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FRS and GMRS congestion in your area

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fdscan

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I just got this idea, I think it would be neat to share and compare with other members how congested FRS and GMRS are in your areas, and how much they are used.

I live in Southern CT, in a Suburban town, on top of a hill (so I get pretty good radio reception on my second floor on top of a hill). Whenever I use FRS, whether it be with family, friends, for whatever purposes... I use channel 7 CSQ. I have NEVER dealt with anyone else on the channel, I only have heard what seems to be a daily quick squawk of static come through the channel that started recently, but no actual other users. I've monitored channel 1 in CSQ just for the hell of it, and I've caught some people on it, and I'd assume that they had to be pretty close to me for me to pick them up on half a watt. I tried calling them, no answer. I have heard some DTMF tones and VERY unclear transmissions come through on GMRS 675 CSQ... But there really aren't any repeaters nearby, anymore.

Anyone else have any reports on what GMRS/FRS use is like in their areas? Make sure to mention if you're rural, urban, suburban...
 

Darth_vader

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1) Mostly dead overall.

Exceptions:

I live near a major city park, and unlike GMRS, FRS around here can sometimes have a LOT of activity, but not always. Weekends and spring/summer break, it can be quite congested with everybody and their kids spending the afternoon at the park, and due to the "little league" stick-and-ball teams that congregate there. Other times of the year, FRS is dead silent save for the Chinese restaurant a couple miles out that occupies channel 5 (I think they're using the higher-power GMRS combination rigs, personally) and the cemetary up the road whose grounds-keepers use it to talk amongst themselves and to the office.

2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10, 12, 13, 16 and 21 (got a lottery ticket handy?) concentrated around the NE Mill Plain Bv/NE 164th Avenue area, are often fairly busy during the day--lots of restaurants and stores around there use them in addition to or in place of their part-90 systems. Oh yeah, and there's the occasional kid in any one of the literally several thousand apartments and houses in the vicinity. There's still that little (?) repeater on 17 that self-identifies periodically (Morse code) but I don't know anything else about it or where it is, other than I now think it's situated more around the Camas/Proebstel area than Portland, as I had theorised previously.

Elsewhere in the city both services are generally deader than an Evergreen snag.

2) Sprawling urban. 15 years ago, most of what's here now hadn't even been built yet.
 

Drachen_Fire

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Feb 28, 2013
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Center Township, PA
In Pittsburgh, FRS is pretty quiet for the most part. There are some scattered instances of road flaggers, security at bars, and some event staff & parking coordination using various channels here and there. In my neighborhood, you will occasionally hear kids using it to talk to each other during the summertime.

As for GMRS, it's stone cold dead, with the exception of a repeater over in Mt. Lebanon on 575, but no one ever uses it.
 

SteveC0625

Order of the Golden Dino since 1972
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Location
Northville, NY (Fulton County)
Upstate New York at the southern edge of the Adirondacks. Some FRS traffic in the village every now and then, usually on CH 1 with no PL. Highway maintenance and construction flaggers use FRS a lot. Heard what sounded like a surveyor talking to his helper for a bit. A couple of families around here use FRS for some local CB-style chat every once in a while. I don't even monitor the higher FRS channels, just 1-7. Everything else is totally silent.

Haven't had a radio on during hunting season in the past but will try to do so this year. I suspect I'll a lot of FRS then.

GMRS is almost totally silent every where I go in eastern NYS.
 

Skypilot007

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Medford, NJ
Southern NJ and south eastern PA seems to be a hot area for GMRS. There are multiple repeaters on all of the GMRS channels 15 thru 22. Some are used a lot but most are seldom used. FRS is used alot by local business and the neighborhood kids. Its pretty active around here.
 

jeepinjeepin

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Winston Salem, NC
FRS 1-7 by road construction flaggers. I've not heard any "family" traffic around here. I need to take those freqs out of lock out on the scanner again and see if I hear anything.
 

rapidcharger

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The land of broken calculators.
FRS gets used a lot. Mostly by children, construction workers and I also hear the tower climbers using them on nearby sites.

GMRS on the other hand.... It's pretty dead. We have several repeaters around town but they don't get much use. I've driven all across the country and have, on numerous occasions, scanned GMRS, and it's dead everywhere I've been. Even in NYC, Miami and Chicago. Occasionally it'll land on some farmers but considering there's all these bubble packs and only 7 or so channels, one would expect more. Not that I'm complaining, those are just my observations.
 

Logan005

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fort lauderdale
Here in the north Fort Lauderdale area, there are very few children using GMRS but a lot of business's use it. Taxi's, Hotel's and apartment building maintenance. I do not monitor FRS since I do not use and have no interest in 1/2 watt service. I only wish FRS was on separate radios. not combined with the GMRS service radios. I also do not detect any illegal repeaters in my local area. I do hear crane operators using GMRS from time to time. They like to tell you that they are licensed to use the frequency. then they do not respond when you ask for their legal call letters. I am looking at Ctcss and DCS decoders, so I can detect their code and request their call letters directly. I doubt if it will do any good. Most of the decoders I see have an antenna input, but not a direct audio input. so I would guess you would have to depend on the lack of sensitivity of the device. would prefer to connect the audio out from a good radio. but I do not know that it works this way or not.
 

N9NRA

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Here in WI depending on where you`re at FRS and GMRS is pretty much dead, `round this area (central WI) there`s some FRS activity, mostly on channels 1, 6, 10, 11 and 14 during the skiing season up on "the hill" as we call Granite Peak ski area around here. GMRS is deader than a doornail here save one repeater on `675, all it does is ID every 10 minutes in CW, but it`s not used at all anymore. Up in my end of the state (northwest WI) OTOH during the nine-day gun deer season there`s LOTS of stuff on FRS, mostly hunters out in the woods around my folks` place. I can hear `em pretty well with a gain antenna on my `396XT from inside the house, and even better outside, most of `em are my neighbors across the road from us, so there`s lots of stuff to hear, `specially when one of them guys gets their deer, then it gets really fun :D. N9NRA
 

Darth_vader

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Actually, I do sometimes also hear kids playing with radios on 22/725 simplex from time to time, particularly when I'm near Hearthwood Grade School (PreK-5) or in the surrounding housing area/s after hours, because the several different sets of crosswalk flaggers use that channel (PL 250.3) to communicate with each other during their course of duties. I've sometimes heard them on the Baofeng when shopping at the Winco store at the end of my road, a couple blocks from the school, so apparently the family who owns the radios must live by the store and let the kids play with them. (Whether or not they have a ticket is anybody's guess, and I'm not really going to worry myself over it.)

Other than that GMRS is generally pretty dead around here like it appears to be nearly everywhere else.
 

quarterwave

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I wouldn't say it's dead everywhere. Millions of radios sold, someone is using them.

I hear kids (when not in school playing) on FRS, mostly the 462's, frequently. I hear business on the FRS 462 & 467's randomly...some static business, and some construction, maintenance, etc.

One business locally is using 462.650 because their lazy radio dealer put in their Kenwoods so they wouldn't "need" a license. Another was a doctors office that didn't want their little "headsets" to compete with my repeater (that would obviously obliterate them) so they moved to to 462.5875...still illegal. (The FCC and Manufacturers are purely to blame for this stuff).

True GMRS....well, there is my stuff, and now and then a local guy on another freq. We're licensed.

Too bad it is easier to run illegal with no recourse fears. But, alas there is traffic.
 

KR7CQ

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Almost completely dead here other than businesses operating illegaly and little kids pushing call tones and playing around.

Legitimate use is near zero. I can't imagine the FCC allowing this bandwidth to continue to be wasted as it is now, but then how do you take the band back when millions of kids have radios that can interfere with whoever the next users would be?
 

SCPD

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GMRS is somewhat used in my area with a few repeaters on the air,I wonder why it is not in your areas.I say if you are licensed use it but if you are not and only listen to it on a scanner you are part of the problem,use it folks it's what we are supposed to do with it.I do not want to see the band taken away but it seems as though some thrive on it being take away from us.

I do not understand the philosophy of listen and not talk people.I for one enjoy being able to take advantage of a radio system set aside for family use.If you think it is dead go listen to CB sometime,the FCC hasn't took the band away from those folks and I doubt they have a use for GMRS since it has been around even before I was born.Get a license use it take advantage of it instead of lurking in the shadows.
 

fdscan

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I use FRS for family use. Biking, around the neighborhood, and what not, and I like it. Almost like an intercom, so to speak.

As KG7DOT said, there's no way they can take the band back now, though. Too many bubble packs and consumer radios sold.
 

jeepinjeepin

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GMRS is somewhat used in my area with a few repeaters on the air,I wonder why it is not in your areas.I say if you are licensed use it but if you are not and only listen to it on a scanner you are part of the problem,use it folks it's what we are supposed to do with it.I do not want to see the band taken away but it seems as though some thrive on it being take away from us.

I do not understand the philosophy of listen and not talk people.I for one enjoy being able to take advantage of a radio system set aside for family use.If you think it is dead go listen to CB sometime,the FCC hasn't took the band away from those folks and I doubt they have a use for GMRS since it has been around even before I was born.Get a license use it take advantage of it instead of lurking in the shadows.

I have my General HAM license, FRS, and CB with a grand total of $24 invested. Why would I pay $85(5 years?) for GMRS?
 

KB7MIB

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Peoria, AZ.
Wirelessly posted (Opera/9.80 (BREW; Opera Mini/6.0.3/27.2338; U; en) Presto/2.8.119 320X240 LG VN530)

I haven't monitored in awhile. Although licensed, I'm inactive, as my family has no interest in radios, my Icom IC-U16 needs a new battery pack and my Maxon GMRS 210+3 has a firmware issue (as many of those models did, unfortunately). .
I have a pair of GE 14 channel FRS-only bubble packs, as well as a pair of the Radio Shack 14 channel mobile FRS radios.
There is (were?) two nursing homes in my local area, mostly with housekeeping type of comms, although I don't recall what channels they used.
There is also supposed to be 2-3 repeaters around the Phoenix Valley, but they are rarely used. The last time I heard one active, was right after the wildland fire up near Crown King in '11 I think it was, and two radios techs were headed up there to check on some tower sites that had been enroached upon.
Many years ago, 675 on the White Tanks west of Phoenix, was active with a graffitti eradication crew in the Maryvale area of Phoenix during the daytime, and a neighborhood watch group in the Cactus Park precinct of Phoenix on weekend nights. They got moved to a business channel, and now I don't know where they're at.
Channel 9 just came active with a ringing call tone, and a 67.0 CTCSS as I was typing this. But nothing so far following it. 4:30am local.
 

SCPD

QRT
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I have my General HAM license, FRS, and CB with a grand total of $24 invested. Why would I pay $85(5 years?) for GMRS?

Why not get a license for you and your family so they may talk on GMRS,it is a good service set aside for families.I am sure there may be repeaters in some areas you travel into who wouldn't mind you using their repeater system.What if you are on a outing where the FRS will not reach where you need to talk,for example their is a GMRS repeater at Six Flags in Georgia you could use all over the park.

I am sure there are other places with a repeater in range of the areas you choose that provide family entertainment,that way if you are separated from the group a simple radio contact could bring all of you to a mutual meeting point.You may not hear people talking constantly but as others have said and admitted they do monitor GMRS at times.


I think it is great for you you have a general ham license.I have read your post and see you have not been licensed for a long period of time but if you will notice several hams are dual licensed for both GMRS/Ham.I also hold a general license myself but the fact of the matter is what if your family do not want to become ham operators and find FRS to confining?

My wife has little interest in getting a ham license but she does use our GMRS repeater along with some other licensed GMRS users in my area,not everyone wishes to become ham operators.I just see it as a way of having communications between your family in times of need when cell phones are down,bad weather or who knows what else.You can build your own repeater for just you and your family for a just in case situation because who knows what the future holds and it may come in valuable in a bad situation.

I do have ham operators,and firefighters which are licensed GMRS users on my system.I guess the answer to your question is GMRS is a good system and one license covers your entire family including in-laws.I do not see why that would be a problem,get a blanket license when each person requires a individual license for ham.

Most people use the lame excuse they can't justify the cost of a license.I say it is that only a excuse,people waste more money in one weekend eating out at their favorite restaurant than what a GMRS license cost,it is the fact they are to stingy to cough up the money for a 5 year license.

I am glad you asked the question and will stop here,it is what works for your situation if you have family who would use it I would rethink your reason of why do I need it,who knows if you get them involved in GMRS they make take interest in ham on down the road.
 

SCPD

QRT
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Virginia
I wouldn't say it's dead everywhere. Millions of radios sold, someone is using them.

I hear kids (when not in school playing) on FRS, mostly the 462's, frequently. I hear business on the FRS 462 & 467's randomly...some static business, and some construction, maintenance, etc.

One business locally is using 462.650 because their lazy radio dealer put in their Kenwoods so they wouldn't "need" a license. Another was a doctors office that didn't want their little "headsets" to compete with my repeater (that would obviously obliterate them) so they moved to to 462.5875...still illegal. (The FCC and Manufacturers are purely to blame for this stuff).

True GMRS....well, there is my stuff, and now and then a local guy on another freq. We're licensed.

Too bad it is easier to run illegal with no recourse fears. But, alas there is traffic.

I ran into that problem with a lazy radio dealer and informed him if they illegal activity didn't cease I would report him to the FCC,since it is now illegal for a radio shop to program frequencies to users who aren't licensed to be on them.

After our talk it was no time that he removed them off GMRS and applied for a license and set them up on their new licensed frequency.I usually would not have let it bother me but when I tried to communicate with my wife the school staff would try and impersonate my wife and answer when I was calling her,the problem was they used all 8 repeater outputs.

I figured it was time to report this due to the illegal operation and intentional interference which I incurred on a daily basis,I tried to talk to the county superintendent about the problem but his first question is why are you on our frequencies and what are you doing with a radio.

I told him what I did with my licensed radio was my personal business (since he had such a attitude) and the schools were the ones operating illegally,when questioned about a license his secretary made the statement they did have a license when asked for the call sign I was told the had one but she did not know what it was,since she lied about it I contacted the radio shop and had the discussion about their illegal system and it shook them up enough to make them license the school in the proper band.
 

Darth_vader

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I do use GMRS sometimes, but very seldom. I usually end up monitoring more than talking. My ticket is set to expire approximately 1 1/2-two years from now, at which point I may, but likely won't, renew it. I've been told horror stories by people who had renewed their soon-to-be final CB tickets in the 1970s only to lose the apparently nonrefundable money they spent when the F¢¢ abruptly discontinued CB ticketing a few months later. Not wanting to repeat the same mistake previous generations unwittingly made (and you can't really blame them; information about such matters simply didn't spread as widely and quickly then as it does now), I'll more than likely put GMRS usage on hiatus to see what sort of move the F¢¢ end up making regarding licencing reform/deregulation.

"GMRS is sometimes used in my area with a few repeaters on the air. I wonder why it is not that way in your areas."

It's probably relative to the population density in a given region. The eastern U.S. is generally much more densely populated than here in the west, which tends to be more rural and spread out. Hence, the volume of radio traffic there can be much heavier at times than it is here.

That's my wild hypothesis, anyways.
 
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