GMRS is regulated by 47 CFR Part 95 Subpart E and requires a license to use. You must be 18 years old to hold a GMRS license and the license is valid for 10 years. It costs $35.
A valid license is required to operate on the GMRS frequencies. You must be 18 years old to have a GMRS license. A license covers the immediate family members, which is defined in §95.1705(c)(2) as the licensee’s spouse, children, grandchildren, stepchildren, parents, grandparents, stepparents, brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews, and in-laws.
Click Here for Instructions on How To Obtain Your GMRS License
Prohibited Uses
As with the other Personal Radio Service licenses the following are prohibited (§95.333):
(a) In connection with any activity which is against Federal, State or local law;
(b) To transmit advertisements or program material associated with television or radio broadcasting;
(c) To transmit messages for hire or provide a common carrier service;
(d) To intentionally interfere with the communications of another station;
(e) To transmit obscene, profane or indecent words, language or meaning; or
(f) To transmit a false or deceptive communication.
Additionally the following are also prohibited (§95.1733(a))
(1) Messages in connection with any activity which is against Federal, State, or local law;
(2) False or deceptive messages;
(3) Coded messages or messages with hidden meanings (“10 codes” are permissible);
Identification
Each GMRS station must be identified by transmission of its FCC-assigned call sign at the end of transmissions and at periodic intervals during transmissions. A unit number may be included after the call sign in the identification where there are multiple users under a single family license (§95.1751).
(a)(1) Following a single transmission or a series of transmissions; and,
(2) After 15 minutes and at least once every 15 minutes thereafter during a series of transmissions lasting more than 15 minutes.
(b) The call sign must be transmitted using voice in the English language or international Morse code telegraphy using an audible tone.
(c) Any GMRS repeater station is not required to transmit station identification if:
(1) It retransmits only communications from GMRS stations operating under authority of the individual license under which it operates; and,
(2) The GMRS stations whose communications are retransmitted are properly identified in accordance with this section.
[in other words, a repeater does not need to have an identification IF the users identify, as required by this subsection]
Repeaters
Repeaters are allowed on some of the GMRS frequencies (see below). Equipment can be found at reasonable prices as several years ago all commercial frequencies were converted from wide band to narrow band.
You can located repeaters on mygmrs.com and some can be found on Repeater Book. Repeater Book originally listed Amateur repeaters but has started to include GMRS repeaters.
In some areas GMRS repeaters are linked to other repeaters, some even have a link to Zello channels.
Channels / Frequencies
Most of the GMRS channels are shared with the FRS, however power levels vary.
- Channels 1-14 are limited to handheld radios and simplex (direct radio to radio) transmissions.
- Channels 1-7 are limited to 5 watts with a 25kHz bandwidth
- Channels 8-14 are limited to 05.watts with a 12.5kHz bandwidth (narrow band)
- Channels 15-22 can be used for simplex as well as a repeater output up to 50 watts with 25kHz bandwidth.
- There are an additional 8 channels that are reserved for repeater inputs. They match the output frequency by a 5MHz positive shift.
- There are an additional 8 channels that are reserved for repeater inputs. They match the output frequency by a 5MHz positive shift.
