New To GMRS Need Advice

[Droopy]

Hello Everyone. Looking for some advise. I just recently received my NEW LICENSE for GMRS Radio Services. I am a old retired truck driver of 38 years and used a CB all my life even before I starting my driving career. Back in the day they (The FCC) issued a license for a Class D Radio for the CB and then dropped the license requirement years down the road. Well to this day I still use my base station to make daily contact with our locals to chat daily and have a meet and greet about once every three to four months before the pandemic hit and unfortunately seems to be coming back. My questions are is there any special requirements to start using the GMRS Services like using certain lingo or back in the day and I do mean way back used to have to give out our call sign and I am interested in purchasing some new LEGAL equipment and not the cheep stuff with no range from any of the box stores. Would like some good decent equipment that anyone of you have and would recommend with likes and dislikes as well as any lingo or other things I should know. Thanks for your time and help. 73's your way. Droopy

[AdmiralCochrane]

Welcome Droopy!  

There isn't any special GMRS lingo, no 10-4, no 73's etc.  Like ham operation, you are required to USE your call sign. The main thing to know about GMRS is that its in the UHF band and signal propagation is nearly exclusively line of sight.  If you are over the horizon without an elevated antenna location there will be no tranmission beyond 20 miles under any conditions. Buildings, trees, hills count as nearly 100% signal blockers. Repeaters are the big advantage of the GMRS band as licensed in the US.  If you are lucky enough to be in an area with many GMRS repeaters (very much like ham and police emergency service repeaters) you may be able to work thru them for dramatically extended range beyond the 1, 2 or 3 mile normal local transmissions. Some examples:  I can hear but not get into a particular repeater about 15 miles away, I can easily get into one about 2 ½ miles away and another repeater 18 miles away very well placed high up a hill and on a high tower. The repeater at 18 miles lets me communicate with others within a 25 mile radius of the repeater itself in all directions potentially 40 miles from me in that direction.  Some GMRS frequencies are inhabited by legacy business licensees and are nearly useless in the immediate area of the business. Repeaters are privately owned, some require permission for use, others only ask that you operate legally.

I only have experience with Wouxon and Motorola GMRS units.  Not 100% certain I would buy another Motorola, but definitely would buy another Wouxon.  I have a few Baofeng hand helds, but probably wouldn't replace with same if they failed. 

[MichaelLAX]

Home or mobile or transportable equipment?  Urban or Rural? Repeaters in your area?

[MacJack]

Welcome Droopy... Just read all the posts, ask questions on the forum or in a private message PM...  Any way you see it this forum has many interest and the biggest think is to pick a radio based on your needs...  So pick what is best for you and your family needs first...  I did purchased from https://www.buytwowayradios.com as I was looking for a Part 95 certified radio.  Our family is having so much fun and connected to the best private local repeater.  Who we have connected with personally and he encouraged me and my grand daughter to get our Ham license which we are Hams for the last month.  I learned a lot as we made our family local repeater for our neighborhood in our valley which helped my 12 yo grand daughter how it all works so we pass the test.  A lot of info here so ask us on this forum as we all where Newbies which I was in Nov 2020... Look at me now as a Ham...

MacJack 

[Droopy]

4 hours ago, AdmiralCochrane said:

Welcome Droopy!  

There isn't any special GMRS lingo, no 10-4, no 73's etc.  Like ham operation, you are required to USE your call sign. The main thing to know about GMRS is that its in the UHF band and signal propagation is nearly exclusively line of sight.  If you are over the horizon without an elevated antenna location there will be no tranmission beyond 20 miles under any conditions. Buildings, trees, hills count as nearly 100% signal blockers. Repeaters are the big advantage of the GMRS band as licensed in the US.  If you are lucky enough to be in an area with many GMRS repeaters (very much like ham and police emergency service repeaters) you may be able to work thru them for dramatically extended range beyond the 1, 2 or 3 mile normal local transmissions. Some examples:  I can hear but not get into a particular repeater about 15 miles away, I can easily get into one about 2 ½ miles away and another repeater 18 miles away very well placed high up a hill and on a high tower. The repeater at 18 miles lets me communicate with others within a 25 mile radius of the repeater itself in all directions potentially 40 miles from me in that direction.  Some GMRS frequencies are inhabited by legacy business licensees and are nearly useless in the immediate area of the business. Repeaters are privately owned, some require permission for use, others only ask that you operate legally.

I only have experience with Wouxon and Motorola GMRS units.  Not 100% certain I would buy another Motorola, but definitely would buy another Wouxon.  I have a few Baofeng hand helds, but probably wouldn't replace with same if they failed. 

 

4 hours ago, MichaelLAX said:

Home or mobile or transportable equipment?  Urban or Rural? Repeaters in your area?

I don't know to be honest. Never used a hand held unit or repeater. Live in the out skirts of a city and like to go fishing down on the bay. Don't really know anything about them. Only used a CB all my life. Wanted to try something new.

[Droopy]

2 hours ago, MacJack said:

Welcome Droopy... Just read all the posts, ask questions on the forum or in a private message PM...  Any way you see it this forum has many interest and the biggest think is to pick a radio based on your needs...  So pick what is best for you and your family needs first...  I did purchased from https://www.buytwowayradios.com as I was looking for a Part 95 certified radio.  Our family is having so much fun and connected to the best private local repeater.  Who we have connected with personally and he encouraged me and my grand daughter to get our Ham license which we are Hams for the last month.  I learned a lot as we made our family local repeater for our neighborhood in our valley which helped my 12 yo grand daughter how it all works so we pass the test.  A lot of info here so ask us on this forum as we all where Newbies which I was in Nov 2020... Look at me now as a Ham...

MacJack 

Thank you sir for your reply. I too eventually want to get into Ham someday and this is the first step for me to try something new. I know nothing about the GMRS but do on the ole CB. Will look into getting one of those good radios you spoke of that is repeater capable. Thanks again.

[mbrun]

Hello Everyone. Looking for some advise. I just recently received my NEW LICENSE for GMRS Radio Services. I am a old retired truck driver of 38 years and used a CB all my life even before I starting my driving career. Back in the day they (The FCC) issued a license for a Class D Radio for the CB and then dropped the license requirement years down the road. Well to this day I still use my base station to make daily contact with our locals to chat daily and have a meet and greet about once every three to four months before the pandemic hit and unfortunately seems to be coming back. My questions are is there any special requirements to start using the GMRS Services like using certain lingo or back in the day and I do mean way back used to have to give out our call sign and I am interested in purchasing some new LEGAL equipment and not the cheep stuff with no range from any of the box stores. Would like some good decent equipment that anyone of you have and would recommend with likes and dislikes as well as any lingo or other things I should know. Thanks for your time and help. 73's your way. Droopy

Good Day Droopy.

Welcome to myGMRS.

Admiral Cochrane pretty much summed it up for you.

No, there isn’t any special lingo in GMRS. Just much more decorum, respect and order on the airwaves than the legacy CB service.

Repeaters are the key feature that really makes GMRS special compared to its licensed-by-rule low-power sibling, FRS. Repeaters on the service however are private property. You may use them with the permission of the owner only. Just because a repeater is listed on this site or another does not mean you may use it unless the owner specifically indicates it is an open repeater free for all to use. The easiest way to gain permission is to submit a request to the owner through this site using the mechanism provided. Some owners may want a phone call from you, and if they do it will either say so in the listing or they may tell you so in your permission request. Respect them. It is there personal investment in the service that makes this service special.

GMRS operation is pretty much a local line-of-site communication service. Raising your antenna will nearly always translate into greater distance than adding power. Use simplex communication where you can and then use the repeaters when you truly need the range.

There seem to be a lot of amateur radios operators that are also licensed GMRSrs. In many regards this is a good thing because the decorum they learn in the amateur service rubs off on the rest of the GMRS community. I find that refreshing.

Keep it civil. Don’t hog the airwaves. Try to keep individual transmissions short. Leave 3-5 seconds between transmissions to give time for repeaters to drop out and time for others to announce their presence. When you want to announce your presence on the airwaves so others know you are now online and available for communications, simply give your call sign followed by “Listening” or “monitoring” or “In the mobile” or “on the handheld”. If you are looking for another licensee on the air waves, announce their callsign followed by “this is [your callsign]” or something similar. Transmit it 2-4 times if necessary to catch their attention if they are monitoring.

In GMRS, some areas hold weekly Nets using a repeater on regular days and times. These are used to bring the community together, learn about others, talk about shared interest topics and do radio training. Cincinnati holds one every Sunday night that draws a pretty good crowd. (Side note: A young father is teaching radio and radio etiquette to his 10 year old, and his ten year old ran the net a couple of months ago. What a responsible father.)

Enough for now. Again, Welcome!


Michael
WRHS965
KE8PLM

[GuySagi]

All great advice, and I'm certainly no pro at GMRS, but I'll add the fact you should not be surprised by the relative silence on the channels compared to CB (and lack of annoying personalities). Don't expect skip to roll in, either. You'll love it much better than CB if you can convince some of your friends on that band (close enough) to get a GMRS license, though. Static-free conversations are a lot more relaxing on my old ears, anyway....and a quality handheld will fit in your tackle box, BTW. You'd have to leave some lures behind to cram a 4-watt CB version in, although if the crappie are biting that antenna is a good backup rod.