Crazy burst of GMRS development

[Blaise]

So when I first got my license, in 2021, I discovered that I lived in a GMRS dead-zone.  I could scan for hours a day, and maybe hear a conversation (that wasn't kids with bubble-wrap FRS units) twice a month. There were 4 repeaters close enough to connect to, two of which you could only find if you turned on stale/offline on the map and two of which were private/membership, and they were all basically unused.

Toward the end of 2022, a couple of new repeaters popped up, I started hearing conversations on the repeaters once in a while, and some simplex conversations would turn up from time to time while driving.  I even talked to a few folks on repeaters.

Now, in early June of 2023 I pick up repeater conversations multiple times a day, simplex all over, and I just went to the map, and without turning on stale/offline repeaters, there are *12* in range and open for general use.

What the heck happened in the last year?!?!?  I know GMRS is growing in general, but this is explosive!

[kidphc]

Covid. Combination of people stuck at home and lowering of gmrs license cost. Are big factors.

Some migrated from cb, which really is a shit storm 80-90% of the time now adays. I know of 6-7 people whom left cb and went gmrs.



Sent from my SM-S901U using Tapatalk

[Lscott]

33 minutes ago, kidphc said:

Covid. Combination of people stuck at home and lowering of gmrs license cost. Are big factors.

Some migrated from cb, which really is a shit storm 80-90% of the time now adays. I know of 6-7 people whom left cb and went gmrs.



Sent from my SM-S901U using Tapatalk
 

I'm going to guess the size of the radio with antenna has a lot to do it with it. A radio that fits in a shirt pocket with an antenna that's about 6 inches long is far more convent than a bulky 11M CB with a huge wipe stuck on top. Then you have the advantage of taking it and using it just about anywhere.

Then there is the mobile option. If one sticks to the simple 1/4 wave antenna you can still park your ride in the garage, go through the drive through window pickups etc. without having the antenna ripped off the vehicle.

[kidphc]

Yes lscott. Those are additional benefits.

Another one is most large retailers have cheap frs radios on the shelf. Alot of the are gmrs capable.

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[WRUU653]

24 minutes ago, kidphc said:

Covid. Combination of people stuck at home and lowering of gmrs license cost. Are big factors

I agree with this. Also off-road/over landing seems to have gained in popularity over the years and with it GMRS has become the radio service of choice, much better than CB for the reasons @Lscott  mentioned, you can fit it in your pocket. 
Of course as Randy, aka @OffRoaderX, aka Notarubicon has indicated “chicks love a guy with a radio” ( I really don’t know about that, mine loves me despite the radio).

[Guest]

COVID ?!? - maybe...

I would guess that the "new" rules paved the way for this development...

Flashback: I was a part of a REACT team starting in 2011 - for some time - and we used a GMRS repeater with HTs that were FCC approved for other services.

That brings up the first factor: Availability of equipment - plenty to choose from and cheap!

"Stranger Things" reminded us how cool radios can be - so we looked up radios and found CB and GMRS...

COVID reminded us how we are not really prepared for emergencies (I know that radios will not help against a pandemic - but in the absence of real solutions, we might engage in prepping that includes radios.

The news surely tells us that we are just a 'happy accident' removed from a catastrophe that we are not prepared for.

Maybe, we are simply oversaturated with social media and smartphones and we yearn for the simple and direct interaction of a radio chat.

Many of this might trigger a 'chicken and egg' discussion, but that is how systems work with feedback loops and momentum...

I might even fall for the “chicks love a guy with a radio” idea as yet another factor...

[Lscott]

22 minutes ago, WRXD372 said:

I might even fall for the “chicks love a guy with a radio”

I have a load of radios. Hasn't help me any.

[back4more70]

5 hours ago, WRUU653 said:

Notarubicon has indicated “chicks love a guy with a radio”  

Incorrect. He has stated that the wrist strap is the component that impresses the chicks 

[WRUU653]

Just now, back4more70 said:

Incorrect. He has stated that the wrist strap is the component that impresses the chicks 

Oh, okay good! I have a drawer of them somewhere around here... 

[Blaise]

I can tell you from experience, if you carry a radio and put on a black shirt that says "STAFF" on the back, you will definitely get a lot of attention from those "chicks".  For the duration of the concert, anyway...

[Lscott]

3 hours ago, Blaise said:

I can tell you from experience, if you carry a radio and put on a black shirt that says "STAFF" on the back,

Mine says “DEA” on the back. For some reason people stay away from me at concerts.

[KAF6045]

On 6/5/2023 at 10:41 AM, kidphc said:

Yes lscott. Those are additional benefits.

Another one is most large retailers have cheap frs radios on the shelf. Alot of the are gmrs capable.

Sent from my SM-S901U using Tapatalk
 

As of the 2017 reorganization those radios are EITHER FRS or GMRS.

FRS has always shared the interstitial frequencies from GMRS, though originally at just 0.5W. After making the mistake of allowing "mixed" FRS/GMRS (for which no one bothered with the "license required" for channels x/y/z) the FCC redefined them as "fixed antenna, <2W on 1-7/15-22 [no repeater], 0.5W on 8-14, narrowband" is an FRS radio (all criteria apply), "interchangeable antenna, up to 5W on 1-7, up to 50W on 15-22 (repeater optional), 0.5W narrowband on 8-14, wideband on 1-7/15-22" is a GMRS unit (essentially any of the criteria that differs from FRS makes it GMRS).

 

[Hoppyjr]

Incorrect. He has stated that the wrist strap is the component that impresses the chicks 

If you want the good looking chicks, you need a belt clip. If you want the REALLY good looking ones, a leather radio holster.

[SteveShannon]

7 minutes ago, WRUZ229 said:

If you want the good looking chicks, you need a belt clip. If you want the REALLY good looking ones, a leather radio holster.

An antenna with radials mounted to the top of a hard hat really seals the deal!

[WRQC527]

2 hours ago, WRUZ229 said:

If you want the good looking chicks, you need a belt clip. If you want the REALLY good looking ones, a leather radio holster.

Also, when yelling important stuff on your HT, hold it sideways. It looks much cooler that way.

 

[mrobisr]

I'm going to venture out on the limb and say it is more about SHTF preps than anything else, but that is what I'm seeing from my seat, opinions can vary. 

[Guest]

7 minutes ago, mrobisr said:

I'm going to venture out on the limb and say it is more about SHTF preps than anything else, but that is what I'm seeing from my seat, opinions can vary. 

I guess you are pulling us back from the chicks and getting us back the original question ?!? 

... sorry chicks !!!

[mrobisr]

4 minutes ago, WRXD372 said:

I guess you are pulling us back from the chicks and getting us back the original question ?!? 

... sorry chicks !!!

Sorry, that was not my intentions, lol. 

[Lscott]

4 hours ago, Sshannon said:

An antenna with radials mounted to the top of a hard hat really seals the deal!

Well this got a lot of comments from people and photos taken at the Hamvention last May. The match was about 1.1:1 or so at our group frequency of 448.5MHz. It’s a 1/4 wave design. Ran DMR at 1 watt so the average power was about 0.5 watts.

[Guest]

1 minute ago, Lscott said:

... The match was about 1.1:1 or so at our group frequency of 448.5MHz. It’s a 1/4 wave design. Ran DMR at 1 watt so the average power was about 0.5 watts. ...

Just out of interest:

How do those numbers compare to a tin-foil-hat ?!?

[Lscott]

2 minutes ago, WRXD372 said:

Just out of interest:

How do those numbers compare to a tin-foil-hat ?!?

If you do what others tried, mounted HT antenna on a hard hat, the match sucks, no ground plane. I guess the Tin Foil would fix that. 

[SteveShannon]

7 hours ago, Lscott said:

Well this got a lot of comments from people and photos taken at the Hamvention last May. The match was about 1.1:1 or so at our group frequency of 448.5MHz. It’s a 1/4 wave design. Ran DMR at 1 watt so the average power was about 0.5 watts.

I wonder about RF exposure to the cranium and its contents. Radials radiate, right?

[Lscott]

Just now, Sshannon said:

I wonder about RF exposure to the cranium and its contents. Radials radiate, right?

The field should be minimal under the radials. And as I mentioned I ran only 1 watt using DMR. Since DMR uses two time slots and on simplex only one is used thus the average power is around 0.5 watts. 

Next consider one is holding an HT a few inches away from the face with an output power of 4 to 5 watts at about the same frequency on GMRS. So, which one is really worse for RF exposure?

[Blaise]

1 hour ago, Lscott said:

The field should be minimal under the radials.

Also, radio frequencies aren't ionizing radiation, so there is no risk from exposure *unless* the flux is high enough to heat your skin.  No one's cooking with a ten watt microwave...

[WRUU653]

9 hours ago, Lscott said:

If you do what others tried, mounted HT antenna on a hard hat, the match sucks, no ground plane. I guess the Tin Foil would fix that. 

you gotta use one of those aluminum hard hats for ground plane but back to this fine antenna hat and more importantly how did it go over with the chicks