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FRS Radioes question
In article et, Joseph Fenn wrote: I bought 2 of these tiny little FRS radioes so could keep in touch with wife when she takes her daily walks. I called the FCC and asked them if any kind of license is required to use thses. They said certain chnls do require FCC license which costs $75 for a 1 year period. Chnls 1 thru 7 need this license also the higher chnls I believe was 16 to 20 also require FCC license. The others do not require any license or ID when used. So I set both hers and mine to chnl 12 (frs free useage chnl). These free chnls per docs have a range of up to 7 miles. The FCC licensed chnls with same unit have a range up to 14 miles. Sure... if you're up at 3000 feet on a mountaintop, with a clear view to the mountaintop on which the other person is standing :-) More commonly, in a city or in the woods, FRS radios will work tolerably well for a quarter-mile or so, often to half a mile. Beyond that, they're marginal to useless. If you have a GMRS (license-required) radio, which actually puts out a full 5 watts or so on the GMRS channels (and *very* few of the dual-mode radios do) you might go a couple of miles in city terrain. Most of the dual-mode radios have no more power on the GMRS frequencies than on the FRS and shared frequencies. Claims of 7 - 14 miles for these radios are sheer marketingbabble - they're incredibly optimistic. When my wife was trying to reach me from a shopping center about 10 miles away she did find a spot that worked. But next time we tried I Could'nt hear her well only a sylable or 2. She says after she tried 4 or 5 times, some one came up and said this is the "POLICE" do you need help!!! How in the heck does FCC get into the picture or better yet how does the FCC even monitor these FRS chnls. I thought they only monitor 911. The FCC itself almost certainly was not monitoring. It might have been the police. Or, it might have been someone from a community emergency preparedness group (CERT, or perhaps REACT) who was monitoring and who was willing to call the police on your wife's behalf. Might even have been an off-duty policeman who keeps an FRS radio around to speak with her husband :-) -- Dave Platt AE6EO Hosting the Jade Warrior home page: http://www.radagast.org/jade-warrior I do _not_ wish to receive unsolicited commercial email, and I will boycott any company which has the gall to send me such ads! |
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