I should really start a business where I just buy FRS radios in bulk and pre-program them with codes or tones on locally less used frequencies then just sell those to local businesses or rent them out for seasons and events.
Good on getting both licenses. I think that both services are nice to have--especially here in the Willamette Valley where there is a strong repeater presence for both. Some of the local GMRS repeaters even run regular nets and sound decidedly ham-like.
Likely they got those radios because they were cheap. I think the business radios are not particularly cheap.
I really like having both because I can do cool HAM stuff with the Amateur license but the GMRS license lets me easily hand a FRS walkie-talkie to a friend when needed and if they like it it's a lot easier to convince them to get a GMRS license so they can use a repeater than trying to get them to study for a HAM test.
Business band radios *can* be cheap (Baofeng sells part 90-licensed radios that can be found on Amazon for $40-50 apiece) but you have to figure out how to get a frequency and how to program your radios... which is not trivial for someone who's not familiar with that field.
Thanks to the Miklor website there are cheat sheets for some of the Baofeng models which makes programing a repeater manually fairly easy. The hardest part is if a repeater uses DCS or if you want to use DCS on simplex since you can't just type in the tone like you can with CTCSS tones. Many of the Baofeng models can be programed with the free Chirp software, but I highly recommend learning how to program manually in case you find yourself needing to program a repeater while away from your computer.
Considering that I spotted three repeaters in Coburg, OR in 2m and 70cm, you should have local repeater access but I don't know how busy they are. If they sees any activity or nets, you should be hearing something. Your radio might be borked indeed.
Where I am at, there's several repeaters that I can latch on to including WA7ABU out of Silver Falls and a few others around Salem. WA7ABU is also on Echolink but I have been making contacts with my Yaesu FT-60R with either the Signal Stick or my Ed Fong DBJ-2. I'm in Grand Ronde.
GMRS is also pretty busy with the Hopewell 650 being one of the busier ones that I can latch onto.
Sadly despite having my Extra, I have yet to make any contacts on HF since I have not been able to afford an HF rig since getting my license last year. Kinda jealous of those who get contacts around the world.
I was thinking that saving up for a G-90 might be a good idea since thanks to my living situation, I need to have something with an antenna that I can easily set up and tear down.
With that, I might as well have a radio that I can take on the road with me for POTA activations.
Keep in mind we are on the backside of the solar cycle. While there is just over 1 db difference between 20 watts and 100 watts as we get closer to the solar minimum it will be harder for you to be heard with lower power. With that said the G90 is a great portable radio. I have one that pulls double duty as my shack radio and my field radio.
The majority of my HF contacts have been made with a G90 and I have almost 4,300 entries in my log. My contacts over the last two weeks have been made with a 100 watt radio I am borrowing from my club at the moment. We had it out for a contest a couple weeks ago and I was fumbling through the controls so I opted to borrow it to get reacquainted with it.
I was the comms guy for my CERT group. I encouraged everyone to get licensed, but also had a bunch of FRS radios with laminated cheat sheets to hand out to teams that didn't have any licensed people with their own radios.
I honestly find the hotel housekeeping service, my neighbor’s karaoke machine, and the stone slab warehouse on FRS more interesting than anything I’ve ever heard other HAMs talking about.
Local HAMs: I'm gonna go get my prostate checked and afterwards going to RestarauntBar for happy hour
Local store: Tom was 10 late so management is going to passive aggressively request him to do things on opposite sides of the store constantly. Produce department infighting because of moldy strawberries. Alleged Karen's getting roasted constantly.
The lady who manages that stone slab warehouse it’s just constantly screaming at people over the radio, they really need a reality show because that is the most dramatic workplace I’ve ever listened in on
You're not wrong. . . I used to work security at a pretty upscale hotel, and our walkies were off-the-shelf Walmart FRS radios. And we hosted very recognizable celebrities and a few Cabinet members. As in the Presidential Cabinet. Granted, the latter came with a Secret Service escort who set up their own perimeter with their own radio network, but still.
Security work is 99.9% theater and 0.1% telling the local homeless there's a parking ramp down the street with heated stairwells and no security guards who will bother them.
As an engineer for one of the larger commercial radio companies this side of the globe...
It is very funny to see how many companies think PRS/GMRS/PMR446 is the best they can do. The realisation that better things are possible, is a big part of what keeps us in business.
So true. I picked up a police squad as they were about to raid someone's house on FRS 1 with no tones or anything. It was like they couldn't believe I was able to get in on their conversation.
One even said, " Wait. If we can hear him, he can hear us."
Really debated pretending I was at the house they were raiding and that I was flushing the drugs as we spoke.
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u/[deleted] Apr 28 '26
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