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The short answer is no, though @OffRoaderX is making a push for 19. He is probably the most influential and well-known person in the GMRS space. If any one person has a shot at impacting the culture, it would be him. You are going to hear a lot of people mention channel 20 with tone 141.3... but that is a little misleading. I'll try to make this painless, but this is the long answer. The original 'distress' frequency was 462.675, aka channel 20. This was by FCC rule... but that doesn't exist anymore. After the rule change got rid of the official distress frequency/channel, Popular Wireless and the Personal Radio Association came up with the idea of the Open Repeater Initiative (ORI). It was originally repeater channel 20 with 141.3 for the tone. They called 141.3 the "travel tone" They spread the word that if you have a repeater on channel 20 and are willing to let people use it with no special permission, as a courtesy to travelers, use the tone 141.3. As time went on, people started using the "travel tone" on their repeaters, regardless of what channel the repeater was on, for the same reason. So, 141.3 became know as the "travel tone" for repeaters, in general. However, with the fall of Popular Wireless and the Personal Radio Association, the adaptation of 141.3 on any repeater channel for open repeaters, and no central group helping maintain the tradition of a travel/emergency channel, the ORI vanished pretty quickly. So, there is still an informally recognized "travel tone" for repeaters, but there really isn't any "travel channel" per se. I feel like you have just about the same likelihood of finding people to chat with or making contact in an emergency on every channel by trying all of the repeater channels with 141.3 as the transmit tone (no receive tone squelch). I wouldn't use simplex unless I was traveling as part of a group and we all agree to use a specific channel. Hope that wasn't too long.

The issue is, as far as I can tell it, there are a lot of people who are very upset by what the group is doing and who are also, simultaneously, completely unaffected by it. If I lived in the North GA area and I wanted to put up a repeater so that me and the boys could talks fars, only to find out that all the channels were already occupied, I might be a little upset. But I don't and so I'm not. I don't have the emotional bandwidth to virtue signal over things outside of my control. I have interacted with the group over the air and each and every one of them have been polite and professional. They invite "non members" to participate in their talk arounds. There are some trolls and there are some people kerchunking and roger beeping just to annoy but I kind of liken it to public transportation. If everybody's on the train, someone's going to be annoying. Having the ability to talk across the state without a HAM license is, I think, the major appeal. Again, some might say, that is not what GMRS is about. I heard it put this way once and I thought it was very accurate. GMRS is the radio you talk on when you're doing an activity. HAM is when the radio is the activity. Either way, Cotton, I'm looking forward to seeing how it all plays out.

This is an accurate assessment of the situation. Can confirm.

Interesting back story @SteveShannon. Thanks for sharing that. For me: Like many, I dabbled in CB in the 70's and later in the 80's I was a first responder and used radios daily. But I've also been involved with horses for most of my life. In the 90's (and for a subsequent 20+ years) I was recruited to be a volunteer announcer at an Arabian horse show and was asked to setup improved comms that could be used by show officials. Having a limited budget to work with, we used cheap blister-pack FRS radios to communicate between the announcer booth, the arena, the barns, the show office and patched thru the fairgrounds PA system. I used CTCSS tones to eliminate external chatter from creating interference with our activates. It worked really well. After retirement, I decided to look into GMRS where more power and range could be obtained. I got a license, a few handhelds and a mobile and have had some fun with it on the road. At home it is a different story. I live in a fire prone area on the pacific coast less than 2 miles from the ocean; however, I'm in a canyon where most VHF/UHF radio signals tend to be blocked by a lot of earth and lots of trees. There are no GMRS repeaters (or GMRS radio clubs) in my area. Everything I have at home (Phone, internet, TV, Cell) is via satellite, so the use of GMRS for any type of SHTF emergency comms is totally futile. However, the local ham club has 2m & 70cm repeaters on the mountain tops near me. That prompted me to get licensed and get a dual band radio so I could hit those repeaters. But I've yet to assimilate into the more formal, radio-for-the-sake-of-radio, ham culture. There is no doubt a lot to be learned from those guys, but I find GMRS in many ways much more practical and fun. Everyone can easily participate via FRS, and anyone with $35 to spare can be licensed to use GMRS. Like @WRUE951 said, I'm more comfortable here as it is not as rigid and structured. My recent attendance at the local ham radio club meetings has been an eye opener for me and that is what makes me very curious about the membership and demographics of GMRS specific radio clubs. Maybe if I could get my signal out of this canyon, I might setup a local GMRS group in my area...

I’ve been flying high power rockets for 25 years. I got GMRS radios to enhance my enjoyment of my high power rocketry hobby. Most of us in my rocket club got Garmin Rino radios so we could see where each other were while out recovering our rockets. After several years of being a scofflaw I decided that I wanted to do the right thing and get licensed as well. Somewhere along the line I started watching Notarubicon videos where Randy (@OffRoaderX) spoke about Baofeng UV5R radios. Also a friend showed me his UV5R radio and I ended buying one. I discovered that I really enjoyed programming it which gave me confidence. Playing with the Baofeng radios reawakened a barely dormant interest in ham radio that I’ve had since eighth grade. So three years ago I finally got around to applying myself to ham radio. For me (not for everyone) ham radio has been a fascinating experience. It keeps my brain working and is something I will be able to do even as I eventually get old. (I’ll be 70 next month but I feel 40 most of the time.) GMRS is something that can be done in conjunction with other activities, including very dynamic and energetic ones, and without becoming an expert on radio operations. Ham radio is a government sanctioned hobby intended to develop radio operators. It’s structured in such a way that older hams can (and sometimes do) mentor younger hams with differing levels of licensing and activities that are relatively sedentary. So, I think it’s natural to perceive GMRS as a younger person’s hobby. Now why did I come into this room?

WRYS709: Dude, end the crusade and get a life.

Ignore him. Anything you paid less than $1,000 for isn't a "real" radio to him. The rest of us actually live in the "real" world.

All the cool-kids use GMRS Ch19..

This is also an accurate assessment of the situation. Can confirm.

The average age of GMRS users in my household is 24.5. The average age of ham radio users in my household is 42. Your math checks out. I would like to get my 7 year old into amateur radio to bring that average age down.

As usual, it's got little to do with the radio usage, and a lot more to do with what he was actually doing (ie: harassing kids). If it wasn't kids, would they have done anything? Because it doesn't sound like it's stopped his general radio dickery. He just realized that screwing with people's kids MIGHT be a step too far.

More and more, every day!

You know, for someone who is "too good to help people [and] just want[s] to complain about them not knowing anything but, don't [sic] want to help, just start crap," you're remarkably helpful. I was only familiar with the latter part of the definition, the "carrier squeltch" side of it. Today, I have learned a thing.

Gotcha. So the same with CB. You know, all you radio dorks are about to have another member in the fold. I've been talking on CBs for almost 30 years and I never gave it a single thought. They were just channel numbers, not frequencies. Then awhile back I got the President CB in my Jeep and started noticing mHz numbers below the channel numbers. That got me thinking and then I started digging into HAM and GMRS and slowly began realizing why 4 watts was the limit on CB band because HAM techs were in that band on HF and talking across the country. So essentially the Kilowatt Klub on CB is bypassing the FCC in the same way the Pistol Brace Bois are bypassing the ATF and NFA. And then I realized that I really don't have enough contempt for federal regulation. But I digress...

Gee that sounds like a ham radio conversation. Seriously, at a bare minimum the way to report it is saying that the repeaters are being keyed with out the person accessing them being within the coverage footprint of the repeater. This is causing harmful interference on that frequency / frequencies in a specific location or area. That is spelled out in the blurb the FCC put on the their web site about why they don't want people linking repeaters. No way to monitor the frequency in use before accessing it and causing interference. Mind you I am all for linking GMRS repeaters, and have even come up with ways to mitigate this and other issues that were cited as being the problems with linking. But the FCC says the rules are what they are, so until they change the rules, I don't link repeaters. Now I will say this, that group has backed themselves into a corner. If someone is interfering with their linked repeater system, they have ZERO recourse to deal with it. It's like having a house full of drugs and calling the cops because someone stole their bag of weed. The FCC is the only governing body with GMRS. If they call the FCC, then they open themselves up to being looked at for what THEY are doing. So that's not really an option for them. Local police and government in general have no ability to enforce FCC regulations. So, the option they are left with is the redneck thought process of "I'm gonna *insert dumb redneck statement of violence here* and that will get it done. Of course the problem with that is the local police DO have the ability to deal with that. And although I'm not sure what Georgia's laws are but if they are like Florida then doing that sort of thing might involve a free trip to a hospital or even the grave yard. While people may claim that they will just go drag them into their yard and throw them a beating, it's rarely done for that reason. And can escalate quickly if they do. And the police will still not give a rip about the GMRS interference, the assault, battery, menacing and all that WILL get a response.

I don't know what radio you have, but I have the upper (50 watt) channels duplicated with CTCSS/DTCS tones for such a contingency. It's not perfect, because when the tone opens your squelch, you still may pick up the other traffic on the frequency. It also requires that your buddy program his radio the same way. Still, it mostly works because if you're traveling with someone in another vehicle, likely you're close enough that your signal will "beat" another signal originating further away.

Interesting. I feel as if I have a real radio. It was sitting on the dash of my real Jeep. Attached to a real Bulletpoint Mounting Solutions Rubigrid tray. As I was driving down what I very much perceived to be a real highway. Your suggestion, then, is that I imagined the whole thing? Because I can't, for the life of me, imagine what else you would be implying.

A road has intersections, stop signs and stoplights.. A highway, aka a freeway, does not.

It's true around the big population centers at least, per my family in the area. 15-22 are basically useless because every repeater channel is repeating the same message from some guy on the other side of the state talking about his genital warts or whatever it is rag chewers like to go on about.

That's why the majority of pilots will just put a mag mount on a cookie sheet in the window...

You can listen to the air band with a UV-5R but it won't sound very good since the radio doesn't have an AM receiver. And FM transmitters won't transmit on AM. Get a scanner if you really want to listen to air band frequencies. The stall speed for planes is around 100-115 MPH. Smaller/lighter planes have a lower stall speed compared to commercial jets. I wonder what speeds a magnet mount will hold up to. They hold fine up to 80 MPH on most vehicles. Plus the fact that most aircraft bodies are made from aluminum or other light weight materials so a magnet mount won't work.

Likely this. Aviation stuff is wildly expensive. I can definitely see them having 1 air-band radio, using that for unicom or tower frequencies, and then using GMRS or FRS for air-to-air comms. Slightly different use case, but Civil Air Patrol planes do something similar. Air-band for their aviation work, then air to air and air to ground (for SAR / other mission work) is VHF FM on their designated frequencies. (And can be configured as airborne repeaters, which is pretty rad).

I can only speculate, but perhaps they reserve the air band radio for conversations with the tower and leave it tuned to that frequency. Chit chat on GMRS doesn’t affect that.

It is perfectly legal to us GMRS radio in aircraft over the US and it's territories. I have talked to a friend of mine while in a private plane. I was mobile in Woodbridge Virginia and they were flying as far away as 47 miles from my location.

95.307…Operation of Personal Radio Service stations in any location outside of those described in the following paragraphs is not authorized by this part. (B)Aboard any vessel or aircraft registered in the United States. With the permission of the captain, while the vessel or aircraft is within or over the United States or its territories, U.S. territorial waters, or upon or over international waters. So, it appears it’s allowed.

There is an aerial acrobatic group that practices out here every Thursday and they use GMRS (or FRS) channel 6, and I've wondered the same thing... But haven't wondered enough to bother looking it up either.

Our neighborhood (HOA) sent an email announcing the frequency to be used. Simple, if you can compile an email list.

Truly, the only solution that makes sense is to establish a local organization so they can prepare. If you wait for the need to present itself you’re never going to catch up. That’s like trying to teach a drowning person how to swim. As far as the concern that bad people can read, wouldn’t you want them to? Maybe they’ll go somewhere else.

30 Mile LOS requires a 600 ft elevation approx. Pretty sure that's not going to happen with him. 100' which is reasonable is still only about 12-15 miles.

You do realuze this is a Ham Radio digital mode not allowed on GMRS?

Yet, MOST Still don't seem to understand WHY linking on this band is a BAD idea ! I'll explain it AGAIN, for those who Don't understand ... it's called Bandwidth !! You don't have enough to do this without interfering with other users on the Same band !! You have HOW many channel pairs ?? 8, EIGHT of them !! That's it !! If you start linking More than One pair, then your preventing someone Else from using that pair, out side of your range !! WHY the hell should anyone have to listen to the SAME conversation on More than one pair ??? GMRS is NOT and was Never intended to be Long range, more than 30 -50 miles. IF you Want that kind of range, then WORK for it, and take the Test and get your Amateur Radio License where Linked repeaters are Legal, because there's PLENTY of Bandwidth !! Ok, Rant mode Off ...