Other callsigns?

[WRPS255]

Hi All,

Im brand new to radio and GMRS. I just bought a KV935G and received my GMRS callsign.

I have yet to make my first transmission and have been listening to othersonly.

My question is about the callsigns I hear being used. I hear folks using a callsign that is a city followed by a two digit or three digit number. They still use the GMRS callsign when clearing though.

 

How do I obtain, or know this callsign for myself? 

 

Thanks 

[OffRoaderX]

23 minutes ago, WRPS255 said:

I hear folks using a callsign that is a city followed by a two digit or three digit number.

How do I obtain, or know this callsign for myself? 

Thats not a callsign, at least not a "real"/legal GMRS/FCC callsign.

To learn more whatever made-up codes their using, ask the guy thats using it.  It's probably a club-membership number or something.

[wayoverthere]

1 minute ago, OffRoaderX said:

Thats not a callsign, at least not a "real"/legal GMRS/FCC callsign.

To learn more whatever made-up codes their using, ask the guy thats using it.  It's probably a club-membership number or something.

Agreed...asking is the best way to know.

One other thought (what came to mind for me anyway) is it may be a convention on a certain linked network to help others identify which repeater they're talking into the network on. Do the names they're announcing line up with anything listed in your area on the map?

(You may need to hit the gear icon in the top left to "show stale repeaters" to see them if they haven't been updated in the past year) 

[marcspaz]

9 hours ago, wayoverthere said:

Agreed...asking is the best way to know.

One other thought (what came to mind for me anyway) is it may be a convention on a certain linked network to help others identify which repeater they're talking into the network on. Do the names they're announcing line up with anything listed in your area on the map?

(You may need to hit the gear icon in the top left to "show stale repeaters" to see them if they haven't been updated in the past year) 

 

I think you are right about this.  I also hear it in areas where there are several repeaters on the same pairs and close to each other.  If there are two or three repeaters in the same 30 mile radius that one user could pull up on rCh20 for instance, it helps the listener or the person you are calling know what machine to respond on.

My numbers are 328 and my buddy Danny's numbers 976, as an example. So, I'll hear or say something like this on the air...

"Danny 976, Danny 976, this is Marc 328 Tampa 675."  Which would be me calling my buddy Danny, letting him and other know I am on the Tampa Ch20 repeater pair. 

This is really common to help people when they are scanning, too.  If your rig is not configured to stop scanning when a signal is heard, you know what channel to go back to or what memory you have configured for either that network or direct repeater.

[WRPS255]

Thanks guys! I was able to figure out it was a club on a network of repeaters. I was afraid to ask if I did not have permissions.

[JB007Rules]

It's also worth noting that 99% of the time a GMRS call sign will be a "WRxx123" or a "WQxx123".... However there are 1% (or less in fact) of users (Here in the midwest there quite a few of them actually) that have the "old school" call signs which are 4 letters, followed by 3 numbers.  For anonymity reasons I'm not going to put any active calls out there but you can go to the FCC database and search by type - ZA for GMRS, hit "active" and hit the search button.

With this same/old school GMRS call signs, you'll also see businesses registered as well.  Dow Chemical is one for example.  Back in the day the FCC used to offer valid GMRS call signs for companies.  This isn't the case any more but as long as whoever has that call sign has renewed it year after year after year and pays those fees, it's still active and valid.

Thanks!