Lately, I’ve been talking with people in search of basic radio communications for their friends or family. They end up talking to me because someone steered them to ham radio as a solution and I teach ham radio license classes. Of course, I am happy to pull them into the wonderful ham radio world but sometimes the General Mobile Radio Service (GMRS) might be a better way of meeting their needs.

I have a GMRS license and have written about it. See GMRS: The Other UHF Band.  GMRS is a good fit for local communications, perhaps just using simplex or with repeaters, if available in your area.  FCC regulations (Part 95) require you to have a license (and pay a fee) to use GMRS. Unlike ham radio, the license does not require you to pass an exam and the license is valid for you and your family members.

Common Uses

GMRS works well for family communication “around town” or some local area. Depending on the type of equipment used, simplex range of 10 or 15 miles is achievable, maybe more. The use of repeaters can extend this a lot further. You might even decide to put a GMRS repeater on the air, which is not too difficult of a project.

Another common use of GMRS is when a group is traveling down the highway in multiple vehicles. Yes, you might be able to just use your mobile phone to stay in touch but a two-way radio may be a better solution (especially when mobile phone coverage is poor or non-existent). Many off-road vehicle clubs have discovered GMRS and use it for communicating during trail rides.

GMRS is also a great tool for outdoor activities such as camping, hunting, hiking and skiing. It is a handy way of staying in touch with your tribe, while not depending on the mobile phone network.

GMRS Is Not FRS

GMRS often gets confused with the Family Radio Service (FRS). They both include the use of inexpensive, low-power handheld radios and they share many of the same frequencies. When the FCC authorized FRS, GMRS was already an established radio service and it squeezed FRS into the same band. FRS radios were limited to lower output power, so many manufacturers decided to offer combination FRS/GMRS radios, which operated at higher power levels. The user was supposed to obtain a GMRS license to use this type of radio but most people didn’t bother with it. (Most people probably didn’t even know of the requirement.)  The FCC also specified 2.5 kHz (half deviation) FM for the FRS radios on the same channels as the existing 5 kHz deviation GMRS radios. Intermingling an unlicensed radio service with a licensed service was probably not a wise move. In general, the FCC regulations caused a lot of confusion between the two services.

In 2017, the FCC adopted a major revision to the GMRS rules to clean up some of the problems with the service. In particular, the regulations now prohibit the sale of combination FRS/GMRS radios. A great idea but a bit too late in the game.

The GMRS rules are pretty easy to understand, so take a look here: FCC Part 95 – Personal Radio Services

Equipment

There are basic handheld transceivers for GMRS. They look and act a lot like the FRS radios that are widely available, but GMRS can provide more capability. An advanced handheld radio will have support for using repeaters (transmit offset) and higher power (up to 5 watts).

To dramatically improve the radio range, you can use GMRS mobile and base stations that can run even more power, up to 50 watts. More importantly, you can use external antennas on your vehicle or your house. These can make a huge difference in performance. (FRS is limited to handheld transceivers and the permanently-attached rubber duck antenna.)

For radio amateurs, this should all sound pretty familiar. GMRS looks and acts a lot like an FM transceiver on the 440 MHz (70 cm) band. It is a great alternative for local radio communications for people not interested in a technical hobby such as amateur radio.

The post GMRS: Basic Radio Communications appeared first on The KØNR Radio Site.

In this episode, Martin (M1MRB) is joined by Leslie Butterfield G0CIB, Dan Romanchik KB6NU and Edmund Spicer M0MNG to discuss the latest Amateur / Ham Radio news. Colin (M6BOY) rounds up the news in brief and in the episode we feature Portable Operations Challenge 2021

ICQ AMATEUR/HAM RADIO PODCAST DONORS

We would like to thank Steve Murphy (M7XSM), Frank Westphal (K6FW), Nigel Wells (2W0CGM), Grant Porter (KG4SDR), Dino Papas KL0S, Dave Lufkin (KB3JRJ), and our monthly and annual subscription donors for keeping the podcast advert free. To donate, please visit - http://www.icqpodcast.com/donate

• Swiss Radio Amateurs Face Fee to use QO-100
• Janet K0JE and Janice K0JA - Ham Radio Twins
• FCC Reaffirms Fine for Marketing Non-Compliant RF Equipment
• Ham Radio Helping Lifelong Hobbyists Stay Mentally Fit in Old Age
• Presentation Tracks announced for QSO Expo
• RSGB Publishes Amateur Radio Survey Summary
• Amateur Radio Digital Communications (ARDC) Community Meeting

 Well, it's that time of year again for the running of the QSO Today Virtual Ham Radio Expo this year it's happening on August 14-15. In the first running of the Expo, there were issues with getting the videos and Q&A sessions working smoothly. The second edition had log-in issues that I too had problems with and really was not able to log into the live sessions.  On the home page for the 2021 Expo in bold lettering, we are told "we promise an amazing, flawless event" I am assuming this has to do with the login issues from the last Expo event? My question is....are you going to be attending this year's Expo in August? I know some comments last year we're asking for a return of their money. If you did not receive your money back maybe contact the Expo and see if you can get your refund as a free pass for this year's event? As for myself, I am going to be giving it a go again this year to see how things turn out. The cost is the same 10.00 in advance or 12.50 after August 8 and onward. 

So let me know about your plans regarding the 2021 August Expo?

AmateurLogic.TV Episode 158 is now available for download.

George’s Distortion Exploration. Tommy and the One Man Field Day Team. Mike discovers SDRangel software.

1:07:25

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Mike reviews the Mustool MT007 pen type multimeter.
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005002090901039.html

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The Summits On The Air (SOTA) program originated in the United Kingdom but has propagated to most countries around the world. The program came to Colorado on May 1st, 2010 with Steve/WGØAT sending a CQ from Mount Herman, just west of Monument. Today, the SOTA program in Colorado (called WØC-SOTA) is very active with roughly 180 activators that operate from Colorado summits.

To celebrate our 10th Anniversary, WØC-SOTA is organizing a 10-10-10 Event with a challenge for Activators and Chasers alike. (Activators operate from summits, Chasers try to contact them.)

Activator challenge: Activate 10 (or more) 10K feet (or higher) summits (in Colorado/WØC) within 10 days.

Chaser challenge: Chase Activators on 10 different (or more) qualifying WØC summits (10K or higher) within the 10 days.

Event Date: We will kick-off the event in conjunction with the Colorado 14er event on August 7th, 2021 and conclude on August 16th.

Everybody is invited to participate, either as an Activator or a Chaser. Block off these days in your calendar now and start planning for how you can participate. Feel free to operate as much or as little as you would like. It is all about having fun messing around with radios. Any HF, VHF or UHF band can be used for making SOTA contacts, with the most popular ones being 40m (CW & SSB), 20m (CW & SSB) and 2m (FM).

Note that the recommended 2m FM frequencies for the 14er event have changed to:

146.580 FM   North America Adventure Frequency
146.550 FM    Simplex Alternate
146.490 FM    Simplex Alternate
146.520 FM    National 2m FM Calling Frequency
(as needed, please don’t hog the calling frequency)

There will be a leaderboard on the W0C-SOTA website showing all participants who meet one of the challenges. More details will be announced on the WØC-SOTA Website as soon as they are hashed out.

For more information on the SOTA program in general, see the worldwide SOTA website.

Full Disclosure: May 1 is actually the 11th Anniversary, but the COVID-19 Pandemic interfered in 2020, so we are catching up.

The post 2021 Colorado SOTA and 14er Event appeared first on The KØNR Radio Site.

Tommy follows up on a previous short and shows us why and how we should replace damaged battery wraps on reclaimed 18650 batteries.

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