GMRS is the only Paid option for general repeater use.

[WRQI583]

1 hour ago, WRQC290 said:

@WRQI583 I'm curious what the demographic is there. Maybe they just don't care? Downing a bottle of whiskey and not doing a damn thing during the next zombie invasion, nuclear attack, or solar implosion is just as valid a plan as any. Arguably not the best, but I'm sure you get my point.

I wouldn't say they don't care, I think its more that they don't do as much as those in other areas of the country. They definitely don't make their presence known in the community. In the county I live in, they have an EOC and there is a lot being done as far as emergency preparedness but the public doesn't hear about it or know about it. Where I used to live, hams were out in the community much more doing activities and also sharing in the emergency preparedness. Road races, bike races, walkathons, and many other events had a truck or booth or something with Ham Radio. Aside from a few events that happen up here, there really isn't much going on. I've read about hams in other states such as Texas or Florida or even the mid section of the states where Hams are heavily involved in local stuff. 

What I notice a lot of is, if Hams utilize the VHF and UHF bands,  they are more likely actively doing local stuff. In areas where most Hams went and upgraded their license and went down to HF and sat there and never came back up, you wont find them doing local stuff because their focus in the hobby is international stuff, not local. I've actually totaled up all the hams in just my county and the amount you hear active on repeaters and simplex vs the amount you don't is drastic. I also am in an area where there are more older hams than young so that could have a lot to do with activity. That's why I am really forced to do solitary things with radio, which is fine because I love doing propagation work figuring out dead zones and distances transmitters will go. Its not totally dead because ive had a conversation or two with some real nice guys, but busy enough for the community to notice? it is pretty dead.

[WRQC290]

There are 2 types of people. Those who have time to sit around gabbing on a radio, and cool kids who hang out with each other at the bar comparing antennas. Putting the two groups together would probably cause a tear in the space-time continuum. They're just too different. To stir up interest in radio stuff you have to overcome its outmoded nature and attach its usefulness to more modern hobbies. Breaker, breaker 420 code 69 on tik tok QSY BYOB. CinnamonChallenge clear. Or whatever BS is the thing now. I'm good emerging from the bunker only once a week for my Taco Tuesday/Disaster Prep meeting and letting other people do the public outreach.

[WROZ250]

On 5/4/2022 at 4:14 PM, WRQC290 said:

That's okay. I can.

Yeah, except I do. I know I didn't come out directly and say it, but I was a ham at 10. Inducted in the scouts, and spent a number of years active in the hobby. When puberty hit, my interests changed to more challenging pursuits as one does. Later on I realized that chicks really dig net control operators so I worked my way up in RACES and eventually became an "officer" (Its not as exciting as it sounds though, everyone gets to be one after a year). Anyway, to make a long story longer, I've been involved with multiple disaster prep organizations associated with police, sheriff, and fire agencies. When CERT became a thing the first class was full, but I was able to reserve a spot in the second one. So, I am fully aware of how operators are integrated within local, state, and federal emergency response plans. My opinion, based on practical experience, still stands.

Wow, so because you, as a former ham (no current or former amateur license on record), apparently had a bad experience, you condemn an entire radio service.

[WRQC290]

17 hours ago, WROZ250 said:

you condemn an entire radio service.

Yes. But actually, I didn't condemn an entire radio service, I made clear my view that ham is overrated and not the best for emergency communications. It's a perfectly acceptable hobby for the type of people who enjoy that sort of thing. At the very least it gives particular people something to do besides mistaking the brake for the gas pedal.  Now, CB on the other hand, I strongly condemn and believe it has no place in a civilized society.
 

 

17 hours ago, WROZ250 said:

no current or former amateur license on record

You didn't look hard enough.

[WROZ250]

5 hours ago, WRQC290 said:

Yes. But actually, I didn't condemn an entire radio service, I made clear my view that ham is overrated and not the best for emergency communications. It's a perfectly acceptable hobby for the type of people who enjoy that sort of thing. At the very least it gives particular people something to do besides mistaking the brake for the gas pedal.  Now, CB on the other hand, I strongly condemn and believe it has no place in a civilized society.
 

 

You didn't look hard enough.

Oh, sorry.  I don't seem to have access to the alternate/magical FCC database.  Just the same one everyone else uses.

As far as the other stuff, everyone has their right to an opinion I suppose. 

[Sshannon]

5 hours ago, WRQC290 said:

Yes. But actually, I didn't condemn an entire radio service, bla, bla, bla  

Now, CB on the other hand, I strongly condemn and believe it has no place in a civilized society.

Isn’t CB a radio service?

[marcspaz]

On 5/9/2022 at 10:34 AM, WROZ250 said:

Wow, so because you, as a former ham (no current or former amateur license on record), apparently had a bad experience, you condemn an entire radio service.

1 hour ago, Sshannon said:

Isn’t CB a radio service?

 

May as well not waste your time, unless this is entertaining to you.  You're trying to argue points of view with someone who believes a seriously hobbled service is the best for emergencies because the most amount of untrained people who will never actually engage in emergency responses has near untethered access to $9.99 FRS radios they can steal from retail stores or from their kids who got them as Christmas gifts. 

I think its funny that he keep taking jabs, implying Hams are old and senile, but then brags about getting his license when he was 10 and the chics dug it when he was a kid.

[Sshannon]

21 minutes ago, marcspaz said:

 

May as well not waste your time, unless this is entertaining to you.  You're trying to argue points of view with someone who believes a seriously hobbled service is the best for emergencies because the most amount of untrained people who will never actually engage in emergency responses has near untethered access to $9.99 FRS radios they can steal from retail stores or from their kids who got them as Christmas gifts. 

I think its funny that he keep taking jabs, implying Hams are old and senile, but then brags about getting his license when he was 10 and the chics dug it when he was a kid.

Yeah, his golden days.

I just thought it funny that he literally said “I don’t condemn an entire radio service, but I condemn CB!”

But you’re right; he’s not worth wasting time on. 

[WRQC290]

4 hours ago, Sshannon said:

I just thought it funny that he literally said “I don’t condemn an entire radio service, but I condemn CB!”

I'm so glad you got the joke. 

 

6 hours ago, WROZ250 said:

everyone has their right to an opinion I suppose

It seems clear that none of us are prepared to change them either. But those CB people, whew. Am I right, or am I right?

 

5 hours ago, marcspaz said:

but then brags about getting his license when he was 10

I wouldn't call it bragging. And now I'm taking you off my Christmas card list Marc.
 

[marcspaz]

6 minutes ago, WRQC290 said:

I wouldn't call it bragging. And now I'm taking you off my Christmas card list Marc.

 

HAHAHA... It's early in the year.  Hopefully I can redeem myself. 

[WRQC290]

@marcspazHamburger day is coming up fast, but just like Christmas, I never know what to get for people.

 

[WRQI583]

14 hours ago, WRQC290 said:

Now, CB on the other hand, I strongly condemn and believe it has no place in a civilized society.

I thought that way for a short period time and It was probably because of the ham crowd that I hung around with. When you look at any radio service out there, it's not the radio service that's the problem. It's the people involved in it. Ham radio can be the same way at times depending on the band. Sadly, I've heard stuff come over ham that made me cringe, because I have always operated it in a professional manner and always viewed it as a highly respected radio service. 

[WRQC290]

@WRQI583 I really was just making a joke about CB. I'm very close to the LB/LA port and 90% of CB traffic is drivers just doing their jobs, looking for parking or for someone to move their rig, and whatnot. It's very rare that anything interesting is going on there, just mundane routine stuff.

The noisemakers, echo, massive amps, and beep-boop stuff get annoying to listen to, But the last time I tuned around the cb band I noticed more than a few drivers were starting to chastise the ones who use that stuff. Not sure what that's all about, but maybe the trends in CB are changing?

[WRQI583]

34 minutes ago, WRQC290 said:

but maybe the trends in CB are changing?

Oh I wonder that myself. I kid you not, one day I turned the CB on 38 lower and was doing some stuff and at one point, I heard such professionalism, I thought I was listening to an HF contest. It is DEFINITELY not always like that but I have noticed a change.
 
Personally I love hearing some of those guys (few and hard to find) that use nice microphones and it sounds like you are listening to FM broadcast. My ears are not that good to try to understand an annoying echo. 

[Lscott]

12 hours ago, WRQI583 said:
Personally I love hearing some of those guys (few and hard to find) that use nice microphones and it sounds like you are listening to FM broadcast. My ears are not that good to try to understand an annoying echo. 

Well at least a few people figured out CB radio is used for “communications” not to generate attention grabbing noise, make a fashion statement or stroke one’s ego by being the channel king.

[kirk5056]

I have a hard time listening to CB (especially 19) because of the noise and language.  BUT when I encounter a traffic problem there is no better source of real time information on what is happening, which lane to be in, or how the find an alternate route.  And I have a $700 police scanner on my dash!

[gman1971]

Forbidding FRS will probably not do any good at this point, really. There is no way to enforce it, and then the cat is really out of the bag, been like that for the past 15 years or so now.... and it only takes something to be forbidden for everyone to want to do it even more... 

UHF GMRS/FRS should move towards a better spectrum utilization mechanism at this point, implement something along the lines of DSSS or FHSS which will allow those 22 channels to be used by thousands of people at once and any given user will never know someone else is talking. Motorola DTR radios in the 900mhz band work this way. I think its the way forward.

CB has recently been granted the use of FM, which is nice (would've been nice 20+ years ago tho, like Europe does), and you can probably add tone squelch, or digital code squelch, etc, to remove 99.99 of the unwanted skip. We had a couple of Titan Handhelds (RSPY-201 IIRC) around the year 2000, which are an all-mode, 10-11-12 meter portable, and FM sounded really good back then. Now, AM in the CB band, just listening in sometimes can be super daunting to understand. You'll pick skip from all over the place if you are listening in a location with low noise floor, and that skip makes it impossible to really use for local comms, forcing you to crank that squelch so high that become almost impossible for the radio 1 mile down the road to be heard, since the skip will be so strong it overpowers that walkie radio 1 mile down the road.

Also, keep in mind your 4W signal might be heard across the globe too... Back in the 90s with just a 4W Midland 75-820, mated to a base CB antenna (like 20 feet tall) placed a top a hill we were able to talk to different countries on the other side of the globe. So that is nice if you are looking to do HF on the cheap, but at the same time its a curse because there is no way to control how far your radio signal spills, and/or know who you are stomping with your 4W signal anywhere around the planet. And this is just using the 4W "legal" limit, cranking that power to some absurd levels, then you'll certainly be heard anywhere on the planet.

G.

[gman1971]

As for emergency use: any band/frequency of choice is good so long you know what you are doing. You don't use 900Mhz to talk across the globe, and you don't use 20 meters to talk to a portable 1 1/2 miles down the road.

A radio is only as capable/useful as the person who is listening on the other side. If there is nobody listening, then a radio its as useless as bringing an "accordion to war"...

G.

[MichaelLAX]

20 minutes ago, gman1971 said:

A radio is only as capable/useful as the person who is listening on the other side. If there is nobody listening, then a radio its as useless as bringing an "accordion to war"...

Get your quotes right:

Quote

” . . . you know frankly, going to war without France is like going deer hunting without an accordion. You just leave a lot of useless noisy baggage behind.”

 

[back4more70]

20 hours ago, gman1971 said:

UHF GMRS/FRS should move towards a better spectrum utilization mechanism at this point, implement something along the lines of DSSS or FHSS which will allow those 22 channels to be used by thousands of people at once and any given user will never know someone else is talking.

Doesn't that defeat the purpose of GMRS/FRS? I bought my radios to stay in touch with family and friends during outings, and that wouldn't work too well if we never knew if someone else was talking.

[gman1971]

3 hours ago, back4more70 said:

Doesn't that defeat the purpose of GMRS/FRS? I bought my radios to stay in touch with family and friends during outings, and that wouldn't work too well if we never knew if someone else was talking.

I don't think so, right? You can preshare the "preudo-channel #" with your party, which won't be any different than saying, channel 22, CTCSS 161.2hz, now it will be channel 32563. While that is not 100% private, the chances of someone using that same number within the range are slim to none. And randomly scanning 65535 channels makes it a bit more difficult to intercept too, and be eavesdropped.

Then, the repeaters that you can already access have their info publicly listed too, so it won't be any different that it is now punching a CTSS tone or DCS tone, on your radio, except that random people won't start randomly keying the repeater, or talking to your kids trying to pry information like where they live, etc...

Then there is the fact that I never respond to anything on GMRS (except repeater traffic, when on the channel) because I run DCS/CTSS, so I don't hear a thing.

G.

[back4more70]

Maybe I misunderstood. Are you suggesting that the subchannel aspect of things be improved, so that users could almost have privacy and nuisance-free conversations? But at the same time, allow for wide-open (non-subchannel) settings for those that want to operate on an open channel?  I could get behind that.

[Sshannon]

3 hours ago, back4more70 said:

Maybe I misunderstood. Are you suggesting that the subchannel aspect of things be improved, so that users could almost have privacy and nuisance-free conversations? But at the same time, allow for wide-open (non-subchannel) settings for those that want to operate on an open channel?  I could get behind that.

I thought he was simply saying that if spread spectrum were implemented many more people could simultaneously use a GMRS channel without interference from others on the same channel.