GMRS license stuff you should know

[TACAIR]

General Mobile Radio Service (GMRS) | Federal Communications Commission (fcc.gov)

What the Man says.

License is a non-test fee of $35, good for 10 years.

Covers the entire 'family' - from Mom and Dad to kiddos, grandkids, grandparents and aunt/uncles - the lot.

****

Lots of commercial sites with good dat and system information:
General Mobile Radio Service - Wikipedia  a good place to start and get smart of the Service.

FRS vs GMRS vs LMR (radiodepot.com)
good site showing that the FRS radio can now be up to 2 watts, something 'new'.

USA GMRS Association's Welcome Page
USA GMRS Association's Welcome Page  industry website.  Good stuff.

SHOP AROUND.  Prices vary wildly.   Remember a 5 watts UHF HT - no matter Ham, GMRS, LMR or SMR will offer the same "range' in simplex mode.   No brand offers a magic wand to better coverage.....

Let me know if you have specific questions.  I'll help all I can.
DKR/dkr

[Blast]

Good info, TACAIR. I got my license almost a year ago as GRMS is very popular among offroaders & overlanders. Texas has a pretty extensive network of GRMS repeaters, but you do need to join the club to use them: https://www.texasgmrs.net/

-Blast

[TACAIR]

I monitored the GMRS frequencies via an inside scanner and heard nothing in the week long effort.

I think Anchorage is in love with cell phones.   Not a bad thing from my viewpoint.  I'll be ordering a set of GMRS radio sets this week for the family here in town.

Then we can play with coverage from home, dead spots, etc...

[TACAIR]

Applied for the license online, paid my $35 yesterday, radio license was emailed to me today.

24 hr turnaround, not bad.

IMO, worth it if you want radio comss and everyone will not get a ham license.

[MacWa77ace]

Does one license allow multiple users?
Like if I had 20 GMRS radios and I'm the only license holder, can I hand them out at an event and have 20 people on comms?

[TACAIR]

If I was a sad ham, I would say no.  Me?  What is the real risk?

The rules - 
https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-47/part-95/subpart-E
say

"(2) Any individual who holds an individual license may allow his or her immediate family members to operate his or her GMRS station or stations. Immediate family members are the licensee's spouse, children, grandchildren, stepchildren, parents, grandparents, stepparents, brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews, and in-laws.

(3) Any individual who holds an individual license may allow anyone to operate his or her GMRS station if necessary to communicate an emergency message."

Unless you are responding to a Chernobyl type evet - it isn't in the rules for non-family.

GMRS usta be Class E CB radio.  No bueno for commercial use.

OTOH, small radio, big world.  Unless you piss off someone - like a Sad Ham (ie a Karen), I doubt anyone will know you are there - provided you are checking so as not to interfere with anyone.

On the other, other hand FRS (2 watts) and MURS are both license free, can be used for business (MURS) and many of the UV-5R [program up nicely to use these.   Are the UV-5R radio type accepted or approved?  No, they are not.

You pick what you want to do and stand ready for any downside, as remote was that might be. 


I have some new UV-5R8W (TIDradio) sets for ham use (I have an Extra ticket) -- with the vendor software, easy enough to program.

let me know if I can help...

[MacWa77ace]

On the other, other hand FRS (2 watts) and MURS are both license free, can be used for business (MURS) and many of the UV-5R [program up nicely to use these.  Are the UV-5R radio type accepted or approved?  No, they are not.

You pick what you want to do and stand ready for any downside, as remote was that might be.


I have some new UV-5R8W (TIDradio) sets for ham use (I have an Extra ticket) -- with the vendor software, easy enough to program.

let me know if I can help...

If you have a multi power Baofeng you can program the FRS to at least conform to the low output wattage regulations.

That's a pretty broad immediate family list, luckily they don't use ICU rules.

[NT2C]

Does one license allow multiple users?
Like if I had 20 GMRS radios and I'm the only license holder, can I hand them out at an event and have 20 people on comms?

Only if it's a family event and you're all related.

[NT2C]

As someone who needs to stay squeaky clean to not endanger the wife's employment, I find the TIDradio H8 and H3 meet my SHTF multi-service needs.  With the ability to change firmware on the fly and reprogram them from saved files on my phone, and them being type accepted on both GMRS and amateur bands (with the appropriate firmware loaded) that actually gives me legal three-band capability since GMRS ties in with FRS on some channels.

[EBuff75]

At our CERT meeting tonight we found out that we're going to be switching over to GMRS for our radios.  We've been using retired Motorola radios from our local PD, but they're updating their whole radio system and these radios won't be supported once the upgrade is done (no more repeater, no more license, and won't work with the new dispatch console).

The CERT leadership is going to send out some specific details and recommendations on what types of radios we'll need, but in short, they'll need to be programmable GMRS which can work with a repeater.  We've already got the repeater and our radio-guy is going to bring his laptop next month to do the CHIRP programming on any radios that we bring in, so I've got about a month to find something I like. 

The TIDradio H3 and H8 have already caught my eye.  From some quick research this evening, the H8 looks like it might be slightly better for outdoor use (in the dirt and moisture), but that either of them should work well.  I'll probably pick up a speaker-mic to go with the radio too, maybe the Baofeng since it's got good reviews and is cheap.

Any thoughts?

Additional edit:  The radio must be Part 95 compliant.  And yes, we're aware that GMRS requires individual licenses (no group license availability).  Our CERT has already put out instructions for those who don't already have a license on how to get one. Probably half the group already has a license, so it shouldn't be a big stretch.

[Z.O.R.G.]

I've picked up a 2 pack of the of the TIDRadio H3 awhile back and was going to do a review on if, but exiting unemployment and getting a job got in the way of that....

NT2C and I both had some issues with them (he had a battery problem and I had a radio stopped powering up problem).  Customer service was great and addressed both issues.  That was the big negative I had with it.  Some of the good things (especially for CERT)

• You can monitor AM aircraft and other frequencies you're not allowed to talk on
• They have a "normal" mode that's wide open that will allow a licensed amateur to use both HAM & GMRS.
• I did an audio check with one on a local repeater owned by a blind from birth HAM.  He had no idea I was on a cheep Chinese radio and thought I was on an ICOM.
• Power out was 5W average, 4W peak
• You can recharge directly from a USB-C cable.

[EBuff75]

I went ahead with the H8, which will be arriving this Tuesday.  Since I couldn't find a package that had everything I wanted included, I went with the one that had two batteries and ordered a charging cradle separately.  It does come with a speaker mic, but after some research, I ordered a Commountain to use instead of the $5 one that it ships with.  I'll see how the included antennas do and upgrade if needed.  Once it gets here I'll see how well the belt clip works before determining whether to get a case/pouch.

Our outgoing radios (Motorola HT1250) turned out to be a little older than I'd realized - they originally came out in 1999!  We received them as cast-offs from the local police department in 2016 and have been using them ever since.  The biggest problem that we've had is that they really, really suck in direct mode!  We've had instances of people who can see each other across an open area, but can't communicate clearly!  There is a repeater at the PD, but they aren't using it anymore and it keeps getting turned off accidentally.  CERT uses it, as do some other city services like parks & rec, but apparently we're the only ones who seem to care when it gets turned off.  With the radio upgrades that they're doing, it's going away permanently this fall.  Not sure what the other users are planning to do.

I did consider the extra functionality on the H3, but it's not really something that I'd expect to use for CERT here.  We're a small, suburban community and the likelihood that we'd ever have a reason to listen to the air channels is nil.  And I'm not a ham, so the ability to switch over and use that isn't needed either.  Our current radios do have the local NOAA station programmed on them, but I don't recall ever using it. 

I'm going to ask our radio guy to send me the CHIRP programming file for our repeater so that I can try to program my radio prior to the meeting next month.  Might as well learn how to do it myself in case I ever have to do it on my own in the future.