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Family Radio Service


The Family Radio Service, or FRS, is an unlicensed, simplex only, personal radio service in the US covered by Part 95 of the FCC's regulations. Hand-held FRS transceivers with a maximum output of 500 mW are typically used by families, children, and campers to communicate. Shopping malls, theme parks, and special events are all great locations to monitor FRS communications. Radios may not have external antennas or power amplifiers attached to them (See 47 CFR 95.194c).

GMRS users may also communicate with FRS users, and among each other, on the lower 7 channels in the 462 MHz range, with a maximum of 5 watts ERP on those channels.

Contents

[edit] Frequencies

Channel Frequency	GMRS
01    	462.5625     	*
02    	462.5875     	*
03    	462.6125     	*
04    	462.6375     	*
05    	462.6625     	*
06    	462.6875     	*
07    	462.7125	*
08    	467.5625
09    	467.5875
10    	467.6125
11    	467.6375
12    	467.6625
13    	467.6875
14    	467.7125

See also FRS/GMRS combined channel chart

[edit] Recognized Channels

Some groups try to consistently use the same channel/tone combinations. See below for tone equivalents.

  • 01/CS - "Emergency"
  • 11/22 - Birders (no roger beep, please)
  • 14/38 - MilCom/Airshow Hobbyists (7/15 - backup)

[edit] CTCSS

Most FRS radios have CTCSS capability. The companies marketing the radios usually refer to these tones as "privacy codes" even though they provide no privacy. Instead of asking FRS users to understand the actual tone values, integers are used instead. Most, but not all, manufacturers use the same numbers as Motorola:

Actual CTCSS tone Commonly assigned "code"
67.01
71.92
74.43
77.04
79.75
82.56
85.47
88.58
91.59
94.810
97.411
100.012
103.513
107.214
110.915
114.816
118.817
123.018
127.319
131.820
136.521
141.322
146.223
151.424
156.725
162.226
167.927
173.828
179.929
186.230
192.831
203.532
210.733
218.134
225.735
233.636
241.837
250.338

[edit] See also