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You definitely got lied to. Every channel is free to use. No one owns a channel or has a channel allocated to them. Law enforcement almost never uses these channels for official business and when they do, you still have as much right to use the frequency as they do. Most of the time, when FRS/GMRS is used by the government, it's not police. Its typically a civilian liaison acting as a go-between for U/SAR volunteers or volunteers working in support of some type of remote response to things like mass casualty incidents. I'm pretty sure you would know if there was a mass casualty incident close enough that you can hear another user directly.

What I don't get from SoCal is, he either says or has strongly implied that pretty much none of us know what we are talking about, always wrong, and a bunch of NotARubicon nut huggers (sorry, Randy. You know I love you).... and, he seems like he's always mad at us. So why the heck is he wasting his time and talent on this forum? I've asked him... but no response. Maybe it's like watching a car crash. Its so horrific that you can't look away. Anyway Guest PG3, just ignore the stupid stuff he says and try to pull something useful out of it. Honestly, recording the experience if it continues to happen and then filing a police report with local PD isn't a terrible idea. You just need some proof it's happening and you may get some traction.

I've been listening to the old dudes on the local GMRS repeater talk about french onion soup and basketball (separate conversations) for too long and decided I need different soup conversations*, so I took my technician exam today. Got 33/35. Thanks, hamstudy.org! The proctoring team told me I should study for the general while this test still fresh, so that's the next goal. I have a certification exam I need to study for at work, but... that's not as much fun. *the french onion soup conversation was the first thing I heard on the local repeater but the actual catalyst for getting an amateur radio license was I managed to catch some transmissions from the ISS a couple of nights ago. I was reading about how you could contact the ISS on 2m/70cm bands and then discovered the ISS was directly overhead. Ran outside with a HT and managed to catch what I assume were packet transmissions. Now I want to talk to a space station. 8 year old me would think it's the coolest thing ever. 42 year old me still thinks it's pretty rad. Maybe someone up there prefers broccoli cheddar soup.

Every super hero needs a nemesis

Crazy fan fiction theory.....Socal is an evil alternate acount of notarubicon....dr jekkyl/mr hyde kind of stuff..... only joking, as i know "i" and Randy's "best fan"....he told me so in a video.....

I did a server upgrade for a Dentist years ago. After installing the server, software and transferring data everything worked fine EXCEPT the way the teeth are counted/labeled was all wrong. I called customer support and found out that Dentists in England label teeth differently than those in the USA. The fix was to change the default installed language option from "English" to "American".

If you are using a Verizon Orbic RC400L cellular hotspot then you are definitely using RF and also using the cellular service to connect the nodes. I see that you are having issues connecting the nodes through your cellular hot spots and since you are talking about DMZ, ports and IP addresses then you are connecting the nodes through the internet. All of which is prohibited by the FCC on GMRS. So you won't get much help here on this GMRS forum. Plus the attitude won't get you very far either. I can tell you that @SteveShannon is definitely not a noob to GMRS or amateur radio. Best of luck figuring out your networking issues.

sounds like somthing that SOCAL guy would do

What you did wrong was believing some clown on a GMRS radio that was claiming to be the local police.. TL;dr .. he lied to you..

Congratulations on the test and welcome. Let me know if you hear a good recipe for navy bean soup. It’s my favorite ham soup

Congratulations on the new license. Yes, General is a fairly easy upgrade but be careful as the toys are expensive.

Be warned, where to get the best pizza seems to bring out hams on 2m repeaters. Congrats. Got for General ASAP, it is no harder to do than Tech and there is overlap in the question pool, you could already accidentally pass it on a lucky day.

200 miles can be a stretch even for VHF frequencies depending on location, terrain, height of the antennas, etc.. The antennas for our Motorola 2m and 70cm repeaters is at 900 feet above ground. And we are only getting around 85 mile radius on 2m and about 35 mile radius on 70cm.

Well noob is politer than NUG or FNG And we all learn everyday as long as we aren't hard headed know it alls.

@Socalgmrs to Randy is like Kiteman was to Batman.

I greatly appreciate the cyber hugs!! Everything is relative. Compared to some I am a noob and I love the fact that I am learning everyday.

Yes, yes you are.

No. If people who’s ancestors have been here for tens thousands of years want to call themselves Native Americans or First Nations or anything else, I would give them the respect of honoring that.

Pedro, No. The term is accepted by anthropologists, archaeologists, sociologists, and others with an education, whereas your overly narrow definition of “native” was simply intended to troll @ADVBikerRadioGirl and then @amaff, picking an argument where none previously existed. Clearly your lineage is shared with @Socalgmrs.

Thanks! I'm excited. There's a couple of amateur radio clubs in the area and I might be in range of their repeaters. I was also reading about POTA, which sounds kind of cool given the number of state parks and USFS land around here. (Not a lot of SOTA activity in Indiana, unsurprisingly.) The GMRS repeater stays pretty active with a handful of locals. I thought the french onion soup thing was funny - I didn't have my GMRS license yet so I couldn't discuss broccoli cheddar soup supremacy.

Urushiol dermatitis is a phenomenon of repeated exposures. Almost nobody has an outbreak the first time they encounter poison oak/ivy, but repeated exposures sensitize the immune system to react more strongly each time. That's why so many people report that they never had it as a kid but have developed it later in life.

That is very cool! Congratulations! You’ll hear conversations on the ham bands like that too, but you’ll have a LOT more places to go to get away from them.

Is the original post coming thru or is it one that someone else quoted?

Well, it wouldn't *be* on UHF, would it?

I try to avoid poison ivy/oak when possible. It's weird that sometimes I will breakout in a rash and other times I won't. One thing that will also help dry it out is put some epson salt in your bath.

The moment you said GMRS node you lost the argument that you are not using it for linking radios via the internet. Like zello. Ya see Gmrs, the R stands for radio. And Allstar is allowed for amateur radio. Not GMRS. Calling @SteveShannon a noob is both inaccurate and rude. Cheers

"Leaves of three, let it be!" Poison Oak/Ivy/Sumac always has this leaf configuration. If a plant has three leaves, that doesn't necessarily make it poisonous, but the ones that are will always have this configuration. Here we have California Blackberry, which also has three leaves an often grows right along with Poison Oak. It's not poisonous, but the thorns are another matter....

Hey, I get SMG1 from over here in Bellevue. I'm usually scanning during the day on Wednesdays and Fridays during the work day (~8:30-5:00) including today. Give me a shout. WSHZ630 - Adam. You might want to key up for 10 seconds or so before trying to be sure I pick you up on scan, that's about how long my cycle is.

I think he’s just attention seeking.

DTCSS, DTCS, DCS, DPL are all the same thing. NN loaded by chirp means the same as N (actually it probably emphasizes the fact that both TX and RX have Normal polarity.

Are you sure your buddy is still connected? If you read the news article on the front page the MyGMRS network was shut down nine months ago when the FCC announced that linking was prohibited. https://mygmrs.com

I fully understand the intend. However the FCC's vision is more along the lines of personal, and family, use. Look at paragraph three on this FCC page. https://www.fcc.gov/wireless/bureau-divisions/mobility-division/general-mobile-radio-service-gmrs Further look at paragraph four on this FCC page about linking repeater systems under the "operations" tab. There is little reason why the average user would need to have access to linked repeater systems across the country. Now if one could convince the FCC that GMRS has evolved into a hobby type service, where such activity makes sense, they would likely state that's what the Armature Radio service was established to enable. The FCC has clamped down on linked repeaters lately. I think you'll have a difficult time changing their mind.

if we're being honest.. I've done that more than once.. But it was with little kids goofing on their radios so it's ok!

Even worse is the strange mean comments that come from you. I'd rather put up with kids having fun

You just have to be smarter than the radio. So you should definitely stay away from Midland.

In Nov this year it will be 50 years! Best decision-making in my life was to get married to a smart lady! She enjoys me as much as I do her! And we enjoy our hobbies and lifestyles together. Marriage was a lifetime agreemant we both looked forward to and have enjoyed...

But yet in parts of the country you will be lucky to get 50 miles even when the repeater antenna is at 450 feet above ground. Some areas are lucky to see a 20 mile range with antennas on mountain tops. Foliage has a big effect on UHF. When one talks about the Appalachians, Smokey Mountains, Ozark mountains, etc, there are no tree lines to get above. There are also no large flat and open areas like out west. And most lakes, outside of the Great Lakes, are smaller and surrounded by forested hills. Our GMRS repeater antennas are on the same tower as our 2m and 70cm repeaters antennas. The radio tower is on one of the highest points in the immediate area. The GMRS antennas are at 400 ft above ground and the 2m/70cm antennas are at 900 ft above ground. We only get about a 35 mile radius of coverage from our GMRS and 70cm repeaters with plenty of dead spots due to local terrain and forested areas. The 2m repeater has a 80-95 mile radius of coverage. And just because radio A can hear radio B doesn't mean that radio B can hear radio A. There are plenty of variables involved.

But, but, but there's a guy who gets 250 miles.

there is a reason, can you imagine going to an ATM machine and spending an hour finding your language to proceed This is no joke,, the other day i was standing in line at an ATM an older guy in front of me using the machine starts cursing out loud. I said ' what are thy out cash' he says "F**K no, this G*D D*mn machine, I can't read spanish bla bla bla.. . He strugles to get his card out, he finally does, he storms inside the bank... OK, my turn, first screen says select 'yoour language'.. I guess he selected the wrongh one

My understanding of "official language" is that it will be required on all government documents, web sites, etc. and official documents can't be required to be provided in other languages. As far as I can tell, it won't prohibit government sites from providing translations in other languages as long as an English version is provided. Which, TBH, seems pretty reasonable to me. Since TV stations, radio stations, etc. aren't usually government-run, they'll be unaffected. Since GMRS and amateur radio are mostly private endeavors, I can't see the EO affecting our radio usage. Nobody owns the GMRS channels, and short of a change to FCC regulations, nobody can dictate to me that I can't use whatever language I like. A repeater is a bit different. Since it's privately owned, I support the owner's right to decide what language users must speak. I'm not sure how you'd enforce that, but in theory I support it.

I sure am. She makes me a sandwich every work day and dinner every night.

I have a wonderful wife and I honestly wouldn’t want to dwell on life without her beside me. When I went back to college at 32, she worked two jobs to take care of me and our kids without ever complaining. Now that she’s in a wheelchair with MS she still never complains. I know that not everyone is so fortunate but I’m delighted for @LeoG. It appears he has a good one.

This really isn’t ambiguous: Plain language voice communications. Voice communications without codes or coded messages intended to provide a hidden meaning. Foreign languages and commonly known radio operating words and phrases, such as “ten four” and “roger,” not intended to provide a hidden meaning, are not considered codes or coded messages.

@UncleYoda That's disappointing that the DAM 550 isn't there. The hard part of starting with GMRS is finding repeaters, calling out, and not getting the beep or hearing anyone. It makes you think that you've not set up your radio correctly. After yesterday, I'm not sure the Leesville 650 is operational either.

Currently, only one account can be created per GMRS callsign as a security measure to prevent multiple random people from trying to register the same callsign. This works fine for families where one member is the coordinator of the communications, but I know it isn't ideal when multiple people have an interest in participating independently. I was thinking about changing the user accounts on this website to allow a single "main account" per callsign. The account holder can then create multiple subaccounts sharing the same callsign: this way, the account holder/licensee controls who may share their license regarding a myGMRS account and we prevent the issue of random people trying to claim a callsign over and over again. Imagine how many people would try to claim mine, for example. What does everyone think about that?

You mean, he can't just click the "do it the way some rando on the internet says to do it" button?