ntsqd
Well-Known Member
Using a marine radio doesn't relieve the licensing requirement. Marine radios are licensed differently from ham radios, but I'm not familiar with exactly how. I dimly recall that their use not near a large body of water is frowned on by both the FCC and the Coast Guard. The latter are known to respond to irritants carrying automatic weapons.
GMRS is tailor made for this type of use, and from what I've read one license covers a whole fleet of radios. Not being familiar with the GMRS products sold I would be tempted to use a MARS-CAP mod 440 mHz ham HT and program it according to the rules for GMRS. That would net me a robust radio used only slightly out of band.
If one of the premier ham radio brands (Yeasu, Icom, Alinco, etc.) offers GMRS radios I would just go with one of those.
If more radio than that is needed, then step up to a ham Tech license. They are not all that hard to get. There are online practice tests that you can take. My method of studying for the test was to take one of the practice tests daily until I knew all of the likely questions and their answers. If you learn about repeaters then you can use the ham 2 Meter band and those repeaters will extend your range by multiple tens of miles, at the minimum. Can look up the existing repeaters in the area of interest to learn their particulars. Knowing their location and some knowledge of the area you should be able predict the rough area of service and where any possible blind zones might be.
GMRS is tailor made for this type of use, and from what I've read one license covers a whole fleet of radios. Not being familiar with the GMRS products sold I would be tempted to use a MARS-CAP mod 440 mHz ham HT and program it according to the rules for GMRS. That would net me a robust radio used only slightly out of band.
If one of the premier ham radio brands (Yeasu, Icom, Alinco, etc.) offers GMRS radios I would just go with one of those.
If more radio than that is needed, then step up to a ham Tech license. They are not all that hard to get. There are online practice tests that you can take. My method of studying for the test was to take one of the practice tests daily until I knew all of the likely questions and their answers. If you learn about repeaters then you can use the ham 2 Meter band and those repeaters will extend your range by multiple tens of miles, at the minimum. Can look up the existing repeaters in the area of interest to learn their particulars. Knowing their location and some knowledge of the area you should be able predict the rough area of service and where any possible blind zones might be.