S.H.T.F GMRS V HAM

[WRZP437]

Not exactly an SHTF situation, but I think of a day like today that we had in Ohio.   Between 4:30 and dawn this morning at least 5 confirmed tornadoes touched down, some close to friends.  Thankfully most of the damage was property, though I haven't heard of injuries or loss of life.  Normally this is a late in the day thing, but hearing tornado sirens at 5:15 in the morning is strange.  

[Raybestos]

On 2/27/2024 at 8:33 PM, WSAK691 said:

...I guess every area of the country might not resemble the rest, but I can tell you for sure that GMRS far more active where I am. There's still plenty of 440 and 2meter stuff, but all of those guys are just also on GMRS. Not sure why so many hams do that, but it seems to be a thing.. The GMRS repeaters out here get way more traffic than the club ham repeaters..

 

Not sure what others' motivation is, but I just got kinda tired of ham.  Most of the interesting guys either died off or otherwise ceased operating.  Then there was a population explosion of what Not A Rubicon excellently dubbed "sad hams" that I just lost my tolerance for.  When the interesting guys were talking, and you were enjoying listening to their all-too-rare in ham interesting QSO, the needy sad hams would break into their conversation "just to say hi" or to tell one of the guys he just worked Brazil on 20m, or maybe he worked Germany on 40m, or share some equally useless and unwanted bit of information such as he just bought himself a new $8K radio.  For some, on that last item we would be glad for them, but this guy is Mr Gotrocks and loves to brag, brag, brag, all the time.  By the time he got off of the radio, the guys having the interesting conversation had lost their place and were sidetracked for the rest of the day, or night.  A couple of them do this like clockwork as though destruction of an interesting QSO were an aspect of the hobby for them.

Then there is the camaraderie!  The GMRS guys I know, when we get together like at our monthly meet-n-greets, the friendship is genuine.  You feel like you are with family.  It's actual fellowship rather than everybody trying to measure and see whose is biggest.  Another thing I prefer about GMRS over ham, we meet at different restaurants, in differing nearby towns each month.  We have never met in a Gun Free Zone, the places statistically most likely to be hit by an active shooter terrorist.  The ham groups I know of in a 50mi radius, they just cannot help themselves.  Every place they find to meet is a Gun Free Zone under state law.  Schools, churches, court houses, hospitals, government, buildings...  I get regular invites to attend the ham gatherings but prefer to pass on them.  There are other hams in our group, but they are some of the good hams  not the sad ones.  I can't speak for the guys you note getting on GMRS more than ham, but maybe they have similar reasons to mine.

Oh, I do keep ham gear in case it is needed.  I just don't use it a whole lot as of late.

[bshort]

39 minutes ago, RayP said:

Not sure what others' motivation is, but I just got kinda tired of ham.  Most of the interesting guys either died off or otherwise ceased operating.  Then there was a population explosion of what Not A Rubicon excellently dubbed "sad hams" that I just lost my tolerance for.  When the interesting guys were talking, and you were enjoying listening to their all-too-rare in ham interesting QSO, the needy sad hams would break into their conversation "just to say hi" or to tell one of the guys he just worked Brazil on 20m, or maybe he worked Germany on 40m, or share some equally useless and unwanted bit of information such as he just bought himself a new $8K radio.  For some, on that last item we would be glad for them, but this guy is Mr Gotrocks and loves to brag, brag, brag, all the time.  By the time he got off of the radio, the guys having the interesting conversation had lost their place and were sidetracked for the rest of the day, or night.  A couple of them do this like clockwork as though destruction of an interesting QSO were an aspect of the hobby for them.

Then there is the camaraderie!  The GMRS guys I know, when we get together like at our monthly meet-n-greets, the friendship is genuine.  You feel like you are with family.  It's actual fellowship rather than everybody trying to measure and see whose is biggest.  Another thing I prefer about GMRS over ham, we meet at different restaurants, in differing nearby towns each month.  We have never met in a Gun Free Zone, the places statistically most likely to be hit by an active shooter terrorist.  The ham groups I know of in a 50mi radius, they just cannot help themselves.  Every place they find to meet is a Gun Free Zone under state law.  Schools, churches, court houses, hospitals, government, buildings...  I get regular invites to attend the ham gatherings but prefer to pass on them.  There are other hams in our group, but they are some of the good hams  not the sad ones.  I can't speak for the guys you note getting on GMRS more than ham, but maybe they have similar reasons to mine.

Oh, I do keep ham gear in case it is needed.  I just don't use it a whole lot as of late.

There's d-bags on both sides of the spectrum.  The gmrs putz that calls out like an old cb'r and the over-compensating ham.  I've seen both about equally.  

[SvenMarbles]

5 hours ago, bshort said:

There's d-bags on both sides of the spectrum.  The gmrs putz that calls out like an old cb'r and the over-compensating ham.  I've seen both about equally.  

 For sure, but,.. It's been my experience that it's gotten that way because of all of the hams putting the "ham flavor" all over the GMRS band.

[nokones]

19 hours ago, Sshannon said:

I agree, the wording doesn’t make it sound like he was frantically hollering for help. He appears to have been asking if anyone needed help, or asking if anyone needed help with GMRS.  The wording makes it unclear.

If he was falsely calling for help I suspect that would be a violation of the regulations prohibiting transmitting a false or deceptive message that appear both generally for all private radio services in 95.333(f) and specifically for GMRS in 95.1733(a)(2)..

Also, there are criminal statutes with severe penalties to falsely report emergencies by any means.