Thread: FRS radio
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Mr. Luddite[_4_] Mr. Luddite[_4_] is offline
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First recorded activity by BoatBanter: Aug 2017
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Default FRS radio

On 4/15/2019 7:48 PM, wrote:
On Mon, 15 Apr 2019 16:18:08 -0400, John H.
wrote:

On Mon, 15 Apr 2019 13:03:40 -0400,
wrote:

Anyone know anything about these? I picked up a pair for about $20 and
we are playing with them. This set says they are good for 5 miles but
I have seen some that say 30 miles. I assume that is on 3 mountains
across a valley but who knows?
It does sound like something campers might like tho and if you really
can get out some number of miles in the woods hikers and hunters might
like them.
I know everyone just uses their phone these days but there is some
facility in having simple PTT. My wife says it is like her old NexTel.

So far around here it sounds like I may be the only one using it. I
put the radio on scan last night and I never heard a thing all night.
This is like CB in the 60s I think.


We've used those at Disney World and on cruises, several years ago - before we all had cell phones.
They worked OK, but often other folks with the same radios or on the same freq stepped all over us.
I like cell phones better.


We are just playing with them now but the PTT thing is pretty cool. I
imagine cell phones have made them pretty unpopular because I still
have not heard another soul. It sort of makes me wonder how much you
could get away with if there is nobody around to complain. With a
decent high gain antenna on the roof, I bet these things would get out
to virtually everywhere I ever go. They are allowed to pump out 5
watts now without a license and if you get the $70 GMRS license I
think you can go up to 50 watts with an outside antenna.



You may be confusing FRS "walkie-talkies" with GMRS radios.
FRS stands for "Family Radio Service" and output power is
2 watts as of 2017. Before that they were 500 milliwatts.
They now have 22 channels however channels 8 – 14 must still
be limited to half a watt output.

GMRS is "General Mobile Radio Service". GMRS still requires
a FCC license and, as a base station, can use a power amp
to output 50 watts.



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