captdan

Frank, Thanks - I'm usually on the other side of NJ - the very quite side - but I will trya nd listen up and see if I can hear them over here. Dan - NJ

On Saturday 6/28/14 I was just south of Seaside Park New Jersey at the entrance to Island Beach State Park and was bored and had the one radio scan when I received some units as if they were 1/2 a block away. After listenoing and realizing they wer enot close at all - polietly inserted myself into the conversation and aske dthem where they were and where their repeater was located. An individual responded - very nicely and poilety - that it was a private repeater located in Nassau County Long Island and said it belonged to www.SHTFLI.com I just wanted to say that is some powerful repeater and amazing coverage. I chatted with Kevin for a few minutes and it was like he was next to me. When I got home I checked google earth and it appears to be a little over 60 miles - mostly over the ocean - between where I was south of Seaside Park NJ and Nassau County NY. I was impressed - thats all folks

I have heard of something similar - but maybe not so legal at all. On a remote property in easten Tenn. some people working out in the woods - in the field as they say - cell phone does not work so they - have legal MURS radios that transmit to their vehicle - truck or one of those side by side UTV's equipped with a Wouxun Mobile. The Wouxun serves as an " maybe not so legal" crossband repeater and repeats the signa on a GMRS frequency to their base repeater. The 45 watt Wouxun apparently gets the job done. In reverse - the Wouxun mobile receives the GMRS signal and repeats it on low power MURS to the hand held units working the the field. Disclaimer for the FCC and Forum lawyers - I abosutley do NOT know who is alledgedly doing this or exactly where they are doing it ...If I remember correctly I read about it on a internet posting by a french model. Edited to corret a typo 03/21/2014 @1224 hrs DST

If it was not the computer it must have been my tired mind and fingers were not communicating with each other :-) Dan

Ok - so it has been since September that I have been having problems with 2 of the four 6d hand held units. First - the selling dealer was useless even though I had spent several thousand dollars with him buying these and other radios in one large purchase. His response was oh well - contact Wouxun, here is their e-mail. Second - many, many e-mails later Wouxun makes arrangements with a dealer in NJ to service the 2 bad radios. The dealer is able to repair one - a minior issue with the jack where the accessories are plugged in. A second hand held unit developed a memory problem and Wouxun agreed to replace it. I was notified today that Fedex has the replacement radio and will deliver to my home tommorrow. Well, actually later today. It has only taken five months to get this situation corrected. Just wanted to update everyone on the situation. Dan edited because my computer cannot spell correctly late at night :-)

Glad to hear that ....more coverage is always a great thingto hear ! Dan

hey Frank - from my old neighborhood - lived in Oradell as a kid. I am sure the neighborhood has changed :-)

Thank you both This is one of the great things about this forum - techinical question from simple mind (me) - simple answer from brilliant minds ! (you) Thank you !

SO ..unless there is a complelling reason I should keep the program set to wide band ? Thanks! Dan

A quick question for the technical people - does it make a difference if I program my radio - for GMRS for wide or narrow band if I am only interested in communicating simplex between our own units? For example - is one better than the other for use on MURS band ? will one go further ? Sound better ? Does one penertrate buildings or other obsticales better ? Same questions for using GMRS band ? Thanks for any and all assistance ! Simple answers, (with maybe a very short tech explaination is ok), are better for this old guy ! Dan

Jeremy, I remember that discussion also. I did not weigh in then, but the bottom line is HIPPA does not necessarily discuss all of the procedures and processes, etc but creates a bottom line so to speak, that establishes a legal obligation to maintain a person's privacy. I dealt with it just a little just prior to leaving my prior employment, if I remember correctly there are potentially both criminal and civil penalties for violation of HIPPA laws.

I am in New Jersey, along the river between Pennsylvania and New Jersey. 8 miles from downtown Trenton, NJ the state capital, 11 miles from downtown Princeton, NJ, 32 miles from center city Philadelphia. GMRS and MURS is really quiet here. I mean really quiet ! I occasionally hear a volunteer fire department in Pennsylvania use on GMRS. They apparently have a pretty decent repeater that I receive 15 miles north/west of them. I hear them whenever they have an "event" going on. I have been unable to locate a license for them. Occasionally I will hear someone key up on Rich's repeater but no voice, just the repeater identifying itself. The point being that I don't really hear anyone to talk to, and I have a radio scanning GMRS & MURS along with other frequencies on other radio's about 18 hours per day, it's very quite here.

Yes I think Trenton would be a bit far from the Bronx. I have not heard anyone on 725 since then. One of the radios is scanning GMRS pretty much 24/7. If I hear anything else I will post up. Dan

Everything has it's place. We have several FRS only radios and several FRS/GMRS bubble pack radios. In an area outside of New Jersey where we have a large tract of land we use the FRS/GMRS radios frequently while working about the property to communicate. We use the FRS because we do not want to broadcast what we are doing. There is actually a "prepper" group in that area that advocates a communications system to it's members and they recommend: * the use of FRS only radios for use around one's individual property, for communicating among people watching - working - or protecting your individual property * the use of a FRS/GMRS bubble pack radio by one person - they recommend the person in charge at each property - to communicate from your individual property to a neighborhood coordinator * the use of a MURS or GMRS radio - handheld - mobile - base as needed to effectively communicate from the neighborhood coordinator to a group "headquarters" * their "headquarters" apparently has almost every kind of radio available The point of my post is that there is a legitimate need and use for FRS radios and I support using the least amount of power necessary in order to communicate effectively.

Thanks - no biggie - was just curious - generally there is no one ever and I mean ever on 725. We use it as our home channel on all of our units while in NJ. We had picked this frequency because we never ever heard anyone on it. Anyway - hope everyone has a great day - a happy and safe Halloween ! Dan

Late Wednesday - ok actually very early on Thursday 10/31/2013 there was a repeater working on 725 in central NJ. I do not know what tone it was using - I monitor 462.7250 aka GMRS 22 with an open Rx. At about 2:30 AM or 0230 hours, there was unusual activity - people were actually talking and I could hear the repeater hang - then an individual came on the air and "advised" who ever was using that "channel" that it was a private repeater and they were to clear the "channel" as it was private. That announcement was made several times until someone who must be close to me because they came in very strong and advised the person making the announcements that while their repeater may be private - the frequency is public and any licensed individual could use the frequency. Then everyone went quiet. Anyone aware of a new repeater in central NJ on 725 ? I am 7 mile north west of center city Trenton NJ. Just curious Dan

PG - Thank you for making contact, Rich - thank you for the permission ! Dan

Billy, YES, that is one of the reasons hand held radios are individually assigned by many agencies, but the primary reason is durability and care of the radio. We used to be lucky to get 5 years out of a hand held unit when they were pool radios and assigned at the start of each shift. In 1989 we distributed over 500 brand new hand held units to patrol - each officer had his/her own radio. We also issued a spare battery and an individual charger and all the other accessories. Those radios are just now in 2013 being replaced with new ones. Almost 24 years later. Yes - of course a few had to be replaced here and there but the majority of the radio's are 20 something years old. The issue of illegal transmissions - at least in my experience - is not from lost government radios - but from inexpensive radios such as the Wouxun or Baofeng radios winding up in the wrong hands. We have been able to disable a misplaced agency radio since 1990's. It's the radio's that we ( ok used to we - now it's them ) do not have control over - have proper identification for - and therefore can't send a kill message to - that have the greatest potential to cripple a radio system. Not going to make this an instruction manual on how to cripple a communications systems - but it does not take much - no mater how secure the system is. cheers Dan

Off topic I have tried to get in touch with Rich D. both by regular snail mail and e-mail to ask permission to use one of his repeaters that is very close to my home - to no avail. I have even tried by keying up on the repeater and asking if the station operator was on the air. He seems like a very busy guy. Dan

Wish we had a strong repeater over this side of the state ! Dan

The one video clip shows the Motorola radio in the hands of the ambulance person who happens to also be a Lakewood council person. That is apparently the ambulance squad radio. The video clip specifically shows and says that the Baofeng radios were the ones used and were confiscated by the police and later returned to the parents. The reporter says that the father of one of the kids involved is showing him the radios that were used. The video report says that the kids were interfering with communications by the Lakewood Civilian Safety Watch. According to the RadioReference.com frequency data base the Lakewood Civilian Safety Watch is licensed on 462.7500 WQMR502. My silly guess, and that is all it is a guess at this point, is that they might have been sold at a flea market by an individual - maybe someone who had no idea what they were or anything about them. There are a ton of flea markets in that area - many people just sell their old unwanted stuff - the area is also known for all of it's age restricted developments - perhaps a parent or other relative passed on and someone was just selling the stuff from Uncle Joe's house. In today's economy an extra 20 bucks is very important to some people. Unless there is other information forthcoming - I would be comfortable thinking it was just a couple of kids being kids ! My cup is 1/2 full !

I agree, for the companies it's all about the money. I do wish that all transmitters were required to transmit a unique identifier so radios could be tracked and identified if they were causing a problem. The problem - some people are concerned about with regards to publicizing incidents like this is it might give some people ideas that might otherwise not realize how easy it might be to hinder emergency communications. A few years back every agency I dealt with was in the planning stages to go digital - the economy took a dump and so did public safety communications budgets. Many are still patching up their analog systems and are completely venerable someone with a couple of $ 250.00 Chinese radios making their entire communications systems useless. So they quietly deal with the individual issues as they arise. In the Lakewood incident - I do not believe it was the Police that made any public comment - I believe it was the man from a volunteer ambulance squad that went o the press about it.

PG, Sorry, I do not know the answer to your questions. We had a guy on staff that took care of all of our licensing requirements. I do know - well in NJ area at least - the Federal systems have become integrated so one agency can talk to another agency. When I started a looong time ago the FBI could not talk to the BNDD now DEA or ATF or the Secret Service. NOW they can all talk to each other as if they worked for the same outfit.

got it - thanks ! Dan

Lets not be too quick to condemn the parents in this case. I am hearing from some people in Lakewood - where this happened - that the parents are good people and the kids are good kids - but are just kids. The frequencies for that volunteer ambulance squad were already programed into the radios when the parents bought the set of walkie- talkies for their 12 year old son at a local flea market.That's the reason there were no charges filed. In my humble opinion the kids knew they were messing around with someone - just didn't know how serious it could be. How many kids in the 50's and 60's called people on the telephone and asked if their refrigerator was running and when the person said yes told them they better go catch it before it gets away ? Sometimes kids are just kids - does not make them bad people or criminals. That having been said - and as I said in a different post - I've spent 36 years with a city police department - several as the direct commander of the communications section and several more as the commander of the parent Bureau for the communications section. We had only 2 instances where unauthorized persons came onto our frequencies - both were to request emergency aid - and no enforcement action was taken against those 2 people. Bothe instances were before cell phones. Times are changing - I have learned recently that illegal transmissions on government frequencies has become such a problem that NYC PD now has personnel trained and equipped to track and identify the source of unauthorized transmissions on duty 24/7 365. Apparently there have been some issues or concerns about this but they do not publicize it for fear of attracting attention and thereby encouraging additional people to try it just for fun.