GMRS WEB Magazine

In My View Editorial Opinion by Doug Smith KAF9830

What is chit-chat?

One man's chit chat might be another man's directed communication. Who's to say? Well in the GMRS service the repeater owner does.

What we read in the FAQ here at GMRS Web is that GMRS was intended to provide superior quality purposeful and directed communication for personal licensees and their families. That means family business and in my mind directed and purposeful family chit-chat. Not everyone wants to become a ham, and you cannot conduct your family business on Amateur Radio. Not all "family business" is business per se so licensing in the Business Radio Service for families is not a valid option. Licensing in GMRS is the best option.

I never want to be in the business of being the "content police." There's too much of that on UHF Amateur radio with the so-called closed repeaters. There are UHF resources in that service that are closed off to the Amateur community at large because a few elite have declared the frequencies on that service as their own. GMRS repeater licensees generally respect the very limited resources available and share their systems in a much more friendly way.

Every repeater licensee has an obligation to protect his/her system and to make sure the system complies with FCC rules. What I think repeater licensees need to do is examine what they mean by "chit chat" and reflect on whether the protection of their system is too restrictive.

The character of GMRS is slowly changing. The radio engineers who set up a large majority of the repeater systems in the service are going to find themselves listening to families on the go and not to other radio technicians. Families with limited knowledge of radio and procedures are going to, by their nature, chit chat while conducting their personal business. A new glut of simplex only GMRS radios is about to hit the market - we cannot escape it.

I know that while my wife and I coordinate activities via GMRS radio we occasionally catch up on the days events. That isn't wrong, in my view, as long as we are not abusing the resource we share. By that I mean, preventing others from using the repeater or the channel for their own communication. We have to be conscious that the GMRS repeater resources are limited and must be shared.

The new FCC GMRS Rules now allow us to use all GMRS channels. This is going to prove a big plus. Families can spread out their on the air activities by selecting the best resource. e.g. low level versus high level repeaters. These kinds of decisions are far more important than the content of communication.

GMRS channels are in many areas very quiet. Channel loading of simplex communication does not appear to be a major issue and voluntary repeater coordination seems to be working in metropolitan areas. The behavior of the GMRS licensees and their family members is far superior to CB. We have a good start as the service grows. What everyone doesn't want is for the service to become a copy of the CB wasteland. I share that view but, I think we can avoid that without calling the content police. Now would one of our readers like to write an article on training the uninitiated family member everything they need to know about using a GMRS radio microphone without thinking they need to say 10-4 big buddy? ;-)

FCC

PRSG

Last updated March 21, 1999