GMRS use for payment

[WRAN960]

Greetings

 

To which a repeater owner can monetarily charge users?

 

Basically no payment no access to given Freq & Tone

[ULTRA2]

Hi

Hardly anyone uses GMRS as it is if you do that you might as well dig a grave for GMRS cause no one will use it. That's my opinion of this

[quarterwave]

The question needs a little structure...but I think we understand what you are asking...or saying...I guess.

 

The ones I have seen "charging" are usually asking for a dues or fee basically to cooperatively share in repeater expense (maintenance). If selling airtime...that would be more like a FB4 or FB6 and would constitute a business in my book...and I don't think most of the owners want to file taxes and form an LLC around a non-business oriented radio service. 

[RCM]

§95.333   Prohibited uses.

© To transmit messages for hire or provide a common carrier service

 

Source: FCC

 

Radio common carrier means any corporation, company, association, joint stock association, partnership and person, their lessees, trustees or receivers and any town making available facilities to provide radio communications service, radio paging or cellular communications service for hire.

 

Source: https://www.lawinsider.com/dictionary/radio-common-carrier

 

Also, 

§95.1705

 

(4) (f)

(3) A station may be shared only:

(i) Without charge;

(ii) On a non-profit basis, with contributions to capital and operating expenses including the cost of mobile stations and paging receivers prorated equitably among all participants; or

(iii) On a reciprocal basis, i.e., use of one licensee's stations for the use of another licensee's stations without charge for either capital or operating expenses.

 

Source: FCC

[WRAN960]

Alright!

 

What I meant was: can a repeater owner charge potential users in order to gain access? 

 

 

The repeater by no means is utilized by private company/corporation.

 

Just couple of pals that installed a repeater and decided to charge potential users based on "repeater ownership".

[RickW]

I have to concur with WRCC719's comments. One thing that mystifies me is that there appears to be some GMRS users that to want to keep the use of GMRS to a minimum by others. It seems to me to be opposite the approach of most ham radio repeaters.

 

I live in a rural part of W. WI and other than our own family use of mostly simplex, there are few users of GMRS repeaters. Of course, compared to decades past, ham repeaters in our area are mostly silent as well due to most people using cell phone communication and from what I can tell, many new hams tend to become inactive. 

 

Are we seeing any increase in the number of GMRS licenses?

 

I wish there was a way to promote GMRS to the general public, but I am not sure how you could do this unless you had a critical mass that formed a club or similar organization. GMRS, with FRS interfacing for those who do not have a license, seems like a good solution for at least some folks. 

[RCM]

Alright!

 

What I meant was: can a repeater owner charge potential users in order to gain access? 

 

 

The repeater by no means is utilized by private company/corporation.

 

Just couple of pals that installed a repeater and decided to charge potential users based on "repeater ownership".

 

Once again:

 

§95.1705

 

(4) (f)

(3) A station may be shared only:

(i) Without charge;

(ii) On a non-profit basis, with contributions to capital and operating expenses including the cost of mobile stations and paging receivers prorated equitably among all participants; or

(iii) On a reciprocal basis, i.e., use of one licensee's stations for the use of another licensee's stations without charge for either capital or operating expenses.

 

Source: FCC

 

What you're asking is spelled out in that rule. You can form a repeater association or club, with dues going toward the operating expenses of the repeater. No more than that. As the rules state, it must be non-profit.

Any dues taken in excess of the operating expenditures would be profit, and therefore illegal.

[gortex2]

So here is my take on this as this has come up in the past.

 

I run my repeaters with the travel tone and other tones. If a user wants a specific tone in the past and wanted to donate to the "repeater" fund I gave them another tone. More of the community tone aspect. Rarely did anyone ask or pay but I suggested when possible. 

 

My entire reasoning is the power bill. It was $35.00 a month and I had to pay it. I didn't care who used what but if i could recoup a little of that money to help offset the cost I tried. I went round and round with a ham club in the past about a similar item. They basically wanted to be in the shelter on the tower and not help out with anything yet they charged all there members dues yearly....

 

By no means did we kick anyone off or block users for not helping. I think anyone with that mentality should not own a repeater.

 

As others have said in the past a repeater on a good tower can be very costly for the party that owns it. 

[quarterwave]

I agree that most of this usually has to do with power and tower costs if the owner doesn't host it on an owned property. 

 

I have never viewed repeater access as a "right". If I own it, it's use is up to me, it is not public domain. The channel is, and if you want to use the output as your simplex, go ahead. I monitor before I transmit but if I am 15 miles away, I'm likely not going to hear a 3-4 watt portable working simplex. Sorry. 

 

As far as these stiff nosed repeater deals....well, some guy in my, say, region, supposedly has like 20 repeaters strung out over 7 counties, non over lapping mostly and not great coverage according to the maps, but has a real salty write up about "paying members only"....of course I don't believe that even half of his repeaters even exist. Has a big imagination. 

 

I run one repeater that is private (about 25 years) and one that is open (PL, but if someone wants to use it they can).