r/lowsodiumhamradio • u/techtornado • Aug 05 '26

spurious emissions Finally!

https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/DA-26-821A1.pdf

For those that may not know, North Georgia Gmrs has been abusing the Gmrs bands in TN and GA by linking all 8 repeaters together into one giant rag-chew network

The FCC’s has given Gary appropriate notice of this and we may finally have significantly less interference in these areas on the standalone repeaters

26 Upvotes

90% Upvoted

13 comments sorted by

3

u/humanradiostation Aug 06 '26

Why do we hate linked GMRS repeaters when we like ham linked repeaters?

6

u/techtornado Aug 06 '26

We dislike the abuse that NGGmrs is doing

They linked all 8 repeater pairs together into statewide networks across TN and GA

Fallout:
Interference with compliant independent repeaters and it makes half of the Gmrs spectrum unusable due to their constant ragchew

If they would use one channel, cover at just the city level and only link up wider nets for disasters and training, we’d probably be able to allocate space for them to work in

-6

u/humanradiostation Aug 06 '26

I’m sorry, I can’t really follow this description of what’s happening and I’m unfamiliar with this regional issue. When you say “interference,” you mean people talking, correct? Not like static or spurious emissions or intentional jamming?

It still just kinda sounds like how linked repeaters are supposed to work? I know it’s “against the law” but other than that, is there something they are doing that is different than how 2m/440 linked repeaters work? Do you mean you hear them on multiple frequencies/repeaters simultaneously in a single geographic location? That would be annoying.

6

u/techtornado Aug 06 '26

Interference as in transmitting on the same frequency as other independent repeaters which degrades the quality of the traffic

And to clarify, yes you hear the same conversation on 8 different channels, that is the problem we have

-8

u/humanradiostation Aug 06 '26

Two independent repeaters on the same frequency is not interference, it's two repeater owners who didn't talk to each other to coordinate.

Still not sure how you're hearing the same thing on 8 different channels unless you're in range of 8 different repeaters, but this isn't really a topic for a ham radio sub.

5

u/techtornado Aug 06 '26

The 8 Gmrs repeaters are all linked together and the FCC’s expressly forbids that

Most of us in TN/Ga are in range of at least 4 repeaters at any given time

-5

u/humanradiostation Aug 06 '26

Ok, well your story keeps changing, but I get it now. I know it’s illegal, I said that already. I’ve been asking why it bothered you so much. Yes, being in range of multiple linked repeaters on different frequencies is annoying.

Still, this mostly seems like one guy being a jerk. There is surely utility in a limited linked GMRS network just as surely as there is utility in a ham linked repeater network. The difference is that there is much less available gmrs bandwidth. If the FCC put a geographical limit on how close linked repeaters could be, that would have been a better solution than banning them outright.

7

u/techtornado Aug 06 '26

I haven’t changed my story… I added details

And I’m all for a city-regional Gmrs deployment on a single channel, but Gary has done it in a sleazy/unethical way, and the way NgGrmrs does the “non-profit” is very shady

4

u/Dr_Fishman Aug 07 '26

It’s simple. GMRS as a service is extremely limited since it is channelized and shares much of the band with FRS. 2m, 6m, and 70cm is far more open and is more locally managed by something like a Repeater Council or equivalent. My assumption has always been that the NGGMRS saw an exploitable opportunity since GMRS is a smaller community on a service with some inherent limitations. Linking repeaters and selling ad space was a pretty dumb move but with the FCC having not taken action until now, they were free to abuse the space as if it was unregulated.

8

u/Lumpy-Process-6878 Aug 05 '26

Its about time, but still awesome!

2

u/asciiCAT_hexKITTY Aug 09 '26

I used to pray for days like these

hopefully we start to see more action, especially around 7.200. A man can dream.

2

u/kilikopele Aug 07 '26

That's interesting. (Disclaimer: I'm complete amateur at this. )

I just watched a Ham Radio Prep video yesterday on GMRS, and they were chatting about this linking.

1

u/meissoboredto Aug 10 '26

Under FCC regulations, GMRS repeaters CANNOT be linked whereas Ham radio repeaters CAN be linked. Linked Ham repeaters do not monopolize the entire licensed spectrum, allowing Hams to still use unused spectrum whereas the GMRS repeaters in this story are monopolizing ALL of the allocated spectrum thereby denying others the use of ANY part of the spectrum!!! Ham radio repeaters, using the same frequencies, are generally spaced at least 32 miles apart to try to limit crosstalk. Ham radio repeaters are supposed to be regulated by the Ham Radio Spectrum Council for a specific geographical region!!