[chirp_devel] [PATCH] [frs/gmrs] 2017 rule changes Fixes #5753

[Andrew Jorgensen]

Jim, Do you (or others) have an opinion on repeater channel naming?
>From MyGMRS it looks like the "550" naming is more common than
Midland-style "15RP" naming, but it's handy to know that 550 and 15
have the same RX frequency. Or I could do "GMRS 550/15RP".

And as long as we're choosing the color of the bikeshed, I do see an
advantage in omitting the space, which is that radios with only 7
character displays can correctly show "GMRS550" or "GMRS15R".

On Mon, Dec 2, 2019 at 7:44 PM Andrew Jorgensen
<andrew at jorgensenfamily.us> wrote:
>
> Thanks Jim!
>
> I was using https://wiki.radioreference.com/index.php/FRS/GMRS_combined_channel_chart#Old_FRS.2FGMRS_Channels
> as a reference, figuring that if GMRS channel numbers matter, it would
> be the old channel numbers that would matter.
>
> I have a GMRS-V1, which I've just now factory reset to confirm, and
> you're correct that it numbers the channels per the FRS scheme, though
> it omits 8-14. I don't have any other GMRS radios to compare with, but
> I do see that Midland[0] is currently numbering the GMRS channels same
> as FRS. Most of the Motorola manuals I've found don't list 8-14 as
> being GMRS channels at all, including those that support repeater
> operation.
>
> I found some other references[1] to the older scheme, where FRS 1 is
> the same as GMRS 9. And the data I'm replacing here has FRS 1 on
> 462.5625 and GMRS 1 on 462.55. The FCC does not prescribe any
> numbering scheme for GMRS.
>
> Overall I'm finding myself persuaded that having them numbered same as
> FRS makes the most sense today, and seems to be the way the industry
> is going. It's unfortunate that it doesn't match what was done before
> the changes, but seems correct.
>
> I'll fix it and send the revised patch this week.
>
> Do you have a strong opinion on channels 8-14? They have the same
> power limits and bandwidth as on FRS (I see my mistake in the patch I
> sent and will correct) so they are not in any way different from the
> GMRS channels. I'm inclined to just not enumerate GMRS 8-14, but could
> be persuaded otherwise.
>
> [0] https://midlandusa.com/why-gmrs-for-two-way-radio-communication/
> [1] https://www.techwholesale.com/talkfreq.html
>
>
> On Mon, Dec 2, 2019 at 6:31 PM Jim Unroe <rock.unroe at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > Hi Andrew,
> >
> > On Mon, Dec 2, 2019 at 8:36 PM Andrew Jorgensen via chirp_devel
> > <chirp_devel at intrepid.danplanet.com> wrote:
> > >
> > > # HG changeset patch
> > > # User Andrew Jorgensen <andrew at jorgensenfamily.us>
> > > # Date 1575136551 28800
> > > #      Sat Nov 30 09:55:51 2019 -0800
> > > # Node ID 9f35d22fa86ee7a576b338ce4d0deb3d9ed8d3d5
> > > # Parent  c9c97668945488ab558494b0ed8b05403a1b4f2e
> > > [frs/gmrs] 2017 rule changes Fixes #5753
> > >
> > > This adds the additional FRS channels (15-22) and expands on the GMRS channels
> > > to include updated bandwidth (though there's no way to specify 20kHz vs 25kHz).
> > > It also adds the GMRS repeater channels with the prescribed +5.0MHz offset
> > > (though you'll have to find the correct tones for your local GMRS repeaters).
> > >
> >
> > This doesn't seem correct to me. FRS and GMRS both have 22 channels
> > now (plus 8 of the GMRS channels can be used as repeater channels).
> > The GMRS radio manufacturers are using the same channel numbering
> > scheme as specified by the FCC for the FRS channels. So GMRS 1 through
> > GMRS 22 would be a duplication of the 22 FRS channels plus the
> > addition of the 8 GMRS repeaters channels making 30 total GMRS
> > channels. The BTech GMRS-V1 is this way. The Midland GTX1000/1030/etc.
> > series is this way (except it doesn't support repeaters). The only
> > difference, not counting the repeater support, is that all FRS
> > channels are narrow band but GMRS channels 15 - 22 can still use wide.
> >
> > Jim KC9HI