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GMRS Licence Cost?

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I've been a licensed Ham operator for several years now.

I've owned a CB when you needed licensing for CBs and was one of the few that paid for the license.

I'm headed to Mexico for a 21 day off-road trip where not everyone is a licensed Ham or has a Ham radio so our fearless leader who, like me, thinks that CB radios are a waste of money had decided that we are all going to use FRS/GMRS radios.

I just went to apply for my license and unless I missed something $70 for 5 years ??? I think my Ham license was something like $15.

If the cost of the license is really $70 then it is no wonder that people are not getting licensed and abusing the airways with obviously illegal transmissions.

Needless to say I am not going to pay $70 for a license for a radio I'll be using for 21 days in Mexico and not using again.

Did I miss something ? Is it really $70, it has questions about exemptions but I could not find any information on exemptions for fees or lower fees perhaps because I am retired or already have a Ham license.

Can anyone give me some real info please on the cost for a GMRS license ?
 

jonwienke

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That is the cost, and why very few people actually bother getting it. There's no reason for it to be that high, except as a cash cow.
 

ecps92

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Careful with FRS / GMRS in Mexico, they have been known to inspect the radios as there is/was a specific (similar to FCC/IC) type acceptance for FRS/GMRS radios in Mexico
Mexico's Family Radio Service (FRS) equivalent

I've been a licensed Ham operator for several years now.

I've owned a CB when you needed licensing for CBs and was one of the few that paid for the license.

I'm headed to Mexico for a 21 day off-road trip where not everyone is a licensed Ham or has a Ham radio so our fearless leader who, like me, thinks that CB radios are a waste of money had decided that we are all going to use FRS/GMRS radios.

I just went to apply for my license and unless I missed something $70 for 5 years ??? I think my Ham license was something like $15.

If the cost of the license is really $70 then it is no wonder that people are not getting licensed and abusing the airways with obviously illegal transmissions.

Needless to say I am not going to pay $70 for a license for a radio I'll be using for 21 days in Mexico and not using again.

Did I miss something ? Is it really $70, it has questions about exemptions but I could not find any information on exemptions for fees or lower fees perhaps because I am retired or already have a Ham license.

Can anyone give me some real info please on the cost for a GMRS license ?
 

jonwienke

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A US license for GMRS probably isn't valid in Mexico, either.
 

mmckenna

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Yeah, I gotta question this....

FCC GMRS licenses give you zero permissions in Mexico. Why bother spending the money on it? Unless you are going to use GMRS here in the USA, skip it.
 

Rred

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Mexico's Family Radio Service (FRS) equivalent goes into the details and yes, the radios must be type accepted BY MEXICO not by the FCC.

It would be cheaper and simpler to get a US T-Mobile account which can give you unlimited talk and text in Mexico and Canada, and just kill the account after one month., (Assuming you are not going into the boondocks.) Has your fearless leader considered that?
 
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Mexico's Family Radio Service (FRS) equivalent goes into the details and yes, the radios must be type accepted BY MEXICO not by the FCC.

It would be cheaper and simpler to get a US T-Mobile account which can give you unlimited talk and text in Mexico and Canada, and just kill the account after one month., (Assuming you are not going into the boondocks.) Has your fearless leader considered that?

Yes we will be in the boondocks most of the time.

Back to the cost of the license, has the FCC learned nothing from CB radio. I'm guessing that is the reason for some of the comments about the frequency being hijacked.

Makes no sense at all when it costs nothing for a 10 year Ham radio license other than the initial $15 for the exam fee.

Another example of government idiotic regulations.
 

Dantian

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Back to the cost of the license, has the FCC learned nothing from CB radio.

Oh, the FCC has learned plenty from CB radio, which is why they keep trying to delete ALL licensing from the GMRS. They were stopped before -- claimed that they "calibrated user sentiment" -- but no one knows if they will be stopped again. The decision was placed before the Commissioners in August 2016, but only the staff and lobbyists know what's in it.

Makes no sense at all when it costs nothing for a 10 year Ham radio license other than the initial $15 for the exam fee.

Congress declared FCC must be self-funding. If FCC was taking your tax money you'd be howling worse. Your Amateur Radio exam fee did not go to the FCC.

Another example of government idiotic regulations.

No, it's an example of Congressionally enacted Federal law (not FCC regulations) that kept Amateur Radio licensing but provided no money to fund it. If GMRS users want the same thing they are perfectly free to lobby their government. That is how hams got themselves into the long list of those exempt from fees:

https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/47/1.1162

But hams said, keep the licenses but drop the fee. FCC proposed, drop GMRS licenses.
 

amphibian

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Most all two-way radios, including CB Radios are not allowed for use in Mexico. In fact, in some areas of Mexico they still use CB Radios for their law enforcement... So like guns issues in Mexico you should treat two-way radios the same.

Now as far as the cost for a license to use GMRS for communications here in the states. $70.00 is a fair price. Of course we would all like to get stuff for nothing.... but look at what you get for nothing.... I balked at first about the original $100.00 fee, then I had to stop and remember that while back in the two-way radio communications business for over thirty years I paid more than that for some of the licenses I had gotten from FCC. Used to question it back then also. One man was correct in saying that FCC was told by Congress that they had to be self supporting. I was happy to pay the $70.00 I spent for my GMRS license compared to the millions that the company that bought all my 800 trunking channels had to pay at the time. I'm sure if you amateur radio operators were to have to be like the rest of us non-hobby radio operators have to be you would see that may $70.00 isn't so bad after all.

But even so, let us talk about what most of you amateur radio operators fail to consider.....I pay $ 70.00 for one license that good for five years. Now then, unlike amateur (you figure the cost for each of the following having to pay $15.00 for a Amateur test), any of my family members - mom, dad, aunt, uncle, brothers, sister,, daughters, son, grand daughters, grandsons, well you get the point, get to use my license -- anywhere - anytime - in the U S - as long as I give them the ok to do so. They don't have to be in the same room with me while I stand there, in the same car with me, and they don't have to go test for anything.... In addition, I can place as many repeaters as I desire into operation, any where I so choose, and without having to coordinate frequencies, and I don't have to make it (the repeater) available to all the free loaders to use that like to complain when the repeater isn't working right and are not willing to help pay to fix it (like one group here around my area does when the local ham repeater goes on the blink). I addition I don't have to worry about listening to the emptiness of content on a net every Tuesday night.

So for me I am happy that we GMRS users have to pay a fee. Do I think $70.00 is fair....well for one it keeps the cheapskates that only want to pay less than $20.00 dollars from ruining a great area of spectrum. Besides, look at what you have on 11 meter band today because of a free for all to use. Stop and think what the airwaves would be like if Public Safety, Commercial, Marine, Amateur, and most of all broadcast station were all open and non-licensed. So yes, $70.00 is a fair price... Heck, I pay more than that (after five years of counting) to belong to ARRL each year.

So I would say that FCC has most definitely learn from the CB bands that they themselves were cause of ruination.

If anything I wanted to complain about, it would be that GMRS is on the bottom of this forum when it should be up at the top.....jmho
 

amphibian

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$70 would be good IF the fed's would do some enforcement......

Some people have a misconception of what and how FCC enforces their rules. Like some of the other bands, we GMRS Licensees are required to try and police our frequencies initially and then when all else fails, FCC, upon written request and evidence to support the request they will, investigate.....

In most cases, not always, a simple letter or pleasant verbal request solves the problem.

Again, another reason where an association like our USGMRS Association could help to provide a place for central reporting of violations, show those that need to report a violation how to do so in the proper method that FCC requires and the ability to track where and when most of the violations are taking place.

I know myself, that I have solved a few issues over the years and have not found that it was a problem.... but in the last several months after forming the association the war stories I have been listening to shows that there is real issues in some parts of the country. Being able to track these issues would be a great way to see how and where they are occurring, how to attempt to eliminate them, and if we can't then it shows to FCC that we have made an honest attempt to peaceably do so... JMHO...
 

DY2_TTY

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I just paid $70 last week for a 5 year license. That equates to $14 a year.

I don't have a ham license yet, and I can't get my family members to get interested with it either because they have "phones".

At least with GMRS I just pay and the whole family can legally use the radios.
 

jeepsandradios

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I do the same. My father worked at the highway department for many years before retiring. He has no interest in radio, but wants to push a button to talk so GMRS was the best idea. And when he is traveling the US in the camper he has more to monitor than CH19...
 

WRAD730

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Cost of a GMRS License

For what it is worth, at the time of this post, the cost of a GMRS license is $70.00 for 10 years.
 

WQPW689

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Right. I've seen so many posts stating 5 years and that is just plain wrong. Like you wrote, it's "10" years. That comes out to $7.00 per year, which really ain't that bad.

Sorry, but that's incorrect. I just renewed in August and the new expiration date is 2022.

Looking at the license right now. The grant date and expiration date are readily available in ULS search.
 

SteveC0625

Order of the Golden Dino since 1972
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Sorry, but that's incorrect. I just renewed in August and the new expiration date is 2022.

Looking at the license right now. The grant date and expiration date are readily available in ULS search.



As part of overhaul of Part 95, the GMRS license period was extended from 5 years to 10 years, effective on the same date as the new rules, September 28, 2017. Anything prior to that date happened under the old rules including your license renewal period.

Please stop insisting that it is a five year license. It is now a ten year license.

FWIW, I got bit with a required five year renewal prior to the change too.
 
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