Dear Mr President Trump...

[Linuxnut79]

I submitted an email to the white house.  hopefully someone actually reads this.  

Quote

 

Dear President Trump,

I am writing to you as a concerned citizen regarding the Federal Communications Commission's (FCC) ongoing prohibition on the use of linked repeaters in the General Mobile Radio Service (GMRS). This outdated restriction severely hampers the potential of GMRS as a vital communication tool for families, communities, and emergency responders across the nation.

Your administration's bold regulation reversals, such as slashing burdensome EPA rules and streamlining energy permits, have unleashed American innovation and economic growth. I commend your leadership in cutting red tape that stifles progress.

GMRS is a licensed radio service designed for short-distance, two-way communications, often used by individuals and groups for personal, recreational, and safety purposes. It operates on UHF frequencies and allows the use of repeaters to extend signal range, making it invaluable in rural areas, during outdoor activities, or in times of crisis when cellular networks may fail. However, the FCC's rules, specifically under Part 95, explicitly ban the linking of repeaters—whether via the internet, telephone networks, or other means—which prevents users from creating wider coverage networks.

GMRS users are law-abiding citizens who diligently follow the rules, even when they disagree with them, standing in stark contrast to today's society where rule-breaking seems increasingly common. This commitment to compliance makes them deserving of regulatory relief that rewards responsibility.

This ban, clarified and reinforced by the FCC in August 2024, limits GMRS users to isolated repeater systems, restricting communication to localized areas. As a result, families separated by distance cannot reliably stay connected, community groups face challenges in coordinating events or responses, and emergency preparedness is undermined. For instance, during natural disasters like hurricanes or wildfires, linked repeaters could enable seamless information sharing over broader regions, potentially saving lives and property.

The rationale behind the FCC's stance—concerns over increased interference and spectrum overuse—is understandable but increasingly outdated in our modern technological landscape. Advances in digital protocols and smart frequency management could mitigate these risks, allowing for responsible linking without compromising the service's integrity. Moreover, other radio services, such as amateur radio (ham), permit linking, demonstrating that it can be done effectively and safely.

By allowing linked repeaters in GMRS, we could foster innovation, enhance public safety, and empower everyday Americans to build resilient communication networks. This change would align with your administration's emphasis on deregulation, technological advancement, and supporting American families—much like your successful reversals of overreaching regulations in telecom and broadcasting that boosted competition and consumer choice.

I urge you to direct the FCC to reconsider and revise these rules, perhaps by supporting recent petitions from GMRS operators seeking to lift the ban on internet-linked repeaters. Such action would greatly benefit millions of licensed users and strengthen our nation's communication infrastructure.

Thank you for your attention to this important matter. I look forward to your leadership in resolving it.

Sincerely,

Bert Holbert Jr

 

 

[LeoG]

While some of the advantages of linking repeaters is nice the whole concept of using many of the only 8 repeater channels makes it unappealing.

And especially when a "club" owns said repeaters on a paid only subscription base.

Add a dozen more channels and designate a few of them for linking and that might fix it.

[Bogieboy01]

7 hours ago, Linuxnut79 said:

GMRS is a licensed radio service designed for short-distance, two-way communications, often used by individuals and groups for personal, recreational, and safety purposes

Shot yourself in the foot right there.... if its a short distance use class, linking repeaters makes it no longer short distance.... 

[WSEZ864]

6 hours ago, LeoG said:

While some of the advantages of linking repeaters is nice the whole concept of using many of the only 8 repeater channels makes it unappealing.

 

^^ THIS ^^ in a nutshell...

Linking would completely occupy any given frequency pair, making it unavailable to most other users in the coverage area. It would not take many linked repeater owners to monopolize all of the repeater channels in any area.

Even ham radio, with it's many more available repeater frequencies, seldom links distant repeaters for longer than it takes to run a net. Some clubs run repeaters in two locations on different frequencies and permanently link their own, but it is still very local and only two transmitters. W3VPR does this with their 2m system, almost doubling their footprint. Others link between 2m and 70cm, but again, it's local and limited.

 

I am seeing this desire to link with many new GMRS users here and I think that some of the appeal is to increase capability on an intentionally limited service due to the lax licensing requirements. "Limited service" and "lax requirements" go hand in hand. Anyone wishing to have longer range capability than GMRS currently offers should investigate Amateur Radio, which allows greater power, much more flexibility in frequencies and equipment. The FCC dropped the Morse Code requirement and the entry-level 'Technician' license exam is relatively easy.

[Jaay]

7 hours ago, Linuxnut79 said:

I submitted an email to the white house.  hopefully someone actually reads this.  

 

Bert, You forget TWO Important Facts that didn't occur to you before you wrote that.  1. GMRS is intended to be a Short range communication service, Not meant for nationwide comms. 2. you Only have 8 Repeater pairs in which to operate repeaters on, which is approx. 180 mhz. bandwidth. WHY would someone 200 miles away have to be Forced to listen to traffic by a couple of operators on a linked system, not even in their area ?  After you get 4 or 5 Linked networks across the U.S. saturating the 8 Repeater pairs we're allowed to use for the entire country, the signal to noise ratio goes UP, sometimes even creating interference for low power or Local repeaters. 

My suggestion to you, is IF you want to enjoy Long Distance Comms state to state, maybe take the test for your Technician Amateur Radio License, then you could operate on Many of the LEGAL Linked repeater systems we're Allowed to operate ?  Both the Two meter and 70 Centimeter { Vhf and Uhf } bands have More than enough Bandwidth to support many Linked systems. Gmrs does Not have the Bandwidth needed to allow linking.   

I hope this sheds some light for you. 

[SteveShannon]

@Linuxnut79 - the FCC actually was looking for suggestions for how to simplify regulations.  You might want to look into that. Also, having linked repeaters causes congestion locally whilst relying on the internet for greater distances.  What happens when the ISPs go down? If you’re truly interested in SHTF long distance radio communications that is designed to survive loss of local services (and overuse of the internet backbone) you should investigate HF. 

[SteveShannon]

32 minutes ago, Jaay said:

you Only have 8 Repeater pairs in which to operate repeaters on

And any traffic on those eight repeater pairs also causes congestion on the eight 462 MHz main channels which are the also the fifty-watt simplex channels because they share the same frequencies.

[amaff]

9 hours ago, Linuxnut79 said:

hopefully someone actually reads this.  

That hope and $5 can get you a cup of coffee...

[UncleYoda]

Quote

GMRS users are law-abiding citizens who diligently follow the rules, even when they disagree with them,

Only a minority as far as I can tell.  Rule breaking is widespread and the attitudes are entrenched.

[WRYZ926]

We do not need linked GMRS repeaters for all the reasons everyone stated.

A local repeater with lots of traffic can make the corresponding simplex channel pretty useless even with tones set. Even if you have tones seen on your radio, others without tones can still hear you.

I can give a good example of this.

The local nursing home decided to start using hand held radios on Channel 17 - 462.600 MHz. Our GMRS repeater uses the repeater channel 17 - input 467.600 MHz and output 462.600 MHz. Now I was the only one hearing the nursing home since it is only about 400 yards away from me. But the nursing home was hearing ALL traffic on the repeater. So we pretty much made the simplex channel 17 useless for the nursing home. It did not take long for the nursing home to switch to a different channel.

The only time I can possibly see a need to link GMRS repeaters is during an emergency. But that won't do any good if the internet is down. Your best bet is to get your amateur general license so that you can use all of the HF bands for long distance communication. Linked 2m and 70cm repeaters are no guarantee during an emergency since they still use the internet.

On a side note but still related. There has been a lot of tropospheric ducting lately causing band openings on GMRS. Over the last week or so I have been hearing quite a few GMRS repeaters on the same channel with the same tones as our GMRS repeater. Just because I can hear the other repeaters doesn't mean that they will hear me but this does cause a lot of traffic on the repeater channel that I would normally not hear.

[WRTC928]

I'm afraid I have to jump on the "only 8 repeater pairs" bandwagon. In my area, there aren't a whole of repeaters and mostly they don't get a lot of traffic, but when they do, they tie up their associated simplex channel. Amateur radio has exponentially more bandwidth to play with, so that's not a significant issue. 

[LeoG]

If you want to ask the FCC a question ask them to make a slew of repeater only channels so they don't interfere with simplex.  And make sure they add them up or down, not in between.

[WRUE951]

Damit...  I need to change my shirt..  I spilt coffee all over my fresh clean shirt..  Damit...   To early for this 

[WRUE951]

2 hours ago, SteveShannon said:

@Linuxnut79 - the FCC actually was looking for suggestions for how to simplify regulations.  You might want to look into that. Also, having linked repeaters causes congestion locally whilst relying on the internet for greater distances.  What happens when the ISPs go down? If you’re truly interested in SHTF long distance radio communications that is designed to survive loss of local services (and overuse of the internet backbone) you should investigate HF. 

and sending a letter to the President?   Talk about going 'over heads'   

[LeoG]

He's our boy.

[dosw]

President's agenda today:

• Zoom call with Putin
• Zoom call with Zalenski
• Status update on painting the fence black
• Hurricane hitting the eastern seaboard
• Tanning spray
• Touch up the quaffe
• Redistrict Texas and California voting.
• Say something to offend the vocal minority.
• (800 other things)
•  
•  
• (200 more things)
• Listen to an update on what letters to the president rose to the level of making it into the report (he's on the treadmill at the same time though)
  • This letter didn't make honorable mention

[Jaay]

7 minutes ago, WRUE951 said:

and sending a letter to the President?   Talk about going 'over heads'   

Donny - " Wait, didn't I appoint someone to the FCC ? 

[MarkInTampa]

One of the local linked repeaters near me has been in almost constant chaos the last few days from somebody playing music on the repeater/network. Don't know what is worse - the person causing the interference or the folks wining about it but it's a fun battle to listen to.

 

[WRYZ926]

48 minutes ago, WRUE951 said:

Damit...  I need to change my shirt..  I spilt coffee all over my fresh clean shirt..  Damit...   To early for this 

Hopefully you didn't get any coffee on your keyboard and monitor or phone. 

[WRYZ926]

36 minutes ago, MarkInTampa said:

One of the local linked repeaters near me has been in almost constant chaos the last few days from somebody playing music on the repeater/network. Don't know what is worse - the person causing the interference or the folks wining about it but it's a fun battle to listen to.

 

We had someone doing that on our 2m and GMRS repeaters a few months back. The person would play sirens and a police scanner. What made it worse is the person did it during our nets. Saying anything just made it worse. So we just started to ignore the ID10T and he stopped after a bit.

We also had a drunk that we sent a certified letter to stating he is no longer welcomed on our repeater. He stopped after receiving the letter. We still don't know if he was the one playing the sirens and police scanner over the repeaters.

[Northcutt114]

I'm really wrestling with what, in this thread, is the most odd and simultaneously impressive. The fact that the OP has been a member of this site for 4 years and has only just now chosen to post or the fact that his first post is literally a letter to POTUS. 

I applaud the energy you expended on what is almost certainly a wasted effort.

 

[WRUE951]

1 hour ago, MarkInTampa said:

One of the local linked repeaters near me has been in almost constant chaos the last few days from somebody playing music on the repeater/network. Don't know what is worse - the person causing the interference or the folks wining about it but it's a fun battle to listen to.

 

two violators don't make a right 

[WRUE951]

16 minutes ago, Northcutt114 said:

I'm really wrestling with what, in this thread, is the most odd and simultaneously impressive. The fact that the OP has been a member of this site for 4 years and has only just now chosen to post or the fact that his first post is literally a letter to POTUS. 

I applaud the energy you expended on what is almost certainly a wasted effort.

 

and you didn't spill coffee on your shirt reading it..  you're lucky 

[WRUE951]

1 hour ago, WRYZ926 said:

Hopefully you didn't get any coffee on your keyboard and monitor or phone. 

you have a point..  my shirt was looking out for for me  

[WRUE951]

2 hours ago, amaff said:

That hope and $5 can get you a cup of coffee...

just don't spill it on ya