Tactical Wisdom: Sad Hams are Killing GMRS

Originally appears on Tactical Wisdom

Let me begin by saying that the vast majority of Amateur Radio people (Hams) that I know are NOT Sad Hams. Most of them are very helpful and good people. It’s sad that a few people are going to kill not just one hobby, but two.

My first real experience with a Sad Ham came as soon TW-01, Baseline Training Manual, came out. As a new author, I eagerly awaited reviews. After a few days of 5-star reviews, I got a 1-star from a Sad Ham. He said that despite all the great info in the rest of the book, he didn’t like my radio chapter (literally 10 pages) because I didn’t tell everyone to get a ham license and expensive radios. It was a taste of what was to come.

Dear Sad Hams – Proverbs has a message:

Listen to advice and accept discipline,
and at the end you will be counted among the wise.

Proverbs 19:20

Most ham guys recommend getting a ham license to “learn about radio” and that’s commendable. However, they argue with my point that I have literally carried a radio every day of my professional life since I was 17 years old, so I know a thing or two about radio. Not the same, they say. Between the Marine Corps, the City of Grand Rapids, various private security contractors, and corporate security teams, I’ve used HF, VHF, UHF, and 800 Mhz trunked/frequency hopping radios of every type. Not enough they say. You don’t say “73s” at the end of your conversations, so you know next to nothing about radio, Sad Hams say.

Fast forward a bit, and GMRS is getting on the scene as a more widely used medium. People involved in preparedness specifically are gravitating to it as a middle-of-the-road solution. Here in Metro Detroit, we had a couple of repeaters and there was light traffic. We ran a ‘Prepper Net’ every week and a more general net every few weeks.

Well, the Sad Hams found out that there were people actually using and enjoying radio without being policed and guided by the “experts”, so they quickly ran out and got their GMRS licenses. No, Sad Hams, I REFUSE to call it a “TICKET” – get over it. They first asserted themselves by “advising” everyone of “proper” etiquette, like saying “73s” and endlessly calling for signal reports, rather than just holding conversations. They started screeching if you went 15 minutes and 1 second without shouting your call sign. They also asked you to repeat your call sign like 4 or 5 times. Don’t get me wrong, they can hear you just fine…. they are building that “when I tell you to do something, you just do it because I am the Ham guy” response.

Next, they put up another repeater and generously offered to link the repeaters, giving everyone extended range. Sounds good, right? Well, they linked the two repeaters that covered the most territory. Then, they immediately began holding “ham radio” conversations ALL DAY LONG. These guys tied up BOTH repeaters with conversations about types of coaxial cable, antenna heights, and all the things they are doing with their HAM radios, not GMRS. If you were a GMRS guy and wanted to call you buddy across town, you can’t because the same 4 guys are on BOTH channels, all day long. I swear to God, yesterday one of them even revealed that he had smuggled a radio into his HOSPITAL ROOM so that he could talk about his illness. If you are a GMRS user in Detroit, you heard it yesterday.

Let me explain to the self-appointed airwave police why GMRS is NOT the place for that. The amateur radio service, per the FCC, is for self-training, experimentation, emergency communications, and the RADIO HOBBY. The General Mobile Radio Service is for personal, family, and business communications. There is a MARKED difference here.

The rules that the Sad Hams LOVE to screech about prohibit interfering with other users and promoting the sharing of frequencies. Well, Amateur licensees have a much larger spectrum, including a HUGE chunk of UHF, 420 to 450 Mhz. GMRS is allotted only 22 channels in the 462/467 range, only EIGHT of which are allowed for repeater use. Let me be blunt:

IF YOU WANT TO HAVE HOBBY CONVERSATIONS ABOUT AMATEUR RADIO, DO IT ON AMATEUR RADIO AND LET OTHERS HAVE SOME SPECTRUM.

I’m not out of line here. The few Hams I’ve asked about this phenomenon say, “well, it’s because GMRS has gotten so popular”. OK, so you admit that you didn’t like other people talking without your supervision. You can’t say it’s because there weren’t any UHF Ham repeaters locally, there are DOZENS. The only reason is that you want exclusive control of the radio hobby. It’s annoying. You have HUGE amounts of radio spectrum to use, even in UHF, so why take over another service?

Whenever I mention my repeater to Hams, they immediately start screeching…”I don’t see your repeater listed on RepeaterBook or MyGMRS!!!” Yes, there’s a reason for that and it’s YOU. I’m not required to list it and I’m not required to let anyone else use it.

But, what can we do? Well, if you are a GMRS-Only licensed person with a repeater, lock down your repeater to permission only. I know it’s a pain, but we have to reclaim our own service. Only grant permission to people who agree to your terms…this is for personal communications, not “Ham-shack” talk. Advise users that it’s fine to use the repeater to make an initial contact, but if you are going to talk for more than a couple of messages, move the conversation to a simplex-direct channel. “But Joe, then I can’t talk to Bobby about his goiter surgery, and I can’t tell him what Marge and I had for dinner last night from 45 miles away.” That’s what you have a Ham license for, sorry.

GMRS was not meant to be Ham radio. It was meant to be a way for families, groups, or small businesses to communicate with each other. It was never meant to be “ham-lite”.

Now, if you feel tempted to leave me a 4-paragraph defense of why Hams MUST hold these conversations on GMRS to keep from clogging up Ham airwaves for “important” traffic, understand that YOU are exactly who I’m talking about. If you also feel that those lowly GMRS licensees need your supervision, YOU are the problem.

The real problem is this – Hams have long complained about a decline in their hobby. That decline is caused by the very few Sad Hams ruining the experience for everybody. Those same people are now intruding on a service that many people new to the radio hobby are just starting out in. When they excitedly turn on their new GMRS handhelds because Joe Dolio, Wyoming Survival, and NC Scout told them to check it out, they get quickly turned off by the insanely BORING conversations about wiring, the difference between the Yaesu XT-4378-AB and the Icom B-78T43G, various medical procedures planned, and why the Baofeng sucks. They give up. When they try to ask a simple question, they get back a 7-and-a-half-minute explanation of why their equipment sucks and the need to spend the house payment on the newest gadget and they get discouraged. They are killing two hobbies, both of which could really save lives.

It’s sad.

Sad Hams like to tell people to “Go back to CB!” – well, I say “Go back to Ham!”

Don’t let them discourage you. Set up your own network for your group or family and use it. Learn about it. When they try to pressure you to open up your repeater “for the good of all”, refuse. When they just break into your repeater (very easy to do), CLEARLY advise them that the repeater is PRIVATE and that they are NOT AUTHORIZED to use it. Two can play at their “rules enforcement” game. Their Ham license doesn’t authorize them to do whatever they want, and a GMRS license doesn’t mean you get to use everyone’s repeater without permission.

I wish it wasn’t this way. I wish that the Sad Hams were like the rest of the hams and glad to see new people enter the hobby. Those new people will work their way up to ham if they choose to, without your cajoling. Leave them alone while they learn.