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In My View

Editorial Opinion
by Doug Smith
KAF9830
WA6GON

"FRS Gets 22 Channels; GMRS Prices to Plunge"

That was the headline in TWICE, on page 40 of This Week in Consumer Electronics Magazine for February 11, 2002. The article was written for the bubble-pack radio industry. It contained the same misleading drivel the consumer electronics leaders have been feeding the public. They probably do not understand the GMRS or FRS themselves and frankly I do not think they care. All they see are dollar signs.

The Article begins, "As the GMRS category converts to 22-channel operation, suppliers are beginning to offer the same 22 channel feature on FRS, 1/2 watt radios."

The major players in the bubble-pack radio industry have wide eyes for profits and no ears for listening about licensing or enforcement problems. GMRS as we know it may be doomed if the Federal Communications Commission lets this monster out of Pandora's box.

The article continues, "BellSouth will convert most of its FRS line to 22 channels in June with ten FRS models offering 8 GMRS channels at 1/2 watt in addition to 7 FRS channels and 7 shared FRS and GMRS channels."

The article also indicated that some of these so-called "22 channel FRS" radios will be priced as low as $11.99.

GMRS is doomed if the FCC acts positively on approving the GMRS/FRS hybrid radios. The service as we know it will be owned by Motorola, Uniden, ATT, BellSouth, Audiovox and others. The FCC will have no choice but to make GMRS license free by rule. Once the millions of radios have been sold without licensing there is just no going back. The FCC will do just what they did with CB, FRS, and MURS. GMRS won't be worth squat to anyone.

GMRS licensees in this country never asked to have their service over run by marketing managers. The GMRS category is not converting to 22 channels. The bubble-pack radio industry is. These companies are defining the FRS and GMRS markets as they see the markets and not as how the current GMRS licensee sees the service. Their interest is in the millions that they can make selling radios to the general public.

The market for garbage radio products will drive the real GMRS radio companies out of business. A few scoundrels will get rich and the rest of us will lose the thousands we have spent to build our family communication systems.

This would not be happening if GMRS had a national membership organization behind it like the ARRL. All you have at present are PRSG and Popular Wireless Magazines. Neither organization has the lawyers to lead this fight. It has to be a grass roots effort taken on by every GMRS licensee. The FCC would think twice (no pun intended) before allowing this idiocy to prevail, if we did have a forceful lobby at the Commission. Well we do not, and every GMRS licensee now needs to take action.

Predictions Came True

What this magazine predicted with the first bubble-pack radio is now coming true. What we predicted about blending FRS and GMRS in one radio is the final catalyst for destroying GMRS licensing. In the pages of hype I read in this TWICE issue I never once read anything about licensing. Licensing is irrelevant. Order is irrelevant. Only selling garbage radios is relevant. Only encouraging consumers to buy and operate these radios without licenses is relevant.

The bubble-pack garbage radio industry is pulling out all stops now. The assault is on.

It is time for all GMRS licensees to say something to the FCC about reigning in manufacturers and marketing managers. The FCC has got to do the right thing.

Write to:

Federal Communications Commission
Attn: Gary Hendrickson
OET
445 12th Street SW
Washington, DC 20554

We know at Popular Wireless that the FCC staffers responsible for approving radio designs are NOT talking to the Enforcement Bureau. We know because we have worked with the Enforcement Bureau for over three years cleaning up piracy in GMRS. We have shared our opinion of the proposed GMRS/FRS hybrid radios with the Enforcement Bureau only to understand they are not in a position to intervene on our behalf. Frankly they seem as perplexed as we do.

The major points you need to cover in your letter are:

• FRS and GMRS are TWO distinctly different services.
• FRS is an unlicensed service.
• GMRS is a licensed service.
• FRS suffers from anarchy, disorganization, severe interference, and child's play.
• GMRS is an organized service of American families that take their responsibility seriously.
• GMRS licensees never asked the bubble pack companies to make low cost 22 channel radios.
• FRS channels 8-14 are not needed nor are these channels required on a GMRS radio.
• Producing millions of garbage 22 channel radios will put real radio companies making high quality GMRS radios out of business.
• American families with a significant investment in their two-way radio systems will lose those investments.
• The bubble pack radio makers never asked us if we wanted or needed 22 channel radios. If they had we would have told them NO! FRS 8-14 are between our repeater inputs.
• The bubble pack radio companies are planning, to dump millions of these low cost radios on the unsuspecting public this year according to "This Week in Consumer Electronics Magazine." None of their articles talk about how they intend to license consumers in GMRS. As a matter of fact, their industry press refers to the radios as FRS 22 Channel Radios.
• Ask the FCC why they would ever consider combining an unlicensed service radio with a licensed service radio. Don't they think it is as confusing as we do?
• Flooding GMRS with millions of low-cost garbage radios would only turn GMRS into another wasteland just like FRS and CB.
• Bubble-pack piracy is already a significant problem. Why make things even worse for the Enforcement Bureau.