WREM784

FRS is limited to 2w. MURS is limited to 2w. They could just make a rule that says that radios approved for both FRS and MURS must have a fixed antenna (due to the restriction for FRS). But for a GMRS+MURS radio, you could use external antennas, provided that the power output on the MURS channels is limited to 2w.

The only reason that I own GMRS and FRS radios is because I like to set a good example and follow the rules. If I were to use MURS channels on a regular basis, I would get myself some MURS radios. There are times when one would be significantly better than the other, and there are a plethora of radios which will do both, so it's frustrating to explain that you're not supposed to use those radios that way. Even if you follow every other rule and use the appropriate amount of power, etc, it's illegal for no good reason. I would absolutely buy a set of legal, dual-band FRS/MURS radios if the FCC would allow it. I have the ability to do this already with many of my HTs, but I would spend my hard-earned money on a redundant set of radios just to have a set that is fully legal, so I could set a good example. It would also give me something I could recommend to people who don't want to make radio into a hobby, etc.

For anyone interested, I put together a bit of a hack to handle repeater identification, for something like a Retevis RT97, which doesn't have a way to connect a real controller. It isn't as good as a proper repeater controller, but I think it could be good enough in many cases (or at least better than nothing). It certainly shows some intent to comply. Essentially, I wrote an Android app which listens for sound and uses Android's text-to-speech capabilities to transmit a message. It will transmit this message any time it hears sound and it has been more than 15 minutes since the last time it identified itself. I installed it on an old Android phone and connected it to a BTECH GMRS-V1 (with VOX enabled) using a BTECH APRS-K1 cable. The HT is configured to communicate through the repeater. So, the HT just needs to be reasonably close to the repeater to handle the identification function. It waits until things have been quiet for a second before transmitting, but it could still get walked on by any signal that is stronger. So, the identification won't always be heard, but I expect it would be heard a lot of the time. It would certainly be heard if someone was just "kerchunking" the repeater to see if they could bring it up. I haven't published a release build, yet, but if you're interested, I could email you an APK file -- or you could just build it from the source: https://github.com/nathanchilton/remote-identifier

It would be very useful for an individual to be able to have a fully legal handheld radio which does both FRS and MURS (and VHF marine, for when you're boating, etc). There is no technical reason why a radio cannot be manufactured to do all of these (because any unlocked Baofeng or "MARS-modded" ham radio can already do this), but the FCC doesn't want us to do it, so they prohibit it in their regulations. VHF and UHF have different behavior depending on the terrain and it makes sense to be able to switch between them depending on the circumstances, but carrying two different radios for FRS and MURS is a hassle and it's just silly when one radio can easily do both. I'm sure there are manufacturers who would love to market an FRS/MURS radio for unlicensed use. It's just the FCC that stands in the way. They would sell well to people who want to follow the letter of the law, as long as the price was reasonable.

I just built an Android app for this: https://github.com/nathanchilton/remote-identifier With the app running on an old Android phone, connected to a BTECH GMRS-V1 using a BTECH APRS-K1 cable, it listens for traffic. If it hears any sound (via the HT) after the last time it has identified, it will use speech-to-text to transmit an identification through the HT, which then is also transmitted via the repeater. It is a bit of a hack, but it means that the device just needs to be within range of the repeater for this to work (no direct interface to the repeater is needed). It isn't as good as a real controller, but I think it's better than nothing.