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I recently bought two Motorola 2 mile range FRS radios and two Motorola 5 mile range FRS/GMSR radios. I am going to do a study on the difference in range and overall performance between the two systems and post the results here. There already is a significant difference in price between the two systems, and I will try to show if the cost difference is worth the increased performance.
First, I will study the differences between city, highway, open country, wooded, and densly wooded areas. This stage of the study will be conducted in several different parks/areas. Second, I will look into the difference in overall performance between regular disposable batteries and NiCad batteries. The second part of the study will take much longer than the first and will check if there is a difference in performance bewteen the two battery systems since the diffence in cost between the two systems is a significant factor already. If anyone else has an idea I missed or would like to help me in this project, let me know.
Team Socko, Vincetti, @ Mel.I’ve toyed with purchasing GMRS, but havn’t yet, mostly because of the $75 liscensing fee on top of the cost of the radio, and because you can’t loan one to anyone except a family member. So if you go hiking with friends etc., they have to have their own radio, you can’t give them a spare.
I’ve had a VHF license for more than 20 years now and according to my license, as a corporation or organization, you can have members of that entity use the radio under your liscence. That is what I intend to do in this circumstance. If I can get permission to use the WGA as the organization license holder with my name as the actual holder, anyone using the radios will fall under my lisence. If not, I can apply for the new license under my team name and see what happens.
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Originally posted by CacheCows:
I’ve toyed with purchasing GMRS, but havn’t yet, mostly because of the $75 liscensing fee…Sounds like the FCC has finally gotten things back to where they can charge for license fees. There was some legal challenge about their fees and for years, any radio license application was fee free.
I don’t know if any are around now, but when the GMRS was created, it was allowed to have repeaters. Regular duplexing kind, not the simplex that we use on the FRS. That would really help with range if one were in the area and if it were not a closed repeater.
Steve Bukosky
WaukeshaIf things go the way I hope, I will be purchasing several of these radios and make them available to people at geocaching functions. I am also looking into the purchase of a repeater for these radios. I’ll decide what to do depending upon the response I get from this posting.
In order to use a duplex repeater, the GMRS radio must have a frequency offset function to it. It would transmit on one frequency and receive on another. Duplexing repeaters listen on the transmit frequency and tranmit at the same time on the offset frequency. To accomplish this, devices called cavity duplexers are used which are very narrow bandpass filters which allow all this to happen without the transmitting power getting into the receiver and destroying it. I’m not aware of any portable repeaters due to the time neaded to tune things up. I have seen some Radio Shack simplex repeaters on ebay that seem to work with any radio provided the radio has the approprate jacks. They seem to be different that what we’ve used at the WGA functions.
Steve Bukosky
Waukeshaquote:
Originally posted by Jonathan F. Gorton:
I’ve had a VHF license for more than 20 years now and according to my license, as a corporation or organization, you can have members of that entity use the radio under your liscence. That is what I intend to do in this circumstance.Those are the rules for VHF business band. Here are the rules for GMRS:
The General Mobile Radio Service (GMRS) is a land-mobile radio service available for short-distance two-way communications to facilitate the activities of an adult individual and his or her immediate family members, including a spouse, children, parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, nephews, nieces, and in-laws (47 CFR 95.179). Normally, as a GMRS system licensee, you and your and family members would communicate among yourselves over the general area of your residence or during recreational group outings, such as camping or hiking.
In particular, note this section under Eligibilty:
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An individual 18 years of age or older, who is not a representative of a foreign government, is eligible to apply for a GMRS system license. Individual family members are all ages are subsequently eligible to operate GMRS stations and units within the licensed system.A non-individual (any entity that is not an individual; corporations, partnerships, associations, governmental units etc.) is not eligible to license a new system or make a major modifications to an existing GMRS system license.
WGA would not be eligible to be a liscense holder. You would not be allowed to purchase several GMRS radios and loan them out. GMRS is liscensed strictly for use between family members, as odd as that may be.
Brian (Team Grousetales) and myself have gone round and round on this issue, seeking a way that we could use GMRS for WGA events. There is just no latitude in the FCC rules for this use. Each family at the event would have to have their own $75 liscense.
Sorry… [ ][This message has been edited by CacheCows (edited 05-25-2003).]
Getting back to the original topic, I think I will still do the study, at least for my benifit. If anyone else gets something out of this, all the better. Anyone interested in helping is still invited to contact me. Thanks to Cachecows and Bukosky for thier input on this matter.
Socko
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