At least it was entertaining

[Bugkiller]

It’s been mostly crickets on the radio for me.  Got one HT just before Christmas, one of backorder.  Little bit of chatter from the kids with their new radios at Christmas.   Even took the radio to a neighboring town that has a repeater.  Keyed up the repeater several times, no response to radio check.  Did hear the repeater ID.  

And then today.   A work crew nearby, moving something big into a tight spot.  Plus, war games at the nearby paintball field.  This went on for hours, more chatter than I’ve heard for almost a month.  

So, people are out there.  Mostly on FRS, but there is life.    

[H8SPVMT]

13 minutes ago, Bugkiller said:

It’s been mostly crickets on the radio for me.  Got one HT just before Christmas, one of backorder.  Little bit of chatter from the kids with their new radios at Christmas.   Even took the radio to a neighboring town that has a repeater.  Keyed up the repeater several times, no response to radio check.  Did hear the repeater ID.  

And then today.   A work crew nearby, moving something big into a tight spot.  Plus, war games at the nearby paintball field.  This went on for hours, more chatter than I’ve heard for almost a month.  

So, people are out there.  Mostly on FRS, but this is life.    

One Repeater I can talk to and shops and a Hotel keeping tract of the lien.  Occasional teachers calling school children's names for the drive by pick up.  Use ours mostly on Jeep rides as hwy conversation and of road stuff too. 

NOT like the days of ole CB.

[PACNWComms]

For me, UHF spectrum is either saturated with users, or almost non existent where I tend to go. When I travel to Seattle for work, UHF is cluttered with many users on almost every FRS/GMRS channel. then I break out a 900 MHz ISM band Motorola DTR410 frequency hopping radio, and find at least one of the default channels in use, most often by tugs and other vessels along the Duwamish River. 

Over the holidays I spent some time at Quinault Lodge, and it was FRS/GMRS all over. I actually had to use tones on several Garmin Rino 530's my family used to keep in touch. Closer to home, several school districts migrated to DTR series Motorola radios, as they had some problems with UHF. One district had Motorola CP200 UHF radios that were falling apart, and their UHF license had expired. When they came to me for advice, they mentioned how they had some issues with people listening in to conversations. As a stop gap, they had purchased many blister pack FRS/GMRS radios (this was pre-2017 rule changes). Incidents included people talking into school related conversations, sending people to the wrong part of campus, and one incident where a child had wandered off campus, and this interfering person delayed the search. Something besides "UHF" as they described it was needed. Not having a valid UHF commercial license, and not being legal for GMRS at that time, I put them on DTR series radios (550/650). It worked for them, and I used a custom hopset setting so they did not fall victim to the other DTR users that bought radios and left them at default values. I hear many of them around urban areas of Washington and Oregon. 

It does seem that many work crews are using various FRS and/or GMRS radios, as the price comes down and they become easier to use. While driving in the city, I do hear the occasional hotel staff and sometimes a "price check" type of conversation when near a shopping mall. One larger mall must use GMRS for their security, as there is often chatter about specific customers and positioning personnel in case they become a problem. The funniest radios calls at that mall seemed to be during the summer when many parents were teaching teenagers how to drive. Shopping mall parking lots are great for this, but security did not like any of that. Seemed like several incidents a day during the summer related to drivers training in the parking lot. 

Is has been pretty steady radio wise since Christmas here in the Pacific Northwest. What is the funniest thing you have heard on the radio?

 

[Bugkiller]

1 hour ago, PACNWComms said:

What is the funniest thing you have heard on the radio?

 

Something went sideways with the work crew today.  Heard an shouted Oh, Sh*T!  Then someone was doing roll call to check on everyone.  Someone apparently didn’t answer, and one guy say him, and with his mic still keyed holler “get on the radio and tell the boss your are OK!.”   As if he did not just do that.  

Then there were a couple of discussions from the paintball field about “Your dead!”   “No, I’m not!”  And variations on that.  As I said, it was entertaining.  

Oh, and to add.  Except for the one quoted above, there was no cursing or vulgar language.  A pleasant surprise.  

[PACNWComms]

55 minutes ago, Bugkiller said:

there was no cursing or vulgar language

That is funny. And great to hear there was no profanity on the air. On the 900 MHz frequency hoppers, in use by tugboats and their crews, that is almost the entire conversation. Good thing they are not on UHF radios, as everyone in the area would hear them. I do not even think that the state and fedgov listening posts are equipped to monitor ISM band radios. 

[Lscott]

The best I’ve heard was the machine maintenance staff at a close by business to where I work. They got FRS radios to use.

One day the supervisor called one of the staff. They didn’t answer right away. Supervisor called several more times. Finally the staff member answered. Supervisor asked why he didn’t respond right away. Staff member replied with an obvious “attitude” that he was busy. Supervisor then proceeded to rip the staff member a new one, used the “F” word frequently explaining why that shouldn’t happen again. The staff person simply replied “Yes Boss!!” and that ended that communication.

[jc1240]

A repeater in/near Mt. Holly Springs, PA is very active.  More active than a bunch of ham repeaters around me.  I call hit "ham light."  

[dhardin53]

Two months of GMRS scanning channels as I drive. 2 framers applying anhydrous in a field, Ameren service men using a bucket-lift truck and a guy on the ground as a spotter. A large solar farm being built in our area heavy equipment operator getting guidance from ground crew. Local auto wrecker auction house that sells your insurance totaled automobiles, once a week the get busy before the Thursday morning auction coronating income and outgoing wreckers of where to go on the lot. Old Franklin Life building and a Crain operator on the ground, 15 stories up a guy rigging for removing cap stones, they removed 36.000 lb. before noon. 

Here in central IL it is rather flat land, there are 3 repeaters close. The closes is 35 miles as the crow flies. My HT and micro mobile I have not a peep from them. I did not get into GMRS to talk to only but the familty business I am working with.  Yes the wife for the fist time was HT to me mobile. Our camping/winter snow-bird was abruptly postponed when the wife had emergency surgery. I still plane on more an better communication equipment in the future.  

 

[H8SPVMT]

BUT I DID get a chance to speak on the Mt. Holly repeater while traveling thru PA (I was traveling in the mountains on a off road route) and I happened on a fella in Idaho that hear my request for a signal report.  Just blew and the wife away! 

We've had this GMRS MXT400 now for 2+ years and hardly heard a pip out of anyone (except on off road events) and then WHAM.  That was fun!