Club/Business Use

[WQAI363]

On 10/11/2024 at 8:40 PM, SteveShannon said:

I believe it.
Long ago companies and organizations could get a GMRS license that covered their employees/members. Those licenses are grandfathered but if allowed to expire that’s it. No new organizations can obtain that kind of license. Nor may government entities. Now only individuals may become licensed. 

Yep, I know! I probably rambled on for no reason. I realize that was the case with the Town Watch that I was an active member of. I remember, we only two members who held licenses, but I don't remember their call-signs really well.  However, their pre-fixes were either KAD or KAD. Our repeater site was on City of Philadelphia's property with a good 50-to-100-mile range. By the late 90s early 2000, we switched from GMRS to UHF business band. The repeater and site remain same, but of course the antenna had to replace or tuned. I still remember the WPMP942, currently expired.

[WRKC935]

Well, You really need someone that is familiar with communications to work with you to figure all this out.

With GMRS, every member not related to another member needs to have a license.  So if a father son / sons are involved, they could all operate under one license.  But no one else can. 

With ham it's specific to the individual to have a license with the correct allocations for the frequencies in use.  This is typically not an issue any more.  But a Novice license holder would not be able to operate in the VHF / UHF spectrum until they upgraded to a technician license.

But your best bet is a statewide part 90 itinerant license with a repeater pair and a simplex frequency.  You would be using part 90 radios that could be used for ham OR GMRS with the correct programming. The other possibility is getting an MOU from the agencies you will be service and having their assigned frequencies for SAR deployments programmed into the radios so you would have direct communications with Incident Command.  Of course, you NEED to have an MOU, don't just start putting public safety frequencies in your radio thinking it will be ok. 

If your group is established and recognized by public safety agencies and you get calls from them requiring assistance on a search, then they may well want you to have their frequencies programmed so that they are getting real time information AND so when a search is called for weather, or the individual is located, they would want to pull everyone back in without needing to track a group leader down for each group to call back searchers.

SAR during an activation is considered first responders in many states.  For that length of time you are technically recognized as public safety.  That's what I would be looking for, not what cheap radio service can I throw together some radios and use cheaply as humanly possible. 

Look at it like this.

IF you are doing high angle (rope) rescue.  You can get proper harnesses and ropes that are specifically designed to be used in that capacity.  Or you can go to the hardware store and get whatever they have available that has a minimum break strength above what your heaviest guy is.  It will work after all right?

Same thing with radios.  You send people out into the wilderness to search for someone, that radio is their lifeline back to the world.  If they fall and get injured then that radio will bring them help.  What would you want to be out in the boonies with?  A good quality commercial radio, or a 15 dollar import that you bought because it was the cheapest thing you could find?

 

 

[WQAI363]

On 10/11/2024 at 8:40 PM, SteveShannon said:

I believe it.
Long ago companies and organizations could get a GMRS license that covered their employees/members. Those licenses are grandfathered but if allowed to expire that’s it. No new organizations can obtain that kind of license. Nor may government entities. Now only individuals may become licensed. 

I don't want to sound as if I'm putting myself, but I have to admit, that post of mine made no sense. I know that the FCC made those changes in which I'm referring in 1987. So, I should apologize for sending my commonsense on a Coffee Break. I also realized that what I should have said, the FCC insists that all members of any Club Group or Organization that are not related to one another. apply for their own individual licenses.

Technically, the Town Watch that I was a member of, was breaking the rules. After all, there were only two license holders, and I forget how many members, but somehow, we manage to not rock the boat.

Again, I apologize for sounding as if my commonsense went on a Coffee Break!

[SteveShannon]

2 minutes ago, Adamdaj said:

I don't want to sound as if I'm putting myself, but I have to admit, that post of mine made no sense. I know that the FCC made those changes in which I'm referring in 1987. So, I should apologize for sending my commonsense on a Coffee Break. I also realized that what I should have said, the FCC insists that all members of any Club Group or Organization that are not related to one another. apply for their own individual licenses.

Technically, the Town Watch that I was a member of, was breaking the rules. After all, there were only two license holders, and I forget how many members, but somehow, we manage to not rock the boat.

Again, I apologize for sounding as if my commonsense went on a Coffee Break!

No problem, Adam. You’re a good guy and sometimes the regulations are difficult to understand. 

[WQAI363]

4 minutes ago, SteveShannon said:

No problem, Adam. You’re a good guy and sometimes the regulations are difficult to understand. 

You got a point there!  

Thank You!

[WSDZ498]

Yea, so this is my question. I don't want to be a Karen, but today I had my car tuned to the local repeater, and up by Walmart and Office Depot, I could hear them doing stock boy calls for printer paper and such.

 

Isn't that illegal on either FRS or GMRS? Mind you, the local repeater uses sidetones, and since I was hearing them, obviously they are broadcasting the same side tones (privacy codes) as well. What dorks. lol

[marcspaz]

12 minutes ago, WSDZ498 said:

Yea, so this is my question. I don't want to be a Karen, but today I had my car tuned to the local repeater, and up by Walmart and Office Depot, I could hear them doing stock boy calls for printer paper and such.

 

Isn't that illegal on either FRS or GMRS? Mind you, the local repeater uses sidetones, and since I was hearing them, obviously they are broadcasting the same side tones (privacy codes) as well. What dorks. lol

 

Unfortunately it's completely legal. Many businesses do it to get around the high cost of getting business licenses and quality commercial gear.  The upside is that the range usually sucks since most of them are using FRS radios.

[Socalgmrs]

Yup FRS radios no problem unfortunately for business to use.  That’s really what murs should be for but…..   

 

[amaff]

15 hours ago, WSDZ498 said:

Yea, so this is my question. I don't want to be a Karen, but today I had my car tuned to the local repeater, and up by Walmart and Office Depot, I could hear them doing stock boy calls for printer paper and such.

 

Isn't that illegal on either FRS or GMRS? Mind you, the local repeater uses sidetones, and since I was hearing them, obviously they are broadcasting the same side tones (privacy codes) as well. What dorks. lol

Remember that the repeater outputs are the same as simplex channels 15-22. If you have your radio set to, say, Repeater 16, and it's listening for tone 67.0. If someone is nearby is transmitting on simplex 16 and transmitting the same tone, your will hear that transmission. IE: they're almost certainly not actually using the repeater.

 

(also, a side tone and privacy tones / codes are different things)

 

(edited for clarity because even I couldn't figure out wtf I had written... I knew what I was trying to say, but what I wrote was nonsense )