How many people really use the VHF radio MURS service?

[Radioguy7268]

Except that the RT81V isn't accepted/type certified for MURS. If it was, it would have a fixed antenna, max 2 watts and just 5 frequencies. Thus, the bend.

In reality, the MURS world is a free for all with all types of 4 watt portables being programmed up on those channels as simplex users. I see that with the FRS channels in UHF also.

[WRNC809]

Yes, except they are DMR and running encryption.

[WRNC809]

8 hours ago, marcspaz said:

 

Perfectly legal for business use. No need to test boundaries. You will be inside them.

 

 

§ 95.2703 Definitions, MURS. 

 

MURS. A two-way, short distance voice or data communication service for facilitating personal or business activities of the general public.

 

Yes, except they are DMR and running encryption.

[KAF6045]

3 hours ago, Radioguy7268 said:

Except that the RT81V isn't accepted/type certified for MURS. If it was, it would have a fixed antenna, max 2 watts and just 5 frequencies. Thus, the bend.

MURS does not have the "fixed antenna" restriction.

Quote

§ 95.2719 MURS replacement parts.

The operator of an MURS transmitter may replace parts of an MURS transmitter as indicated in this section. All other internal maintenance and repairs must be carried out in accordance with § 95.319.

(a) A damaged antenna may be replaced by another antenna of the same or a compatible similar type.

(b) Batteries in the MURS transmitter may be replaced with batteries of a type specified by the manufacturer.

Quote

§ 95.2741 MURS antenna height limit.

The highest point of any MURS station antenna must not be more than 18.3 meters (60 feet) above the ground or 6.10 meters (20 feet) above the highest point of the structure on which it is mounted. MURS station antennas must also meet the requirements in § 95.317 regarding menaces to air navigation. See 47 CFR 95.317 and consult part 17 of the FCC's Rules for more information (47 CFR part 17).

 

 

[MichaelLAX]

20 hours ago, WRNC809 said:

I have a few RT81Vs that I need to get a business license for.  In the meantime, I could use MURS freqs to "test" them out. I include MURS on my scans and I NEVER hear anyone in my neighborhood so I'd probably be safe bending the rules, short-term.

6 hours ago, WRNC809 said:

Yes, except they are DMR and running encryption.

Do you want our blessing using a business radio in digital mode on MURS without a business license (not that a license matters in that situation)?!? 

I could bring my Radioddity RD-5R to Albuquerque and join you! 

[WRNC809]

7 hours ago, MichaelLAX said:

Do you want our blessing using a business radio in digital mode on MURS without a business license (not that a license matters in that situation)?!? 

I could bring my Radioddity RD-5R to Albuquerque and join you! 

I was merely answering a use case for MURS. I cannot confirm or deny what rules I've bent, but if I had, probably wasn't with any blessings. haha

[MichaelLAX]

7 hours ago, WRNC809 said:

I was merely answering a use case for MURS...

Of course!  Why didn't I see that 

So long as it does not transmit digital on GMRS, what do we care??

[Lscott]

8 hours ago, WRNC809 said:

I was merely answering a use case for MURS. I cannot confirm or deny what rules I've bent, but if I had, probably wasn't with any blessings. haha

I would venture to say a number of people have operated in an illegal manner, modes, power etc. a few times or routinely. I would hope they know the rules and understand the consequences if the FCC notices. At least they are smart enough, most of them anyway, not to publicly advocate or mention what they are doing, it sets a bad example for the newbies.

[WRNC809]

1 hour ago, Lscott said:

I would venture to say a number of people have operated in an illegal manner, modes, power etc. a few times or routinely. I would hope they know the rules and understand the consequences if the FCC notices. At least they are smart enough, most of them anyway, not to publicly advocate or mention what they are doing, it sets a bad example for the newbies.

Good point.

[catbrigade]

On 1/25/2022 at 11:50 PM, fremont said:

I loaned a pair of KG805M's to a buddy who lives near where we hunt.  In the winter, he and his wife are out frequently to XC ski, snowshoe, etc.  My email back from him about 5 days after receiving my care package:  "We bought two MURS radios."  And, this was with the stock antennas, not the Smiley 5/8 155-tuned antennas I sent along as well.

My wife is a Scout den leader and we went as a family to a fall campout. The Scout camp has pretty spotty cell reception and in the past we've had trouble getting calls to each other when needing to coordinate the "divide and conquer" with the two kids being in two different groups traveling around different areas of the camp. I picked up a couple of the KG805M's thinking that MURS being VHF would cover better than GMRS due to the amount of woods and slightly rolling terrain at the camp. I was impressed with the audio quality and we had clear signals the whole time just using the stock antennas. I programmed them with a couple copies of the 5 channels using different CTCSS and DCS just in case there was other traffic on the channels but they were completely quiet. Being so far out of town we were nowhere near a Wal-Mart or anyplace else of the sort.

I do have a GMRS license and have a pair of KG935's as well as a couple of Kenwood TK3180's programmed for GMRS, but never tried GMRS out there to get a comparison of how well it would work (wasn't going to try to talk the wife into carrying two different radios). I did run into two other families that had GMRS radios, one had some sort of bubble pack radio and I never got to talk to him to ask how well it was working, and the other group had Baofengs for the adults and something simpler for the kids, maybe a Retevis. The dad said they had encountered some dead spots there at the far corners of the camp.

In any case, I thought using MURS for this particular application worked out very well and felt like the KG805M's were a cut above some of the cheaper stuff out there. I did buy a BTech MURS-V1 but wasn't thrilled with it and will probably just sell it off. The programming capability in it was very limited compared to the 805M's which I was able to program with some extra receive-only channels I figured might be useful, namely the local NOAA weather radio and Skywarn 2m repeaters in case the weather got dicey.

[WRPG537]

We hear people using the MURS Frequencies all the time at ski areas that I work at. Families, groups, etc., use that radio service quite a bit.

We have a scanner at several ski patrol offices (base), which has those frequencies programmed into it a long with; FRS, GMRS, Amateur radio 146.520 and 446.000 calling frequencies, plus the 146.580 North America Adventure Frequency. Comes in handy at times.

[Lscott]

2 hours ago, WRPG537 said:

146.580 North America Adventure Frequency

Hummm… that’s a bit of a new one for me. I’ll have to do some more reading up on it. It does seem to be a very recent trend. If it is catching on it’ll be worthwhile to program it in to my VHF radios for scanning.
 

[Sshannon]

21 minutes ago, Lscott said:

Hummm… that’s a bit of a new one for me. I’ll have to do some more reading up on it. It does seem to be a very recent trend. If it is catching on it’ll be worthwhile to program it in to my VHF radios for scanning.
 

I hadn’t heard about it either. Is it really a thing?  What kind of adventure comes with the frequency?

[Lscott]

1 minute ago, Sshannon said:

I hadn’t heard about it either. Is it really a thing?  What kind of adventure comes with the frequency?

I was doing some searching after reading about it and the article at the link gives some details.

https://www.amateurradio.com/north-america-adventure-frequency-146-58-mhz/

[wayoverthere]

6 hours ago, Sshannon said:

I hadn’t heard about it either. Is it really a thing?  What kind of adventure comes with the frequency?

New one for me as well. It's also a little funny reading the article @Lscottllinked talking about how busy .52 gets, because it definitely doesn't in my part of central CA...may be different elsewhere.

I've caught a couple SOTA/POTA activators, one up toward Yosemite and the other in Kings Canyon/Sequoia, but outside of them, a couple local hams that pop up once or twice a month, and someone that has their APRS beacon set there, .52 is largely dead.

[Sshannon]

19 minutes ago, wayoverthere said:

New one for me as well. It's also a little funny reading the article @Lscottllinked talking about how busy .52 gets, because it definitely doesn't in my part of central CA...may be different elsewhere.

I've caught a couple SOTA/POTA activators, one up toward Yosemite and the other in Kings Canyon/Sequoia, but outside of them, a couple local hams that pop up once or twice a month, and someone that has their APRS beacon set there, .52 is largely dead.

Maybe it’s one of those “if you build it they will come” things.
Although I have 146.520 programmed into my radios, the few times I’ve left the frequency there I’ve heard nothing. Of course that is here in Montana and doesn’t reflect congested urban areas. 

[Lscott]

14 hours ago, wayoverthere said:

New one for me as well. It's also a little funny reading the article @Lscottllinked talking about how busy .52 gets, because it definitely doesn't in my part of central CA...may be different elsewhere.

I've caught a couple SOTA/POTA activators, one up toward Yosemite and the other in Kings Canyon/Sequoia, but outside of them, a couple local hams that pop up once or twice a month, and someone that has their APRS beacon set there, .52 is largely dead.

That's been my general experience too, .52 doesn't seem to get anywhere near the usage you would expect. Even traveling I don't hear much in the way of calls for random contacts ether.

[MichaelLAX]

I guess it depends where you are:

Just for giggles, I gave a CQ up on 146.52 and Tom, KE6HHM from Santa Clarita answered and after a few minutes, Dave, KN6VVM jumped in from his home up in Tehachipi!

[AdmiralCochrane]

In my area 520 is quiet, but far from dead.   I hear a few calls a month of people passing thru and a couple of regulars in one certain area about once a month.  Not sure why those regular guys use 520 for their ongoing rag chews.  If it were me, I'd bump over to some other simplex frequency.  Maybe they don't know how. 

[WRUU653]

So far I only hear Walmart and the occasional voice recording saying  “alert zone one” alarm coming from a nearby care facility. I believe it’s a door alarm so someone with dementia doesn’t wander off. The first time I heard it I thought it said “alert someone” and was wondering anyone specific?

[wrtq652]

I have seen "146.52" oval stickers on automobiles on I-5 while driving between California and Washington a few years back. The auto's with the sticker have been heard replying to other stations who called them.  Is this the new way to let others know about inter-vehicle communications?  You decide.

Generally it sounds like a citizen's band call out almost, "Hey chartreuse micro-bus with the one forty six dot five two oh  sticker, this is your_callsign_here, how copy" or "Hey vehicle behind the red pickup truck with the one forty six dot five two oh [146.520] sticker, this is your_callsign_here, do you copy?".  The occasional "seek you, seek you, seek you, this is your_callsign_here" have been heard, without reply.  It seems more successful to call the vehicle directly like a "see bee er" as above or just "your_callsign_here", listen, "your_callsign_here".

The Summits On The Air (SOTA) amateur radio people are often heard searching around simplex, 146.52 FM, in the summer in Washington, west side of the Cascades and they often reply quickly.

[MichaelLAX]

1 hour ago, wrtq652 said:

I have seen "146.52" oval stickers on automobiles on I-5 while driving between California and Washington a few years back...

Says: wrtq 652!!! 

[catbrigade]

On 12/4/2022 at 11:00 PM, WRUU653 said:

So far I only hear Walmart and the occasional voice recording saying  “alert zone one” alarm coming from a nearby care facility. I believe it’s a door alarm so someone with dementia doesn’t wander off. The first time I heard it I thought it said “alert someone” and was wondering anyone specific?

Around here when I'm in town there is activity near the Walmart stores and something that is transmitting an electronic chiming doorbell like noise on one of the channels. I'm guessing that's either a wireless doorbell or driveway alarm.

When I was out away from town all of the channels were completely quiet.

[wrtq652]

On 12/7/2022 at 3:13 AM, MichaelLAX said:

Says: wrtq 652!!! 

Conspicuously lacking was the number of stickers seen (which was few, and a positive, non-zero and undisclosed number at the time of this posting).  

[Adamdaj]

I'm not sure whether it was a week ago or two weeks ago, but I heard some chatter on one of the MURS channels. I know that it wasn't Walmart or other commercial users. 

It sounded great to hear some users other than commercial establishments make use of those channels. I know groups, such as NARCOA add those as extra channels to keep unwanted traffic off of their primary channels.

Edited March 15, 2023 by Adamdaj
Grammer Correction was needed.