Names or handles ?

[Guest Jaime]

I just got a new pair of GMRS walkie-talkies. Forgive the noobie question but I'm wondering if anybody ever uses handles to identify themself like on CB, or is that just cringe ? I've tried listening but there's hardly anybody ever talking within range. Thanks for any advice !

[SteveShannon]

On 1/23/2025 at 8:26 AM, Guest Jaime said:

I just got a new pair of GMRS walkie-talkies. Forgive the noobie question but I'm wondering if anybody ever uses handles to identify themself like on CB, or is that just cringe ? I've tried listening but there's hardly anybody ever talking within range. Thanks for any advice !

Most GMRS users use them in pursuit of other activities rather than listening and hoping to talk to other, unknown, GMRS users.   They usually just use their call sign occasionally to comply with the regulations and their first name or position in a family “This is grandpa.  There’s a huge grizzly in the area. I want you to come back to the cabin. I’m sorry I let you play with the salmon guts before going into the woods.  Make a lot of noise while you’re walking. Scream if you need me. WROM258.”
But some GMRS users do listen for others on local repeaters, hoping to strike up a conversation. That’s much more of a ham thing, but it definitely does happen in GMRS as well.

I have never heard someone use a handle on GMRS.  Even calling them “walkie talkies” rather than “handhelds” could be fodder for some good natured ribbing.  
Get your license and jump right in.

[Davichko5650]

2 hours ago, SteveShannon said:

 

I have never heard someone use a handle on GMRS.  

About as close as we get on the group of us that hang out on Ch 19 hereabouts is using our Firstname and then the numbers on our call signs,  as in, "hey Joe 690 are you out there?"  "Yo Dave 283, yeah, what's up?"  After that we converse and then ID at the 15 and EOT as required by the regs.  That way if there's more than one Joe or Dave out there (and there usually is) we can differentiate who we're looking for.

[WRYZ926]

As mentioned, GMRS requires one to have a license and also to use their FCC issued call sign.  

No one will really care if it is just a few of you and you are out in the middle of nowhere talking on simplex. But it's a different story when you use most repeaters, The Repeater owners will expect you to follow FCC guidelines as far as using your call sign.

If you don't have your license, then I suggest getting it. It's only $35 and good for 10 years. One license will cover the entire immediate family.

[WRXB215]

22 hours ago, SteveShannon said:

“This is grandpa.  There’s a huge grizzly in the area. I want you to come back to the cabin. I’m sorry I let you play with the salmon guts before going into the wood.  Make a lot of noise while you’re walking. Scream if you need me. WROM258.”

[H8SPVMT]

LIke CB GMRS starts out having to submit to the FCC because they want to ID/control the users per say by keeping the airways limited to proper people that submitted to their standards.  I believe it is in the hopes it continues that way as we look back into what CB has become.

I believe people that inadvertently purchase these radios (GMRS) will do as likewise, and just talk friends in the beginnings' w/o the licenses, and the whole system will revert to what the CB airways have become.  Websites like we have here can only manage so much behavior of the general citizenship.  

[WRYZ926]

And it definitely does not help that GMRS shares all of the simplex channels with FRS. I don't dare scan simplex channels during the fall deer firearms season. Billy Bob and Uncle Buck will get drunk and start cussing and everything else while at their deer camp.

[Davichko5650]

On 1/23/2025 at 9:52 AM, SteveShannon said:

“This is grandpa.  There’s a huge grizzly in the area. I want you to come back to the cabin. I’m sorry I let you play with the salmon guts before going into the wood.  Make a lot of noise while you’re walking. Scream if you need me. WROM258.”

Bear encounters:

Black, Attack!

Brown, Lie Down!

Polar, you're lunch!

[GrouserPad]

2 hours ago, WRYZ926 said:

And it definitely does not help that GMRS shares all of the simplex channels with FRS. I don't dare scan simplex channels during the fall deer firearms season. Billy Bob and Uncle Buck will get drunk and start cussing and everything else while at their deer camp.

That sounds like a good time listening to that compared to “let me swing my yagi, and the velocity factor of this coax is the reason you can’t hear me, or my omni antenna isn’t Omni enough” 

[WRYZ926]

3 hours ago, GrouserPad said:

That sounds like a good time listening to that compared to “let me swing my yagi, and the velocity factor of this coax is the reason you can’t hear me, or my omni antenna isn’t Omni enough” 

While I would probably find it amusing, it's not the kind of language I want my wife, mom, or grand kids to hear. I've heard far worse while in the military.

[SteveShannon]

5 minutes ago, WRYZ926 said:

While I would probably find it amusing, it's not the kind of language I want my wife, mom, or grand kids to hear. I've heard far worse while in the military.

About Yagis or Omnis?

[GrouserPad]

28 minutes ago, WRYZ926 said:

While I would probably find it amusing, it's not the kind of language I want my wife, mom, or grand kids to hear. I've heard far worse while in the military.

Agreed.