GMRS REPEATER FREQUENCIES LICENSE
GMRS REPEATER FREQUENCIES FREE

We’ve discussed briefly in the previous section that topography and tall buildings can greatly affect the usable range of a radio.

GMRS REPEATER FREQUENCIES FREE

As always, it’s good practice to use the least amount of power necessary to maintain reliable communications, so if everyone has access to high power radios, but is within a couple miles of each other, channels 1-7 might still be fine and it helps keep the air waves clean and free of excess interference. 8-14 are suitable for close range communications within a mile or so, since they are limited to half a watt. If mobile or base station radios are involved, it may make sense to switch to 15-22 to take advantage of the extra power. If everyone is using handheld radios, channels 1-7 will work just fine since they don’t typically transmit with more than 5 watts. One thing to keep in mind is the different power levels available on the different channels 1-7 are limited to 5 watts, 8-14 are limited to half a watt, and 15-22 are limited to 50 watts. In either case, FRS users are not allowed to use repeater input channels. Regardless, FRS users can definitely be heard and may require jumping around on different channels in crowded areas or use of a coded squelch to filter out. This means the GMRS has a few more channels it can now use with slightly elevated power, but has to share its channels with the FRS.įRS traffic is not a huge problem for GMRS in terms of interference, since the FRS is limited to lower power output than GMRS, and radios must come with non-removable antennas, which are usually very inefficient. Since then, the FCC has consolidated the channels for FRS and GMRS into a common set with different power limitations, due to the rampant misuse of the GMRS service allocations associated with the sale of hybrid FRS/GMRS radios to the general public (which may no longer be sold at this time).

GMRS REPEATER FREQUENCIES LICENSE

The reason for this arrangement is due to channels 1-14 originally being license free channels the FCC created for the Family Radio Service, or FRS. For this reason, channels 1-14 are known as interstitial channels, and have reduced power output and bandwidth requirements as a result, they must fit and play nicely between the main GMRS channels, 15-22, which were the original GMRS channels before the restructuring. Channels 8-14 are actually located between GMRS channels as well, in this case the repeater input frequencies which we’ll discuss in a later section. You’ll notice that channels 1-7 are located between channels 15-22 in terms of frequency.

Gmrs repeater frequencies