they are pretty popular in my area...though of course, considering the range
of these are about half a mile in a typical residential/city environment.
I have the FRS freqs in my scanner with an elevated outdoor antenna and i
can hear the motorola radios about 2 miles away at the mall where a hotel
uses them for house keeping purposes...not quite legal as far as allowable
use goes, but what ever.
Anytime i go somewhere with my handheld scanner, i hear FRS frequencies in
use on a fairly constant basis.
They act as toys for most young kids who have no concept of the fact they
are RF transmitters capable of transmitting a relatively long distance and
that can be over heard by many other users.
Most kids like to play with the call or alert tone features and that is
about all usually.
Much like the old 11 meter CB band, FRS has its negative aspects but also
they have put standards into effect that prevent many of the problems that
appeared with the 11 meter CB band.
Some of these being fixed antenna systems, which means you are not supposed
to be able to use high gain antennas on these radios unless you are a
licensed GMRS user....limited standardized power ratings, and circuit
designs that make it nearly impossible to alter power output without
degrading the whole radio.  Also, of course, narrow band FM transmitions
with typically low deviation levels preventing cross channeling or RFI
interpherence to other electronic equipment.
Generally speaking, i think the FRS is a decent short range communication
setup which allows the average individual to use 2 way radio communications
on a day to day basis without having any level of electronic knolege or know
how on setting up equipment.  The CTCSS features allow for interpherence
free comms between radios as long as someone isn't sitting around finding
your ctcss tone and interphereing on purpose of course.
73
Colin, VA6BKX
----- Original Message -----
From: "Jeff Kenyon" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Monday, April 18, 2005 2:58 PM
Subject: Re: family band questionns


> Hi, how popular are FRS/GMRS radios in other areas?  Around here the FRS
> radios are somewhat popular with kids and parents and I've heard kids
> playing on them and everything, and it's just been recently that  I put
> batteries back in mine after not having much time to mess around with
> them.
>
>
>
>
>
> On Mon, 18 Apr 2005, Colin McDonald wrote:
>
> > the motorola series of handheld FRS radios are some of the best on the
> > market.
> > There are of course better ones, that is, heavier duty, probably higher
> > quality components and all that, but for $85 a pair, any motorola FRS
pair
> > is going to be a pretty good bang for your buck.
> > They are 14 channels if they are true FRS radios, and if they are
GMRS/FRS
> > hybrid radios they are 22 channels....the first 14 are FRS and the rest
are
> > the GMRS channels.
> > This also means that they are a full 2 watt output on FRS/GMRS channels
1 to
> > 7 and 15-22 (these last channels 15-22 are GMRS only, the FRS and GMRS
share
> > the channels 1 through 7 and you can run 2 watts under a GMRS license on
> > those)
> > Many of the features are useless generally speaking on FRS
radios...things
> > like multiple call tones, which are irritating at the best of times, and
> > auto-power off, some have the NOAA weather frequencies in them....one
thing
> > you might look for is the handhelds with the longest antennas on
> > them...these generally are much more efficient then the handhelds with
the 2
> > inch stub since these are 1 quarter wave coil design...a longer antenna
on
> > the radio will give better radiation patterns then a shorter coil will.
> > >From personal experience, i have found that the motorola handhelds can
be
> > heard and can talk a longer distance and maintain good signals compared
to
> > other brands like midland or cobra or audiovox or who ever else makes
them
> > now.
> > For the listing of frequencies check out
> > www.frs.org
> > and there are also links to GMRS pages from there.
> > 73's
> > Colin, VA6BKX
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: "Jim Stevenson" <[log in to unmask]>
> > To: <[log in to unmask]>
> > Sent: Monday, April 18, 2005 11:45 AM
> > Subject: family band questionns
> >
> >
> > > What are the family band frequencies,
> > > and how many chanels?
> > >
> > > What are the most full featured family band radios?
> > >
> > > Which are most accessable?
> > >
> > > Radio Shack has Motorola talkeys on sale for $85 for two
> > > and base stations for $39 which are being discontinued.
> > >
> > > How do these radios compare?
> > >
> > > Thanks much again as always.
> > >
> > > 73
> > > wb6 yoy
> > >
> > > (650) 604-5720
> > >
> >
>