gortex2

For the most part I see no reason a government entity would put up a GMRS system unless it was a public thing thru a CERT team or something of that nature. Government and Public Safety have many other systems they can use and don't require a person to get a license. Our SAR team still has a GMRS repeater at a county park that was provided with funding from a grant via the county years ago. Other than an occasional user its pretty quiet. All park staff use the TLMR system as well as all public safety. 

For the most part I see no reason a government entity would put up a GMRS system unless it was a public thing thru a CERT team or something of that nature. Government and Public Safety have many other systems they can use and don't require a person to get a license. Our SAR team still has a GMRS repeater at a county park that was provided with funding from a grant via the county years ago. Other than an occasional user its pretty quiet. All park staff use the TLMR system as well as all public safety. 

For the most part I see no reason a government entity would put up a GMRS system unless it was a public thing thru a CERT team or something of that nature. Government and Public Safety have many other systems they can use and don't require a person to get a license. Our SAR team still has a GMRS repeater at a county park that was provided with funding from a grant via the county years ago. Other than an occasional user its pretty quiet. All park staff use the TLMR system as well as all public safety. 

Just a point of interest, PIV/CAC cards for government employees and contractors cost more than $35 each and aren't valid as long as a GMRS license. If a government agency really wants to have a GMRS repeater for their staff to use, I'm 100% certain they would pony up the few bucks for the employees to have an individual license to use on the government owned radio.
 
Just a thought. 

APRSDroid will gladly eat your GMRS callsign and will allow sending and receiving packets from air. Of course, no injection of data will be allowed into the APRS database over the internet. For this you must have ham callsign.
I'm regular APRS user, but always on 144.390 and never on GMRS.

Wow.  I'm all for using the search feature and using existing info, but I am pretty sure reviving an 8 year old thread is a record for this forum.  LOL
 
I am pretty sure, those in the know actually prefer the legacy LMR stuff for the rock-solid performance and true full legal limit power.  It's not for the faint of heart or technically challenged, though.

The GR1225 Repeater used at 45 watts will most likely last less than a year. Have repaired, installed and removed many over my years. The 45 watt rating is "pre" duplexer meaning from the transmitter port on the radio. Depending on the duplexer you could see almost 3db of loss (cheap china stuff) which would effectively leave 20 watts out. The GR1225 runs very good if you turn it down to 25 watts (with a 45 watt PA), and with a good quality duplexer you can expect 15-20 watts out to the antenna port. A quality duplexer such as the Sinclair is spec'd at 1.2db of loss. Add in a jumper cable and your at about 16-18 watts.
The GR1225 is a great home repeater but was never intended for long conversations and continuous service like the MTR or Quantar. I run 4 different sites with the GR1225 cut back to 25 watts and have been on the air for years. 

Well, technically by NAME, APRS is Amateur (Packet/Position) Reporting System, so it is no surprise that most APRS software wants an Amateur call sign. That BTech is using the APRS protocol to send position just makes it another position reporting format -- like some Garmin GPS/FRS radios.
The other matter is if they are using AX.25 data packets -- that's what Amateur TNCs are using for analog APRS (D-Star and DMR /digital/ modes send position reports in a different format -- D-Star embeds position data within the non-voice portion of each packet)
 

Don't have to join a forum. If they don't have a license and using GMRS equipment don't talk to them. Enough people do that they will either quit using the radios or get licensed when they run out of people to talk too. Either way it's a win.

I have a number of commercial radios that are certified for both Part 90 and Part 95A, the later being the old part for GMRS. The radios haven't lost their certification. I have others as well like the NX-300(G), FM/NXDN, and the TK-5320, FM/P25, just have to restrict operation to FM until the FCC gets around to authorizing digital voice on GMRS.
For example I routinely use my Kenwood TK-3170 for Ham and GMRS. It has both Part 90 and 95A certifications. While the programming software complains it will accept frequency entries down in to the ham band low enough to cover the repeater section just fine. So I have one radio where I can use it for either service without any hardware or software modifications.
NX-200_300.pdf NX-300 FCC Grant - 1.pdf TK-2170_3170(K) Brochure.pdf TK-3170 Grant.pdf TK-5220_5320 Brochure - 2.pdf TK-5320 FCC Grant - 1.pdf

But you don't know if it was BS or not even though the OP clarified there was a newspaper report. There is a 50/50 chance reports of an FCC investigation being in progress are true as, like your local PD, they don't make public reports of every investigation they undertake.

No, it won't be in the database as no action was taken. An investigation is just that, someone looking into something. You may find emails talking about investigations,  but those require a FOIA petition to access.

The part that's sad is when people act like it's OK. That's how non compliance starts and grows. It can simply start with those that are licensed simply refusing to communicate with those who are not and using GMRS radios.
I had a buddy that thought the same thing messing around with his UV-5R unlicensed. I finally got him to get his Ham Tech license and then he got his GMRS some months back on his own. He later found out the FCC was looking for the source of the unlicensed operations and interference. He realized he was lucky he quit when he did, had no idea about the complaints made, and got legal. The reasons why people don't bother, they think nobody gives a crap, nothing is going to happen me, and finally just being lazy and cheap.

The government agencies I work with usually ask volunteer civilians to partner with them, provide the hardware and human capital. I'm not aware of any of them doing it on their own, but my experience is obviously anecdotal. 
 
My team is in process of putting an amateur repeater on the county dispatch tower at the EOC. We are already approved for the antenna and radio install. I am going to see if we can put up a dual band antenna and see if we can co-locate the amateur and GMRS systems there. 

I bought this exact unit from Amazon... I tried using it with two Baofeng handhelds.  Even though they call it cross-band, the radios actually determine if its same band or cross-band.
 
Bottom line... it ended up in the trash.  It relies on the volume level of the radio, VOX operation, and if you try to use it on the same band, unless you have incredibly expensive radios with great filtering on the front-end, the transmitter wipes out the receiver and it gets stuck in a transmit loop until you turn off either one of the two radios.
 
I am a geek by trade, so I ended up building a full-blown portable repeater.  At this point, I would recommend you just buy a pre-programed Retevis. 

Even then it wouldn’t happen. The beer sounds great though. 

My first was a Garmin Rino GPS/GMRS radio.

Current? Uh….which one. Radioddity GM-30, BTech GMRS V2, wouxon 805g, Wouxon KG-uv9g pro

I agree to a point. We used channel 7 and 21 for the trails I was on. Most folks had bubble pack that requires no license. I did talk to one guy last year about the license stuff and he brushed me off. This year I asked him again (same guy) about it and he said he had his ham license and didn't need a GMRS. I tried to explain to him the difference but he didn't want to discuss. The issue with GMRS use is the guys who buy mobiles and either dont think they need or dont care about the license. I did ask the "sales" lady at the event that was selling mobiles if she told folks they need a license. She said the paperwork says you do. So I think their take on it is its Midlands deal and not theirs. This is my issue with them merging the services together. IN the end as said GMRS/FRS is a much better option for trail use than CB was. I still run a CB for other events.
Greenbrier is in a few weeks. Hopefully my transfer case is back together in time. 

For handheld radios at least, FRS channels are the same as GMRS channels (with the exception of GMRS repeater access frequencies).

I know a lot of people hate the licensing process and think there should not be any, but the FCC keeps big business and people with more money than Joe Q. User from bullying their way into radio spectrum that individual private users access.  The only way the FCC can track exactly how popular the bands are and how many users are actually using it, is via the licensing process.  If there isn't enough traceable activity, the FCC will sell the space to commercial users and we will lose our allocations. 
 
I only mention this because, I think if we run into people that are unlicensed in a services that they should have one, we should explain this situation to them in encourage them to spend the little bit of effort and funds so we can all continue to enjoy the services over the coming years.
 
One is a CCR, the other is an ECR.  LOL

If you really needed the RT97 to ID you can get the RT97S which can be connected to a Raspberry Pi and the ID can be done through that.
 
If you don't want to do that or can't do that at the repeater location just use another radio to send the ID over the input frequency from a remote location. Done.
 
But in all honesty the GMRS repeaters I have run across don't ID...as do the cast majority of simplex GMRS users (Bubble Pack Users)
 
 

The Midland 275 is about as close to a ‘plug-n-play’ mobile GMRS as there is.

In the old days, .675 was an FCC designated emergency channel usable by any licensee for /emergencies/ (this is back when one applied for TWO of the main frequency pairs, and they were listed on one's license -- you could NOT use any other main frequency; if your radio was, as many business radios of the era, only a two-channel radio [A/B toggle switch], and your license did not include .675, you had no access to the emergency frequency. If you specified .675 as one of your two frequencies, then it was available for general use. When I got licensed, the Maxon GMRS 210+3 was a desirable radio: it had the 462MHz interstitials (in 1-7), .675 (as channel 8), and channels 9&10 were "shop" programmable for the two frequencies on one's license. [While FCC regulations specified a radio shop must do the programming, they included the programming manual -- take the back off, press some button to enter #9 mode, rotate dial to select frequency, press button to enter #10 mode, turn dial to select frequency] Repeater vs Simplex was handled by a front-panel button which would toggle the current channel's state.
Note the age of my call-sign -- a 3x4 vs the current crop of 4x3.

My first GMRS radio ever was a beat up, used Kenwood NX300 K4 (400 - 470MHz).  I still have it and it works fine.  My current EDC radio is a new (not new now lol) Kenwood NX300 K4.  I've tried LOTS of radios (Including Motorola commercials) and I keep going back to my trusty NX300 because it's an absolute unit and is insane reliable.  The only upgrades I've done to it are the larger 4500mah pouch cell battery (Fatter) and upgraded to a Panorama 450 - 470MHz antenna!

You've got to be kidding me.  IF the USER speaks their Call Sign, then that is what's transmitted over the air.  In GMRS, there is NO Call Sign assigned by the FCC to a Repeater. There is no Coordination with GMRS, and there's absolutely no correlation between the physical location of a repeater and the mailing address of the Licensed user.
You are making up rules & then trying to find places to apply them. Stop.