FCC Cites GMRS Licensee for Illegal Linked Repeater Network
The American Radio Relay League (ARRL) is the national association for amateur radio, connecting hams around the U.S. with news, information and resources.
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North GA Linked GMRS System Cited by the FCC 8/10
- Thread starter Wire Weasel
- Start date
This is causing a bit of a stir in the community in the area - lol
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So the GMRS Group has already responded and they are going to stand the system down by Oct. 1st - keeping all the machines on the air - just that they will no longer be linked.
The same group has created a "sister" system on 440 for the ham side. As folks might imagine - very many of the GMRS peeps are also hams.
Here is where more comes out and the wind starts blowing a little harder ......
The ham guys always said that gmrs is for "lazy people" who didn't want to do the little work to become hams and just buy a ticket. - Well I suppose that is somewhat true at least for the comparatively tiny gmrs band. Many of them also dislike the owner of both of the systems making the ham side Private - saying things like it goes against the spirit of ham radio. Also as a private group and not a traditional ham club, the group retains all control - and are currently charging an $85 dollar annual fee for access. They already have 9 linked machines with immediate plans for adding 2 more. It has a impressive coverage.
I am willing to see all sides of this.
The Private Part is legal - so apparently the ARRL has never fought the idea or not too hard .... and the FCC is fine with it.
- I had this idea and I emailed it to the system owner .... and am waiting for a response -
How about opening it up and making it Free to all hams - and then asking for like a $25 yearly donation to help with all understood expenses - which are considerable. This would be more in line with typical yearly ham club dues around here - and would go a very long way I think in fostering and promoting good will in the community.
I sent this to him yesterday 8/18 ..... I'll let you know if and how he responds.
.
So the GMRS Group has already responded and they are going to stand the system down by Oct. 1st - keeping all the machines on the air - just that they will no longer be linked.
The same group has created a "sister" system on 440 for the ham side. As folks might imagine - very many of the GMRS peeps are also hams.
Here is where more comes out and the wind starts blowing a little harder ......
The ham guys always said that gmrs is for "lazy people" who didn't want to do the little work to become hams and just buy a ticket. - Well I suppose that is somewhat true at least for the comparatively tiny gmrs band. Many of them also dislike the owner of both of the systems making the ham side Private - saying things like it goes against the spirit of ham radio. Also as a private group and not a traditional ham club, the group retains all control - and are currently charging an $85 dollar annual fee for access. They already have 9 linked machines with immediate plans for adding 2 more. It has a impressive coverage.
I am willing to see all sides of this.
The Private Part is legal - so apparently the ARRL has never fought the idea or not too hard .... and the FCC is fine with it.
- I had this idea and I emailed it to the system owner .... and am waiting for a response -
How about opening it up and making it Free to all hams - and then asking for like a $25 yearly donation to help with all understood expenses - which are considerable. This would be more in line with typical yearly ham club dues around here - and would go a very long way I think in fostering and promoting good will in the community.
I sent this to him yesterday 8/18 ..... I'll let you know if and how he responds.
Here is the letter sent out 8/15 to NGGMRS Members. One of them reposted it in it's entirety on another radio forum. I took 3 Screenshots to capture it all.
I'm not giving my opinion on the current situation, but its worth pointing out the FCC might consider this statement evidence that the rules were knowingly and willfully broken (by a for-profit). I don't think lawyers take cases like this when the defendant is on the internet stating they knew all along that what they were doing was against the rules.
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