PopularWireless Magazine
readers have coined two new GMRS terms in the Personal Wireless Forums. The
magazine's first new term for the GMRS dictionary was "bubble-pack
pirate." This referred to people purchasing GMRS radios in plastic-bubble
packaging and then using the radios without FCC authorization. We now have two
new terms that describe two very old urban practices in the GMRS. Those terms
are: 1) frequency camping and 2) buff groups
This is a touchy subject because some
of you reading this article may be a frequency camper or even a member of a
buff group. You may even mean well and provide a terrific service to your
community! It is time, however, that GMRS organized and that licensees acted to
end unfriendly practices that limit the usefulness of the service to those for
whom it was intended. GMRS was not created for the exclusive use of groups.
GMRS is a radio service for personal licensees and larger groups with an
attitude need to recognize that.
Not every group of licensees using
GMRS is a buff group with an attitude nor does every group camp on a radio
channel. The majority of GMRS licensees and licensees in groups are decent
folks that observe the FCC Rules and Regulations regarding the cooperative
behavior required between licensees. I know I have had the privilege to belong
to one of the best!
We write about the problem of frequency
camping and buff groups in the magazine because both are out there. Awareness
needs to increase so that the behaviors associated with each can someday be
stopped. Stopping the behavior may mean that some grandfathered licensees find
other more suitable coordinated business frequencies on which to conduct
frequent use of two-way radios. It could also mean that private groups engaged
in service activities do the same if GMRS use in their area is growing and
their service activities are so frequent that conflicts between licensees often
occur. One thing is for certain, the mutual combat between buff groups and
licensees often provoked by the buff group must stop if we are to be taken
seriously at the FCC!
The point is that behaviors not
conducive to cooperation between licensees are behaviors we do not want in the
GMRS. To that end we discuss two of the more unpopular behaviors in hopes that
those engaged in the activity will take a second look at how they operate and
make corrections.
Frequency Camping
Definition: Frequency camping is
any on-the-air behavior intended to discourage others from using a GMRS
frequency. Camping is practiced to give one group or licensee exclusivity on a
GMRS channel.
Frequency camping means tailoring one's
radio system operation so that a GMRS frequency is very busy with your own
group's activities. So busy in fact, that members of the group regularly
discourage, warn, intimidate, or harass other licensees regarding non-member
radio operations on the same frequency.
Frequency camping is insisting that all
stations remain off the air in anticipation that other stations might need that
GMRS frequency for an emergency when no emergency has been declared.
Frequency camping can also be the act
of enabling all CTCSS and DCS repeater input tones so that use of any tone you
do not currently use, by any other licensee, produces a busy signal on the
repeater output. This discourages anyone else from using "your exclusive
frequency" as a repeater channel.
Buff Groups
Definition: Buff groups are the
muscle behind frequency camping. Buff groups are grandfathered licensees or
groups of personal licensees that engage in aggressive behaviors directed at
protecting exclusive use of GMRS channels on which they operate GMRS
repeaters.
Buff group aggressive behaviors include
but are not limited to:
- Intentional interference,
jamming
- Frequent beacon type CW ID of
repeaters
- Enabling all tones whether or not
those tones are needed
- Public harassment or
challenges.
- Rude uncooperative behavior.
Buff groups can be large or small.
They can be grandfathered organizational licensees or a group of personal
licensees. All are usually associated with one or more radio repeaters often at
high elevations in largely urban areas.
Some common traits of buff groups and
of their operations are:
- Inflated sense of exclusivity
- Aggressive on-the-air bully
tactics
- Frequency camping
- Frequent public service
activity
- Enabling tones for organizations they
claim to serve but that are organizations ineligible to license in GMRS.
- Monitoring of the group's repeater in
shifts.
- Some have one or two persons who spend
every free moment guarding or buffing "their" channel. "This is
an emergency channel. Please leave the frequency."
- Frequent amateur-radio style
nets.
- Busying out a channel to discourage
other use.
- Use of unit numbers rather than
assigned FCC call signs. Failure to use FCC call signs.
- Radio operation mimics a public safety
style with codes, rogers, overs, 10-4's, acronymns and other nonsense.
- Interestingly, buff groups may be in
violation of more than one FCC Rule on a regular basis. Rules are theirs to
break apparently. Members who object are shunned.
- Hobby groups that restrict memberships
to persons in their field of interest.
- Ham clubs that set up GMRS repeaters
to supplement their Amateur Radio related functions.
- Virtually all of these groups attract
a visit from the FCC sooner or later and when that happens cannot understand
why! After all the groups goodness must transcend any little, minor, teentsy
weentsy rules violation.
Buff groups regularly flex their
muscles by warning off non-member GMRS licensees from radio channels and
repeaters used by the buff groups. Buff groups are almost always frequency
campers. Buff groups discourage other licensees from setting up repeaters on
the same frequency in the same area. Some have even been known to harass family
simplex operations because family traffic is annoying.
As odd as this may sound, a buff group
can also be an unscrupulous radio shop that camps on a GMRS channel so that
channel can be used exclusively by the shops unlicensed repeater customers.
This magazine has had recent communication with a GMRS licensee that was
threatened and harassed by a radio shop because the licensee's use of GMRS
prevented the exclusive use of a channel for the radio shop's pirates! In
another part of the country a security company pirate regularly made fun of
family users.
Buff groups insist that non-member
licensees do not operate on the same frequency because the buff group routinely
handles emergency traffic. Well they want to routinely handle emergency
traffic. They just need everyone else to be quiet so the routine emergency
traffic appears, and we wait and we we wait, and we wait........That begets the
question I guess, where does the emergency traffic come from in the era of the
cellular telephone? Demanding everyone stand by CB channel-9 style is dogmatic
and traditional. It might be well intentioned but it is archaic and not
necessary and certainly shouldn't keep licensees from using a channel for
family communication on a routine basis. Some buff groups have their routines
confused!
There is no place for frequency camping
and no place for a buff group in the GMRS. When undesirable behavior gets in
the way of cooperation there can be FCC intervention. It used to mean that
being "buff" or buffed was strong, good looking, and perhaps well
polished. Now the term refers to a group of selfish bullies. Any chance we can
reverse this trend on our own? I encourage every group of licensees on GMRS
that have very active groups to closely examine their behaviors and set
examples of cooperation for all the rest.
Grandfathered licensees that find
themselves in conflict with GMRS licensees should seriously consider
coordinating a business frequency. This also applies to the few public safety
services still using GMRS channels at ambulance company's, fire houses, and
police agencies. Public safety agencies have a frequency coordinator, APCO and
a channels set aside for public safety use. Grandfathered licensees have had
since the early 1980's to coordinate and move to frequencies better suited for
their activities. If your still on GMRS and really shouldn't be do something to
fix it.
So! If you think you are a buff group
or you don't know if you might be a buff group and want to be sure you are one
of the good guys instead walk through this checklist:
- Appoint a committee of members to
monitor group operations over a month's period. Don't share this with the rest
of the group. Have them just LISTEN and REPORT to your board at the end of the
period. You are not looking to just point fingers you are looking at your
operating culture. What needs to change?
- Ask the leadership of a neighboring
system to also monitor your operations and see what they say. Compare both
reports and make appropriate changes.
- Determine if your members or users are
observing FCC Rules on the air.
- Develop a policy statement that
reiterates certain rules, like no modified Ham gear etc. Require compliance.
Non-compliance means loss of access. It is that simple.
- Do you have operators that make
monitoring your repeater(s) their life's work? Encourage them to take a
vacation. If you have a pushy, obnoxious individual on your system (even if he
means well) deal with that person. It's your group's reputation after
all.
- Are you your own FCC? As a
grandfathered licensee are you meeting the terms of your license? e.g. the
number of transmitters, the address of your base station(s), and repeater(s),
operating frequencies, the number of mobile transmitters authorized, the way in
which you identify mobile units, your call sign, your permissable
communication, authorized users etc.
- Are you entering into so-called MOU's
that supposedly grant unlicensed individual operators of grandfathered
licensees the right to move about the country operating on other grandfathered
or personally owned GMRS systems because you are all members of the same or
similar national organizations? Your grandfathered license is for one system at
one geographical spot on this earth. Unless each member is a GMRS licensee
these MOU's are not worth the paper they are written on.
- Are you maintaining written station
records?
- Are your stations ready for an
inspection?
- Are you properly licensed?
- Do you permit unlicensed persons to
operate on your system?
- Are you sharing a GMRS system with
pirates?
- Does your organization routinely
receive complaints from other GMRS system users? Are you constantly whining and
complaining about other systems sharing your frequency?
- Have you entered into MOU's with
private organizations and even provided them with radios to use on your GMRS
system in an emergency? These groups are ineligible to operate in this fashion.
Pull that equipment and deactivate those tones.
- Does your group intentionally occupy
air time to discourage people on neighboring systems from operating?
- Because your group performs public
service activities do you think you have continuous priority over others
wanting to use the same frequency twenty-four hours per day?
- Are you an actual grandfathered public
or private public safety group that would function more efficiently on a
coordinated and assigned public safety frequency?
Depending on the answers to these
questions you should be able to determine for yourself just what kind of group
you really are. Think you can change?
|
Doug Smith
KAF9830
WA6GON
|
