gmrs and other radio adventures

[solarbird]

So I’ve been getting my radio game back together, since in adventurous times – particularly times with the possibility of particularly severe emergencies and communications troubles – it’s very good to have access to and practice with backup comms that will work under almost all circumstances.

I’ve also been brushing up on my Amateur radio skills, tho’ really in both cases this comes down to “buying and/or making antennas,” which has meant a bit of both, but particularly making antennas.

I feel like I’ve got the GMRS kit into decent nick. I need to make a longer-term version of the attic antenna rig; while I can do about as well in the highest front window, that setup is somewhat inconvenient and has to be taken down every day. So if I can just have something just set up full time somewhere out of the way, that’d obviously be much better. I’ve got it all worked out at this point, too; all I really need is cable. And to build a functional duplicate of my latest GMRS antenna.

There’s been a bit of a learning curve but at this point I can reach the West Seattle repeater on 15, the Beacon Hill on 16, the Queen Anne on 18 – hugely important, the busiest repeater, an unknown repeater on 19, the Maple Leaf repeater on 20, and the Snohomish repeater on 22. I can also occasionally reach the Redmond repeater on 17, but that’s kind of a best-conditions ping and I don’t know how useful it’d actually be given how weak my signal must be even when it does get picked up.

Also, I’ve gone ahead and coded up North Bend on 21, just to have it there even though there’s no way in hell I’ll ever reach it from here.

Meanwhile, over on the Amateur bands, the new 70cm/2m antenna – this one, I bought – has made a huge difference and really broken me out of my UHF Hole. I’ve been adding Amateur repeaters as I verify I can reach them, and I even managed to get the local 1.25m relay into parrot mode so I know my voice is audible for sure now.

So far tho’ GMRS is much more active, probably because it’s much easier and because the license doesn’t require a test. You can just buy one for $35 and it’s good for 10 years. And it works with FRS which requires no license at all.

It’s also far more limited – no HF component at all, just UHF, just FM, no arbitrary frequencies, just channels and repeaters – but low barrier to entry is most definitely a good thing here.

I’ve got more posts I want to get caught up on but tonight I just wanted to get something – anything, really – out there to celebrate digging my way out of this RF hole which is where I live. So, uh…

RADYA! Yeah! xD

Posted via Solarbird{y|z|yz}, Collected.

Comments

[sistawendy]

TIL about the existence of GMRS!

[solarbird]

One of the nice things about GMRS/FRS is that cops can't fuck with you over it.

(FRS - since I didn't say it - is Family Radio Service, and little FRS handhelds still cost like nothing and despite that work extremely well. I paid like $10 each buying a three-pack two years ago. That same three-pack is $45 now, thanks to Shitstain, but $15 is still a pretty low barrier to entry.)

See, in some areas, if you bring an Amateur-class radio to a protest, cops can add on having a police scanner in the pursuit of whatever made-up crime they've decided to charge you with. It's an extra layer of charges. Even if your individual handheld unit can't scan police frequencies, they can still hold you longer while they "determine" that. Plus, those things cost money and they might decide to just steal - excuse me, "seize" - it.

But with a cheap little fixed-channel radio there's none of that bullshit. Even if they steal it from you, it's $15. Super worth it.