SteveShannon

Interesting question. I’m tempted to just say let your conscience be your guide, but understand that if we don’t want GMRS to be treated like ham radio, we need to adhere to the rules that separate it from ham radio.

It really depends on what you hope to accomplish with your emergency communications. What kind of emergencies are you planning for? Who do you need to communicate with in such an emergency? Just between you and your spouse or do you want to hear what’s going on in the rest of the world? What’s the worst case? 10-15 miles can be done between two radios if you’re both above any intervening terrain, but if you’re both at street level in a typical city you might be lucky to get a mile or two. My advice is that the technology is just a small part of it. You will need to develop a comprehensive plan that includes communications with the outside world as well as communications between you and others in your immediate party. You’ll need to plan for backup power, field expedient antennas, and places to go to ensure that your signal can get through.

I have two Baofeng radios, one an older UV5R from before the crackdown by the FCC, the other a GT5R, which I left locked down. Both work as expected. i also have more than my share of Yaesu handhelds and one Alinco DMR handheld that are just better radios. If you ever ask how many radios are enough I’ll say “Just a few more.” When unlocking a radio, a person should fully expect all existing memory channels to be wiped clear. That’s just part of the trade off, and in fact for some radios that’s what’s necessary to get them to open up because the frequency limits are baked in somewhere in the memory configuration. For other radios, like the Yaesu handhelds I have, it was less disruptive. My friend Jack has a new UV5R that he just picked up a few months ago. He bought it for ham radio, not GMRS, so there was no need to open it up. His radio had been cutting out on some signals coming into the receiver lately and we figured out that it was the squelch. I sent him the Miklor article on fixing the squelch in that radio and I talked with him on the phone while he worked in Chirp. When he was done we tested the radio through the local 2 meter repeater. Everything worked just fine. That was Saturday or Sunday. Then, on Monday night, during the local 2 meter net, we heard someone trying to get into the repeater. We would hear white noise when they pushed their PTT, and then a roger beep, followed by the repeater courtesy beep. Another ham recognized that it was Jack because of Jack’s roger beep. Jack tried a few more times while we waited, but all we could hear was the white noise and then the roger beep. It was obvious that his transmitter was working, but his voice wasn’t being picked up and transmitted. I called Jack on the phone and told him what we were hearing. Having a recognizable roger beep helped! ? Yesterday, I spent some time with him while he and I looked through all the Chirp settings, looking for anything that might disable the microphone. We found nothing. I said that I thought it sounded like the internal mike just failed, possibly because the external mike jack’s bypass switch was stuck open. Inserting and removing the programming cable might have caused it and Jack tried inserting it a few times, but no luck. Finally, Jack tried the external microphone that came with it and then I could hear his voice. I’m not a Baofeng UV5R basher, but it’s important to realize just what they are — very low cost and surprisingly fun little radios that can fail at any moment. Baofengs are often an expendable component along the path of learning radio. But, if you get serious about playing radio, an SWR/power meter, a dummy load, and an antenna analyzer are great to have. Then a spectrum analyzer and oscilloscope. ♾

Having these tools might be fun, but I wouldn’t buy hundreds of dollars in tools just to diagnose a problem with a $25 radio. Just buy a different radio that you don’t have to diagnose.

So, those loud buzzing sounds are not CTCSS. They're way too loud for that. I don't know what they are. Does it happen only when you're in your car? Does it happen when you're in you house? If you go to the other side of town do you still hear it? You might have to put a directional antenna on the UV5R to triangulate the source.

Yeah, it’s kind of bizarre, but I see lots of hams posting on Facebook that they’re on a particular frequency, either phone or ft8.

This! When I’m hamming I’m hamming and I’ll do it on amateur radio frequencies. If I’m GMRSing, I’ll follow practices that make GMRS work well for others as well as me.

There’s an interface kit. It’s sold in the shopping area of this site, but unfortunately it’s based on the Raspberry Pi boards which are currently nearly unobtainable.

Welcome to mygmrs!

You may communicate using simplex; you don’t need to use a repeater, but as others have pointed out you should adhere to the band plan established in your area. A local amateur radio club can help you find out what that is. If one hasn’t been established locally, then you should use this one from the ARRL site. Notice that Simplex appears in three or four different portions of this band plan, not the full 144-148:

We should always be considerate of other users. Rag-chewing on GMRS doesn’t fit that model. It makes no sense to limit the length of a transmission, but allow a conversation to totally monopolize a channel. Yes, it does specifically mention “transmissions” because conversation is built on transmissions. It’s clearly intended to promote brevity, which include the conversation as a whole, in order to share the limited number of channels. That spirit is reinforced by the very next requirement: § 95.359 Sharing of channels. Unless otherwise provided in the subparts governing the individual services, all channels designated for use in the Personal Radio Services are available for use on a shared basis, and are not assigned by the FCC for the exclusive use of any person or station. Operators of Personal Radio Service stations must cooperate in the selection and use of channels in order to avoid interference and make efficient use of these shared channels. And for the record, I don’t think very many people believe hams should be barred from GMRS. They just want to be able to use GMRS as a personal radio service, rather than have it taken over by a small number of inconsiderate jerks who monopolize the limited number of channels with long winded conversations. It’s a matter of politely fitting in to the purposes for which the service has been established.

You can’t make Fords better by sabotaging GM.

All of the statewide DMR talk groups now have (10 minutes) as part of their names “MT Statewide (10 minutes)-3130

I should probably have emphasized the word "Potential." There are a few ham clubs which avoid Brandmeister as their DMR network, except through limited bridges so they have more control over their own repeaters.

Maybe that's part of the misperception, that there will be someone to talk to and something to hear if you only get a GMRS radio. It's more likely to be true on the ham bands, but still not completely reliable. Road conditions? 511 Also, if you know there's only one repeater, there's really no need to scan. Just set your receiver to the same 462 MHz frequency as the repeater transmits, leave the tone cleared out, and leave it there.

I keep hearing June of this year the dam will break. In the meantime, get on rpilocator (https://rpilocator.com/?country=US) and sign up for alerts. If you receive an alert, jump on it.

Even in the ham world there are folks who see large networks of linked repeaters as a potential problem.

Something that perhaps isn't cited as frequently as it should be is this rule regarding Personal Radio Services. It seems obvious to me that rag-chewing is a violation of this premise: § 95.357 Duration of transmissions. Except as otherwise provided, the operator of a Personal Radio Services station must generally limit transmissions to the minimum duration necessary. See e.g., § 95.2357. Some Personal Radio Services have specific duration limits, which are set forth in the subparts governing those services. See e.g., § 95.957.

Agreed.

So, it appears we're seeing an excess of success. Cheap radios, easy licensing with very loose rules on who may use, increased number of repeaters, and repeater networks. That GMRS is regulated to be very easy for families to connect with each other under a single license, perhaps too easy. What could be done? Many people (myself included) would prefer that GMRS be used primarily for short messages, rather than long winded sessions. Actually that's good etiquette for any repeater usage. Likewise, although station to station conversations don't have to be limited in length for ham radio, they probably should for GMRS, since there are so few channels. Should there be a more public dissuasion of people who want to rag-chew on GMRS? Multiple times per week someone gets on here and says they bought a GMRS radio and they're dissappointed there's nobody to chat with. Should there be a pinned post that we can steer them towards, or a set answer that's basically "You've got the wrong idea," nicely of course. Randy has been good about saying that.

You are 100% correct. I don't think you'll get banned, though. You might even get some write-in votes in the 2024 General Election.

We sure did.

I still don’t get it. There are a lot more 70cm, 2m, and other frequencies available to hams. Why do you think it’s licensed hams instead of ham wannabes who are doing this? What would attract a ham away from the more plentiful options they have with amateur radio to the very limited GMRS?

Thanks - I can understand not wishing to raise a repeater only to have it taken over for rag-chewing. I get the idea that a lot of people buy GMRS licenses because paying $35 is the same for either hams or GMRS, but GMRS doesn't require a test. It sounds as if the people flocking to GMRS are simply looking for an easier way to play radio. I don't understand why someone who is already licensed as a ham would be attracted to GMRS for that reason. Maybe these are people who either couldn't pass the test, were too intimidated to try, or it's just easier. Perhaps the price for GMRS should be raised to $70 again and the price for a ham license be removed? ?

Just so I can learn, what are the operating habits that some hams have developed that are unwelcome?