Linked repeaters or not, I want my family to have GMRS communications across any distance to where they live. My approach replaces linked repeaters with huge RF footprints (multiplied by the number of linked systems) with very small RF footprints located in the family home.
Hardware is the same hardware that is used in a HotSpot. The Software can still be Linux & Asterisk based. The big difference is in how the software is configured. You must make a ColdSpot act like appliance for the GMRS users to be successful.
Yes, I am proposing a request to the FCC to change the rules in support of their desire to support Intra-Family communications. I don’t think I can attach the file here, but you can read my notes on this topic by going to KF5VH.com/VIEW and pressing the button.
Please leave a post if you are interested or have any other comments.
Wanting is rarely a good reason for getting something. If you really want family comms, funding a linked system is perfectly possible and there are much better ways to do it than a system of repeaters. Sat phones probably easiest, but a private system using IP would work, or you could use IP connected radios? If the idea is the worst case emergency idea US folks seem very keen on, stand alone of national infrastructure and power, funding this would be a massive initial cost and have serious running costs. Surely the point of family radio service is local comms, hence low power, and simple. Even with repeaters, its still local, that seems to be the FCC rationale for the entire thing. In the UK, business radio licences are cheap for local service, and very expensive for an entire county, while countrywide coverage is mega money. I wish you luck with this, but can you afford what you actually want?
The FCC has made it clear that GMRS is about Family Communications. I also understand that linked repeaters with only 8 pairs is problematic. The ColdSpot approach allows families to communicate (>25 miles) without using a repeater pair or having large RF footprints (repeaters). The US is large and families do not typically live in the same 25 mile circle. In the US, the people are the government. If you can get enough people to agree to a change, you can make it happen.
Does that not complicate the legislature if a federal law can be modified or overturned by a tiny (stats wise) number of citizens? Here it would mean lobbying politicians to get support and then the simplest system being a private members bill. The trouble here is that getting support is hard, then getting it through parliament without hitches almost impossible - here, it’s the sort of thing that needs massive public support. I don’t know how US politics works, only by watching, but it seems so complicated to get any law changed?
The suggested change is directly inline with the published FCC goals for GMRS. The change would be a rule change, so the Congress will not have to handle the change (it is all FCC).
Raven33, It seems to me that you’re trying to re-invent the wheel❗️GMRS was created by the FCC to fulfill a particular short range need for the general public. It does that quite well but was NEVER intended to be a cross-country communications service and NEVER will be.
Push-to-talk cellular here in the United States is currently being offered by numerous companies. It is the perfect solution for both business and individual use at VERY affordable prices. Satellite phone is extremely expensive both to purchase and to use.
A cell phone serves that need nationwide. Bell Labs invented cellular technology and it has become the de facto solution.
The Technician license is really not difficult to pass. License is only $35 for 10 years, I’d just have an adult in each family household go for it and use Echolink or DMR. Problem solved. Chinese radios aren’t that expensive and the "linked repeaters"are already bought and paid for, cost you nothing. In fact, with Echolink, you can just use a PC.
But I guess the stigmatism of being a “sad ham” from the YouTube GMRS pros is a definite putoff. .