# GMRS Radio's



## tbone (Jul 23, 2009)

I bought two Midland Hand Held radio's at Cableas, that are FMS/GMRS radios. It says in the instruction booklet that in order for me to use the GMRS radio channels, I must first be licensed by the goverment. Does any one know any thing about this? If so is it worth my time obtaining the license?


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## Huge29 (Sep 17, 2007)

Good question, I know that there are lots of those out there and I can't imagine that many have even read the instructions.


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## Wind In His Hair (Dec 31, 2009)

Legally, to use the GMRS band you do have to fill out a couple of forms with the FCC and pay them $85 for a 5 year license. The FCC justifies this because of the potential greater range and increased chances of interference. Huge brings up a good point because a license is not required to buy the radio, people are careless when it comes to reading instructions, and the sellers do not report buyers to the FCC. So that leads to the question of how many people are using the GMRS band, and how strictly is it enforced? Probably a lot, and probably not very much.

If you want to play it totally safe, you can use the 7 FRS channels or the 7 shared FRS/GMRS channels without any legal gray area. The 8 GMRS channels are nice to have in case you get in an emergency situation and can't raise anybody on the others.


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## Fishrmn (Sep 14, 2007)

It's gonna wind up just like the CB radios in the '70s. You were supposed to get a license, but few people did. They don't have the resources to track down anyone who uses them without a license. It will only be a matter of time before they give up and drop the requirement for a license. Has anyone ever heard of anyone getting caught using the GMRS frequencies? If they got caught, were they fined? Incarcerated? Didn't think so.

Fishrmn


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## tbone (Jul 23, 2009)

Thank you for the responses. I figured what has been said would be the case. I personally think it would be really hard to track someone down. I will just play it safe and use the non GMRS channels, because I am not going to pay $85.00 for a radio call sign.


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