Lscott

I see increasing references made to GMRS as a hobby. You correctly pointed out the primary use is for private communications between family members. While many people certainly use it as a hobby, and many for personal use, the FCC did specifically mention voluntary assistance to the public during emergencies. https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-47/chapter-I/subchapter-D/part-95/subpart-E/section-95.1703

That's been my general experience too, .52 doesn't seem to get anywhere near the usage you would expect. Even traveling I don't hear much in the way of calls for random contacts ether.

I was doing some searching after reading about it and the article at the link gives some details. https://www.amateurradio.com/north-america-adventure-frequency-146-58-mhz/

I’ve had conversations like this privately with friends etc. It’s always prefaced with a disclaimer about the rules. It wouldn’t be ethical if I didn’t, and they make their own “informed” choices afterwards.

Hummm… that’s a bit of a new one for me. I’ll have to do some more reading up on it. It does seem to be a very recent trend. If it is catching on it’ll be worthwhile to program it in to my VHF radios for scanning.

Just one of those lucky situations. I've tested a lot of antennas and most gain types on UHF exhibit some oscillations in the SWR. If you're lucky the GMRS frequencies will be in the dip of one of these making it usable. https://forums.mygmrs.com/gallery/image/282-ca-2x4mb-scansjpg/ https://forums.mygmrs.com/gallery/image/259-ca-2x4mb-jeepjpg/ CA-2x4MB Manual.pdf

Yeah one guy was running a small amplifier on 11M. The FCC showed up and told him if he continued they would take EVERYTHING, and he would get a fat fine too. In his case he was stupid and didn't take their suggestion. Yeah he got what was promised. Another guy, in my coffee group, had them show up asking exactly what he was transmitting since they couldn't decode the digital info for some reason! After he explained things they were satisfied nothing weird was going on and left. I guess they couldn't identify the digital mode in use until he he told them. It was a published one from what he said so it don't fall under the "secret" code restrictions.

You made my point. A few have done exactly that. Yes I know about @OffRoaderX and his predilection about FCC enforcement log proof. What he doesn't tell people the FCC doesn't necessarily put everything in those logs. They can show up, knock on the door, and "advise" you, unofficially, if you continue there will be official action taken. They are not complete A-Holes and will give people a break, but don't publicize it. That's usually enough. I personally know of people where that happen, and no there was no official record of the visit either.

True. That however leads to a more "complex" discussion over exactly what is and isn't legal. The confusion is the Part 95E certification, but only is valid when the radio is used in the original locked state to operate on the GMRS allowed frequencies. Some seem to feel that just because it has Part 95E certification doing any kind of mod , hardware - software - mode unlocking, to open up the radio doesn't affect it. That's very likely not true, but some want to pretend it is, and encourage others who have little to no idea to go ahead that it's OK.

Just a note here. We all know it's done. We try to discourage the above sort of thing to put Ham gear on bands they are not certified to use. It's not just Ham gear either. The topics pops up frequently about using commercial grade radios, with only Part 90 certification, on Part 95 bands. Technical they aren't legal ether, however the FCC seems to ignore it mostly. Some commercial grade radios have both Part 90 and Part 95 certification, so those are fine.

Hummm... That sound a bit familiar. https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/theodore_roosevelt_100965

I'm guessing likely just a tad outside of the price range for your typical user. A lot of those goodies in the radio are extra cost items I suspect too. https://www.motorolasolutions.com/en_us/products/two-way-radios/project-25-radios/mobile-radios/apx8500.html#tabproductinfo

I phased it the way I did since I wasn't going to research and find a link to an article with the details. Your memory is better than mind. When I took classes, the second time around, the school had a VAX cluster with remote terminals. Much better than the crappy IBM key punch machines I used before. Even did some of the programming projects from home logged in remotely using a telephone modem. Got a bit familiar with the VAX CPU since one of the classes I took was doing assembly language on the machine. Most of the class hated it, it was a required course. I though it was easy since I had leaned some Z80 and x86 assembly on my own before so the general concepts weren't new.

The article says the Visi On app manager was released in December of 1983. The first Mac wasn't released until January of 1984, a short while after Visi On. There is also mentioned an early version of Visi On, as a demo, at COMDEX in 1982, two years before Apple's Mac. That jives with another story I read where Gates got the idea for Windows after seeing the Visi On system at a trade show, likely the above mentioned demo. The Mac, IMHO, just cemented his thinking that a GUI is the future. Somewhere out there there is also some story how the early architecture for Windows NT was based on concepts developed for DEC's VAX systems, the person who worked on NT also had done the work on the VAX OS. And just for fun: "Windows Is A Pane In The Glass" Long live the Penguin.

As mentioned the answer is no. However there are various commercial radios that have Part 90 and 95 certifications. Some of those can be programmed to operate out of their official band split down into the Amateur band. There are some models where the software will prevent you from entering out of band frequencies, the one notable manufacture is Motorola, others like Kenwood don't strictly enforce this. With Kenwood entering an out of band frequency will generate a warning message, after which when you click to acknowledge it will accept the entry. For GMRS you're looking at UHF only radios. I have experience with just the Kenwood HT's, and not with any of their mobile radios, but suspect they can be programmed for out of band operation as well. Some examples, not a complete list, of the Kenwood HT models where you can program both GMRS and Ham band frequencies, and have Part 95 certification are: TK-370G http://rsws.zapto.org/radiosoftware/kenwood/tk-270g-370g.pdf TK-3170 https://pdfs.kenwoodproducts.com/9/TK-2170&3170Brochure.pdf TK-3173 http://www.swscomm.com/kenwood/TK-3173.pdf TK-3140 http://rsws.zapto.org/radiosoftware/kenwood/tk-2140-3140.pdf TK-3180 https://pdfs.kenwoodproducts.com/10/TK-2180&3180Brochure.pdf NX-300 and NX-300G https://www.kenwood.eu/files/file/comms/uk/brochures/nx/NX200G_300G_Brochure_V2.1.pdf TK-5320 https://comms.kenwood.com/common/pdf/download/TK-5220_5320_Specsheet.pdf Note: Some of the above radios also include digital voice modes. However you can ONLY use the FM functions on those radios for GMRS. However you're free to use digital voice modes on the Ham band. Most Ham digital voice operations are on UHF anyway. Also the UHF radios may cover more that one UHF frequency range. Only the models where the lower "official" limit is 450 MHz will have the Part 95 certification. The 400MHz to 470MHz band split versions will also work, but are NOT Part 95 certified. The radio I typically carry around is the TK-3170. The other radios are larger and noticeable heavier.

Well it seems the original topic of this thread got lost. Oh well, I'll just add to the confusion. There is the story about how Bill Gates saw an office suit called Visi On and that's what pushed him to develop the first version of Windows. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visi_On Where I worked we had a number of Wang Computer 8086 desktops running MSDOS. They were NOT IBM PC compatible but did run the Visi On system. They got them because at the time the company had a small Wang minicomputer they used for payroll, accounting and inventory. https://www.seasip.info/VintagePC/wangpc.html After a few years they junked them and went with the IBM PC's and compatibles. For engineering use, before the PC's arrived years later, we had a single Wang 2200 for doing various calculations. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wang_2200

No digital voice modes are currently legal on GMRS. However exploring the idea of pushing the FCC in the direction to allow it with future rule changes, and what would be the likely rules, is a worth while discussion. One of the reasons they haven't is they feel there isn't enough debate and consensus to date on the topic. As noted in past posts there is at least one GMRS repeater which was granted an experimental license, expired in 2017, to use DMR to test the feasibility or the idea. The group asked for another waver which was denied. https://wireless2.fcc.gov/UlsEntry/attachments/attachmentViewRD.jsp;ATTACHMENTS=n9p7jGfBzPvTQZDnhxgNPVMfDMRPMp19Th2TTvhK05h5QSwbHvbq!-414398754!990034342?applType=search&fileKey=37400551&attachmentKey=20621169&attachmentInd=licAttach Note in the waver request denial the FCC mentioned some users were concerned about the effect on analog communications. It appears that ANY idea proposed to use digital voice modes on GMRS must take the points mentioned in the waver denial in consideration plus several more. As an example have a look at the attached file with some comments and ideas I have on the topic. GMRS Digital Voice - 20221011.pdf

Maybe some day for one night. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0LLaybEuzA

Not angry. It wasn't clear to me which video he was referencing. I went back and looked at the one I mentioned to see if I had somehow missed something.

I have the same feeling when I see those license plate frames with the dealer's name on it. They were going to stick one on the new 2023 Mazda CX-5 I just got and told them no. Worse is when they "brand" your ride with a dealer's name decal stuck on the paint of the shinny new car you just paid a ridiculous amount of money to buy.

Time mark 8:17 shows the two test frequencies as 146.520MHz on VHF and 441.000MHz on UHF. The highest power the guy measured was 4.5 watts on 441.000MHz at time mark 9:05. I don't know where in that video you saw the test being done at 421MHz with a power output of 24.5 watts.

It seems that way. Look at a Baofeng that "claims" 18 watts of output. Skip to time mark 8:00 for the power test. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LPM7PsO2McI

I looked at the video and I failed to notice an FCC ID number on the back. That should be a requirement to legally import the radio to the US. By any chance do you know if there is an FCC ID and what it is? The reason for asking is the FCC grant will show what power level the radio was tested at and issued the grant for what service(s). I wanted to see if it actually tested at 25 watts (Chinese) and what that ends up in US watts.