GMRS Explained: Not Quite Ham, Not Quite Public

[Rob Painless]

No question, there's always room for improvement. But, sometimes, the 'lowest common denominator'.....is good enough.

 

[Silent Earth]

Over this side of the pond many preppers are Amateur licence holders, but they also tend to be amateur hobbyists. More preppers use Baofeng UV5RCs reprogramed to other freqs as well as the 2m and 70cm bands, EG PMR 446 16 channels, but of late there is a growing resurgence / interest in CB radio both 4w AM/FM and now with the EU legal 12 watt SSB. Small groups of preppers are trying to create chains or networks of CB linked preppers. Distances of up to 1600 miles have been established on ( very rare) occasions. With Export model radios like the President Grant 2 Premium available much comms capability is improved.

 

[CommoFreq]

Yeah, and that's good training. I dunno - in a way, it's kind of a double-edged sword.

On one hand, you're learning how this stuff works, in its most basic form. Eventually you'll run into an old CB'er, who knows pretty much everything there is to know. The guy can troubleshoot anything, "peak and tweak" radios, and fix your equipment to have a monster signal output and input. Etc. Pretty soon, you'll have it all figured out too, after maybe say, 2 or 3 years.

On the other hand, it's easy to get comfortable with that, never realizing what more you can do with radios. Take the old CB'er, for example. CB is all he knows. He knows it well, but nothing more. A lot of people fall into that rabbit hole and never make their way out. They think, "ah, I have a dependable voice link to such and such, and that's all I really . . . 'need'". In reality, you never know ahead of time what you'll need to be able to do. It's best to learn at least a little of everything, just in case.

And then, freshen the skills from time to time.

 

[Silent Earth]

Thing is many people see radio coms as only a tiny part of their preps, a radio is just another tool like a wrench, pistol, paint brush etc they simply dont want to become engrossed in all things coms the way very many amateur enthusiasts do. Huge numbers of folks simply want each member of the family to be able to stay in touch locally after TSHTF so they are more than happy with CB / FRS/ PMR, they LIKE the simplicity, they like just selecting a channel number, no bands, frequencies, Ctcss codes. One simply Fire stick antenna feeding a 40 channel CB meets their needs. If they are curious they often buy scanners. They neither need nor want Yagis, Rotators, Pre amp, Burners, Di poles, Repeaters, Parrots, devices that look they come off a Star Ship. Because they are preppers not radio enthuisiasts. They are the folks with will drive a Standard F150 not a tricked out expedition vehicle. they will have a Mossberg 500 and a basic wood stock Ruger Mini 14 not An Ar15 clone with all the tactical extras.

I for one think that after a major event most families wont have time to sit and use radio gear for more than a few minutes each day, they will be to busy trying to stay safe, warm, fed and sheltered to be concerned if they can change a circuit board in an Icom Rc 8500. I know plenty who at best will tolerate a single CB antenna on their Chimney stack and dont want multiple towers stacks, yagis etc.

Some Ham enthusiasts if they transferred their approach with radios would be saying " You dont want a car you should work your way up to an Abrams Tank, and you dont want a Mini 14 you should work your way up to a Radar Controlled Chain Gun. They appear ( to me at least) to be almost obsessive about Amateur radio and are pretty contemptuous of people who dont aspire to be fully qualified hams, Yet radio comms are only one very small facet of Preps.

Food, Water, Shelter, Heat, Light, Fuel,Power, Medical, Healthcare, Logistics, Transport, Security,Reference, Clothing, Animal husbandry, Cooking, Farming, Preserving, Patrolling, Repairing, Cleaning , Hunting, Skill at arms, Navigating, Planning, Resting, and of course Comms, all components all with fairly equal value and demand on time, money and resources.

 

[Silent Earth]

In my own case I originally needed a couple of walky talkys in case the cell phone system failed, from them I found PMR units, as time went by I started to get more interested and discovered the Baofengs which i modified to be 4 watt PMR units with better antenna. Recently in the UK AM CB and 12 watt SSB became legal across the UK and Europe AND it was on the same freqs as the US had. Before we in the UK were limited to 40FM channels ONLY that were on different freqs to the EU and the US.

So now with 12 watt SSB on the same Freqs the US and Europe available licence free to the Brits many preppers over here are looking again at CB and the Freeband bits. Inevitably they find the 10 meter ham channels on those same rigs and that in turn is encouraging many to go for their foundation licences.

 

[Quietsurvivalist]

Communications should be considered the third leg on the prepping stool with Sustenance and Security being the other 2.
Using the absolute lowest end of comms gear is exactly the same as buying cheap Chinese tools and hoping they hold together. You don't buy the cheapest food, the cheapest guns, the cheapest ammo do you?

Being deaf isn't a handicap until you come up against someone who can hear. Handicapping yourself deliberately is insane

 

[CommoFreq]

Communications should be considered the third leg on the prepping stool with Sustenance and Security being the other 2.
Using the absolute lowest end of comms gear is exactly the same as buying cheap Chinese tools and hoping they hold together. You don't buy the cheapest food, the cheapest guns, the cheapest ammo do you?

Being deaf isn't a handicap until you come up against someone who can hear. Handicapping yourself deliberately is insane

Yep. I have a few thoughts on that too.

For example, a lot of preppers like the AR-15, because (for those chambered to accept both .223 and 5.56), the idea is that you can just get ammo from a dead soldier or LE somewhere in a SHTF situation. And that's as far as the thinking goes. No discussion of, "nobody leaves dead soldiers behind anymore", or, "how many times do I have to hit my target with one of these before it finally drops".

Get a .308 (or 7.62 x 51) and stock up on ammo. If you see yourself running low, take a weapon from a dead soldier somewhere, along with his ammo (sarcasm included).

Now, this kind of thinking is deeply, deeply ingrained into the DNA of a small group of preppers out there. Whereas the idea of "preparing" is to anticipate and be ready for any and every situation we can think of, some just aren't open to doing that. It could also be a money thing, though. And I think that's going to be the case with 99% of the preppers who would rather have a $50 Baofeng instead of a $500 Icom. Or a $700 AR-15 instead of a $1700 AR-10.

 

[MNwr786]

I believe the 467.550 is a designated repeater output and that gmrs license is good for 25watts but not 100%

I do know the frs gmrs bands are not in the ham band. The 70cm band is 420-450. Frs/gmrs operate on 462 and 467 MHz.

These handheld radios are great for extremely short range communication. To get out more than a few miles you need an external antenna with gain (or a repeater on a generator). Problem is, coax cable at uhf is extremely lossy. For example, at 467MHz, rg-58a coax, the loss per 100 feet is 14.4dB. This means with a perfectly tuned antenna, about 1/5 of your power makes it to the antenna 100 feet away. The other 4 watts from a 5w radio just heat the coax. If theres a mismatch because you used an innaccurate radio shack HF swr meter tuning up, your done. Game over.

The other non licensed bands have far more potential. Theres the MURS VHF frequencies (one of which walmarts typically use) and the 11m CB band.

CB, many say, is dead. 2wr786 disagrees with them. With legal limit on side band, my reliable-100% of the time-guaranteed coverage is easily 35 miles. Thats without any ionospheric enhancement. When the sun is active or the northern lights show up, things get exciting with worldwide paths. My receive often has so many voices i dont even try to talk without an amp. I use a midland 8001xt (for 11m) and a sirio 827 antenna. Dont fit in a pocket, but it works good local and dx. I use NVIS techniques on 40m and 80m to achieve a reliable radius (no dead skip zome) out to 600 or more miles.

The key to communications when the system fails is a knowledge of rf propagation and what bands are good when. You must choose your band based on solar and atmospheric conditions and time of day. Different bands do different things. No single radio or band is sufficient for a serious prepper who wishes to stay in touch.

I will try to add a pdf of the chapter "propagation of radio waves" from the arrl handbook. If this is not ok, sorry. I assume doing so will benefit others and quite possibly stimulate their book sales anyhow.

 

[Gazrok]

Getting licensed, and a HAM moved a lot further down my list, but still not losing sight of how important this part of prepping is. If nothing else, would be just one more service we could offer to be valuable to others....(i.e. more valuable as an ally vs. an adversary).

Communications in general are important.

 

[MNwr786]

Getting licensed, and a HAM moved a lot further down my list, but still not losing sight of how important this part of prepping is. If nothing else, would be just one more service we could offer to be valuable to others....(i.e. more valuable as an ally vs. an adversary).

Communications in general are important.

I agree, nobody can cover every angle. The ideal solution is to have a group of locals that you trust (hard part) to come together in bad times. My group is small and lacks many of the essentials. We have an mma/weapons guy, a gardener and carpenter with a sawmill guy, a mechanic and metals guy, all of us hunt and i do the electronics, radio, and chemistry fun. We still need a doctor and such but im getting off topic now... if one person does the HF long-haul work in your community that you can relay messeges through, then small gmrs radios around the group do just fine!

 

[Squirtgunsquirter]

Solid post. We don't have a HAM at the BOL, but my thinking is the same as yours. Unfortunately, if anyone is going to get a license, its going to have to be me, lol. One more thing.

 

[MNwr786]

Solid post. We don't have a HAM at the BOL, but my thinking is the same as yours. Unfortunately, if anyone is going to get a license, its going to have to be me, lol. One more thing.

Although the license test is rediculously simple, when TSHTF, you wont hear me complaining about someone keeping this country active without a callsign.

Buy the radios and the books for using them right and just reference the books or pdf's when you need to. For the longest time i thought it critical to commit everything to memory. But the more you learn, the more you realize how little you know. In fact, if a wise man knows anything, its that he knows nothing at all. This is why all the textbook genius's have private libraries. You skim the material to become vaguely familiar with the concepts so when trouble arises, you know exactly where to look!

 

[pixelphotographer]

I have 4 hams in our bug out group I'm the main go to guy then the rest. We all have the cheap Chinese baofeng radios for regular use and extras to hand out to others if need be. We also have better radios that are better built and more water resistant. Yaesu and icom are the two main ones. Then I also have vehicle and base stations with towers as well. And to round off I have many miles of comms wire with crank style field phones we can use as lp/op locations that won't give away our location with rf transmissions.

 

[Proud Prepper]

I have 4 hams in our bug out group I'm the main go to guy then the rest. We all have the cheap Chinese baofeng radios for regular use and extras to hand out to others if need be. We also have better radios that are better built and more water resistant. Yaesu and icom are the two main ones. Then I also have vehicle and base stations with towers as well. And to round off I have many miles of comms wire with crank style field phones we can use as lp/op locations that won't give away our location with rf transmissions.

Do you guys have any moon beam antennas? To bounce off that big reflector to minimize triangulation?

 

[pixelphotographer]

I have seen a set up using two antennas with a motor mount that follows the moon, used for things like astrophotography and astronomy. One of the antennas they use I have as a single 2 meter beam. I guess I could buy a second one and that equatorial mount that tracks the moon and try it sometime. I think that motor is expensive though LOL So to answer your question no we don't but is interesting. I honestly don't know enough about that to know if its worth doing and how reliable it is.

 

[MNwr786]

Moonbounce is not a reliable mode for emergency communications, its more of a challenging hobby than a useful tool.

As for triangulation goes, bouncing off the moon as a means to disguise a tx position is not a good choice. Mainly because you still need to transmit (with an array large enough to be spotted from far away) and the array is going to, no matter how much gain it has, still radiate along the horizon some. Direction finding, triangulation, multilateration etc are still going to see you (about 3 seconds sooner than the moonbounce signal).

On top of that, theres countless satellites that can find you via time difference of arrival techniques.

 

[Outfitterbm]

ALCON,

It's been a while since I dropped by, since I deleted my FB account and couldn't figure out how to get back into the forums. Well, I figured it out. I'm still around. Anyhow, now I can talk about GMRS for a little while.

Bad news first: You need a license to operate on GMRS frequencies. Well, legally, that is.
Good news: There's no test for you to take like with ham licenses. You simply pay your way in.

If you've seen some of my other posts, I've been starkly against making the Family Radio Service (FRS) your primary means of communication. It's way too popular, and very incapable. It should actually be a last resort.

Yes, have an FRS radio, for listening and gaining information. But use something else if you want to actually do some talking of your own when Doomsday comes. That's just my personal thing - I'm sure there are others who may disagree. And this sentiment of mine hasn't changed. Everyone has their own way of doing business.

Now, when I first heard of GMRS, I lumped it immediately into the same waste bin as FRS. Oh, how wrong I was about doing that!

GMRS hand-helds


What GMRS actually . . . is

You can think of GMRS as a "cheat code" into the ham radio world, and all things about it that gives you a huge advantage over "conventional" communications.

More specifically, the General Mobile Radio Service (GMRS) is kinda weird. All of its channels fall within the 440 (70cm) ham band, and some of those channels are also FRS channels too. It's kind of a mix of ham and GMRS, with a sprinkle of FRS on top. So you're getting the advantage of using ham frequencies, without having to take a test for a ham license!

Let's take this from the top:

• If you already have a ham license, then you don't need a GMRS license too. Or, maybe you do! A single GMRS license allows you, and all of your family members to use these frequencies as well. That is probably the most attractive part of a GMRS license.

• The second thing that kept me from chunking it into the waste bin of useless communications modes, is that you are allowed far more power output than on FRS. For comparison, an FRS radio will transmit a maximum of 1/2 a watt. A GMRS repeater is allowed 50 watts. That is a huge difference.

• You probably noticed that I said, "repeater". This is another item of interest that blows FRS right out of the water. I thought repeaters were only found on ham bands (for civilian use, that is), but things appear to be changing rapidly these days. If you don't know what a repeater is, well, it's a radio system that someone set up, that listens for your signal, and sends it back out again, but from much higher up, and at much higher power. It can double, triple, or quadruple your range. Probably more than that. It's not unusual to get 65 miles of range out of a repeater, with a clean signal.

Getting Licensed

All you need is $90 and to fill out two online forms. You can also print them out and mail them in via snail mail if you wish. First, you will need to "create an FCC account", like you would if you were signing up for Facebook. You can do that here:

http://wireless.fcc.gov/uls/index.htm?job=home

You will be assigned an "FRN" number (this means "FCC Registration Number"). They ask for this when you fill out the two forms. Next, you will need to file FCC Form 159 and FCC Form 605. You can find those forms here:

https://www.fcc.gov/forms
I don't know how long it takes to get licensed, so if one of you decide to do this, please let the rest of us know. Given that the FCC has gone paperless (for the most part), it might even be instant if you pay with a credit card online.




Technical Info

The GMRS band has 23 channels. Limitations / restrictions depend on which channels you're using. Here's what the frequency / channel chart looks like:

You probably noticed that I said "23 channels", and yet, you only see 22 on the chart. Well, according to the FCC, there are 23. Noticeably absent from the list, is 467.550. I don't quite know what to make of this. . . if anyone has an explanation, please feel free to chime in. And, for reference, here is the FCC's explanation of GMRS, to include 23 channels:

https://www.fcc.gov/encyclopedia/general-mobile-radio-service-gmrs
Also, take heed - just because you have a GMRS radio that can transmit 5 watts on the FRS band, doesn't mean you are *allowed to*. You still need a license to do that, otherwise, you should use no more than 1/2 watt, even if it's on an FRS frequency. There are no legal loopholes here.

I hope that helps. Please post your comments and questions below.

Great explanation. Even though I do believe in following the rules, transmitting on higher power in the event of an emergency is never going to be a problem. During the type of emergency we are preparing for I seriously have no worries that the FCC will be around. Just the opinion of a guy who's been in radio for 50+ years.