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cornercanyon

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. . . realizing each day–
For many of us most of what you all say flies right over our heads. We may know that VHF is Very High Frequency and UHF is Ultra High Frequency, and I am old enough to remember tuning a black and white television set or listening to the LA Dodgers on my transistor radio. Though TX? RX? TL;DL? Tones and repeaters? 16 or462.5750? Mode, Power, Band? Frankly, I don't even know if my dual band radios are GRMS or FRS. What pragmatically does all this mean those who want to join in on the trails in a productive, civil way while enjoying our jeeps amongst you all? Perhaps you would be kind enough to offer a lesson or point a noob in the right direction–
 
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jeepdriver99

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For many of us most of what you all say flies right over our heads. We may know that VHF is Very High Frequency and UHF is Ultra High Frequency, and I am old enough to remember turning a black and white television set or listening to the LA Dodgers on my transistor radio. Though TX? RX? TL;DL? Tones and repeaters? 16 or462.5750? Mode, Power, Band? Frankly, I don't even know if my dual band radios are GRMS or FRS. What pragmatically does all this mean those who want to join in on the trails in a productive, civil way while enjoying our jeeps amongst you all? Perhaps you would be kind enough to offer a lesson or point a noob in the right direction–
@cornercanyon Valid point. Let me try to give a high level explanation for you.
TX and RX are "radio shorthand" for Transmit (TX) and Receive (RX).

Tones are a way to filter out transmissions. You set your receiver to look for a tone that can not be heard by people that will accompany a transmission. If your radio is set to listen for that and it is present, it will send the audio to the speaker. If it's not present, you won't hear it. This will filter out others on the same frequency from being heard and you will only hear those you want to hear.

Repeaters: It is when you transmit on one frequency and another station (the repeater) will receive your transmission and retransmit it on a different frequency. For this to work, your display will show your receive frequency and if you are in repeater mode, when you transmit, the radio will transmit at the repeater frequency which is an offset from your receive frequency. For example (I'm using ham frequencies since I'm more familiar with ham repeaters) if you are receiving at 148.88 and in repeater mode, when you push the "push to talk (ptt) button, it will transmit from your radio at 142.88. The repeater will receive the signal on 142.88 and retransmit at 148.88. Since your radio can not transmit and receive at the same time, your radio won't hear the repeater as long as that ptt button is pushed. There are also repeaters that use the tones explained above to filter out signals that should not be repeated.

16 or 462.5750: Just like CB, the channel has a corresponding frequency associated with it. Channel 16 of GMRS is 462.5750. You can find the frequencies and channels at GMRS Radio Frequencies and Channels | Right Channel Radios

Mode: this is where you are talking directly to another radio on the same frequency which is called simplex mode or if you're in repeater mode as I described above. There are other modes but those are the ones being used in GMRS

Power: FRS (Family Radio Service) is a no license needed radio system but you are limited to 2 watts of power. This is normally the small hand held radios. GMRS (General Mobil Radio Service) can use 50 watts of power. Some of the GMRS frequencies are also used by FRS so they can talk to each other.

Band: As it was discussed in this thread, there is 2 meter band for hams which is 144.000 to 148.00 and 73cm band which is 430.000 to 440.000. GMRS and FRS are 462.55 to 467.7250. So the 73cm band is close to the GRMR frequencies and some ham radios have been modified to work on the GMRS bands.

Dual band: Those are ham radios that can be used on the 2 meter band or the 73cm band. They do not normally include GMRS or FRS.
 
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cornercanyon

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. . . realizing each day–
@cornercanyon Valid point. Let me try to give a high level explanation for you.
TX and RX are "radio shorthand" for Transmit (TX) and Receive (RX).

Tones are a way to filter out transmissions. You set your receiver to look for a tone that can not be heard by people that will accompany a transmission. If your radio is set to listen for that and it is present, it will send the audio to the speaker. If it's not present, you won't hear it. This will filter out others on the same frequency from being heard and you will only hear those you want to hear.

Repeaters: It is when you transmit on one frequency and another station (the repeater) will receive your transmission and retransmit it on a different frequency. For this to work, your display will show your receive frequency and if you are in repeater mode, when you transmit, the radio will transmit at the repeater frequency which is an offset from your receive frequency. For example (I'm using ham frequencies since I'm more familiar with ham repeaters) if you are receiving at 148.88 and in repeater mode, when you push the "push to talk (ptt) button, it will transmit from your radio at 142.88. The repeater will receive the signal on 142.88 and retransmit at 148.88. Since your radio can not transmit and receive at the same time, your radio won't hear the repeater as long as that ptt button is pushed. There are also repeaters that use the tones explained above to filter out signals that should not be repeated.

16 or 462.5750: Just like CB, the channel has a corresponding frequency associated with it. Channel 16 of GMRS is 462.5750. You can find the frequencies and channels at GMRS Radio Frequencies and Channels | Right Channel Radios

Mode: this is where you are talking directly to another radio on the same frequency which is called simplex mode or if you're in repeater mode as I described above. There are other modes but those are the ones being used in GMRS

Power: FRS (Family Radio Service) is a no license needed radio system but you are limited to 2 watts of power. This is normally the small hand held radios. GMRS (General Mobil Radio Service) can use 50 watts of power. Some of the GMRS frequencies are also used by GMRS so they can talk to each other.

Band: As it was discussed in this thread, there is 2 meter band for hams which is 144.000 to 148.00 and 73cm band which is 430.000 to 440.000. GMRS and FRS are 462.55 to 467.7250. So the 73cm band is close to the GRMR frequencies and some ham radios have been modified to work on the GMRS bands.

Dual band: Those are ham radios that can be used on the 2 meter band or the 73cm band. They do not normally include GMRS or FRS.
Thank you. That is helpful, though I sense much to learn—
 

jeepdriver99

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Thank you. That is helpful, though I sense much to learn—
Always; especially if you go the ham license route. It's always expanding. LOL

My opinion; get the GMRS license. It's good for 10 years and no test to get it. Then get a decent GMRS mobile radio. The range is much better and the sound much clearer than CB and the antenna is much shorter. If others have the hand held GMRS or FRS radios, you can communicate.

I do NOT recommend you get a ham radio and have it modified. The cost will be more and most ham operators are very sensitive to non licensed operators on ham frequencies. The FCC is also sensitive and has prosecuted violators.
 

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tomd

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Does GMRS (lets say Baofeng UV5r) have the ability to "receive" on the sub channels? Like 16.2
Or are they limited to the 22 channels? I'm not referring to the bubble pack variety.
I heard that big events (Easter Jeep Safari) are still utilizing CB's for their 40 channel options. If EJS would switch to GMRS, the extended range of GMRS would create too much cross coms in Moabs relatively small space, since multiple groups would need to be on the same GMRS channel.
 

Bryce

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Does GMRS (lets say Baofeng UV5r) have the ability to "receive" on the sub channels? Like 16.2
Or are they limited to the 22 channels? I'm not referring to the bubble pack variety.
I heard that big events (Easter Jeep Safari) are still utilizing CB's for their 40 channel options. If EJS would switch to GMRS, the extended range of GMRS would create too much cross coms in Moabs relatively small space, since multiple groups would need to be on the same GMRS channel.
So, a UV5r is technically a ham radio. The UV5x is the GMRS vesion of it.
Yes, technically the UV5r can (they may have locked this out of more recent versions) brodcast on the frequecy that GMRS channel 16 is (462.5750Mhz) and .2 is the PL tone being used which the UV5r can also do. I'm not sure what .2 equates to the PL tone code.
Legally, the UV5r is not allowed to transmit outside of the 2m abd 70cm ham bands. Receiving on any frequency the tranceiver is capable of is allowed. If you set it to not use a tone at all, it will pick up all transmissions on that frequency. If you set a PL tone, you will only hear transmissions that are also sent with that tone.
 

cornercanyon

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. . . realizing each day–
Always; especially if you go the ham license route. It's always expanding. LOL

My opinion; get the GMRS license. It's good for 10 years and no test to get it. Then get a decent GMRS mobile radio. The range is much better and the sound much clearer than CB and the antenna is much shorter. If others have the hand held GMRS or FRS radios, you can communicate.

I do NOT recommend you get a ham radio and have it modified. The cost will be more and most ham operators are very sensitive to non licensed operators on ham frequencies. The FCC is also sensitive and has prosecuted violators.
Good advice.

I am under the impression that many folks have dual band radios they have not modded and use as if they are GMRS. It is not clear to me that many actually understand there even is a difference.

Back to the thread. Channels 16 and 19 make sense to me. Thank you for sharing–
 
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IdahoJOAT

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Correct GMRS is better than CB. I still have CB because I wheel with an off road club and that is what they all use. And none of this group of 75 members are using GMRS. The key is who are you going to communicate with. Someone has to be at the other end.
So I have bath a High power VHF and a CB and folks I travel with are using one or the other.
I asked the groups I'm in around here and we're all on GMRS, but I asked before investing(I actually already had the GMRS from Hawai'i hiking).
 

IdahoJOAT

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@cornercanyon Valid point. Let me try to give a high level explanation for you.
TX and RX are "radio shorthand" for Transmit (TX) and Receive (RX).

Tones are a way to filter out transmissions. You set your receiver to look for a tone that can not be heard by people that will accompany a transmission. If your radio is set to listen for that and it is present, it will send the audio to the speaker. If it's not present, you won't hear it. This will filter out others on the same frequency from being heard and you will only hear those you want to hear.

Repeaters: It is when you transmit on one frequency and another station (the repeater) will receive your transmission and retransmit it on a different frequency. For this to work, your display will show your receive frequency and if you are in repeater mode, when you transmit, the radio will transmit at the repeater frequency which is an offset from your receive frequency. For example (I'm using ham frequencies since I'm more familiar with ham repeaters) if you are receiving at 148.88 and in repeater mode, when you push the "push to talk (ptt) button, it will transmit from your radio at 142.88. The repeater will receive the signal on 142.88 and retransmit at 148.88. Since your radio can not transmit and receive at the same time, your radio won't hear the repeater as long as that ptt button is pushed. There are also repeaters that use the tones explained above to filter out signals that should not be repeated.

16 or 462.5750: Just like CB, the channel has a corresponding frequency associated with it. Channel 16 of GMRS is 462.5750. You can find the frequencies and channels at GMRS Radio Frequencies and Channels | Right Channel Radios

Mode: this is where you are talking directly to another radio on the same frequency which is called simplex mode or if you're in repeater mode as I described above. There are other modes but those are the ones being used in GMRS

Power: FRS (Family Radio Service) is a no license needed radio system but you are limited to 2 watts of power. This is normally the small hand held radios. GMRS (General Mobil Radio Service) can use 50 watts of power. Some of the GMRS frequencies are also used by GMRS so they can talk to each other.

Band: As it was discussed in this thread, there is 2 meter band for hams which is 144.000 to 148.00 and 73cm band which is 430.000 to 440.000. GMRS and FRS are 462.55 to 467.7250. So the 73cm band is close to the GRMR frequencies and some ham radios have been modified to work on the GMRS bands.

Dual band: Those are ham radios that can be used on the 2 meter band or the 73cm band. They do not normally include GMRS or FRS.
I got excited when you started this, because even though I have that first level HAM license, I understand very little(army course). And a simple HAM for Dummies summary like this is amazing. I did highlight I think a potential mistype?
 

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Bryce

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The 4x4 club I ride with generally uses ch 4. Even back when we used CBs. I wish they'd use 16 so we were using a higher power channel.

Ch 20 around me is a popular repeater channel. This is a pay to play system and the users are very self regulating. Just from listening, it doesn't seem like a fun group. Almost like Sad Hams from NotARubicon's videos. The hams on 2m seem to have a better time.

19 seems fine to me. I ocassionally hear traffic on it but not heavy.

Honestly, I hear more kids screwing around on FRS radios and hitting the call button more than anything.

If I decide to listen in, I'll just throw the radio in scan mode and see whats out there. Most of the time, it's turned off unless I'm on a trail ride.
 

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The 4x4 club I ride with generally uses ch 4. Even back when we used CBs. I wish they'd use 16 so we were using a higher power channel.

Ch 20 around me is a popular repeater channel. This is a pay to play system and the users are very self regulating. Just from listening, it doesn't seem like a fun group. Almost like Sad Hams from NotARubicon's videos. The hams on 2m seem to have a better time.

19 seems fine to me. I ocassionally hear traffic on it but not heavy.

Honestly, I hear more kids screwing around on FRS radios and hitting the call button more than anything.

If I decide to listen in, I'll just throw the radio in scan mode and see whats out there. Most of the time, it's turned off unless I'm on a trail ride.
I've had fun myself while out and about utilizing the scan function.
 

cornercanyon

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. . . realizing each day–
I got excited when you started this, because even though I have that first level HAM license, I understand very little(army course). And a simple HAM for Dummies summary like this is amazing. I did highlight I think a potential mistype?
I saw that too. I think @jeepdriver99 meant to highlight that GMRS and FRS speak with each other on the channels/frequencies they share—
 

cornercanyon

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. . . realizing each day–
I got excited when you started this, because even though I have that first level HAM license, I understand very little(army course). And a simple HAM for Dummies summary like this is amazing. I did highlight I think a potential mistype?
You should start a thread on this topic—
 

cornercanyon

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. . . realizing each day–
I asked the groups I'm in around here and we're all on GMRS, but I asked before investing(I actually already had the GMRS from Hawai'i hiking).
What frequency do you all use typically?
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