GMRS Trave Frequency?

[WRUB205]

OK, Has any GMRS frequency been nailed down yet as THE Travel frequency?

[BoxCar]

Nope

[WRXL702]

6 minutes ago, WRUB205 said:

OK, Has any GMRS frequency been nailed down yet as THE Travel frequency?

Here We Go....

Before All The Weekend Powers To Be Chime In - Simple Answer Is NO.

There Are No Currently Designated GMRS Frequencies Designated As Travel Channels.

Use The GMRS Frequencies For However You Prefer On Your Travels.......

[OffRoaderX]

All the cool-kids use GMRS Ch19.. 

[WRXL702]

1 minute ago, OffRoaderX said:

All the cool-kids use GMRS Ch19.. 

 

Now That Is Too Funny.....

What "Valley Girls / Guys" Do On The West Coat, Has No Relevance On What GMRS Operators Do & Operate In The Midwest & Eastern Side Of The US.

That's Why I Started My Response Post - "Here We Go." 

[Lscott]

1 minute ago, WRXL702 said:

 

Now That Is Too Funny.....

What "Valley Girls / Guys" Do On The West Coat, Has No Relevance On What GMRS Operators Do & Operate In The Midwest & Eastern Side Of The US.

That's Why I Started My Response Post - "Here We Go." 

Yeah, it’s like one of those vampires in a late night tv show. You put it down, then a short while later it gets back up again.

[Mrsig]

In Florida we use 16 as the off road simplex channel.

19 as the road channel.

20 as the highway channel with the tone of 141.3

[WRUE951]

we use ch 5...  

 

[UncleYoda]

40 minutes ago, Mrsig said:

... the road channel.

... the highway channel

How do you distinguish road from highway?

[OffRoaderX]

30 minutes ago, UncleYoda said:

How do you distinguish road from highway?

A road has intersections, stop signs and stoplights.. A highway, aka a freeway, does not.

[Northcutt114]

3 hours ago, Mrsig said:

In Florida we use 16 as the off road simplex channel.

19 as the road channel.

20 as the highway channel with the tone of 141.3

It's funny you mention this. Just today I was driving around metro Atlanta running some errands. I had my CB on 19 and my GMRS on  Channel 20 with the tone set at 141.3. For a solid 5 minutes, I was getting RX transmissions but I couldn't hear anything. It would light up green, go dark, then light up again and repeat. Over and over. It makes me wonder what was happening? I reckon someone was transmitting on 20 but with different tones? If so, who or what and at 70 mph, I was covering a lot of ground in 5 minutes for simplex to still be working. I didn't have the ability in traffic at speed to take the tones off to see if I could hear them.

 

[Northcutt114]

2 hours ago, UncleYoda said:

How do you distinguish road from highway?

He did say off road. 

[Lscott]

15 minutes ago, Northcutt114 said:

I reckon someone was transmitting on 20 but with different tones?

That’s why I almost NEVER use RX tones on my radios.

[marcspaz]

The short answer is no, though @OffRoaderX is making a push for 19.  He is probably the most influential and well-known person in the GMRS space.  If anyone person has a shot at impacting the culture, it would be him.

 

You are going to hear a lot of people mention channel 20 with tone 141.3... but that is a little misleading.  I'll try to make this painless, but this is the long answer.

The original 'distress' frequency was 462.675, aka channel 20. This was by FCC rule... but that doesn't exist anymore.

After the rule change got rid of the official distress frequency/channel, Popular Wireless and the Personal Radio Association came up with the idea of the Open Repeater Initiative (ORI). It was originally repeater channel 20 with 141.3 for the tone. They called 141.3 the "travel tone"  They spread the word that if you have a repeater on channel 20 and are willing to let people use it with no special permission, as a courtesy to travelers, use the tone 141.3. 

As time went on, people started using the "travel tone" on their repeaters, regardless of what channel the repeater was on, for the same reason.  So, 141.3 became know as the "travel tone" for repeaters, in general.  However, with the fall of Popular Wireless and the Personal Radio Association, the adaptation of 141.3 on any repeater channel for open repeaters, and no central group helping maintain the tradition of a travel/emergency channel, the ORI vanished pretty quickly.

So, there is still an informally recognized "travel tone" for repeaters, but there really isn't any "travel channel" per se.  I feel like you have just about the same likelihood of finding people to chat with or making contact in an emergency on every channel by trying all of the repeater channels with 141.3 as the transmit tone (no receive tone squelch).  I wouldn't use simplex unless I was traveling as part of a group and we all agree to use a specific channel.

 

Hope that wasn't too long.