Canada now has a Family Radio Service
You may now use your U.S. FRS Radios in Canada!

July 16, 2000

In My View

Editorial Opinion
by Doug Smith
KAF9830
WA6GON

"Do NOT Expect FRS to Save Your Life."

FRS Channel 1 Call Channel Not a New Idea

Contrary to what you might have heard, the idea of an FRS call channel occurred right here at GMRS Web Magazine almost three years ago. It's been in our FAQ for that length of time; however, it has never caught on and probably never will. It originally came up in discussions about whether FRS would be a valuable radio service for personal emergencies. Most readers came to the conclusion that telling the the public that FRS was useful in a emergency was not a good idea. Some still thought using channel 1 as a call channel was a good idea, IF it was used in a directed fashion with lost members of your own family or group. Channel 1 as a home channel seemed like a practical idea, and it still is.

The magazine has done its' best to dispel the myth that FRS could be a life saving radio service. There have been many discussions about FRS potential as a life saving radio service on the magazine bulletin board. The majority of opinions hold that the public should never have the expectation that FRS can save their lives in the event of a personal emergency. The physics of radio and the nature of the service make ideas like this impractical and even life threatening. It is irresponsible to create this expectation in the minds of the general public. The recent news stories about one life saving incident are the extreme exception and not the rule. That single incident should not be the rally cry to create an FRS call channel on which the public can expect to raise help in an emergency.

Facts

One-half-watt at ground level does not travel very far. The likelihood of someone hearing you is remote. There would have to be one dedicated monitor in every square mile of the country listening 24 hours per day to even make it practical.
FRS is an unlicensed radio service. There is no order. There are no traditions There is no training, structure, or operating standards. Expecting millions of unlicensed users to observe a call channel is impractical. The general public is not sophisticated enough to observe monitoring protocols and operating behaviors required in an emergency radio service. There is no enforcement available as there is on maritime VHF channels.
Most people using FRS use coded squelch, even on channel 1. The likelihood of you being heard even if others were able to hear you is remote. Most people using coded squelch on their radios also have no clue how to change the code!
In urban areas, nature parks, and amusement areas, FRS channel 1 is jammed with children playing with their FRS walkie talkies. They press their bell-call buttons, sing, and yell at each other. The likelihood of anyone hearing you over that cacophony is VERY remote. Interference on channel 1 is very intense. The interference generated on FRS makes using it quite difficult in some areas.
FRS is catching on among business users, schools, and the like. In some areas, and even in some amusement parks, people are already remarking how crowded these 14 channels can get! I heard a school principal in Martinez, Ca trying to chase two children off of his private school channel the other day. You guessed it, an FRS channel.
Radio monitoring as a public service is a hobby among a small number of people mostly in large urban areas. There is never a guarantee that your emergency call will be heard on FRS. It is far more likely that it will not be heard.
At FRS and GMRS antenna height is more important than transmitter power. The higher your antenna the farther you can transmit. The higher you are the more likely you will hear everyone else also using their FRS radios. The higher you go the more useless your FRS radio could become because of the interference, desense, and intermod you would encounter. If you think hundreds of people on coded squelch are going to shut up when you fall down the mountain you are woefully mistaken.

Directed Communication

FRS, like GMRS, was intended to be a directed communication radio service. You expect to communicate with a particular person in your family or in your group when you use these radios. Listen to GMRS and FRS and you will rarely hear people that don't know each other talking amongst themselves. The character of the service has never been one where a so-called call channel and would catch on. People don't expect to engage in random chit-chat nor do they expect to get help from complete strangers.

Conclusion: The BIG Maybe

Do not expect FRS to save your life. Do not buy FRS or GMRS radios expecting to have a unique emergency lifeline to help twenty four hours a day. It isn't there. Millions of unlicensed users are also not going to fall into lock-step and observe an outdated call-channel or monitored channel tradition. It is ludicrous to set the expectation you can get help from anyone else but someone traveling with you in range of your radio, and it is definitely not in the public interest, convenience, and necessity to suggest it. It is for this reason that I am vehemently opposed to REACT's proposal to encourage manufacturers to sell FRS devices as life saving radios. The idea is illogical, poorly conceived, and steeped in outdated and largely abandoned radio traditions.

The monitoring of radio channels as a means of protecting life and property is a hold-over from a bygone era when radio operators stood watch to listen for distress calls from ships at sea. Technology is now such that wilderness users and even the general public have much better emergency communications options than FRS radios. Advocating the use of FRS as a one-size-fits-all emergency communications device is the desperate act of a very small number of people in an organization that wants to preserve it's heritage and it's hobby activity. REACT needs to adventure into the future with the rest of us.

I appreciate the fact that some people want to sit and listen to their radios waiting for a fellow GMRS licensee to have an emergency on the highways. It's laudable but no longer necessary. One can argue, as I have , that the Basis and Purpose of GMRS and FRS is not to foster growth in radio oriented public service activities. That is the Basis and Purpose of Amateur Radio. If groups of licensees want to listen for each other while on the road that's fine, but it is not wise to set the public's expectation in this regard. In the last two years I've called on-the-air for REACT six times and received help twice. Amazingly enough, I have scored zero using ham radio. Who thinks that with the laws of physics and reality going against their proposal that their record could improve? In this day and age industry should be focusing on the development of devices that can help in an emergency and not on devices that are BIG maybe. It is not time to take another look at FRS.

Doug Smith
KAF9830
WA6GON

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Last updated July 16, 2000

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