GMRS Radio

Pretty much anything on a vehicle is going to be line of sight. Line of sight is limited mostly by terrain, then my the mounting height of the antenna. Power is really not an issue - as you will run out of line of sight long before you run out of power. The potential exception of this is if you are on the top of a mountain or are physically using an antenna on a tower.

UHF and VHF tends to be FM. FM has better sound quality at the expense of energy efficiency. CB is HF. HF is generally AM. For more energy efficiency, you can use side band (2x the energy efficiency - most of HF HAM is side band). That said, due to wavelength - it is kind of pointless to use HF in a mobile device. The db of the short antennas knocks out the efficiency gains (a 5/8 wavelength CB antenna would be about 21' long).

You might have power issues with FMS radios (I don't think they make FMS mobil radios), GMRS can have significantly more power. A lot of mobile GMRS radios are designed so they can also be used as a repeater (with a fixed antenna on a much higher mast).

Anyway, this is trivial knowledge I kind of recall from studing for my HAM exams. I don't use my radio's much, but I was good at studying and have an Extra license - 3 licenses at one sitting.
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Part of me has wanted to put up a GMRS antenna on the top of my families beach rental - It should have enough range to reach the entire pennisula it is on. That way I could find out if anyone every uses GMRS on that beach. I monitored it a bit during Jeep Week - never heard anything (But Bolivar Jeep week is more of a Houston rave than a gathering of offroad enthusists). I guess that is the one reason for a CB - there are a lot more out there. I don't live that far off of I10, I rarely hear anything on 19 anymore.

I read these threads because I kind of want to put a radio or 3 in my jeep - just have not desided if it is worth the effort for where and how I use it. I go offroad, but usually alone.
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The main benifit of HAM is open repeaters. These antenna's tend to be mounted on telecom towers. They are line of sight, but line of sight to a 500' antenna is a lot further than a 7' one. Not probably as large of advantage is networked repeaters. During the early days of Covid - I listened a lot to a networked repeater - people where on it from all over the US and UK. It was fun seeing how people from different parts of the world were responding to Covid.
 
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How long did it take you to receive any kind of confirmation? I just tried, but didn't get a confirmation page or confirmation email.

I didn't get an email right after filling out the application. It did show a confirmation number when I paid, which I saved.

I received an email with an authorization link about 48 hours after filling out the application. I had to click the link which pulled up my call sign. I saved that also as a PDF. The email shows the link will expire in 30 days. So save it as a PDF and/or print it. Pretty sure you can still login to the FCC website with your FRN number and it will show you your call sign.
 
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Also be aware: Anyone can look you up on the FCC site if they have your call sign or FRN. You broadcast your call sign every time you use the radio, so I have a P.O. Box that I use for correspondence with the FCC as I don't want my address publicly known.
 
Just a bit of trivia - as I would never encourage anyone to do something illegal...

Due to different rules around the world, and the proximity of GMRS band to VHF - a lot of VHF radios are designed to be able to be used on GMRS (and FMS) frequencies. These are locked out on radio's intended for US sales. Some radio's use software lockouts - which can sometimes be easy to worked around. Other's have a one or two components on board that cause the lock out - which can be removed with a snip of a wire.

To add to all of that, there are a couple of other bands that can be legal to use in very specific circumstances, so it is technically not illegal to perform the mods that open the radio's up to the additional bands (such as a MARS mod) - you can even find companies that will do the mods for you (on newly purchased radios or at ham meets). Now don't get me wrong, it is still illegal to use them outside the HAM bands (unless in very specific circumstances), but not illegal to have them ready to use...

For example, I might have a couple handhelds that can easily transmit on UHF, VHF and any FMS or GMRS frequency I might want to - or not. LIkewise, my mobile Ham radio can easily listen to those frequencies (even though it is not modified to transmit on them-have not bothered to have the modifications done).
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All that said, it is probably just cheaper and more legit to get a GMRS radio to start with.
 
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Just a bit of trivia - as I would never encourage anyone to do something illegal...

Due to different rules around the world, and the proximity of GMRS band to VHF - a lot of VHF radios are designed to be able to be used on GMRS (and FMS) frequencies. These are locked out on radio's intended for US sales. Some radio's use software lockouts - which can sometimes be easy to worked around. Other's have a one or two components on board that cause the lock out - which can be removed with a snip of a wire.

To add to all of that, there are a couple of other bands that can be legal to use in very specific circumstances, so it is technically not illegal to perform the mods that open the radio's up to the additional bands (such as a MARS mod) - you can even find companies that will do the mods for you (on newly purchased radios or at ham meets). Now don't get me wrong, it is still illegal to use them outside the HAM bands (unless in very specific circumstances), but not illegal to have them ready to use...

For example, I might have a couple handhelds that can easily transmit on UHF, VHF and any FMS or GMRS frequency I might want to - or not. LIkewise, my mobile Ham radio can easily listen to those frequencies (even though it is not modified to transmit on them-have not bothered to have the modifications done).
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All that said, it is probably just cheaper and more legit to get a GMRS radio to start with.

My ham radio is a Yaesu and it was locked to ham frequencies. I did do the mars cap mod and now I can use it on GMRS if needed. Though my cheap Baofunk radio doesn't have these frequencies locked since it came from China.

So many of the people in my area buy the Baofeng because it's cheap. They often use it only on the GMRS frequencies because they think that's legal vs. ham where you are supposed to have a license. Try explaining that you're supposed to have a license for GMRS to some of these people is like talking to a wall.
 
There are a lot of GMRS repeaters in my area (I can hit 10+ from my 50w base station at home) and while not busy, I have heard several times where somebody jumped in after a conversation claiming to be the owner and asking for people's callsign. The insinuation was they were checking to make sure they had a license, but they played it politely off as just chatting people up and being friendly. The only recourse would be for them to turn the repeater off if you didn't play ball and tell them I guess. But for $35, why not even have to worry about it.
 
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You are not breaking the law. You are breaking the rules set forth by the FCC if you tx out of band or do not have a license for the bands you tx on. I'm not advocating that anyone should break the rules, but as a licensed Ham and GMRS user, I also want options. All the rules go out the window if you need to communicate in an emergency to save life or property, or if SHTF.
 
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Who knocks on your door or turns on there Red lights? FCC is not going to send an email.

I've never heard of anyone getting cited or fined. I figure if you were spamming repeaters without a license from the same location all the time, maybe someone could track you down and complain. However wheeling in a remote location talking to only people you know, it's just never going to happen. Doesn't make it any less illegal.

Especially now that it's only $35 and doesn't require a test, I don't see why someone wouldn't want the license.

I was joking with my wife: My 8yo is in little league. I want to have him wear an ear piece so I can coach him from the stands.
 
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Baofangs come with GMRS kind of locked out - you have to use the programing cable. Of course you basically need to use the programming cable to do anything with them, so it is pretty much a joke of a lock.

I don't research FCC compliance letters much. I did get a bit of a laugh about 2 years ago. They went after a volunteer fire department. The fire department was using fire department frequencies, but the Baofangs were not type certifided for those frequencies. The deptmartment was using them to avoid the Motorola Tax on type certified radios. Want to guess who made the complaint? I don't know, but I would bet it was either a company whose name started with M or one of their resellers...