Northcutt114

That tracks for me. Thanks for the response!

So is the idea, specifically with CW, that it's already hardwired into the repeater, Station Identification is required, and therefore CW is the easiest way to accomplish that?

Is there a reason that one would choose to do this? Morse Code, in 2025?

I mean, "obvious" is a strong word, but yeah, it's certainly logical. I was just making sure. I assume that's not something that analog radios are able to do? You'd need a digital radio, yeah?

So let me ask a follow up question to this. If a radio can identify itself to a repeater and then the repeater can allow it access, can the opposite be true, as well? Can a radio be "banned" from a repeater by not allowing it's ID?

I can see, especially on a repeater or a net, where - if you have fifteen different users with fifteen different roger beeps, AND the repeater might have some tones or squelches or something - it could be a little bit chaotic. But, on a quiet, simple repeater to immediately be told, with no tact, to "turn off your roger beep" is wild to me. Same vibes as the guy who wears the CCW sash. Calm down, Boss Hog. You'll get them Duke Boys one day.

To your first question, that would depend entirely on the person on whose repeater you are speaking. With the GMRS license, your whole family is allowed to use the radio. I think you are correct in wondering about the rest of the users wanting/not wanting to hear you and your daughter talk. It is a courteous thought. My advise would be to key up and ask when you hear traffic. Make sure your daughter knows basic radio etiquette see how it goes. I routinely speak with my daughters but we use simplex and tones to ensure they don't hear any untoward traffic that may be out there. To your second question, short answer is "no." There's not a way to filter incoming RX from the repeater. In for a penny, in for a pound, so to speak.

It is interesting to me that so many people in the GMRS community, if one can call it that, have such strong opinions about something so silly. Is it because CB bois use it and GMRS people are much more serious "radio operators?" What's the aversion? I really don't get it.

Pretty much. Except GMRS can do repeaters.

Uh... unless I'm mistaken this is not correct. AM CB will talks more fars than FM, no? As to @LeoG's question as to what is the difference? FM is a little cleaner, sounds a little warmer. But nobody, en masse, is talking on it so unless it's you and someone else you plan to have comms with, there's no need to get one. I have one. It stays on AM band 24/7.

I'm really wrestling with what, in this thread, is the most odd and simultaneously impressive. The fact that the OP has been a member of this site for 4 years and has only just now chosen to post or the fact that his first post is literally a letter to POTUS. I applaud the energy you expended on what is almost certainly a wasted effort.

To shore up what the others are saying, I also have an AM/FM CB and no, there is no one using FM. Sometimes I leave it on FM and I can pick up AM to see if it sounds any better but it mostly just sounds muddy. I don't suspect FM is ever going to catch on in CB.

This ^ is correct. It's menu setting 21 & 22. MDF-A and MDF-B, hit the Menu button again to get the cursor down and then push the up or down arrow to toggle between Channel and Name. ETA: I see this has already been answered.

Where is it written? Nowhere. No one is saying that. OP was asking for a Charleston area repeater and we were just saying that one out in the boonies on Clements Ferry Road isn't really going to help the "Charleston area."

"Once upon a time" You mean when I was a boy?

Let me ask you this. As someone who plans to RV full time starting in the next ten or so years; would you recommend I go for a HAM license? Or just stick with GMRS?

But if the argument for its "illegality" is because sending voice traffic through broadband is considered "theft of service," why would you allow the HAM community to do it? They have even more room to steal your service, so to speak. I am admittedly a neophyte in all this, but it seems to me far more likely that the FCC doesn't want "some people" talking too many fars. It's evident in the scalable nature of their licensing. FRS and MURS, no license, no fars. GMRS, license no test, some fars. HAM General, license and test, more fars. Ham technician, another test, even more fars. HAM Extra, one last test, most fars. Although to be fair, I think HF gets unlocked at level 2 HAM and that's about as far as you can talks. At least I think. No, I'm not sure it has anything to do with "theft of service." And if it does, I think one can easily make the case in 2025 that GMRS traffic is not taking money out of Verizon's pocket.

OK, but then why is it legal to do so with HAM? They are still sending voice traffic over broadband, no? To be clear; I'm not disagreeing. Just looking for clarity.

Vocationally, I, on occasion, am paid to write things. One of my favorite lines to this day was a client talking to his clinically mandated psychologist. The shrink was trying to get him to open up and he, being sardonic and largely capable of bearing his own burdens, had been refusing. Also, he had some pretty dark passengers. When he finally decided to yield and talk about his issues, he led with "OK, fine. Let's put a Lambo in your garage." I thought it was witty.

I have only a cursory relation with the group. I do listen to them on occasion and I have yet to hear anyone say, on the air, "we are violating the rules." Someone, somewhere in the group has made very sure that they believe that they are not in violation. I don't know the rules well enough to say one way or the other, nor do I care to involve myself. It's just an interesting position in which to find myself. "The internet" seems to think they are one way, they seem to think they are something else, and here I am in the middle seeing a little of both.

Could be...or maybe HAM guy is secretly a pirate radio guy at heart? I don't know. If you look around, there's a couple of mega threads on a few different forums (none of which are local to the area) with people saying that they are going to report them...and all of those threads are over a year old now.

That's kind of how I feel. And it's a sentiment that I've heard several times. Others, though, seem to be aware and are in defiance. Awhile back some guy keyed up and asked for a radio check. The guy who asked for the check was a HAM operator recently moved to the area from somewhere out west, as I recall. He was new to GMRS and "didn't know you guys on GMRS were allowed to link repeaters online." What followed was a brief conversation between him and the guy who answered his check where the other guy admitted that they were aware of the FCC's clarification but that "the rule hasn't been officially changed" and that "until the FCC forces us to" they weren't going to change. HAM guy said "Good for you" and signed off. Even in my brief time in this hobby, I have come to believe that the FCC's doesn't do much enforcement at all. Plus, I kinda always like the pirate and the underdog in a fight. And if I wanted to be able to talk all over North GA, I couldn't do it myself for what they are asking in dues. But I also don't walk to talk all over North GA, nor do I sometimes want to hear them do it. So, there's that.

It's interesting for sure. They claim that they are not in violation of any rules. Last night, I was in range of one of their repeaters and was listening to some of the chatter. Two gentlemen talking about their adult daughters and at some break in the conversation, someone just started keying up with a roger beep, over and over and over. Once it subsided one of the other gentlemen said something to the effect of how it just burned him up that people kept harassing them when they "weren't doing nothing wrong." I thought to myself, "I'm not sure the guy roger beeping would agree with you." I certainly don't get the feeling that this group feels they own the air waves, though. A few weeks ago I was up in their area and I overheard a conversation between someone who claimed to be the owner of the organization. The other gentleman claimed to have gotten a radio from him some months back and he couldn't talk to anyone on it nor could they hear him. The man who claimed to be the owner seemed not to have a memory of who this person was or having given him a radio. Regardless, he was polite and professional. He offered the other gentlemen his cell number and mailing address. He told him to mail the radio and he'd see what he could do to fix it and mail it back at his own expense. Hardly the attitude that I see others on the net depicting of him. I'm torn. I get the outrage but like I said, it's largely from people outside the AO. People that I've run across in the area seem happy with it, largely. One guy told me, "Heck man, I can't put a repeater on top of that mountain for what it costs me to join up." and, I mean, he kinda has a point.

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 also an accurate assessment of the situation. Can confirm.