n1das said:
A new GMRS callsign issued through the ULS will be 4 letters beginning with W followed by 3 numbers.
I have a GMRS license that was originally issued in 1998. It consists of 3 letters and 4 numbers. It is KAG0(zero not Oh)705. I thought it was an "Oh" for many years and IDed on the GMRS channels in that manner for years. One day I attempted to find my license on the ULS website and it did not come up. I checked to see if the license was even listed by using my FRN and it did. I then suspected that the "Oh" was not such and placed a "zero" in its place and my license popped right up. It took some time to pronounce the callsign without thinking as I had gotten used to the incorrect license.
On the subject of bubble packs, there is a widespread impression by their users that once they have chosen a, uh hum, "privacy code", no one else can hear them, much less talk to them. I was on a hike in the Sierra near the eastern boundary of Yosemite National Park one day in the fall and my hiking buddy had a scanner with the GMRS frequencies programmed in. We picked up traffic by a person climbing a nearby 13,000 peak. I took the scanner and let it do a "PL" search. I then programmed that PL and channel into my GMRS radio. Since I had plans to climb that peak in the next week, I called the person on the peak to ask for current conditions. He did not answer until I called him several times and all through the conversation the tone of his voice indicated he was wondering how I could be talking to him. After our conversation his communications with the other party, who we could not receive due to topography, were very much less animated and contained far less information. I could tell, again by the tone in his voice, that he was puzzled and likely shocked, that someone could actually call him and talk to him when he had "his" privacy code programmed in. He also seemed confused when I used my GMRS license as a call sign. He obviously had not read the "fine print" on the package.
I also live close enough to a major ski area that I can monitor a lot of FRS/GMRS traffic from skiers. Sometimes I hear them talking along and then one of them says something similar to "I need to tell you something that I don't want anyone else to hear, so lets switch to the 'private channel.' " They then go on to talk about a guy or gal that they "got to know real well" the night before and they are quite graphic with their words. Many of the manufacturers of the radios suggest to purchasers that these are "private channels" and not merely tone squelched radios.
