Are the FRS only 1-14 channels dead in your area?

[KevinC]

FRS is quite active around me, unfortunately I didn’t pay enough attention in high school Spanish class and don’t understand 99% of what they are saying.

 

[rf_patriot200]

FRS is quite active around me, unfortunately I didn’t pay enough attention in high school Spanish class and don’t understand 99% of what they are saying.

No comprende espanol ?

 

[KevinC]

No comprende espanol ?

Un poco.

 

[Peter_SD911]

I love FRS and the best time of the day is 2p to 4pm...Car Pool time!

I'm single and have no life...so I'm trying to meet a divorced teacher or non-classified employee via FRS.
I may cast a wider net and kick it up to 40w. I have all required shots.

 

[BinaryMode]

HA! FRS is alive and well here where I live in Colorado. Some users use DMR or NXDN on the frequencies. In fact I've had to add the FRS/GMRS frequencies to the broadcast band/ignore bands in close call because my next door neighbors decided to buy their kids FRS radios. So my computer was logging nothing but kids due to the close call capture. Heck, I'm able to hear my neighbors kid's on FRS in the car about half a mile away. LOL And boy do they love that call beep thing these manufactures add to the radio. Very annoying hearing that every 3 seconds.

There's also a nursing home that uses FRS, and some other company that's near the Amazon warehouse or is the Amazon warehouse. As was posted, a lot of it is in Spanish.

What is dead around here is MURS. Save for a few businesses like Walmart.

 

[K3YGX]

Dead in my neck of the woods - only the occasional flaggers
On both FRS/GMRS or MURS, it's pretty quiet around here.

 

[alcahuete]

Busy here, with kids and annoying roger beeps, for the most part. Some normal users too on a couple of the channels, and the usual transient folks passing through on the freeway. If I go down to LA or Vegas, there's not a free channel, basically 24/7. It all just depends on where you are.

 

[mmckenna]

Busy here, with kids and annoying roger beeps, for the most part. Some normal users too on a couple of the channels, and the usual transient folks passing through on the freeway. If I go down to LA or Vegas, there's not a free channel, basically 24/7. It all just depends on where you are.

A few years back I was heading down to Las Vegas. I took a break off Zzyzx road and was just sitting in my truck. I set my radio to scan the FRS/GMRS channels while I ate my lunch and drank my coffee.

A -lot- of radio traffic and interesting conversations along Interstate 15. Could only hear them for a few minutes at best, but there was some good stuff.

 

[alcahuete]

A few years back I was heading down to Las Vegas. I took a break off Zzyzx road and was just sitting in my truck. I set my radio to scan the FRS/GMRS channels while I ate my lunch and drank my coffee.

A -lot- of radio traffic and interesting conversations along Interstate 15. Could only hear them for a few minutes at best, but there was some good stuff.

Oh yeah! I usually have one of my radios set to scan FRS/GMRS when I'm making that trip, and there is definitely quite a bit of traffic. Increases even more when you go through Barstow, Yermo (believe it or not...ha ha ha!) and Baker.

 

[mike619]

In my area I hear lots of construction flaggers, kids, school campus sometimes, neighborhood families and even a security company at a strip mall during the week and I even picked up activity on a CCR frequency 462.225 analog CSQ it sounded like a neighborhood family was using that frequency but that frequency is not license free to use.

 

[Ubbe]

I even picked up activity on a CCR frequency 462.225

That's the same frequency using CSQ I hear being used by some kids in my neighborhood that are probably a default simplex channel in one of those radios you can by cheap from China as it is not a free channel to use here. Baofeng default channels seem to all come with CTCSS or DCS.

/Ubbe

 

[mike619]

That's the same frequency using CSQ I hear being used by some kids in my neighborhood that are probably a default simplex channel in one of those radios you can by cheap from China as it is not a free channel to use here. Baofeng default channels seem to all come with CTCSS or DCS.

/Ubbe

462.225 That frequency activity sounds like it's a family somewhere close by in my neighborhood on that with no tone I don't know if they will get caught by the FCC or not or get away with using that without a license FCC drives around with spectrum analyzer's in their vehicles or used to to enforce that.

 

[nd5y]

462.225 is one of the chinese default frequencies that several radio models come with (or did in the past).

CCR Default Frequencies - The RadioReference Wiki

wiki.radioreference.com

Lately I have been hearing non-amateurs on 144.725 which is in the 2m ham band.

The FCC won't do anything unless somebody files a complaint and documents harmful interference.

 

[rf_patriot200]

462.225 is one of the chinese default frequencies that several radio models come with (or did in the past).

CCR Default Frequencies - The RadioReference Wiki

wiki.radioreference.com

Lately I have been hearing non-amateurs on 144.725 which is in the 2m ham band.

The FCC won't do anything unless somebody files a complaint and documents harmful interference.

Just curious, but have you said anything to them ?

 

[nd5y]

Just curious, but have you said anything to them ?

No. Why would I want to talk to bootleggers?

 

[Ubbe]

I made a favorite list with all the frequencies from the CCR list and noticed that I already had found a lot of them being used by kids and foreign construction workers, that probably buy some cheap radios and had found a random simplex channel they could use to communicate with each other. But also lots of FRS channels are in illegal use here. I have heard some of those odd 400.250 but also 400.325 that where not in the CCR list but are still totally illegal to use where I live. Some young delivery guys where for a long time using 157.450 from the CCR list as intercom between vehicles.

I know that Motorola program default channels into their 2-way radios that use different transmit and receive frequencies for the same channel and also different CTCC/DCS for TX and RX to try and prevent anyone from using those frequencies out of the box.

/Ubbe

 

[rf_patriot200]

No. Why would I want to talk to bootleggers?

Well, because You're licensed to be there, and they're not ? Maybe you could educate them as to how to get licensed ?

 

[ecps92]

Well, because You're licensed to be there, and they're not ? Maybe you could educate them as to how to get licensed ?

having a conversation with an UNLICENSED Operator ?? Ouch, - seems that would condone their operation and
quite likely violated some FCC rules, hence why many Amateurs when we discover them, just IGNORE them

That is not allowed under 97.111(a)(1):
(a) An amateur station may transmit the following types of two-way communications:
(1) Transmissions necessary to exchange messages with other stations in the amateur service

Communicating with a station you KNOW to not be in amateur service (unlicensed) would be counter to that direction.

 

[n3obl]

97.111a1 would not apply to the 462 freq whether business band or GMRS as that pertains to ham. Not sure of the specific section in the other parts of part 90.

 

[rf_patriot200]

having a conversation with an UNLICENSED Operator ?? Ouch, - seems that would condone their operation and
quite likely violated some FCC rules, hence why many Amateurs when we discover them, just IGNORE them

That is not allowed under 97.111(a)(1):
(a) An amateur station may transmit the following types of two-way communications:
(1) Transmissions necessary to exchange messages with other stations in the amateur service

Communicating with a station you KNOW to not be in amateur service (unlicensed) would be counter to that direction.

Well, if we're dissecting technicalities then True. Just a thought. I found a Effective way to chase kids away from a Gmrs repeater output, is a good ol' LTZ. Or Long tone Zero.