The following is a list of behaviors that are likely to attract enforcement attention in the General Mobile Radio Service. Nation wide, licensees that want and need to use the GMRS are fed up with the abusers of the service that make sharing almost impossible. Licensees are fighting back.

Some individuals and groups use GMRS like it’s a free band with no rules and no limits. Just like any radio service, the GMRS has FCC Rules (Part 95) to observe. On more than a few occasions, Amateur Radio enthusiasts have installed repeaters in the GMRS and operate on those repeaters in a manner they would never attempt to try in the Amateur service! Following the rules allows sharing of this tiny spectrum allocation among thousands of American GMRS licensees. There are only eight GMRS repeater pairs in the GMRS compared to hundreds in the Amateur service and Business Radio Services.

Review this list to see if you recognize your own behaviors. Do some introspection.

• Failure to or rarely using using your FCC assigned call sign as required in the rules and perhaps using only your own self-assigned unit numbers. Having multiple users engaging in the same behavior.
• Allowing unlicensed persons to use your GMRS repeater.
• Renting access to a GMRS system to licensed individuals or ineligible commercial users. In the case of licensed persons charging more than is necessary to recoup operating expenses without a profit.
• Monopolizing a GMRS frequency or frequencies over a wide geographic area.
• Camping on a GMRS channel. Chasing away other users claiming that since you were there first the frequency is yours. Setting all CTCSS and DCS tones to on, or telling others, “This channel is our emergency channel.”
• One way broadcasts, rebroadcasts, or alerts of public safety events. Public safety broadcasts are protected by the privacy laws contained in the Communications Act of 1934 as amended. Only broadcasters, and the citizen’s and amateur service are exempt from these provisions.
• Rebroadcasting NOAA weather alerts.
• Operating on an expired GMRS license.
• Operating as an ineligible commercial user e.g. a commercial pirate.
• Fraudulently obtaining a GMRS license.
• Operating a beacon Morse code ID’er. e.g. One that goes off every 15, 30, minutes automatically.
• Operating voice beacon or announcement style ID’ers.
• Operating using digital modes. (Voice inversion scrambling is not considered a digital mode.)
• Operating a repeater in the Family Radio Service (GMRS interstitials.)
• Operating on a GMRS repeater without permission or continuing to operate on a repeater after being asked not to do so by the licensee that owns the repeater.
• Busying out GMRS frequencies with Amateur Radio style drills or conducting frequent public service events.
• Ignoring FCC correspondence.
• Refusing to permit station inspection by the FCC Enforcement Bureau.
• Operating a GMRS repeater with the output in the GMRS and the input on a Part 90 frequency.
• Installing parking lot help boxes that illegally use GMRS channels.

There are behaviors that are rude or that annoy others.

• Ignoring or threatening other licensees that bring rule violations to your attention.
• Doing your best to stubbornly maintain your right to do as you please regardless of what the rules say.
• Repeater DX’ing during a tropospheric ducting event. GMRS is not ham radio. Why should we crowd GMRS with DX’ing?
• Endless chats on your repeater during a tropospheric ducting events. Bringing up several repeaters while chatting during these events and staying on the air anyway.
• Singing children, or children using GMRS in the course of play without adult supervision. Broadcasting music.

GMRS licensees are encouraged to take responsibility for the GMRS in their areas and just like any good neighborhood watch group report illegal behaviors that make using their radios for the intended purpose difficult.