FRS

The Family Radio Service

The FRS (Family Radio Service), along with the GMRS (General Mobile Radio Service), and a little known service called MURS (Multi Use Radio Service), are all products of the PRSG (Personal Radio Steering Group). This group lobbied for a dependable, low cost means of radio communications for the average citizen, which reflected current technologies. Advances in engineering made radio gear smaller, cheaper, easier to produce, and considerably more capable. Public radio services had pretty much been limited to CB Radio, and Business Band radio, unless one wished to become a licensed ham operator.
At its inception, during the fifties, CB radio had been up in the UHF bands. Due to the technology of the time, it was very expensive and very difficult to make radios that used these bands, particularly for transmitting. IT was finally decided to take the old 11 meter band away from ham operators, and give it over to the CB service, designating the higher frequency UHF band to other things. More recently, though, with increased technology and miniaturization, the UHF bands have actually become practice for use with small, cheap radios. The Family Radio Service, and the closely related GMRS are both 460mhz FM services designed for short range, non radio hobby use. There is thus a certain amount of confusion surrounding them both. They differ in a number of respects, which are summarized in the table below:

	GMRS	FRS
License required	Yes ($85)	No
Maximum Power	50 watts (7 watts on FRS shared)	500mw
Frequencies and Channels	Simplex Frequencies (Shared with FRS) Designator Frequency "5625" or "FRS 1" 462.5625 MHz "5875" or "FRS 2" 462.5875 MHz "6125" or "FRS 3" 462.6125 MHz "6375" or "FRS 4" 462.6375 MHz "6625" or "FRS 5" 462.6625 MHz "6875" or "FRS 6" 462.6875 MHz "7125" or "FRS 7" 462.7125 MHz Split Frequencies Designator Lower Frequency Upper Frequency "550" 462.550 MHz 467.550 MHz "575" 462.575 MHz 467.575 MHz "600" 462.600 MHz 467.600 MHz "625" 462.625 MHz 467.625 MHz "650" 462.650 MHz 467.650 MHz "675" 462.675 MHz 467.675 MHz "700" 462.700 MHz 467.700 MHz "725" 462.725 MHz 467.725 MHz	Shared Frequencies (with GMRS) 1. 462.5625 2. 462.5875 3. 462.6125 4. 462.6375 5. 462.6625 6. 462.6875 7. 462.7125 FRS Only Frequencies 8. 467.5625 9. 467.5875 10. 467.6125 11. 467.6375 12. 467.6625 13. 467.6875 14. 467.7125
Coverage	Local short range	Local short range
Mode	FM Voice	FM Voice, data

As can be seen, both services use the same frequency band, mode of operation, and even share some of the exact same frequencies. They differ in the type of user they are targeted at, and the type of usage. One thing that they share, is that neither service was meant for hobby use by radio enthusiasts. Both services are aimed at the non technical user who simply wishes a reliable means of short range communication. There is no license required for FRS, and no test is required for the license for GMRS. This is reflected somewhat in the marketing approach taken by producers of FRS, and GMRS gear. No manufacturer of ham radio gear would damage his credibility by giving estimated range. Radio enthusiasts know that there are too many variables involved to make any such estimates valid. ham operators and other technophiles are interested in radiated power, antenna gain, and other such specifications. Those who are less technically savvy want to know how far they can talk. So advertisers will tell you that there is a range of 5 miles, or 16, miles, or 25 miles, often for gear with the same technical specs.

FRS
The Family Radio Service was meant to be a short range, low powered service for casual wireless communications. Intended uses were for hunters in the field, kids playing with walkie talkies, hiking, fishing, or just wandering around the neighborhood. Most units are quite cheap, and offer an array of features formerly only available on commercial units. Most are rechargeable units, which use drop in cradles to restore power. All are small digital units. What this was not meant to be, was a radio hobby service, or a business service.
This was meant to be a low end, casual service, so there is no license required, but there are some significant limitations. The most obvious is the power limit of 500mw. This is a fraction of the wattage than is permitted in GMRS, and even considerably less than is allowed in the common CB units. Because this is not meant to be a radio hobby service, no base station units are allowed - this is strictly a service for hand held radios. External antennas are not allowed, and the antenna design must not provide any signal gain, essentially banning beams, and longer antennas.

GMRS
Fifteen channels on twenty three frequencies. Eight duplex, and seven simplex channels are part of the service. These units are allowed considerably more power, up to 50 watts, are allowed to access repeaters for great range, and are capable of duplex operation. An $85 license is required for legal operation of these radios. Unfortunately, as with CB, this requirement is largely being ignored, particularly by hybrid users. GMRS radios may be used for business as well as personal communications, and a license had at one time been granted to corporate entities, for use by employees.

Hybrid (22Channel)
This is an unfortunate introduction into most manufacturer's product lines, because it shows a great misunderstanding of the differences between the two radio services. Rarely would the same user have a desire to legitimately use both bands. What is even more unfortunate is that these models are coming to dominate the market, because of marketing department pressure, and the sales hype of being able to offer "both" bands in a single radio. With most of today's electronic gear being computer controlled to some degree, there is little or no extra cost required to program seven extra channels into a radio and make it that much more saleable to an uninformed buyer.
My main problem with these units is that a buyer who wants the higher power of a GMRS, and is willing to pay the license fee, and the presumably higher cost of a GMRS unit, will really have no need of the extra seven FRS channels. What the hybrid buyer is getting is essentially an FRS unit programmed to also use GMRS frequencies. Though there are some exceptions, most of these units do not offer the higher power, or better internals that a pure GMRS would feature. On the other hand, the FRS user will be mighty tempted to use those extra GMRS channels built into his unit, even though he may not be licensed to do so. It does appear that, with the hybrid radios as a catalyst, the GMRS/FRS may be allowed to degenerate in the same was as CB.