Lscott

That's stretching it a bit! I tried once from the old Place location, by the land fill, and it was a bit noisy. When I got to Lake Orion, nothing. That's with a big high gain mobile antenna.

I'm not interested as well. I already have a Ham call sign license plate as it is.

As of last Monday the repeater has officially 224 registered users. If what you hear is routine and frequent it is likely a wide area coverage repeater. The Troy machine is on top of a building at about 150 to 200 feet above ground level, I don't have an accurate figure for it. The radius of coverage should be about 20 miles, and might be further if the other station has a good height for it's antenna as well. Some of what you might hear is referred to as "tropospheric ducting" which occasionally occurs on VHF and UHF frequencies. This has resulted in stations being heard 100's of miles away or more. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tropospheric_propagation

AKA - W7ML too.

Don't bother me any. If you want to waste your money paying the higher fees for a vanity plate that's your problem.

Some general info: https://www.navcen.uscg.gov/radio-information-for-boaters https://towers4boats.com/do-recreational-boats-need-a-vhf-radio/ https://www.fcc.gov/wireless/bureau-divisions/mobility-division/maritime-mobile/ship-radio-stations

I've seen occasionally Ham call sign license plates, I have one myself, but almost never seen a sticker saying monitoring 146.52, that's sort of understood. If you see a call sign license plate and a VHF/UHF antenna on the vehicle giving a shout on the calling frequency might get a response from them. In another thread I asked about why you don't see any GMRS call sign license plates. It seems that only exists for Hams. One suggestion was getting a vanity plate with your GMRS call sign on it. If you recognize the plate as a GMRS call sign, big hint there is a UHF antenna present too, then again giving a shout on the calling frequency might be in order.

VHF Marine Frequencies - 1.pdf

Since you're primarily interested in GMRS then one of the Kenwood's analog only UHF radios might be a better fit. Personally I use the TK-3170. There is also a TK-3173, that has built in trunking, but otherwise they are the same radio. It's also Part 95 certified too if that's a big concern for you. Some of the commercial grade radios that will work OK on GMRS don't. That's a decision you have to make. https://forums.mygmrs.com/gallery/image/263-tk-3170jpg/ Keep in mind that radios will cover different parts of the radio spectrum. I only mentioned the NX-200 since it was a VHF radio and I needed a way to handle the huge number of memory channels. Being VHF it won't work for you on GMRS, which is UHF only. The other radio in that series is the NX-300. It will also do digital NXDN, however NO digital voice modes are currently allowed on GMRS and likely not in the near future either. It is a nice analog only radio. Unless you need the extra digital features for another service I wouldn't recommend it since you're going to pay a lot more money for something you can't use. https://forums.mygmrs.com/gallery/image/251-nx-300jpg/ Another one that several members use is the TK-3180, which I recommend you look at. https://pdfs.kenwoodproducts.com/10/TK-2180&3180Brochure.pdf The above radios are no longer manufactured so you will have to buy one used. If you shop around you can find some in almost like new condition for a reasonable amount of money.

I know the Kenwood radios I have will let me program up to 128 scan groups. Each group can be enabled/disabled from the front panel keys. Also each memory channel in each group can be enabled/disable too. That gives the me a lot of flexibility in what I want to scan for monitoring. This feature comes in handy on an NX-200 VHF radio. I have a special code plug written with all of the VHF railroad FM analog and digital channels. There are a bunch. https://www.radioreference.com/db/aid/7747 Each group the ID that shows up on the display, when changing groups using the group up and down front panel keys, shows something like "AAR 001-025" etc. That way I can quickly locate a channel I want in a group. Of course each memory channel is labeled too. Keeping the number of memory channels in each group limited to 20 to 25 means I'm never more that 10 to 13 channels away from the one I want in a group using the channel selector knob. The channel selector knob function is programmed to "roll-over" at the top or bottom of the programmed memory channels in a group.

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