Calling Channel

[rayboy240]

Is there a Standard Calling Frequency on GMRS?

 

[CaptDan]

The official answer is NO

However, there is always a HOWEVER, and in this case the however is that it is generally agreed upon that what some people will call Channel #20 is the calling channel

Channel #20 is also known as frequency 462.6750

It is also generally agreed that a CTTS or PL tone of 141.3 would be the common tone used on the calling channel.

There is no rule, law, regulation or official policy establishing 462.6750 as the calling channel or frequency, best research is that 2 guys and a gal at the corner bar, enjoying a beer and pizza decided one day to use that to contact each other and now my friend the rest is history.

 

[radioman2001]

GMRS does or did have a traveler assistance channel of 462.700 PL 141.3, but I don't know how much that is adhered to

 

[N4KVE]

Remember, GMRS is not like ham radio where you drive across the country calling CQ wherever you are. Common courtesy dictates you first have the repeater owner’s permission to use his repeater.

 

[CaptDan]

GMRS does or did have a traveler assistance channel of 462.700 PL 141.3, but I don't know how much that is adhered to

Never ever heard that one before - in my many many years involved with radio perhaps ya just mis-typed the frequency ?

I even spent some time with my friend google this morning and the only reference to 462.7000 being a calling or traveler assistance, road information channel was your post.

 

[CaptDan]

Remember, GMRS is not like ham radio where you drive across the country calling CQ wherever you are. Common courtesy dictates you first have the repeater owner’s permission to use his repeater.

I agree 100 % GMRS is not HAM Radio.

Generally and I know generally is not a law or rule, but generally a repeater owner who sets up on 462.6750 with a PL tone of 141.3 is generally open to people utilizing the repeater.

There is a movement or groups of people - call them or it whatever one likes - that support what I have heard described as an open repeater initiative on GMRS and generally - again no rule or law - but generally they set their repeater to 462.6750 with a tone of 141.3 and welcome the lawful use of their repeater(s) by properly licensed GMRS radio operators.

 

[mmckenna]

462/467.675 - 141.3Hz is as close as you are going to get.

But don't expect much. Back when I was active on GMRS, I never had any luck with it. There are/were many repeaters out there running that frequency and tone, often related to REACT, or some other group/individual. It was, as others said, the Travelers Assistance channel.
But in the years I used it, I don't recall ever being able to reach someone on it. Even in emergencies, it would go unanswered.

As others have said, GMRS is not like ham radio or CB. It wasn't really ever intended for random contacts, although it can happen. The intent of GMRS was for short range family communications. Usually families just wanted to talk to each other, not random strangers, so CTCSS codes were heavily used. Running carrier squelch would open up your radio to all the neighborhood kids or random people traveling at all hours of the day/night. We also kept to one channel with an out of the way CTCSS tone, and we only ever heard ourselves. We liked it like that.

And GMRS isn't like ham, there are no real agreed upon band plans. The last thing GMRS needs is some ARRL type group coming in and trying to organize that. GMRS works pretty well the way it is.

You can certainly try calling on any channel, but you may find it's rare to get anyone to answer. The 462/467.475 - 141.3Hz is a good place to start, but understand that repeaters are private property and there is no guaranteed free access to any machine. You can try 462.675 and TX 141.3Hz tone and keep your receive squelch open, that might give you a better chance. I would sometimes monitor that if traveling alone. But don't expect to hear a lot.

Would be interesting to know if the recent popularity of GMRS amongst the off road crowd has resulted in any calling channel while on the trail.

 

[chief21]

There is no rule, law, regulation or official policy establishing 462.6750 as the calling channel or frequency, best research is that 2 guys and a gal at the corner bar, enjoying a beer and pizza decided one day to use that to contact each other and now my friend the rest is history.

Back in the day, when the GMRS frequencies were listed in the rules as a table, there was a footnote to 462.675 that designated that frequency and tone 141.3 as the Traveler's Assistance frequency. This designation was removed some years ago, although some groups still continue to monitor .675 as such. I tried to search for a copy of the old GMRS rules but I couldn't find one.

 

[CaptDan]

Back in the day, when the GMRS frequencies were listed in the rules as a table, there was a footnote to 462.675 that designated that frequency and tone 141.3 as the Traveler's Assistance frequency. This designation was removed some years ago, although some groups still continue to monitor .675 as such. I tried to search for a copy of the old GMRS rules but I couldn't find one.

Wikipedia and several other search engines still report it as a Traveler's Assistance Frequency or channel.

I monitor it, along with a bunch of neighbors and use it as a calling channel, but very little activity.

 

[N4KVE]

About 5 years ago, I knew a fellow ham from a local club who needed a few ham freq’s programmed into his MTS2000. I was glad to help, & when he was leaving, he told me he owned a GMRS repeater. He invited me to use it, so I programmed it into my radio. The PL was not 141.3, though, it was a very common commercial PL tone. I used it a few times to test the range, but DMR worked much better, & I didn’t have a GMRS license. The repeater hasn’t been on the air in over a year, but there’s no need to use it. The point is the owner invited me to use his repeater, & he didn’t care that I didn’t have a license. There were 3 users at most.

 

[CaptDan]

462/467.675 - 141.3Hz is as close as you are going to get.

But don't expect much. Back when I was active on GMRS, I never had any luck with it. There are/were many repeaters out there running that frequency and tone, often related to REACT, or some other group/individual. It was, as others said, the Travelers Assistance channel.
But in the years I used it, I don't recall ever being able to reach someone on it. Even in emergencies, it would go unanswered.

As others have said, GMRS is not like ham radio or CB. It wasn't really ever intended for random contacts, although it can happen. The intent of GMRS was for short range family communications. Usually families just wanted to talk to each other, not random strangers, so CTCSS codes were heavily used. Running carrier squelch would open up your radio to all the neighborhood kids or random people traveling at all hours of the day/night. We also kept to one channel with an out of the way CTCSS tone, and we only ever heard ourselves. We liked it like that.

And GMRS isn't like ham, there are no real agreed upon band plans. The last thing GMRS needs is some ARRL type group coming in and trying to organize that. GMRS works pretty well the way it is.

You can certainly try calling on any channel, but you may find it's rare to get anyone to answer. The 462/467.475 - 141.3Hz is a good place to start, but understand that repeaters are private property and there is no guaranteed free access to any machine. You can try 462.675 and TX 141.3Hz tone and keep your receive squelch open, that might give you a better chance. I would sometimes monitor that if traveling alone. But don't expect to hear a lot.

Would be interesting to know if the recent popularity of GMRS amongst the off road crowd has resulted in any calling channel while on the trail.

The "off road crowd" is just like the rest of the world, everyone seems to want to do it their way - Gulf coast of Florida and the "jeep group" uses GMRS 4 (462.673) - apparently their thought process is they are 4wd so they will use channel 4, another group uses GMRS 16 (462.5750) because their vehicles are often referred to as being 4x4 which in math class = 16

I have been away from the NJ Shore for a few years now, but we all used Channel 16 on GMRS, FRS and CB because it was easy for everyone to remember as most also owned boats or were involved in boating and as you know channel 16 was the channel to monitor on the Marine band.

It would be so simple and easy for everyone to agree, but that's not happening, everyone has to do it their way.

 

[n1das]

I agree 100 % GMRS is not HAM Radio.

Generally and I know generally is not a law or rule, but generally a repeater owner who sets up on 462.6750 with a PL tone of 141.3 is generally open to people utilizing the repeater.

There is a movement or groups of people - call them or it whatever one likes - that support what I have heard described as an open repeater initiative on GMRS and generally - again no rule or law - but generally they set their repeater to 462.6750 with a tone of 141.3 and welcome the lawful use of their repeater(s) by properly licensed GMRS radio operators.

Is there and official calling channel on GMRS? Thankfully, NO. 462.675 was previously reserved for emergency and traveler assistance under the old GMRS rules. This went away with the rule change to all channel licensing in 1999.

I have been GMRS licensed since 1992 and this was back in the days where you were allowed to be licensed on any TWO of the eight GMRS primary channels and the corresponding 467MHz repeater inputs. 462.675 was reserved for emergency and traveler assistance, if it wasn't one of your original two primary freqs. Many REACT groups across the country operated on 675 with PL141.3 and some still do today. The local REACT group in my area used 675 with PL167.9 for their routine ops but also monitored 675 with PL141.3 for traveler assistance calls. This particular REACT group has been gone for close to 20 years now.

Back when I got GMRS licensed in 1992, you picked any TWO of the eight GMRS primary freqs and the corresponding 467MHz repeater inputs and you put the 4 frequencies on the license application. Repeaters and base stations had to be on the license application including antenna and tower information. The number of repeaters, base stations, and mobiles also had to be on the application. The GMRS system's area of operation also had to be listed. Frequency coordination was required like Part 90. Mobile stations (MO) did not require coordination. The Universal Licensing System (ULS) did not exist yet and I had to file the old paper Form 574, the same form used for Part 90 and other radio services. The form had to be typewritten, with absolutely no exceptions except for your signature at the bottom. The license fee was $35 and the license term was 5 years.

The licensing process took about 2 months. If there is was problem with the application, the application was immediately returned as defective. If it seems like it went into a black hole, there was no need to worry because the license application completed the process and will be issued. The license shows the 4 frequencies you applied for plus a note at the bottom saying that additional frequencies are authorized by rule 95.29 and to refer to the rule for details. Rule 95.29 authorized the use of 462.675 for emergency and traveler assistance if it wasn't already one of your two primary channels and also authorized use of the 7 462MHz interstitial channels which later became shared with FRS as the first 7 FRS channels.

I purposely licensed myself for 10 mobiles only at 50W and with no base station. My area of operation was nationwide south of Line A. This was the recommended way to get around frequency coordination. Mobiles also included portables. My license included a note at the bottom saying that additional frequencies were authorized per rule 95.29 and to refer to the rule for details. I purposely chose 462.575 and 462.625 as my two primary channels because manufactures had started making cheap GMRS radios for these primary channels. Motorola had a 10 channel GMRS portable based on the Spirit series business radios. These were the early cheap radios before the creation of FRS. They were not yet referred to as bubble pack radios. These radios typically had 10 channels which included the 7 GMRS interstitials plus 462.575, 462.625, and 462.675 primary channels. Motorola later refreshed their Spirit based GMRS portable to become the Talkabout Distance and Talkabout Distance DPS (dual power source) models. I had a few of these as beater radios back in the day.

In 1999, the FCC eliminated the two channel rule for GMRS and frequency coordination and went to all channel licensing in GMRS. Bases and repeaters no longer needed to be listed on the license application. The 1999 rule change to all channel licensing also eliminated 462.675 being reserved for emergency and traveler assistance. The change to all channel licensing made applying for a GMRS license a whole lot easier. This also paved the way for manufacturers to start selling 22 channel GMRS/FRS combo bubble pack radios, which have since been reclassified as FRS after the 2017 R&O.

The bottom line is 675 used to be reserved for emergency and traveler assistance but this rule has been gone since 1999. The history behind 675 previously being reserved for emergency and traveler assistance is likely where the PL141.3 travel tone concept originated from.

 

[n1das]

462/467.675 - 141.3Hz is as close as you are going to get.

But don't expect much.

What mmckenna said. 462.675/467.675 w/PL141.3 is as close as you are going to get.

 

[KF6DGN]

I found this list, which includes GMRS, interesting.

HAM Radio Frequencies for Preppers - North Country Survival

Northcountrysurvival is a website about all things prepping, SHTF, disaster preparedness.. We all post alot about HAM radio communications when the SHTF. Are you Prepared??

northcountrysurvival.net

 

[nd5y]

Never rely on frequency lists from prepper or survivalist web sites.