GMRS Vs Amateur Is it GMRS Or Not

[amphibian]

If this section of the Forums is for GMRS then could someone explain to me why when you sign up to post within this GMRS/FRS forum there is a place in your profile to put a Amateur Call Sign but not a GMRS Call sign? Are those that are GMRS Licensees only not as important as Public Safety Radio Operators, Commercial Operators and/or Amateur Radio Operators?

No offense to the Amateur Radio Operators that come to this website but if this section of the forums is a forum for the discussion primarily for GMRS/FRS who cares if a poster has a Amateur License or not. I for one sure don't.... I am more interested in what one that has a GMRS License have to post than I am any other radio operators. That's why the lot of us come to this section of the forum.

I think for those that have only a GMRS License it's a slap in the face to have a Amateur call sign place holder and not a place holder for a GMRS call sign. It's almost like being told we are step children to a bunch of hams.

William
WQYX489

 

[QDP2012]

As you probably know, the Amateur Radio Callsign field in the profile is what causes the Amateur Radio Badge to display in the header of a member's forum-posts. In previous administration-related threads, the administration has explained that Mr. Blanton (at least at that time) had no intention of creating more badge-types. This might be why there is no field in the profile for Callsigns beyond the Amateur Callsign. You certainly can include your callsign(s) in your signature block, which it looks like you have done.

As far as taking things personally, like face-slapping, etc., you might want to be a bit more considerate and pragmatic. It takes a lot of effort to maintain this site, and to offer its Forums to all members freely. Having multiple badge-types adds more work. I'm guessing that the decision to limit the number of badge-types is based on labor that would be required, and not on any intent to face-slap anyone. (And, for what it is worth, polite suggestions and requests often go farther than insults and complaints.)

Hope this helps,

 

[n5ims]

It's simple, the site has a separate database where they regularly download and save the ham calls from the FCC database so it's pretty easy to have the ham radio icon on your profile. While the FCC does keep the GMRS call signs, they don't make it quite so easy (or didn't last I checked, but that was quite a while ago) to do the same for GMRS users. Also a ham call is one person per call while GMRS covers the licensee and their immediate family. Since the site has a one login per user policy, it's easy to make the one-to-one association for ham calls, while it wouldn't be nearly as easy to do a one-to-many association for GMRS calls if more than one family member were site members.

The requesting for your amateur call sign is there to allow folks that don't use their ham call sign as their login (where it's pretty easy to make the association) and if a user puts their call sign in there the system can associate that user's login with their entry in the amateur radio database (so folks can easily lookup their information). This is a two-edged sword though since once the association is made, the user won't be as anonymous as they might without that association.

Don't consider it a slap in the face to GMRS users, I'm sure it isn't designed to be one. After all, the site doesn't have any special indication for users that have commercial licenses (talking GROL and the like here) although those are also in the FCC database. They do list commercial two-way sites since that's the basis of the site, so folks can find things to monitor in their area. The WIKI also lists the GMRS frequencies along with FRS, MURS, and Marine since those are fixed channels and are generally not assigned to a specific area.

 

[Dahwg]

If this section of the Forums is for GMRS then could someone explain to me why when you sign up to post within this GMRS/FRS forum there is a place in your profile to put a Amateur Call Sign but not a GMRS Call sign? Are those that are GMRS Licensees only not as important as Public Safety Radio Operators, Commercial Operators and/or Amateur Radio Operators?

No offense to the Amateur Radio Operators that come to this website but if this section of the forums is a forum for the discussion primarily for GMRS/FRS who cares if a poster has a Amateur License or not. I for one sure don't.... I am more interested in what one that has a GMRS License have to post than I am any other radio operators. That's why the lot of us come to this section of the forum.

I think for those that have only a GMRS License it's a slap in the face to have a Amateur call sign place holder and not a place holder for a GMRS call sign. It's almost like being told we are step children to a bunch of hams.

William
WQYX489

I can't speak for the forum administration, but when I had only my GMRS license, it really didn't matter to me what another GMRS user callsign was. As a new ham, I've learned that to the amateur radio community, your callsign is basically your identity. Hams will frequently look each other up on qrz.com as this is a big part of the ham culture. Not so for GMRS. IIRC, broadcasting for a random contact is forbidden in GMRS. You have to know specifically who you want to contact- in other words, no CQ, CQ, CQ, which is where the callsign comes into play the most.

Just my thoughts. I am very proud of my Ham callsign because I worked for it and will be taking my general exam test on Monday. The GMRS callsign, I purchased for me and my family to use, there is no point of pride invested in it. I use both services equally, and enjoy the merits of each. They each have their place and purpose and each have a unique culture. I don't want GMRS to be more like the amateur service, it would ruin the nature of GMRS. Nor would I want to see the amateur radio service become more like GMRS.

Henry
WQYQ485
KI7KSB

Sent from my LG-H918 using Tapatalk

 

[amphibian]

I only asked the question because I was looking over my profile and saw a container box for "Amateur Radio Callsign" and beside it it had a flashing "New".... It's doesn't take that much more programming to add another field in the database for a GMRS call sign as it does to add one for Amateur... I personally don't see why a call sign box even needs to be part of the profile myself...but that's just me....

I have nothing against anyone having a Amateur call sign....for those that want to play in that hobby I say all power to them. With my EE Degree and my Masters in Computer Science and over thirty years in the RF Field I just don't care for a radio hobby... Being around radios all days, when I get done I like to go flying.... Like I said, it's no biggy... just a topic for questioning.... I'm proud of the $70.00 I spent for my GMRS License or I wouldn't have purchased it.....

 

[marcotor]

I had to work to get my Amateur licenses.
For my current GMRS license, I simply paid the required fee.

first world problem, and you are free to not participate if you feel slighted

 

[AK9R]

This is a Site Administration issue, not a GMRS issue. Therefore, thread moved.

The site owner will have to address the OP's question.