Bubble Pack 'Toys' from Mom, Dad and Santa Claus

[PastorGary]

Well, another Holiday gift giving season has come and gone and the usual crop of FRS/GMRS bubble pack radios have once again flooded the airwaves with little kids voices.  What is it about owner's manuals and the section devoted to FCC Licensing for using the radios on certain channels that PARENTS don't seem to understand?

 

Anyone else having local issues this time of the year ???

[FrankNY]

No local issues, per se, but suddenly I notice a large number of children's voices on FRS channel 1, for some reason, usually saying "Can you hear me? Can you hear me?".

 

I expect that this chatter will die down within a week or so as the newness factor wears off..

 

Frank.

[zap]

Nope. Haven't heard anything on the outputs that isn't traffic through the repeaters.

[Ronsales]

Nope quiet down here no repeater for them to interfere with.

 

Our problem is from ham/gmrs operators in wisconsin who have no moral values other than

to jam a good repeater. Till it is taken down and put away I have no complaints about the kids

they go away and if your repeater is pl'ed you don't hear them.

 

Its the licensed few who are idiots  , who want respect but don't have the moral values of a 2

year old when it comes to repeaters. Who is being hurt by this? The owners are and when

they are great repeaters, now they are off-line due to these idiots in south-east wi. who decided

to play games till 3 are gone.

 

SORRY Guys and Gals. I had to vent about this issue.

 

Mine is also off-line tonight and will probally go to down south to a good mountain location

where it will get the respect it deserves.

 

Bubble Pack is not the problem, licensed individuals who play games are, and till the FCC

cracks down on this we are all in the same boat. Abuse it and it is gone.

[WQWI871]

Oddly, every christmas and new years here for a few years, I hear children voices on FRS and GMRS frequencies. Usually someone gets them as gifts. It reminds me of those gasoline mini motorcycles and electric mopeds (also popular gifts) that I seem to remember not being street legal. Though, parents feel that's a gray situation as long as It's not being used on a 30MPH+ large street (even though the children are not fully supervised and often wonder off anyways). I don't mean to sound harsh about it, but, rules are rules. I don't feel rules have a gray side unless the gray side was specified. A side note, though, there's many people who don't look at the manual's for a lot of stuff because they feel there's no need to. Who would think they need a manual for a little electronic with power, volume, and channels? They see it as straight forward. And I do think the FCC rules look like those safety warnings or warranty listings that most tend to skip past. Perhaps if the licensing were printed clearly on the packaging instead of being tucked away in tiny manuals, it would be noticed more. What annoys me the most is that some (my family) don't believe a license is needed (excluding FRS). If I try to explain that to them, I'd get something like "Nah, people have been using these for years." and if somehow I manage to show more proof, they would still try to counter it with something like "Well, they don't really mean everyone needs a license. That's just for businesses." But, I've always been surrounded by family that thinks they're right and there's nothing I can do to prove anything until it hits them hard.