Back to Ham Back to Home

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.
    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 sumarized in the table below:


 GMRS
 FRS
License required
 Yes ($75)
 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 credability by giving estimated range. Radio enthusiasts know that there are too many varaibles 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 saavy want to know how far they can talk

FRS
    The Family Radio Service was meant to be a short range, low powered service for casual wireless communications. Most units are quite cheap, and offer an array of features formerly only available on commercial units. Most are rechargable units, which use drop in cradles to restore power. 
    This was meant to be a low end, casual service, so there is no license required, but there are som esignificant 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 teh common CB units.

    antennas must be built in; no antenna gain; no base units.

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, are allowed to access repeaters for great range, and area capable of duplex operation.

Hybred (22Channel)
    This is an unfortunate introduction into most manufacturer's product lines, because it shows a great misunderstanding of the differences bettween the two radio services. Rarely would the same user have a desire to legitimatly use both bands. What is even more unfortunate is that these models are comming 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 hybred 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.

Base/mobile

unique models and applications

reprogramming business radios