wrci350

Are they using 462.650/467.650 or 462.700/467.700? If not, then your point is what?

"Last month" like 2 1/2 weeks ago? ? We did. But we must not have solved the problem, since the discussion has come back. I almost weighed in on the other thread, I guess I should have. Definitely YMMV, but as I said in my earlier post, around here the "hams" on the GMRS repeaters ... aren't. It seems to me that there are individuals/organizations/websites/whatever that are advertising GMRS as something that (according to the FCC) it isn't. We see evidence of that almost every day on these forums. "I just got my GMRS license and I can't find any random people to talk to." That is NOT the stated purpose of GMRS. Is that type of usage forbidden? Not that I can see anywhere. But if people get their GMRS license with the thought that they can use GMRS to talk to random people (just like on a ham repeater) without having to take a test, guess what? That's what they are going to do! Again, YMMV. Personally I think it's silly for hams to go hang out on a GMRS repeater as if it were a ham repeater.

We have a number of GMRS repeaters in our area, including at least six that have been stood up in the past year. Of all those repeaters, I can only think of a couple examples of 'family' communications. The first was a small footprint one set up by a friend of mine that he used to check in with his mother-in-law every day. Unfortunately someone else stood up a high power repeater on the same pair that drowned him out, and I think he moved it to his camp. The second is a guy I've heard do a radio check with his (I think) brother-in-law that lives quite a distance away a few times through one of the large footprint repeaters. The rest of the traffic on the repeaters? Radio checks, "nets" or rag-chewing. One thing I've noticed that appears to be different in our area is that a lot of the repeater users are NOT hams. Yes, there are some GMRS users who also have an amateur license, but they appear to be in the minority.

It is highly unlikely that more bandwidth will ever be added to the 70cm ham band or to GMRS.

OK so are you hearing something like this? Or just static?

No. It's an analog radio. Actually, it might "pick up" P25, but all you would hear is a buzzing sound.

Hmmm. That sounds more like interference. Are there street lights at the end of your street? Traffic signals? Transformers?

Part 95 radios were not affected by the narrowbanding mandate. For whatever reason, Midland *was* selling radios that would only do narrow band, but there wasn't any regulatory reason for them to be doing so. I believe they have changed the firmware on all or most of them now so you can use either wide or narrow band. Part 90 radios WERE affected by narrowbanding, and the programming software sold by the big Part 90 radio companies will only allow narrow band out of the box. For Motorola, one can get a free entitlement that enables wideband by taking an online class and signing a pledge that states that wideband will only be allowed where it is permitted (i.e. amateur radio frequencies). I think the other vendors have something similar. I don't have any personal experience with Kenwood radios.

What you are hearing is a digital transmission, probably DMR. DMR is not permitted on GMRS, but that doesn't mean someone isn't using it.

Air is AM. I highly doubt that radio will do AM, even if "unlocked".

Yes, that's true.

You cannot accurately measure the SWR of an HT antenna with that setup. When you hold an HT in your hand and push the PTT button, the radio and your body are providing the ground plane for the antenna. Laying the HT on a table and inserting a power meter between it and the antenna removes the ground plane. You can measure *power* in that configuration, but the SWR readings aren't accurate. More reading here:

No debate from me on the fact that what the rule says is that hams can use any *amateur* frequency in an emergency. I will, however, disagree with your assertion that "Most hams" think otherwise. Some? Oh definitely. But not most.

Which pretty much defeats the purpose, no?

Correct. If the repeater were active for "group a" and someone from "group b" keyed up as well, none of the other "group b" radios would hear the transmission.

Amazon listing for what? What radio are you talking about? If you are looking at the same Amazon listing that I am, you can order both versions (SMA-M or SMA-F).

There *are* repeaters (that work on GMRS) that won't do that, but *will* allow you to set up multiple CTCSS/DCS tones on the same frequency pair. That would allow you to use one tone for the farmer and one for the family and they wouldn't hear each other.

Interesting. Do you hear more on the iPhone app than you do on your old scanner, or the same? If you hear more on the app, that probably lmeans that SIRN is in use and whoever is providing the feed has a scanner monitoring that system. (Keep in mind that's how those apps work ... somewhere there is someone with a real scanner that is monitoring the traffic and streams it to the Internet.) If you can pick up those frequencies on your scanner but not the new radio that suggests a programming problem.

The Radio Reference DB is crowd sourced. Nothing is [supposed to be] added unless it's based on first-hand knowledge, either from someone who is a user on the system or from someone who has monitored and identified traffic. It's a lot easier to add new things than to remove old ones since many agencies will keep an old system as a backup when they move to a new one. In that case, someone saying "I don't hear anything on this frequency" isn't generally enough. The fact that an expired license is listed is also not always evidence that something is not still in use. Perhaps there is a new license, or perhaps the agency keeps on using the frequency in spite of the fact that the FCC license is expired. (Yes, it happens.) With all that said, I think the answer is found higher up on the RRDB page for your county, under "Barbour County Trunked Systems". West Virginia has a state-wide P25 trunked system called SIRN. If you take a look at the system you'll see a bunch of talkgroups for Barbour County, including Fire, EMS, and law enforcement dispatch. The good news is that none of them are marked as encrypted, so they should be monitorable. The bad news? None of the Wouxun or other GMRS radios can monitor systems like that, since those radios are analog only. I have to laugh at some of these radios that are marketed as "when bad things happen scanners" since there are very large areas of the country that have moved to P25 or other digital modes. Those "900 emergency channels" are almost certainly going to be useless if someone wants to listen in to "see what's going on". I'm basing all this on just looking at the DB. If you want to verify that the local agencies are moved to SIRN you could post in the WV forum on RR and ask if there is someone local who can tell you.

But that doesn't include the actual node hardware, correct?

There is no such thing as a "Part 97" radio, so using one with Part 90 acceptance isn't breaking any rules. The only certification you will find on a ham radio is Part 15.

Never mind. ?

I'm going to say again what I said yesterday in another thread. There's "what the rules say". There's "what people THINK the rules say". And there's "what people think the rules SHOULD say". You are looking at the first. Others, not so much.

I think you answered your own question. We have "what the FCC rules say", then we have "what people THINK the FCC rules say", and finally "what people think the FCC rules SHOULD say". Hence the ongoing debate. Please provide the section of Part 95e that says that. Oh wait; there isn't one. For a radio to be "legal" on GMRS, it HAS to have a Part 95e certification. Full stop. The rules do allow for a radio to have dual certification (Part 90 and Part 95e) as long as it cannot transmit on frequencies that are part of a service that doesn't require transmitter certification (aka Part 97). But nowhere does it say, "Part 90 radios are automatically certified for Part 95e". Indeed, many Part 90 radios are 400-470 or 400-480 so they can be used for ham radio (which is perfectly legal) but that precludes them from being 95e certified. As far as I know, there are NO currently-produced radios that are both Part 90 and 95e. Not completely accurate. Mobiles cannot be used on the low-power channels; those are restricted to HTs only. Not a matter of "turning down to a legal power output". The bottom line is that the FCC doesn't care if you use a Part 90 radio on GMRS. But that's not what the rules say. It's up to each GMRS licensee to decide how important it is to use a Part 95e certified radio.

After seeing this thread last night I grabbed my KG-UV7D (6m/2m) and sure enough, the battery was dead. I just checked my 805M (don't have an 805G) and its battery is still fully charged after also sitting unused for a couple months.