Solid post. We don't have a HAM at the BOL, but my thinking is the same as yours. Unfortunately, if anyone is going to get a license, its going to have to be me, lol. One more thing.
GMRS Explained: Not Quite Ham, Not Quite Public
- Thread starter CommoFreq
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Although the license test is rediculously simple, when TSHTF, you wont hear me complaining about someone keeping this country active without a callsign.
Buy the radios and the books for using them right and just reference the books or pdf's when you need to. For the longest time i thought it critical to commit everything to memory. But the more you learn, the more you realize how little you know. In fact, if a wise man knows anything, its that he knows nothing at all. This is why all the textbook genius's have private libraries. You skim the material to become vaguely familiar with the concepts so when trouble arises, you know exactly where to look!
I have 4 hams in our bug out group I'm the main go to guy then the rest. We all have the cheap Chinese baofeng radios for regular use and extras to hand out to others if need be. We also have better radios that are better built and more water resistant. Yaesu and icom are the two main ones. Then I also have vehicle and base stations with towers as well. And to round off I have many miles of comms wire with crank style field phones we can use as lp/op locations that won't give away our location with rf transmissions.
Do you guys have any moon beam antennas? To bounce off that big reflector to minimize triangulation?
I have seen a set up using two antennas with a motor mount that follows the moon, used for things like astrophotography and astronomy. One of the antennas they use I have as a single 2 meter beam. I guess I could buy a second one and that equatorial mount that tracks the moon and try it sometime. I think that motor is expensive though LOL 
So to answer your question no we don't but is interesting. I honestly don't know enough about that to know if its worth doing and how reliable it is.
So to answer your question no we don't but is interesting. I honestly don't know enough about that to know if its worth doing and how reliable it is.Moonbounce is not a reliable mode for emergency communications, its more of a challenging hobby than a useful tool.
As for triangulation goes, bouncing off the moon as a means to disguise a tx position is not a good choice. Mainly because you still need to transmit (with an array large enough to be spotted from far away) and the array is going to, no matter how much gain it has, still radiate along the horizon some. Direction finding, triangulation, multilateration etc are still going to see you (about 3 seconds sooner than the moonbounce signal).
On top of that, theres countless satellites that can find you via time difference of arrival techniques.
As for triangulation goes, bouncing off the moon as a means to disguise a tx position is not a good choice. Mainly because you still need to transmit (with an array large enough to be spotted from far away) and the array is going to, no matter how much gain it has, still radiate along the horizon some. Direction finding, triangulation, multilateration etc are still going to see you (about 3 seconds sooner than the moonbounce signal).
On top of that, theres countless satellites that can find you via time difference of arrival techniques.
Great explanation. Even though I do believe in following the rules, transmitting on higher power in the event of an emergency is never going to be a problem. During the type of emergency we are preparing for I seriously have no worries that the FCC will be around. Just the opinion of a guy who's been in radio for 50+ years.ALCON,
It's been a while since I dropped by, since I deleted my FB account and couldn't figure out how to get back into the forums. Well, I figured it out. I'm still around. Anyhow, now I can talk about GMRS for a little while.
Bad news first: You need a license to operate on GMRS frequencies. Well, legally, that is.
Good news: There's no test for you to take like with ham licenses. You simply pay your way in.
If you've seen some of my other posts, I've been starkly against making the Family Radio Service (FRS) your primary means of communication. It's way too popular, and very incapable. It should actually be a last resort.
Yes, have an FRS radio, for listening and gaining information. But use something else if you want to actually do some talking of your own when Doomsday comes. That's just my personal thing - I'm sure there are others who may disagree. And this sentiment of mine hasn't changed. Everyone has their own way of doing business.
Now, when I first heard of GMRS, I lumped it immediately into the same waste bin as FRS. Oh, how wrong I was about doing that!
GMRS hand-helds
What GMRS actually . . . is
You can think of GMRS as a "cheat code" into the ham radio world, and all things about it that gives you a huge advantage over "conventional" communications.
More specifically, the General Mobile Radio Service (GMRS) is kinda weird. All of its channels fall within the 440 (70cm) ham band, and some of those channels are also FRS channels too. It's kind of a mix of ham and GMRS, with a sprinkle of FRS on top. So you're getting the advantage of using ham frequencies, without having to take a test for a ham license!
Let's take this from the top:
- If you already have a ham license, then you don't need a GMRS license too. Or, maybe you do! A single GMRS license allows you, and all of your family members to use these frequencies as well. That is probably the most attractive part of a GMRS license.
- The second thing that kept me from chunking it into the waste bin of useless communications modes, is that you are allowed far more power output than on FRS. For comparison, an FRS radio will transmit a maximum of 1/2 a watt. A GMRS repeater is allowed 50 watts. That is a huge difference.
- You probably noticed that I said, "repeater". This is another item of interest that blows FRS right out of the water. I thought repeaters were only found on ham bands (for civilian use, that is), but things appear to be changing rapidly these days. If you don't know what a repeater is, well, it's a radio system that someone set up, that listens for your signal, and sends it back out again, but from much higher up, and at much higher power. It can double, triple, or quadruple your range. Probably more than that. It's not unusual to get 65 miles of range out of a repeater, with a clean signal.
Getting Licensed
All you need is $90 and to fill out two online forms. You can also print them out and mail them in via snail mail if you wish. First, you will need to "create an FCC account", like you would if you were signing up for Facebook. You can do that here:
http://wireless.fcc.gov/uls/index.htm?job=home
You will be assigned an "FRN" number (this means "FCC Registration Number"). They ask for this when you fill out the two forms. Next, you will need to file FCC Form 159 and FCC Form 605. You can find those forms here:
https://www.fcc.gov/forms
I don't know how long it takes to get licensed, so if one of you decide to do this, please let the rest of us know. Given that the FCC has gone paperless (for the most part), it might even be instant if you pay with a credit card online.
Technical Info
The GMRS band has 23 channels. Limitations / restrictions depend on which channels you're using. Here's what the frequency / channel chart looks like:
You probably noticed that I said "23 channels", and yet, you only see 22 on the chart. Well, according to the FCC, there are 23. Noticeably absent from the list, is 467.550. I don't quite know what to make of this. . . if anyone has an explanation, please feel free to chime in. And, for reference, here is the FCC's explanation of GMRS, to include 23 channels:
https://www.fcc.gov/encyclopedia/general-mobile-radio-service-gmrs
Also, take heed - just because you have a GMRS radio that can transmit 5 watts on the FRS band, doesn't mean you are *allowed to*. You still need a license to do that, otherwise, you should use no more than 1/2 watt, even if it's on an FRS frequency. There are no legal loopholes here.
I hope that helps. Please post your comments and questions below.
Although, the GMRS license now costs only $35 for ten years. Licensed 34 years. WC8E.
Purchased a couple Bao-Fengs with separate antennas and got one programmed. I was on my way towards my license when my studies got diverted to Boater Safety because kin folk were visiting and we were going to rent a couple ocean boats {my river boat experience didn't count} I'll be back on the HAM license path soon. I already have my GMRS License. My boat has a marine band vhf and I have a cb base station at my bol. My main off grid comms right now is my Bivy Stick Satellite communicator.
