Crickets. Aaaaaggghhh!

[STTScott]

Newbie here. I've been scanning FRS (462.526-462.712) and GMRS 462.550-462.712. Total crickets. I uneerstand that because I am on a US territory island. But still, it would be nice to contact somebody. I am working with a good 8' U/V antenna, and hearing nothing other than crickets or major static. Does anybody have any ideas one way or another?

[AdmiralCochrane]

GMRS is used the way the FCC generally intended:  between 2 users that know each other and plan in advance to communicate.  Its different from ham radio. 

[Photoman5000]

Where exactly are you at?

[berkinet]

You have brought up this issue before, and I and others have responded. GMRS is not a general two way public radio service like CB or ham. If you want to meet locals on the radio I strongly suggest you look into those two services. You are far more likely to make the connections you seem to be looking for.

 

While the definitions of radio services are not always all encompassing  (I.e. some leeway may apply) here are the service definitions from the FCC.

GMRS

General Mobile Radio Service (GMRS). A mobile two-way voice communication service, with limited data applications, for facilitating activities of individual licensees and their family members, including, but not limited to, voluntary provision of assistance to the public during emergencies and natural disasters.

 

FRS

Family Radio Service (FRS). A short-distance two-way voice communication service, with limited data applications, between low power hand-held radios, for facilitating individual, family, group, recreational and business activities.

 

CB

CB Radio Service (CBRS). A mobile and fixed two-way voice communication service for facilitating personal, business or voluntary public service activities, including communications to provide assistance to highway travelers.

 

Ham Radio

The rules and regulations in this part are designed to provide an amateur radio service having a fundamental purpose as expressed in the following principles:

a) Recognition and enhancement of the value of the amateur service to the public as a voluntary noncommercial communication service, particularly with respect to providing emergency communications.

 Continuation and extension of the amateur's proven ability to contribute to the advancement of the radio art.

c) Encouragement and improvement of the amateur service through rules which provide for advancing skills in both the communication and technical phases of the art.

d) Expansion of the existing reservoir within the amateur radio service of trained operators, technicians, and electronics experts.

e) Continuation and extension of the amateur's unique ability to enhance international goodwill.

[mbrun]

Newbie here. I've been scanning FRS (462.526-462.712) and GMRS 462.550-462.712. Total crickets. I uneerstand that because I am on a US territory island. But still, it would be nice to contact somebody. I am working with a good 8' U/V antenna, and hearing nothing other than crickets or major static. Does anybody have any ideas one way or another?

I am going to have to agree with berkinet on this one. Yes, I can see you’re disappointed. It seems you are living an an area where folks are not using the services available to them and consequently there are not others around to rag-chew with.

 

I figure if you want to chew the fat with others on GMRS you may need to make some friends the old fashion way and then convince them do get GMRS license and associated equipment to kick start things. Activity will breed new activity.

 

If it truly is all about just talking, amateur radio is where you want to go. But even then, you may find little VHF/UHF activity near you outside of crisis time. You may need to get your intermediate level amateur license (General class) so that you can use HF frequencies to work the globe. Those around me that have HF radios say the band is always full of activity.

 

Previously, if I recall correctly, you said you were studying for your technicians license. Go bold and study for both technician and general class. That is what I did. I also received the study guide for Extra class license as a gift for Christmas. Time permitting I will take that exam in 2021.

 

Best wishes,

 

Michael

WRHS965

KE8PLM

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[STTScott]

You have brought up this issue before, and I and others have responded. GMRS is not a general two way public radio service like CB or ham. If you want to meet locals on the radio I strongly suggest you look into those two services. You are far more likely to make the connections you seem to be looking for.

 

While the definitions of radio services are not always all encompassing  (I.e. some leeway may apply) here are the service definitions from the FCC.

GMRS

General Mobile Radio Service (GMRS). A mobile two-way voice communication service, with limited data applications, for facilitating activities of individual licensees and their family members, including, but not limited to, voluntary provision of assistance to the public during emergencies and natural disasters.

 

FRS

Family Radio Service (FRS). A short-distance two-way voice communication service, with limited data applications, between low power hand-held radios, for facilitating individual, family, group, recreational and business activities.

 

CB

CB Radio Service (CBRS). A mobile and fixed two-way voice communication service for facilitating personal, business or voluntary public service activities, including communications to provide assistance to highway travelers.

 

Ham Radio

The rules and regulations in this part are designed to provide an amateur radio service having a fundamental purpose as expressed in the following principles:

a) Recognition and enhancement of the value of the amateur service to the public as a voluntary noncommercial communication service, particularly with respect to providing emergency communications.

 Continuation and extension of the amateur's proven ability to contribute to the advancement of the radio art.

c) Encouragement and improvement of the amateur service through rules which provide for advancing skills in both the communication and technical phases of the art.

d) Expansion of the existing reservoir within the amateur radio service of trained operators, technicians, and electronics experts.

e) Continuation and extension of the amateur's unique ability to enhance international goodwill.

Thank you for that clarification, which I had not seen put exactly that way. It helps a good bit.

[kirk5056]

If you want to talk to RANDOM strangers then you should use CB or HAM.

 

If, however, you want to talk to SPECIFIC strangers then GMRS might be for you.

 

I say this some what tongue in cheek.  If you meet someone (or group) at an RV/campground, NASCAR race or football game and you would like to communicate during the event and you are licensed and they are not.  You can use the ever present (at those types of events) FRS radios or loan an FRS to them and communicate all day.   That is our system on our hunting property.  We use GMRS for the range but strangers (usually guests) use their (or our) FRS radios.  

 

Kirk 

WRHS673

[mbne08]

Or here is a completely different Option, Start your own repeater, and link it to the MYGMRS network.  Then you can connect to one of the Major Hubs and communicate with those hubs as you wish, it might actually start to draw in more attention to GMRS in your area and then your local usage may increase which will help with the Crickets...

[JeepCrawler98]

Thank you for that clarification, which I had not seen put exactly that way. It helps a good bit.

 

If you're going to bring up 95.1703 you could just as easily argue that talking to strangers is de facto activity between two or more individual licensees looking to do the same; chatting away on GMRS is fine in my book, if you're using a repeater you just want to make sure the owner is okay with it since you're using private equipment where duty cycle is sometimes a concern. You just need to be careful to leave some room for folks not sitting on the mic for extended periods as well.

 

The bigger threat than excessive rag-chewing on GMRS is not using it, especially since the FCC is of the 'use it or lose it' mindset given the high dollar value of commercial spectrum. Rumor has it in that in the 2017 rule changes there was talk of dropping the repeater provisions completely since they were convinced nobody was using them and that it was all bubble-packs with no real infrastructure, until they dug a little deeper and found a few sources proving otherwise. That would've sucked.

 

Or here is a completely different Option, Start your own repeater, and link it to the MYGMRS network.  Then you can connect to one of the Major Hubs and communicate with those hubs as you wish, it might actually start to draw in more attention to GMRS in your area and then your local usage may increase which will help with the Crickets...

 

That's exactly the way to do it - it takes traffic to make traffic; once it gets to be too much traffic and you have some local regulars you're serving you can start to make your repeater (system) more self-sustaining without relying on distant links if that's what you're looking for. Once you get some local interest going and some hands-on experience with making repeaters and linking work reliably you can often approach other repeater owners in the area with open repeaters and get them on board as well. You then start getting into consistent wide area coverage which makes GMRS way more useful for supporting local and regional activities between individual licensees and their families, and you can still have the rag chewing in the mix if you schedule things wisely.

 

 

[Lscott]

Or here is a completely different Option, Start your own repeater, and link it to the MYGMRS network.  Then you can connect to one of the Major Hubs and communicate with those hubs as you wish, it might actually start to draw in more attention to GMRS in your area and then your local usage may increase which will help with the Crickets...

Or simply get your Ham license and put up a DMR or D-Star digital repeater. These system are typically linked world wide.

 

https://www.raqi.ca/~ve2rae/dmr/Amateur_Radio_Guide_to_DMR.pdf

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D-STAR

 

Some analog Ham repeaters also support Echolink  or IRLP for example.

 

http://www.echolink.org/

 

http://www.irlp.net/