NotARubiksCube

Thanks. I was thinking about picking up an AR-5RM to complement the UV-5G Plus's I already have. I live right in the flight line of a nearby airport so airband was one of the appeals for me. So if I understand right, you add airband frequencies manually on the radio, then you can manipulate those channel characteristics in Baofeng's software? It's disturbing that CHIRP isn't working for you, especially considering that CHIRP has a profile for it that they say will work. I was hoping to avoid Baofeng software.

Ditto--I love using AT&T's network without dealing with AT&T. Just FYI though, Pure Talk uses the same type of arrangement but is a few bucks less per line. PureTalk's $20 plan is 3GB instead of 1GB, and their 10 GB is $30 instead of $35. I've used them for about a year and appreciated their cheerful inside-the-USA phone support (which I needed only once as part of the sign-up process). https://puretalk.com/r/5fdcbc44

Summary: It's good for about 6 blocks in town, and maybe a mile with line of sight. (I couldn't understand what the video says was understandable so for me the distances cited are not realistic.) Didn't blow my panties off, but if I saw them in my thrift store for $6, I'd probably buy them.

Your point about "over-alerting" is great. However, arguably the *first* notification of an emergency--or the first notification following turning the radio on--still has value regardless of repetition.

It seems to me that FCC intends the GMRS community to be mostly self-regulating, and act like grownups. I therefore presume that any rules they make that venture into the realm of unenforceable etiquette are simply intended to work on the honor system. If that's the case, then the only real value of the rule is to provide a basis to resolve conflicts resulting from someone without permission using a repeater as a tool to jam its frequencies on an ongoing basis. In a case like that, I suppose they could see fit to expend the necessary resources to go jackass hunting.

Weird. I'll err on the side of asking permission. That's probably what I would want if I were a repeater owner.

Have patience... I'm a total GMRS noob. Most repeaters in my area are labeled "Open System" and the frequency and in/out tones are provided. Although it's labeled "open" and I have the information requried to use the repeater, there's an active "Request Access" button. Do I need to request access from the owner before using repeaters listed like this? thx

I agree with raybestos and LeoG. I don't think the FCC would agree that 4 hours' distance (or any specific distance) renders a station inaccessible or uncontrollable by the licensee. Another illustration: Let's assume that you're out with many family members hiking rough terrain divided into several different hiking parties, and that you, the licensee, have handed out radios to each party. While hiking, it's plausible that these family parties may find themselves in locations that are located multiple hours away from you by foot--the only means of ground travel--and yet still be within GMRS range of you. You obviously no longer have direct "access to and control over" all of the stations, yet surely even the strictest interpreter of the FCC rule would agree that this is a legitimate use of the your radios by your family. Therefore, the FCC does not intend your "access to and control over" the stations used by other family members to be immediate or direct. (Although one could argue that the FCC intends the family member's use to be only in the presence of the licensee, this would be pure speculation since the rule doesn't say that, and surely the FCC doesn't intend to allow the licensee's family members to use the radio to talk to anyone except the licensee, which would be the case if the FCC required the licensee to be physically present and thus have no need for GMRS communication.) Since GMRS range is limited, in the absence of an FCC definition of "access to and control over," it's reasonable to conclude that any GMRS licensee has access to and control over all radios he/she owns that are in the possession of family members related to the licensee as specified in the rule, as long as they are within the normal GMRS range of the licensee using accessible repeaters. (I say "normal range" because if there's a reasonable hope of contacting each other via GMRS, then the FCC is unlikely to consider the distance to exceed the limits of "access to and control over" just because there happens to be an RF shadow between them, or a repeater goes offline, or whatever.)