GMRS and FRS, what are they and what’s the difference?
GMRS (General Mobile Radio Service) was intended as a way for families to be able to stay in touch via radio throughout a community. You must have a license to legally use GMRS frequencies/radios. Your license covers immediate family members. The license requires you fill out some forms and pay the FCC a fee. Unlike amateur radio, there is no test involved. The license is valid for 10 years.
GMRS uses frequencies in the 462Mhz and 467Mhz range. You can use handheld, mobile, and base radios. There are antenna height and power restrictions but they are fairly generous. There are 30 GMRS channels, some of which overlap with FRS (Family Radio Service) channels.
FRS (Family Radio Service) requires no license. It shares some of the frequencies with GMRS but the radios themselves are low power and FRS radios cannot legally have a removable antenna or operate through a repeater. The idea was FRS is meant for use in a small geographic area like a park or a shopping center.
For more information on GMRS, click the link below…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Mobile_Radio_Service
For detailed information on obtaining a GMRS license, click the link below…
https://quality2wayradios.com/store/gmrs-fcc-license
What radios can you use? By law, you are supposed to use radios that are type accepted (FCC jargon for approved) for FRS or GMRS. These radios can be bought at sporting goods stores, Wal-Mart, etc. They will say on the package FRS or GMRS and generally have some outlandish claim of how far their range is. Take that claim of distance with a grain of salt. FRS radios are good for maybe a block or two of open land, GMRS radios can go further but you’ll need access to a “repeater” to cover miles.
A repeater is just some specialized radio equipment at a tall location that listens on one frequency and re-transmits what it hears on a slightly different frequency. This allows two people on GMRS walkie talkies to cover miles instead of blocks.
Will you see people using other types of radios? Yep. A great many Chinese handheld and mobile 2 way radios will cover the FRS/GMRS bands. Some amateur radio gear and a great many UHF commercial radios will also cover the FRS/GMRS bands. Are they legal to use on FRS/GMRS frequencies? For most of them, it’s a big fat no. Does it happen? All the time. Is the radio SWAT team going to kick down your door for using a ham radio on GMRS? You have a better chance of hitting the lotto!
Speaking of the radio gestapo…
GMRS can be an odd place. The people who put up GMRS repeaters typically demand that users ask for permission to use it. The reasoning is that they spent time and money putting this specialized equipment on the air. This is totally opposite from what the amateur radio community does. Hams have been building elaborate repeater systems for decades before GMRS became popular. Hams usually welcome anyone and everyone with a valid amateur radio license to use their repeaters, no permission required, and the frequencies are openly published. If you’re coming from the ham world, this obscure GMRS permission thing may throw you for a curve.
GMRS repeater listings are often hidden. This is ridiculous in an age when even the cheapest radios support scanning and tone search (there’s only 8 repeater channels on GMRS).
Sadly, some GMRS repeater owners can suffer from a “god complex” and heavily lean into a newbie that just popped up on their repeater. The Wizard of Oz stigma is real folks (LOL)! Be aware these types of folks are out there. Don’t let it deter you.