GRMS for skiing

[Guest CO skiier]

Hello All,

Looking for some guidance on types of radios.

Uses:

1.  Stay in contact with family/friends on ski resorts.  We have FRS radios that work pretty well.  Sometimes we get too far apart where they don't work at all.

2. Stay in contact (ski area to home or ski area to base) in areas of the ski area with no cell coverage.

3. Back country communications / emergency.  Touring or hiking.

I read the pinned repeater thread.  My house is across the valley from the frontside of the ski mountain.  I have a friend whose house is across the valley from the backside of the ski mountain.  We do not have LOS between our houses.  Just food for thought.

Interested to hear what others are using for skiing or similar outdoor pursuits.

Thanks.

 

 

[MichaelLAX]

While FRS HTs are easy to purchase and require no license to use, they are limited to 2 watts on the "high power" channels.

The advantage of GMRS HTs are higher power (usually 5 watts) and removable/replaceable antennas for better propagation.

The disadvantage of GMRS is that "friends" will have to purchase their own license ($35 for 10 years) while family members are automatically included.

Base stations on GMRS can go up to 50 watts on certain channels and have external antennas mounted for height.

[Over2U]

RE #1 (ski slope): For direct contact (“simplex”) between hand held radios, GMRS, with 5 watts output and an improved antenna, will do a bit better than the 2 watt FRS radios you have been using. MURS and Amateur license radios (on VHF) may do better as well, owing to the propagation characteristics of the VHF band.

RE: #3 (backcountry emergency use): A satellite based unit such as a Personal Locator Beacon or communicator (to include the new iPhone 14) will be the most reliable.

[bd348]

For back country, I've used a Garmin Inreach several times just to send and receive text message updates.  There are also some volunteer 4x4 offroad recovery assistance groups which can send help getting unstuck via text message without relying on emergency providers.

For the FRS radios, be sure you have some manufactured fairly recently, where they upped the power output to 2W.  If you have older ones they may be .5W.

 

[KAF6045]

21 hours ago, bd348 said:

For the FRS radios, be sure you have some manufactured fairly recently, where they upped the power output to 2W.  If you have older ones they may be .5W.

They'd have to very old to be only 0.5W -- like: original FRS from ICOM and RatShack.

Anything sold during the joint "FRS/GMRS" period likely has 2W output on all but "8-14", and the 2017 reorganization now classifies them has FRS units. (Careful though -- I have some old Midland GXT1xxx units, and they have three power levels -- and High power is >2W, meaning they are license required GMRS under 2017 rules; also some units had repeater capability, those also are now GMRS units, not FRS).

[bd348]

6 hours ago, KAF6045 said:

They'd have to very old to be only 0.5W -- like: original FRS from ICOM and RatShack.

Anything sold during the joint "FRS/GMRS" period likely has 2W output on all but "8-14", and the 2017 reorganization now classifies them has FRS units.

2017 or so?  I have some which are older which I suppose would be .5W.

[KAF6045]

18 hours ago, bd348 said:

2017 or so?  I have some which are older which I suppose would be .5W.

2017 is when the FCC reorganized the rules prohibiting joint FRS/GMRS units. I have units from closer to 2010 that were sold as FRS/GMRS and those have 2W output. (Actually, one set goes close to 5W -- and the 2017 reorganization makes it a GMRS unit, not FRS).

Pure 0.5W FRS-only, pre-2017 units would date back to 1996. FRS/GMRS combo units probably go back to whenever the FCC dropped the GMRS "max 2 licensed frequencies" clause. That occurred in 1999. Pretty much any unit sold between 2000 and 2017 was a joint FRS/GMRS unit with 2W output on 1-7/15-22