Well, my local gmrs repeater has weekly nets. They use the radios to communicate with others around the area in a “hey hows it going today “ fashion. Yes people just have conversations on ours. I’m can call out anytime and someone will respond. Most of the time its a local ham operator. We have several pf them here that utilize the gmrs as well. As well as joining the weekly nets. Coming in the near future they will use said repeater for communication for an AIDS ride event. So as I see it, Different regions different types of transmissions. Yes, I am newly licensed, however also had a unit # under family for quite some time before that.