GMRS Expanded Personal Business Use

[AdmiralCochrane]

7 hours ago, WRTC928 said:

The 220 (1.25 meter) band is absolutely still a part of the amateur radio allocated spectrum. It's true it doesn't get a lot of use, and maybe we could lose it in the future, but AFAIK, there are no actual plans to remove it from ham bands. There's a 1.25 meter in Oklahoma City, although it's pretty quiet, and a friend and I use 1.25m as our personal simplex band.

Same in central MD.  We have 2 1.25m repeaters that only get used by us in the 1.25 mafia

[WSDD519]

On 4/8/2025 at 5:02 PM, AdmiralCochrane said:

Hams in my area are completely friendly to GMRS.  Maybe a reciprocity problem some places.

Indeed.  Our group is 100% open to GMRS users...and nearly half of our group has GMRS licenses.  We also maintain a GMRS repeater (SARC 650).  It's used every day.

[WQAI363]

On 3/19/2025 at 1:28 PM, WRUQ758 said:

A few thoughts.... With the damper put on Internet connected networks GMRS as a "hobby" seems to be waning, at least in my area. Repeaters dead and mostly unused. Repeater owners should look into bringing in family farms, small family businesses etc to use their repeaters for "personal business". You can easily have a club "membership fee" or "repeater maint fee" (not charging for business use which is illegal) and show users the value of GMRS and ease of licensing. Many farms use it in the Midwest. Back in the day my radio tech had a "community" GMRS multi-use repeater. Taxi, Cement trucks, family's staying in touch each with their own tone board. You could only license 2 pairs and "675" was thrown in for travelers' emergency. I know that has all changed but you can be creative while staying within today's rules. Just some thoughts. 

First of all, the General Mobile Radio Service is not a Hobby, which I'm sure you're aware of. Neither was the Citizen Band Radio Service, which became two things. One, CB became an introduction tool for 2-way radio for individuals, such as me. Two, CB radio for some, became the Wild West, since the FCC dropped the individual licensing.

As far as charging fees for using repeaters, you're right, the FCC has strict rules when it comes to fees for using repeaters. You can legally charge fees, but as long as the money goes towards maintaining the repeater and not profiting from it.