FRS/GMRS/HAM use in emergency

[IR]

http://nationalsos.com

Basically advocates telling people to use their FRS under
emergency condx when Cell phones are down. Channel 1 is
the primary channel. Guidelines for GMRS/HAM/CB/Scanner/
Authority interface. FRS portion is basically a neighborhood
level linkup. I guess there is about 100 million FRS radios
in the USA., 700K active Ham licenses, 70K GMRS.

[horseshoe7]

Post by IR
http://nationalsos.com
Basically advocates telling people to use their FRS under
emergency condx when Cell phones are down. Channel 1 is
the primary channel. Guidelines for GMRS/HAM/CB/Scanner/
Authority interface. FRS portion is basically a neighborhood
level linkup. I guess there is about 100 million FRS radios
in the USA., 700K active Ham licenses, 70K GMRS.

Only 650K ham licenses now - and many of them INACTIVE in reality.

- Stewart (N0MHS)

[Phil Stripling]

Post by IR
700K active Ham licenses, 70K GMRS.

As Stewart says, 700K is the number of licenses, not the number of
active hams. The number of active hams is considerably less, I suspect.
Conversely, the 70K GMRS licenses is probably far less than the number
of people using GMRS, probably inadvertantly since they bought frs/gmrs
combo radios and don't know there's a difference.

While National SOS is a good idea, my experience in using volunteers
and hams in large-scale events (walk-a-thons, breath-a-thons,
bike-a-thons) is that volunteers are willing to help but have no clue,
and hams come fully prepared and know what needs to be done.

I take some comfort that if thousands of people jump on channel 1 of
FRS during an emergency, they'll be limited to a range of a few blocks
and can't cause wide-spread interference and confusion.

The issues are training and experience. If people want to be helpful in
an emergency, they should get neighborhood CERT training (Community
Emergency Response Team; differenct acronyms are used in different
communities), then set up a neighborhood team and have training and
exercises using controlled nets. Practice and get people trained in
rescue, survival, and communications to give presentations to the
group.

[--------]

I keep seeing posts and webpages several places of people wanting to
designate channel 1 no code on the frs/gmrs radios, channel 9 no code,
channel 9 code 9, channel 14, etcetera as the official emergency
channel for frs/gmrs radios because the frs/gmrs radios don't have a
emergency channel on them.

Yes, they already do. It's 462.675 Mhz. The official emergency channel.
The channel numbers are different on different radios, but that is the
frequency.

It's just that unlike cb instructions which tell you channel 9 is the
cb emergency channel, the frs/gmrs radio instructions don't tell you
that any channel is the emergency channel. I have more than one brand.
The instructions on all of them make it sound like 462.675 MHZ is okay
for regular chit chat.

I didn't know it was the emergwency channenl until I found out about it
on the net, much later.

No, I never talked on that channel.
On my talkabout, it's something like channel 20.

Post by IR
http://nationalsos.com
Basically advocates telling people to use their FRS under
emergency condx when Cell phones are down. Channel 1 is
the primary channel. Guidelines for GMRS/HAM/CB/Scanner/
Authority interface. FRS portion is basically a neighborhood
level linkup. I guess there is about 100 million FRS radios
in the USA., 700K active Ham licenses, 70K GMRS.

[--------]

okay. I've now read that on cb today, in an emergency you get more help
on cb channel 19 than cb channel 9 in an emergency, simply because more
people are listening to cb 19.

FRS doesn't go very far, so it's probably not that good in an
emergency. My units said 5 mile range. In reality, they only go one
mile.

Though FRS still has it's uses. Suxch as if your kids are within range
and something happens where they can notify you via frs.

Post by IR
http://nationalsos.com
Basically advocates telling people to use their FRS under
emergency condx when Cell phones are down. Channel 1 is
the primary channel. Guidelines for GMRS/HAM/CB/Scanner/
Authority interface. FRS portion is basically a neighborhood
level linkup. I guess there is about 100 million FRS radios
in the USA., 700K active Ham licenses, 70K GMRS.

[horseshoe7]

Post by --------
FRS doesn't go very far, so it's probably not that good in an
emergency. My units said 5 mile range. In reality, they only go one
mile.

Yep, you were fooled... if you REALLY wanted "5 mile range!" you should
have done your homework first.

Post by --------
Though FRS still has it's uses. Suxch as if your kids are within range
and something happens where they can notify you via frs.

Sounds like you are trying to justify a purchase you just made.

If you REALLY want "5 mile range!", try unlicensed MURS, "real"
licensed GMRS (not the toy FRS/GMRS combo radios at Wal-Mart), or ham
radio... CB is a cesspool, populated by foul-mouthed jerks using
illegal power output levels, and CB doesn't work well (or works too
well) during years of high sunspot activity.

- Stewart
For more info on MURS:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MURS-OPEN