start learning if you are new to GMRS

The Radioddity DB20-G, also sold as the Anytone AT-779UV, is a great starter radio, I have one both in my Car and in my Shack, and holds up as a long term radio as well. It comes with its own free to download Code Plug Software on the Radioddity website. If this is your first time writing an analog code plug and you have a Windows computer, you may not need the additional $25 software from RT Systems, because the biggest investment of time is the first time you build your code plug. I have various tips in how to write that first DB20-G code plug for future growth, and as I am limited in time this morning, I will be happy to share them with you, if you respond that you went ahead with its purchase; as well as the pros and cons of purchasing the RT software for a beginning user of the DB20-G. Good luck!

Bullshit. We’ve had to correct your fallacious claims many times. This is only true in certain rare situations, like from the hill overlooking a massive desert between you and Vegas. Most people just won’t get that kind of distance before their signal is blocked by the earth’s curvature and terrain. Why lie? Does it make you feel better about yourself?

With an Antenna Analyzer I am getting 1.31:1 @ 462.625 MHz, 1.07:1 @ 465.000 MHz, and 1.49:1 @ 467.625 MHz with the Midland MTXA 25 Phantom Antenna and Midland MXTA 12 NMO Magmount.

I always use GMRS properly. I Never, never never put the antenna in my mouth when I push the transmit button.

@Sonicgott, thanks for the well written and complete review. Also, if you’re new to the site, @Socalgmrs has a social problem that none of us understand. Apparently the only way he can feel self worth is to denigrate others and his most frequent targets are new members. The best way to deal with it is to simply place him on your ignore list until he bails out of this site like he did before. It should be a sticky somewhere for new members.

So In reality it is no different than any other radio and it costs 2-4Xs as much and actually has issues that other radios don’t have. And as far as set up compared to a ham radio? What does that even mean? with this radio you select a “channel”(named frequency) and talk and if you need to add tones and off set you do that as well. With a ham radio you select a “frequency” and add tones and off set. It’s exactly the same as using, setting up, and programming a ham radio. I’ve used both and a it really is the same and as for getting wires through the fire wall it’s again exact the same as any other car. Find a spot drill hole for wires add proper grommet. I’ve done many in all year fusions. A family member even has one so I work on it all the time. I wish people that made reviews did actual research and had actual facts before making comments. Geesh

I've had my KG-1000G radios for about the same amount of time. I have one in my 2023 Ford Escape and the other in the house. My experiences have been similar to yours. Installing radios in the Escape was a bit of a pain too. There are very few spots to get wires through the firewall. I am running a Tram 1174 antenna for GMRS and a Comet SBB-1 for 2m/70cm. I have height restrictions since I park my Escape in the garage. Plus the parking garages at doctors' offices have low clearances too. The Wouxun KG-1000G is close to the same price as the Midland MXT500/MXT575 and it has performed better than the Midland radios for me. And don't let Negative Nancy poo on your posts or about what radios you use. Just ignore him like the rest of us do.

Exactly my point!

I'm with you brotha! I use it primarily for off-roading and on the trip to get TO off-roading and it busts my britches every time i hear the H.A.M.s radios wanna-be's long-talking on the repeaters.

Yes, ASAP!!!1 Because if you ever accidentally transmit on one of those channels with that radio you will get a $10,000 fine. Its your choice, but are you willing to take that risk? SOURCE: "some people" on this forum

They're not outlaws... rule breakers at best, but no laws broken.

@TrikeRadio Great question, BTW. Even if we have no intent on doing it, it's always fun to try to think through stuff like that. Sometimes, the 'what if' is very entertaining.

Well, the tower mine is on was 48K..... used. Of course it came with 1.3 acres of land and a building. Equipment isn't overly expensive. Unless you compare it to the cost of a subscriber radio. But It does cost money to get it off the side of your house and getting the antenna over 50 feet in the air. And there are typically some sort of reoccurring costs involved with tower space. That's where the cost of ownership starts to move people away from it. Yeah, a garage or basement repeater can be done for a reasonable expense, if you know what you are doing. But I think that you are forgetting that there are people like you and me that have the equipment and expertise to pull equipment out of the trunk of your car, and put it all together with equipment that we have on hand. Start to finish. Mind you we rig the tower with equipment I own. I have 1200 feet of rope, a Cat head winch, the proper blocks, harnesses and such. Then I have the tools for prepping the cable for connector installation. Cable grips to hoist it and the rest of the crap required to do a proper antenna install. Not a mast pipe bolted to the peak of a roof. The only thing I don't own outright is a service monitor with tracking generator / VNA to tune the duplexers. That belongs to the shop I work for. But I have instant access to it. I / we are certainly in the minority with having all that. Now I didn't buy all that new, but there were costs involved. Does the average GMRS operator need that sort of stuff. Not really unless they own a bigger tower (240 feet in my case). But owning a tower, it's pretty much a requirement to have that gear. And I don't know what tower fee's are where you are. But they ain't cheap here. Ebay pricing and hamfest finds pricing for a MTR2000 or Quantar at around a grand. A 600 dollar used duplexer. A DB-420 antenna is gonna be a few hundred. Then some length of 7/8 cable that was pulled off a tower that's still good.... figure one or two bucks a foot. You're right. Not expensive. The day rate for a tower crew to install it on a 200 foot tower. That's gonna be 6 grand. So your USED repeater system, installed, is going to be around $8000. And that's not taking into account a cabinet, snap-ins for the cable, or some means to connect the cable to the tower. And if it ain't YOUR tower, you have to do what the owner wants done. No wire ties or other 'good enough' home remedies for lashing the cable to the tower. So that price can easily balloon to 10 grand. And to this point you haven't paid a cent in rent. When we bought the site, we just paid up front for rent. But going rate is 1000 plus per month from the big three tower companies. So even at 48K. That's ONLY 4 years of rent. Sure there is a 200 dollar electric bill, taxes and the like. But it ain't the cost of renting space from others, and since it's owned, we don't have a requirement to use an 'approved' tower crew. So again, repeater systems ain't cheap. Those of us that can do this stuff, and have the proper tools to get it done, sometimes forget TCO (total cost of ownership) of things. I use to scratch my head about a brake job on a car costing a grand. Because I have done a number of them myself. But I didn't consider the 20K in tools I have acquired over the years. I was doing it with jack stands and a creeper (replacing rusted brake lines) but I didn't consider the building, lift, employee's wages and all the rest in that cost. Of course I still do brakes on my older vehicles. But there again, I have the right tools and knowledge to do it.

Alright, I think this topic has run its course...

How to apply for a GMRS license and receive your FCC call sign Here is a step by step guide on how to obtain a GMRS license and call sign from the FCC. I originally posted this on my blog, but I want to share all the same content here for future reference for any members, guests, and visitors to myGMRS.com. To obtain a GMRS license, one must file an application with the FCC and pay a $70 fee. No exam is required, and the license is valid for 10 years. The FCC’s Universal Licensing System (ULS) is is an online portal to manage your FCC applications/licenses, and pay any applicable fees via a single account. The ULS eliminates the need for paper applications and submitting via snail mail. You may also view the status of pending licenses in the ULS. Once registered with the ULS, you will receive an FCC Registration Number (FRN). This is a 10-digit number that is assigned to a business or individual registering with the FCC, and is used to identify the registrant’s business dealings with the FCC. Once you have this ID number – save it! This will be your username to log in to the Universal Licensing System. Before continuing, I want to highlight one very important consideration when dealing with FCC licenses. Your call sign and license is public information and is easily searchable in FCC databases and other records. Should you choose to register with your home address, this will be visible to anybody if they have your call sign. Exposing personal information on the internet is a concern now more than ever, so one approach to limiting the amount of personal information in FCC databases is to use a P.O. Box as your contact address. Here is what my GMRS license information looks like when queried in the FCC database - WRAA720: I use this P.O. Box address in the center of my local metro area as my primary contact location for all FCC forms and dealings. My actual home address is not associated with my FCC licenses. Step 1: Create an FCC Universal Licensing System account If you are a first time user, create a new ULS account here (skip this step if you have an existing ULS account). Select “Register” to be issued a new FCC Registration Number: Some questions are asked before proceeding, then you can fill out an application with your name, address, password, etc: Step 2: Log in to the ULS After creating the account, or if you have an existing ULS account, log in here. Use your existing FCC Registration Number (FRN), or the FRN provided after completing the first step. Once you are logged in, you will be taken to this screen which shows your current and applied for licenses: Step 3: Begin application for a GMRS license Now we can apply for a GMRS license and pay the fee. On the left hand side menu click “Apply for a New License.” On the next screen, select “ZA-General Mobile Radio Service” from the very bottom of the drop down menu and click Continue. The next step is to answer these applicant questions. Most people can leave “no” selected for each: Click continue after these questions, and on the next screen supply the licensee name and address: - Part 2 continued below as there is a limit to the number of images in a post -