WRQC527

It's been said many a time here that GMRS and FRS are "bring your own contacts" services, meaning that you're not going to find a lot of people hanging out on either repeaters or simplex just waiting to conversate. Some folks here enjoy and highly recommend Grindr for that reason. I prefer amateur radio (VHF and UHF) for talking to my circle of friends either on the road or on the hiking trail, and HF for seeing how far I can toss my signal, and GMRS for occasionally conversating with my wife who has zero interest in an amateur radio license.

I have a Hazard Fraught 35ah AGM that I keep on a maintainer in the house to run my FT891 and my FTM-7250. On Field Day I ran it off two Hazard Fraught 7-watt solar panels. No problems.

Just curious, I'm guessing some kind of storage battery setup? Obviously the total draw of the repeater and any peripherals will factor in to the capacity of the battery system and the solar panel output.

I think he means hams communicating legally with GMRS or FRS using ham radios.

In my humble opinion, for what it's worth, after owning a pair of GXT1000VP4s that thankfully I got at a thrift shop, a pair of Baofeng UV-82s and a pair of UV-5Rs, I found the Baofengs to be superior. Other folks may or may not agree. No doubt you'll hear from them too.

I bet that nobody has ever been jailed for FCC infractions. There's actually GMRS and amateur radio gangs in FCC prisons. They pretty much respect each other's turf, but every now and then...

You know what's weird? I'll tell you what's weird. Thanks for asking. There was a time when CB radio was supposed to be for short range comms. Then DXers got hold of it to see how far they could talk. Like amateur radio. Then along comes GMRS. It was supposed to be for short-range comms. Then DXers got hold of it and and linked their repeaters so they can talk all over the country. Like amateur radio. With all the amateur radio bashing that goes on here, why do so many people want GMRS to be like amateur radio?

Not with this radio, but CHIRP won't read my Juentai JT-6188 Plus even though it's listed on the drop-down. I need to lie to CHIRP and say it's a QYT KT8900. Go figure.

Exactly.

From the amateur radio side, there's a linked system called the Winsystem. It's multinational, and for me, it embodies every reason why linked systems, whether on amateur or GMRS, are a bad idea. Lots of people with poor signals, lots of know-it-all wannabe audiophiles who live to call out poor signals, constant kerchunking of the repeaters, and a global audience for jammers.

I'm not. But that's probably the farthest I could get from my home in Orange County CA to perhaps San Diego. My wife is not an amateur radio operator, but as you know, she is covered by my GMRS license so we can communicate if I'm on, say, Mt. Baldy, with no cell service. Also, I look at GMRS as a "utility" service, if you will, versus amateur radio as more of a hobby service.

Sounds like what amateur radio is for. I have dual citizenship in amateur radio and GMRS. But I've never had the urge to use GMRS for any longer range than what my local GMRS repeater provides, which is (I'm guessing) maybe 100 miles at most.

I know... But Grindr? Thank God there's no affiliate link below. Then I'd really start to wonder.

Not sure why Grindr keeps getting recommended so often on this site. Oh well. Happy Friday.

a. 47 CFR § 95.1761(a): “Each GMRS transmitter (a transmitter that operates or is intended to operate in the GMRS) must be certified in accordance with this subpart and part 2 of this chapter.” Johnathan A. Gutierrez operated a noncertified GMRS radio on GMRS frequencies. I found this to be quite interesting. While there are oodles (technical term for "a lot") of folks here who say the FCC doesn't care what equipment we use because they're not interested in fining someone using a UV-5R on GMRS, if it helps them to build a case against someone, then by golly they just might toss it in there.

Personally, I've found Repeaterbook to be one step above useless for GMRS repeaters. Filtering for California, it shows 38 repeaters. Compared to mygmrs, which when filtered for California shows over 100.

Yes, them people.

In my personal experience, jokes here are a mixed bag. Five people will LOL, one person will write me a dead-serious technical service bulletin explaining the joke and why it's not really a joke. Also, my wife never types to generate text messages, she insists on voice-to-text. So I guess she's ahead of the Ribbit curve.

This is the first time I've seen it, but it does look very interesting. I've tried sending text messages over APRS with varying levels of success, mostly frustrating, bit I'll definitely check this out. Thanks for sharing.

Coincidentally, someone started a topic a couple of days ago for just such a question as yours. Enjoy, and if you have any questions, ask away!

Just thought I'd throw a subject out there that might help new licensees as they venture into GMRS, and maybe folks who want to know what other folks are doing so they can up their game. There's so many mobile radios, antennas, vehicles, mounts, and use cases, Personally, I have a cheap QYT mobile and a Rugged Radios Point5 half wave antenna. It works well enough. Maybe this thread will take off, maybe it will fail to launch. We'll see.

**DISCLAIMER** The following is a joke. It is meant to incite some combination of laughter, giggles, groans, emoticons, other jokes, or assorted other reactions. Or maybe no reaction. A high-gain mobile amateur radio antenna and a high-gain mobile GMRS antenna got married. The ceremony was pretty boring, but the reception was really good.

Every so often someone nails the essence of mygmrs.

That's kind of a losing battle. Your signal gets eaten by the structure of your house. Try it outside where there are few(er) obstructions. If it works better, a better outside antenna mounted higher with decent coax should help. I'm sure others will pontificate further.