"Fixing GMRS" - an Editorial (AKA everyone's GMRS ideas go here)

[mmckenna]

I don't think it's appropriate for me to submit a Rule Making Proposal without a consensus from the Community that uses GMRS.

I don't think you are ever going to get consensus on this. Just like you'd never get consensus if you proposed any change to amateur radio. Just too many passionate people that want things to stay exactly as they are, and meantime, "get off my lawn, kid!".

 

[russbrill]

Russ; Are you a paid shill for Midland?

I'm active on QRZ as KN6SD..

 

[russbrill]

I don't think you are ever going to get consensus on this. Just like you'd never get consensus if you proposed any change to amateur radio. Just too many passionate people that want things to stay exactly as they are, and meantime, "get off my lawn, kid!".

Kid, I'm an old fart now... 14 was long ago

 

[russbrill]

I don't think you are ever going to get consensus on this. Just like you'd never get consensus if you proposed any change to amateur radio. Just too many passionate people that want things to stay exactly as they are, and meantime, "get off my lawn, kid!".

I think the next fix pushed by industry will be Narrowband and a power increase on FRS channels 8 thru 14... FRS = F--- Bomb Radio Service, because I hear the F--- word a lot on FRS...

 

[RFI-EMI-GUY]

I'm active on QRZ as KN6SD..

I just had a fantastic idea whilst sitting on the throne. Funny, Russ got me thinking and He is so right! So here goes:

The Ham Bands have these huge swaths of valuable spectrum they "hijacked" from the DOD that are used for hammies playing EME and satellites. Take a look for yourself, its a way big bunch of bandwidth.

Funny thing is there only about 16 guys in the US who do EME and only 3 serious ones, they are old anyway so no bother. On the satellite side, AMSAT has maybe a 100 folks, less than thirty are active, now mostly young hipster punks who work for Elon Musk. (so who cares!)

So my plan is to move all of FRS down there in Part 97 where Midland can easily fit in maybe 80 channels. Its a win win because Midland can sell new radios to people who just dropped $150 at Walmart ($99 Memorial day sale) and tell those folks, sorry your radios are obsolete deprecated etc. New features are reported to include enhanced Reverb Roger Beep and persistent GPS "bloops".

 

[russbrill]

I just had a fantastic idea whilst sitting on the throne. Funny, Russ got me thinking and He is so right! So here goes:

The Ham Bands have these huge swaths of valuable spectrum they "hijacked" from the DOD that are used for hammies playing EME and satellites. Take a look for yourself, its a way big bunch of bandwidth.

Funny thing is there only about 16 guys in the US who do EME and only 3 serious ones, they are old anyway so no bother. On the satellite side, AMSAT has maybe a 100 folks, less than thirty are active, now mostly young hipster punks who work for Elon Musk. (so who cares!)

So my plan is to move all of FRS down there in Part 97 where Midland can easily fit in maybe 80 channels. Its a win win because Midland can sell new radios to people who just dropped $150 at Walmart ($99 Memorial day sale) and tell those folks, sorry your radios are obsolete deprecated etc. New features are reported to include enhanced Reverb Roger Beep and persistent GPS "bloops".

Ha ha ha, I've already beat you to that, well kinda… I was thinking about a shared service on 222 MHz to 225 MHz. The idea quickly caused Heart Failure with some hams, and a few had their heads blow up (like the movie Scanners

)….

 

[RFI-EMI-GUY]

I just went to the Kenwood USA website and did a search for "GMRS" ... nothing.

So far the two choices I've found are Midland and various CCRs.

I am sure there are others;

Specs | TK-7180/8180 | Land Mobile Radio | Communications | KENWOOD USA

Welcome to KENWOOD USA Site. In pursuit of further value creation by integrality our three core business segments and establish [ mobile & home multimedia system ] business

www.kenwood.com

FCC ID K4437313110

Look for the Part 95A in the grant.

Someone needs to list all the many new and older model compatible radios in one place. I would like to, but have too much else to do.

Edit here is another Kenwood Mobile:

Specs | TK-7302HV/8302HU | Land Mobile Radio | Communications | KENWOOD USA

Welcome to KENWOOD USA Site. In pursuit of further value creation by integrality our three core business segments and establish [ mobile & home multimedia system ] business

www.kenwood.com

FCC ID K44407702

You can find these radios cheaply on the used market if you are so inclined.

 

[russbrill]

I am sure there are others;

Specs | TK-7180/8180 | Land Mobile Radio | Communications | KENWOOD USA

Welcome to KENWOOD USA Site. In pursuit of further value creation by integrality our three core business segments and establish [ mobile & home multimedia system ] business

www.kenwood.com

FCC ID K4437313110

Look for the Part 95A in the grant.

Someone needs to list all the many new and older model compatible radios in one place. I would like to, but have too much else to do.

Icom has a Part-90 radio that will work on GMRS...

 

[mmckenna]

So my plan is to move all of FRS down there in Part 97 where Midland can easily fit in maybe 80 channels. Its a win win because Midland can sell new radios to people who just dropped $150 at Walmart ($99 Memorial day sale) and tell those folks, sorry your radios are obsolete deprecated etc. New features are reported to include enhanced Reverb Roger Beep and persistent GPS "bloops".

I'm down with that.
While we are at it, lets give 10 meters to the CB'ers. Many of them are already running on 10 meters "free band", using 10 meter radios, linear amplifiers, etc. Only makes sense. No reason we should inconvenience the CB users. They worked hard for those 10 pill amps.

And lets give 6 meters back to TV Channel 1.

 

[russbrill]

I'm down with that.
While we are at it, lets give 10 meters to the CB'ers. Many of them are already running on 10 meters "free band", using 10 meter radios, linear amplifiers, etc. Only makes sense. No reason we should inconvenience the CB users. They worked hard for those 10 pill amps.

And lets give 6 meters back to TV Channel 1.

Here was an answer I got from someone on a CB forum when I asked him about UHF CB, "I guess it depends on what group of people your trying to get into your new CB radio service. if you're trying to win over the old CB crowd, I don't think this would work. Mainly because they won't like dealing with a license, repeaters, and no freebanding".

So don't worry about CBer's taking over GMRS...

 

[mmckenna]

So don't worry about CBer's taking over GMRS...

I wasn't. I was more hoping the CB'ers would take over 10 meters to piss off all the amateurs. (don't worry, I'm a ham also, and I just like seeing them get worked up into a lather over things)

After all, when amateur radio adopted the "no-code" stuff, CB'ers were all going to flood in. Many hams were convinced it was "the end of the hobby" and were going to sell all their gear and take up underwater basket weaving.

If I got a dollar every time I heard someone on this site claim that some facet of the hobby was coming to an end, I'd be able to buy a lot of radios.

 

[russbrill]

I am sure there are others;

Specs | TK-7180/8180 | Land Mobile Radio | Communications | KENWOOD USA

Welcome to KENWOOD USA Site. In pursuit of further value creation by integrality our three core business segments and establish [ mobile & home multimedia system ] business

www.kenwood.com

FCC ID K4437313110

Look for the Part 95A in the grant.

Someone needs to list all the many new and older model compatible radios in one place. I would like to, but have too much else to do.

Edit here is another Kenwood Mobile:

Specs | TK-7302HV/8302HU | Land Mobile Radio | Communications | KENWOOD USA

Welcome to KENWOOD USA Site. In pursuit of further value creation by integrality our three core business segments and establish [ mobile & home multimedia system ] business

www.kenwood.com

FCC ID K44407702

You can find these radios cheaply on the used market if you are so inclined.

BTW: I hope I'm wrong about the future. However, I think I've seen this movie before...

 

[russbrill]

I wasn't. I was more hoping the CB'ers would take over 10 meters to piss off all the amateurs. (don't worry, I'm a ham also, and I just like seeing them get worked up into a lather over things)

After all, when amateur radio adopted the "no-code" stuff, CB'ers were all going to flood in. Many hams were convinced it was "the end of the hobby" and were going to sell all their gear and take up underwater basket weaving.

If I got a dollar every time I heard someone on this site claim that some facet of the hobby was coming to an end, I'd be able to buy a lot of radios.

Too bad the guys with the really nice stuff won't sell out cheap I'd like a newer Kenwood TS--890...

 

[mmckenna]

BTW: I hope I'm wrong about the future. However, I think I've seen this movie before...

Well, I think I've heard this movie before.

ARRL had everyone worked up into a lather over Broadband over Power Lines bringing the hobby "to and end". That blew over.

No Code amateur radio was going to be "the death of the hobby". It wasn't.

Trunked radio was going to be the "death of scanning". It wasn't.

Rebanding 800MHz was going to be the "death of scanning". It wasn't.

FRS radio was going to be the "death of GMRS". It wasn't.

Losing part of 1.25 meters was "going to be the beginning of the end" for amateur radio. It wasn't.

I seem to remember taking 11 meters away from amateur radio was going to be the beginning of the end. It wasn't.

Cell phones were going to be the death of the hobby. It wasn't.

There's a long history of people claiming specific radios services are dying. I'm pretty sure it all started the second spark gap transmitters fell out of favor.

This too shall pass.

 

[russbrill]

Well, I think I've heard this movie before.

ARRL had everyone worked up into a lather over Broadband over Power Lines bringing the hobby "to and end". That blew over.

No Code amateur radio was going to be "the death of the hobby". It wasn't.

Trunked radio was going to be the "death of scanning". It wasn't.

Rebanding 800MHz was going to be the "death of scanning". It wasn't.

FRS radio was going to be the "death of GMRS". It wasn't.

Losing part of 1.25 meters was "going to be the beginning of the end" for amateur radio. It wasn't.

I seem to remember taking 11 meters away from amateur radio was going to be the beginning of the end. It wasn't.

Cell phones were going to be the death of the hobby. It wasn't.

There's a long history of people claiming specific radios services are dying. I'm pretty sure it all started the second spark gap transmitters fell out of favor.

This too shall pass.

Yeah, my local theater had those too

 

[russbrill]

Well, I think I've heard this movie before.

ARRL had everyone worked up into a lather over Broadband over Power Lines bringing the hobby "to and end". That blew over.

No Code amateur radio was going to be "the death of the hobby". It wasn't.

Trunked radio was going to be the "death of scanning". It wasn't.

Rebanding 800MHz was going to be the "death of scanning". It wasn't.

FRS radio was going to be the "death of GMRS". It wasn't.

Losing part of 1.25 meters was "going to be the beginning of the end" for amateur radio. It wasn't.

I seem to remember taking 11 meters away from amateur radio was going to be the beginning of the end. It wasn't.

Cell phones were going to be the death of the hobby. It wasn't.

There's a long history of people claiming specific radios services are dying. I'm pretty sure it all started the second spark gap transmitters fell out of favor.

This too shall pass.

You forgot the ones where they want you to send money to save radio from other radios...

 

[mmckenna]

Yeah, my local theater had those too

One of the many reasons I gave up on ARRL. Too much "sky was falling" for me.

 

[russbrill]

One of the many reasons I gave up on ARRL. Too much "sky was falling" for me.

Sent you a PM...

 

[W8UU]

This has been an interesting discussion.

The biggest changes I'd like to see the FCC make for GMRS:

• Sunset the FRS overlay. Move FRS somewhere else; 900 MHz, a tiny swath of 70 cm. ham frequencies, maybe combine with MURS and divvy up some of those 162-174 MHz Federal frequencies that are virtually unused.
• Consider establishing a standardized GMRS simplex call channel and a simplex work channel.
• Implement frequency coordination for repeater stations. Go back to having a specified repeater pair marked on your FCC license and have a coordinator that assigns PL/DPL tones and maintains an accurate database. In the end, this protects the repeater owner's investment as well as all the users on the system. MyGMRS.com is littered with inaccuurate information and isn't a reliable alternative.
• Look to the future and determine whether you want to narrowband our current channel pairs or implement DMR. The hard, fast truth is our glut of quality wideband-capable commercial radio equipment is sinking in the quicksand a little more every day.

Just my $0.02

 

[RFI-EMI-GUY]

Rick;
If folks know where to look there are plenty of wide band radios that are affordable and are part 95 certified. The part 90 radios certainly meet the specs if someone goes that route. It's hard to argue that two oranges are different because one has a label. The radios have undergone the exact same tests and meet same standards except an engineer did not check the box part 95A when submitting paperwork.

What Midland is doing is trying to force a defacto standard of mediocre radios. Just as they did with the FRS GMRS Combo radios. Then they can lobby the FCC and play games to the detriment of serious GMRS users.

It is too bad, because they could easily make a radio fully compliant and with correct feature set for repeaters. They chose to just crank out crap, and they are clever in marketing it to unwary masses.