Deregulation; here’s your opportunity to make a difference!

[UncleYoda]

Ham light is fine with me if they don't overdo it (or link in from distant territories).  But the FRS kids and highway flagmen get on my nerves.

[WRYZ926]

3 hours ago, UncleYoda said:

Ham light is fine with me if they don't overdo it (or link in from distant territories).  But the FRS kids and highway flagmen get on my nerves.

The local nursing home that is about 600 yards away from me has decided to start using FRS radios. And they picked channel 17. I bet they love it when we talk on the local repeater that uses repeater channel 17.

We use both TX and RX tones on the repeater. I kept seeing my signal meter move but wasn't hearing anything. At first I thought maybe there was atmospheric ducting and we were picking up another repeater, That does happen on occasion. But then I switched to channel 17 and heard the nursing home staff. I know they are using FRS since their signal isn't very strong even as close as I am.

I've been tempted to call on the radio for a clogged toilet in room 13 but have refrained from doing so for now. 

[CentralFloridaGMRS]

We contacted one of our schools to make them aware that others could hear them on the FRS radios. They had no idea. They were giving out information like names and telephone numbers of parents during bus pickups etc. They stopped using them. You would be surprised how many don't know they're being listened to. 

[OffRoaderX]

2 minutes ago, CentralFloridaGMRS said:

You would be surprised how many don't know they're being listened to. 

But the box said they have "Privacy Codes"!!

[WRYZ926]

At least the nursing home staff has not used any patients names that I have heard.

[TrikeRadio]

4 hours ago, CentralFloridaGMRS said:

We contacted one of our schools to make them aware that others could hear them on the FRS radios. They had no idea. They were giving out information like names and telephone numbers of parents during bus pickups etc. They stopped using them. You would be surprised how many don't know they're being listened to. 

An elementary school less than a mile from me uses FRS or GMRS (probaby only FRS but can't tell) for the teachers and administrative staff to communicate. I have heard some students names used and teachers names, but thy don't seem to share any real private info other than that. I have considered contacting the school and just making sue they are aware that they can be heard by others within a few miles of the school. No idea if they realize that they are not "Private" ... but have not contacted them yet because I wonder if they would think I am someone to worry about since I "have been listenting" to them. But yeah I wonder if they even have a clue that their radios can be heard by anyone with a cheap radio in the area.

[WRKC935]

Folks need to get past this idea of 'more channels / frequencies' on GMRS.  Out of everything that someone might want to change about GMRS, that's the one that's least likely to happen.  The biggest issue is GMRS in is the LMR allocation for frequencies.  We have commercial two-way above and below us.  There are no more frequencies to be allocated to the service.  And adding repeater pairs from the FRS frequencies really ain't gonna fly either because the interference issues that will be created by the bubble pack radios on those frequencies.  Not to mention it would make all the current part 95 radios that aren't able to be flashed to add those repeater channels and make them obsolete.  Which is what happened when CB was modified to have 40 channels from the original 23. 

While I don't like the idea of DMR or other digital modulation schemes being used on GMRS due to the issues that will create, it's a better and more reasonable option than getting more frequency allocation.  They are NOT going to kick commercial users off their frequencies to give us more channels. 

[SteveShannon]

The question was never “what do you want us to do?”

The question is “How can we simplify the regulations or get rid of unnecessary regulations.”

Almost all of the suggestions in this thread actually increase the complexity of the regulations.