Lscott

Well the frequency limitation is one. Second there are no real mobile radios available, and at a two watt limit on power there isn't much incentive to design and market one either. Finally even on VHF repeater access is almost a requirement for decent range extension. MURS doesn't allow it. Being near the Canadian border I check from time to time to see what the status of a MURS-Like service is there. It almost happened back in 2014 but Industry Canada, equivalent to our FCC, decided there wasn't enough interest in it so it never happened. If it did that might have generated enough of a demand to spark increase use of it on both sides of the border. https://ised-isde.canada.ca/site/spectrum-management-telecommunications/en/official-publications/policies/spectrum-advisory-bulletins-sab/sab-002-14-multi-use-radio-services-150-mhz-vhf-band What does seem to be catching on there are the VHF frequencies used for their "radio controlled roads" notably out west. https://radiofreeq.wordpress.com/2018/08/30/canada-vhf-ladd-channel-list/ I'll bet a lot of Ham 2M gear gets the MARS/CAP mod's for this use.

I think this is a big one. I have a buddy at work who has been talking about getting his Ham Tech license for the past few years and so far hasn't. He claims he's too busy to study the question pool. Some people hate the idea of being required to pass a test so dropping $35 on the debit card and a bit of time filling out the FCC forms for GMRS isn't an issue. The drop in cost and the license term increase to 10 years helped I'm sure. I think GMRS is taking the place of CB 11M as an introduction to radio. With cheap radios coming to market in the last several years, access to repeaters and now groups like the overlanders, Jeep, switching to GMRS helped spread the word. With GMRS radios they are small enough to fit in a shirt pocket using a small 6 inch antenna and take with you as opposed to the old CB radio HT's with the 3 to 5 foot long antenna.

Same here.

It's nice to know you have the ability if necessary.

Cool! Good way to keep annoying people from disrupting your communications. Even if scanning showed the custom tone if the user can't enter it in their radio they're hosed.

A few of my commercial radios allow the entry of custom tones. That would really bugger somebody up. Might be a way to keep unauthorized people from using a repeater, provided you can enter non-standard tones into it.

Trying to coordinate a group using different radios with different numbering schemes for the tones you learn real quick why it matters. I frequently read posts on the forum where this is a consistent complaint.

Hummm… This could be the topic for another thread. GMRS seems to be mutating into a hobbyist type service. It seems the original primary intent by the FCC was a radio service simple enough to be used by ordinary people with basically no background in radio communication technology for their personal use, and immediate family members.

What about dPMR or NXDN?

At the hips?

From the movie Dr. Strangelove. Scene at the very end. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dr._Strangelove

The little voice in the head that answers back might disagree.

My FT-817 and IC-706MKIIG have the MARS/CAP mod. I'm guessing a lot of Hams have their HF mobile radio's opened up for CB. The FM deviation on a modified Ham HF radio might be a bit low for the new FM mode allowed by the FCC on the CB 11M band. For those who may not know but FM is allowed on the Ham 10M band on frequencies above 29.6MHz. The band itself runs from 28MHz to 29.7MHz. There has been some unsuccessful attempts to get a 4M, 70MHz, allocation here. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/4-metre_band US Amature Band Plan 2020.pdf

I wonder what took them so long. The FCC could just can 11M CB completely here and expand GMRS. Australia has a nice nation wide UHF FM CB service. They have up to 80 channels, some reserved and others are for specific uses. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UHF_CB

Now they added FM. Oh joy.

Well I went to a political rally last weekend. My sister wanted to go but her ride wasn't that reliable or fuel efficient so I drove. It was about a 2 hour 40 minute drive on the highway to get there. I've never been to one so it would be a first for me and a unique experience. I took my Kenwood NX-1300DUK5 along to have something to do while waiting in line. It's programmed for Ham and GMRS. The line was insanely long. Got in line around 12 PM and had a few short conversations on the local Ham DMR repeater. Also heard all the chatter from the local parking garages getting people parked and tracking how many empty spaces they had and local surface traffic on GMRS. We finally got inside and sat down by 4 PM. Anyway the instructions sent, by text message, made no mention of two-way radios as a prohibited item, there was a long list of items NOT to take in, so that's why I took mine. Also had a spare battery back too. There were several layers of security at the event. The first was the dudes outside the venue pre-screening people. Their job was to make sure nobody was trying to take prohibited items inside and telling people to clean out their pockets and remove hats before entering the building to make the secondary screening go faster. I got pulled out of the line and quizzed why I had a two-way radio. I explained so I could talk to people, after all what are you going to do standing in line for 3.5 hours anyway? I told him I had a government license to use it AND it wasn't mentioned as being prohibited. At first the security dude was going to get me to go back to the car and drop it off then changed his mind and said he'll let the Secret Service worry about it inside. In all I talked to the guy for 5 minutes. After what happened in Pennsylvania the other weekend they are all on edge and have a tough job to do. Can't take it personally. If I had to take it back to the car, oh well. Inside was no problem. There were at least over a dozen security check-in lines inside. The one security person at the one I was directed to just turned it on, didn't even ask how, they seemed to know. Saw it powered up. I had it programmed to show my callsign on power up too. Never asked me a question about it. Got the "magic wand" scan treatment, front and back, didn't even beep from my knee replacement implant either that I could tell. No questions there and I was on my way to the seating area on the upper level with my sister. All in all the experience was a positive one.

Wait until you look at the price of some of those top end HF base radios. You'll need a part time job to afford the payments on one.

Congratulations on passing your Tech Class exam! Now you get to spend even more money on radios!

Most Hams quit there. The tiny extra sliver of spectrum you get as an Extra Class for many wasn't worth the effort. Nothing wrong with getting it. It might make you feel better.

I could be wrong, but that's what I seem to remember when the ARRL was trying to get more spectrum. There were various articles written on how to EXACTLY dial in the frequency using the radio's VFO. Using SSB the actual side band had to lie in the allocated channel. You simply didn't just spin the VFO knob until the readout showed the channel frequency. That frequency is the "carrier" which isn't transmitted. So if you're using the upper side band then you have to tune below the channel frequency, and the opposite when using the lower side band. Very easy to "F" this up.

What's the difference - money. You can pay a lot of money for a new junky Chinese radio and get a great deal on a nice commercial/industrial grade used radio. It all depends on where you shop. The real question is what is the difference between a poorly performing radio and a good one? Money isn't always a good indication.

This is why some people do the MARS/CAP mod to their older radios. The firmware didn't allow access to that band. Being in the middle of a government band you can't afford to be off frequency on any of the discrete frequencies allowed. My understanding for the allocation was originally due to DX propagation and the use of those channels for emergency communications.

Yup, it's just the cost now days of a couple Micky D's Happy Meals in some places.

From some of the comments here it's more like how to find where to pay the license fee. Since this is "The Government", they're like drug addicts except it money, you'd figure this would the easiest part.

You can try searching the frequency database. If you’re lucky it belongs to a licensed user in your area. https://digitalfrequencysearch.com/index.php