> GMRS does require a license, and FRS doesn't.
This statement is incorrect. Even FRS requires a license, but in the
case of this service it is free of cost: the license comes with the
radio, /which must be FCC approved/ for this particular service. Many of
the cheap radios don't fulfill this requirement and are not legal to use.
As stated by other posters already: it would be your best option to get
a ham radio Technician license. It's not very difficult, you must go to
an exam session (35 questions multiple choice, easy; the difficult thing
these days with COVID-19 is the availability of such exams, though).
With a Technician license you are legally allowed to use radios not
approved by the FCC while operating on ham bands - but still not on GMRS
or FRS or CB or MURS. These services /always /require FCC approved
equipment.
Regards
Bernhard AE6YN
Fremont, CA
On 12-May-20 08:11, Mark Blackwell wrote:
GMRS does require a license, and FRS doesn't. A citizens band radio
doesn't require a license either, but I don't think its your best
choice. Hilly terrain may be an asset or a big problem if you have
neighbors on the other side of the hill.
Not being FCC approved may involve more than just which frequencies
are being used. I is certainly possible, or even likely that even if
its on the right frequency, the transmission may not meet the
requirements to be legal. For your system to work, it needs regular
practice.
From your brief description, the best option I see is having neighbors
in key spots get an amateur radio license. It does require a test,
but the first test isn't that hard. There are three level of licenses
in amateur radio. The technicians license is the lowest, and the test
isn't that hard. It's likely to work for most of your options. The
General License allow a lot more privileges, but it is a harder test.
The Amateur Extra is the highest level, and by far the toughest test.
For me I was really ready for the Tech in about 2 weeks. The General
took about a month of study and the Extra about 2 months. This is a
few minutes of study a day, not an 8 hour a day crash course. Not
everyone would necessarily need a license.
The benefits are many. Even without power, many larger more powerful
units can be powered with batteries, generators or a host methods that
don't require the grid to be working. It also counts on no
infrastructure like cell towers or the internet. Though some in
amateur radio use the internet for many things, if its out it isn't
essential
Check out the ARRL website. There is a lot there that is good
information that I think will go a long way to helping you make the
best decision for your community. Also local ham clubs are a good
starting point as well.
--
Mark Blackwell
[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>
On Mon, May 11, 2020, at 6:53 PM, Jonathan Pierce wrote:
Best wishes from a Noob,
I am a FireWise neighborhood council member in a rural, high-risk
forested area (70 miles from the Paradise Fire) of northern
California. Several neighbors and I want to set up a backup
evacuation radio notification system for our neighborhood in the
event that power (lose cable internet and VOIP phone service) and
cell towers are down (the local tower burnt last year during an
event). And we have spotty cell coverage at best.
We found the best-seller Arcshells on Amazon are powerful and
reach through our hilly neighborhood OK. But I understand that 1. The
devices are not FCC approved; 2. Antennae is removable; 3. Stock
programming is a mix of FRS and GMRS frequencies. Fire chief has
given go ahead for us to use them if we don’t interfere with any of
the EMS, police, and fire frequencies. The stock frequencies
programmed in the Arcshell AR-5 are indeed different than all the
official ones used.
But some neighbors want the radios reprogrammed so they are
strictly only using FRS frequencies. I’ve been able to query and
download the memory from an arcshell, and I believe I have figured
out how to save a modified memory profile to a file so that it could
uploaded to all units.
Questions: 1. Using the chirp edit function can I just go ahead
and change all channels’ frequencies to strictly FRS permitted ones?
2. Do I need to change any of the other settings like Tone Mode,
Tonesql, DTCS Code, etc, or can they just remain as is?
Thanks for your knowledgeable help!
Jonathan
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