Hans

In the 1970s in our city it wasn't so kosher; especially at night. It sounded similar to today but less impolite between individuals. Still there were a lot of shenanigans, keying over others, illegal wattage, sexual content, etc.

Things certainly got worse but it was pretty wild when we had a license. Then again, I am no fan of Uncle Charlie. Funding and influence always corrupt regulatory agencies. It's unavoidable.

If I took that path in the city, I would spend all of my waking hours rampaging. The inner city is very annoying. Fortunately, I am easier going with age. ?

A few years ago, I moved to the inner city of my hometown after many years of farm life in the country. I saw these gigantic antennae with spiral bases on these cars and vans around the hood. Naive me got excited and asked if they were amateur operators, innocently hoping to strike up a conversation about their rigs. They got downright mean, vulgar, and in some cases threatening for simply asking that one question. After a while, I realized these were chowder-heads running high wattage on CB. Mornings and sometimes in the evenings, their ear raping interference comes through my computer speakers and my headset when playing video games. It is super annoying. ETA: These guys know they are causing massive interference. They simply don't care for anyone but themselves.

FWIW, I have ran into that quite a bit over the past 10 years or so. However, all of them were ad hoc and small scale.

At one time, I was against DMR on GMRS. I have since changed my stance. Your ideas are good and valid but ignore the situations where one band is going to propagate better than the other. I ran into that surprisingly more often than I expected over the years. Additionally, there are situations where cross band is cheap and easy (ex. handheld <-> mobile <-> handheld). Instead of VHF or DMR, why not both? (Insert WhyNotBoth.jpg meme here.)

Exactly. Even just basic cross-banding through a vehicle's mobile would be a plus. Also, there have been situations where VHF would propagate better than UHF. 2M was propagating much better for me but not everyone had an amateur license. We used MURS but the radios were not part certified for it. I doubt the FCC will ever include VHF in GMRS but hope springs eternal.

If reckless redneckitude was a primary offense, I would be doing life by now. ?

Thanks for the update. ?

You seriously underestimate just how cheap I am, friend.

IIRC, as a federal regulatory agency, it will be 30 days after they officially announce the change that it will go into effect. They said that in their response as well. Unless I missed it, I don't believe they have officially announced the change yet so my renewal would pass by and I have too much set up with our call sign to let that happen.

I'm right there with you. I missed the 10 year rule change and it looks like I will miss the fee reduction because mine expires in February 2021.

Look back and read a page or two in this very thread.

Yep, I am aware. However, it was made perfectly clear by local hamsters that the ostracization and the intentional QRM that would follow on any amateur repeater that I put up without coordination would make it annoying and mostly unused and unusable. It's like that in my AO. Then, there is the limitation on work traffic and the individual license factor for family members and friends' families. GMRS solves all of those problems for us here.

I think I can answer that... Some, like me, don't want the hassle of frequency coordination and prefer the broader use allowed by GMRS. As I understand it in my AO, frequency coordination has locked up most amateur radio repeater pairs. Some are camped on the pairs without even having a repeater on the air for years/decades. When I checked into it some time back, I was told "Good luck getting a pair!" by local hamsters. We also use GMRS for actual work; can't do that with amateur. Additionally, there is the big appeal of immediate family members being able to transmit under the one license; no tests required.

The frequencies are just frequencies. Of course, DMR works perfectly fine on GMRS frequencies! There are even parts of the country where you can find DMR, P25, etc repeaters on GMRS. There have been several radio operators in my AO using DMR on simplex regularly. However, part 95 does not currently allow it and the FCC has been quite resistant to the idea.

"You and the FCC seems to have said it's legal. Just limited" No, the FCC has stated that DMR is not acceptable on GMRS at this time. The only allowance they made was for FRS and only in the finite definitions of when and how in part 95. "It used to be illegal to have GMRS handhelds with removable antenna, not now." AFAIK, it was not illegal to have GMRS handhelds with removable antennae. That was FRS. The reason you saw that with the FRS/GMRS combination handhelds was to comply with FRS. Now, of course, no more dual use handhelds can be marketed under the rules. "It used to be illegal to transmit high power on CB. Not now." No, the current rules still limit CB to 4 watts AM and 12 watts SSB. "So knowing exactly where the line is, helps." You need to look carefully at part 95 yourself and then ask questions. It is written in plain English. https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/47/part-95

It still exists... https://buy.garmin.com/en-US/US/c12521-p1.html?series=BRAND476&sorter=featuredProducts-desc

AFAIK, it was a carve-out to specifically allow the Garmin Rino line of radios to continue to operate. So far, the FCC has continued to block DMR on GMRS except in a certain instance, IIRC, where someone requested a special license allowance for DMR to do testing/research.

You nailed it. That's exactly what ended up happening. Our area has a weekly net and the narrow band/wide band shtick got old real quick. I believe that all of our narrow-banders in the area have went to wide band radios since.

Yep. "Works just fine" from the Midland user's perspective but from the other users' perspective, not so much.

I broke the speed limit on the highway yesterday and went past a police officer. Since I wasn't ticketed, there is no speed limit. Non Sequitur. ETA: If the FCC rigorously enforced the regulations regarding Part 90 equipment on GMRS, many repeaters would be forced off the air. IMHO, they know this and choose to turn a blind eye. What the FCC did NOT want to do is open a blanket exemption for all Part 90 equipment and they even stated that. The compromise they chose, knowingly or not, was selective enforcement. It would have been wiser if the FCC did the heavy lifting and crafted clear exemptions in GMRS but they didn't.

This happens all of the time with federal regulatory agencies. It can help cover liability to the agency for the individual and/or entity but it cannot change regulations.

It is all clearly laid out in my previous post. https://forums.mygmrs.com/topic/1837-midland-gmrs-product-updates/?p=19047 Part 95 allows for exception for LMR certified equipment in the Personal Radio Services, however, it must be specified in that particular service's section. For GMRS, that has been changed to "reserved" so there is no exception for GMRS at this time in the current regulations.