MURS Radio: The Forgotten 2-Way Communication | Squat the Planet

MURS Radio: The Forgotten 2-Way Communication

DoctorZ

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I've been searching around on here and seen several posts about CB Radio, Ham Radio, GMRS & FRS Radio, and Scanners; but nothing about MURS Radio. MURS stands for Multi-Use-Radio-Service. MURS uses five frequencies in the VHF Band on FM. Those frequencies are:

Channel 1 151.820 Mhz (Narrow Band 2.5kHz)
Channel 2 151.880 Mhz (Narrow Band 2.5kHz)
Channel 3 151.940 Mhz (Narrow Band 2.5kHz)
Channel 4 154.570 Mhz (Wide Band 5kHz)
Channel 5 154.600 Mhz (Wide Band 5kHz)

You do NOT need any kind of license for MURS and there are no age limits on who can broadcast. It has greater range than FRS since it's lower in frequency, and it's less prone to interference than CB Radio. The only down side to MURS is the FCC limits you to 2 Watts of transmit power.

Since hardly anyone knows about MURS, and MURS Radios are very hard to find, MURS makes a GREAT way to communicate privately between your group of travelers.
 
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Crazy Hobo Johnny

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I've been searching around on here and seen several posts about CB Radio, Ham Radio, GMRS & FRS Radio, and Scanners; but nothing about MURS Radio. MURS stands for Multi-Use-Radio-Service. MURS uses five frequencies in the VHF Band on FM. Those frequencies are:

Channel 1 151.820 Mhz (Narrow Band 2.5kHz)
Channel 2 151.880 Mhz (Narrow Band 2.5kHz)
Channel 3 151.940 Mhz (Narrow Band 2.5kHz)
Channel 4 154.570 Mhz (Wide Band 5kHz)
Channel 5 154.600 Mhz (Wide Band 5kHz)

You do NOT need any kind of license for MURS and there are no age limits on who can broadcast. It has greater range than FRS since it's lower in frequency, and it's less prone to interference than CB Radio. The only down side to MURS is the FCC limits you to 2 Watts of transmit power.

Since hardly anyone knows about MURS, and MURS Radios are very hard to find, MURS makes a GREAT way to communicate privately between your group of travelers.
You can purchase those Baofeng handheld two-way radios from Amazon and program those frequencies in. However, the FCC-Federal Communications Commission is proposing to China to stop manufacturing the radios because people are transmitting on unauthorized frequencies.
http://www.arrl.org/news/fcc-cites-baofeng-importer-for-illegally-marketing-unauthorized-rf-devices
 
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Jackthereaper

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You can purchase those Baofeng handheld two-way radios from Amazon and program those frequencies in. However, the FCC-Federal Communications Commission is proposing to China to stop manufacturing the radios because people are transmitting on unauthorized frequencies.
http://www.arrl.org/news/fcc-cites-baofeng-importer-for-illegally-marketing-unauthorized-rf-devices
What makes me laugh so hard is hams have been able to transmit on unauthorized frequencies since the beginning of ham radio.. suddenly its the govts job to ban equipment and not down to the individual ham to follow the rules, kind of pisses me off.
 

DoctorZ

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What makes me laugh so hard is hams have been able to transmit on unauthorized frequencies since the beginning of ham radio.. suddenly its the govts job to ban equipment and not down to the individual ham to follow the rules, kind of pisses me off.

Hams cannot legally transmit on unauthorized frequencies. In fact the penalties for transmitting out of Band is WORSE for licensed Hams. The only unregulated Band is 11-Meters (CB Radio). CBers are all over the place with modified illegal CBs, the the FCC doesn't do anything unless you're causing harmful interference.

What Hams do do is have their radios Mars/Cap Modded, which opens them up to be capable of transmitting on unauthorized frequencies. However, if you are a Ham and mod your radio then transmit on say the MURS frequencies with it, the penalties for getting caught are MUCH worse than if the average Joe who's unlicensed broadcasts on them with a modded radio.

It is NOT illegal to own a radio capable of transmitting across the spectrum, anymore than it's illegal to own a car capable of going 200 MPH.
 
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Jackthereaper

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Physically and legally able to do somehing are two different things, plenty of hams build radios and could transmit high power on any frequency they choose, but dont because they dont want legal repercussions.
 

Matt Derrick

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what's the advantage of transmitting out of band or at a higher wattage than is allowed?

aka why do people bother to mod their shit
 

DoctorZ

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what's the advantage of transmitting out of band or at a higher wattage than is allowed?

aka why do people bother to mod their shit

The answer to your question is different for different types of radio use. The biggest advantage to running higher power and out of band comes with CB Radios. CB is the only High Frequency (HF) Band available without a license.

Different bandwidths have different properties. HF allows one to talk great distances (skip) under certain conditions. More power allows you to be heard better and even farther. With CBers this is usually an "EGO" thing. Their radios are an expression of their God Complex trying to make up for feelings of inferiority.

The problem with this is you make a lot of people angry, and you also cause a lot of interference, so the solution is go outside of Band where you basically have your own private channels to whine about other CBers to other like-minded Radio Gods.

I speak from experience on this cause I'm still a CBer (sometimes) even though I've got my Ham License.

This brings us to Ham Radio. There is another portion of special frequencies that are not normally allowed for Hams except under certain situations. These frequencies are Military Auxiliary Radio Systems (MARS) and Civil Air Patrol (CAP). These organizations can be joined by and trained for by Ham Radio Operators which then gives them even more frequencies in even more Radio Bands to talk on--but only during training missions/drills. This is the advantage to Ham Radios that transmit out of frequency.

Hams are allowed to legally transmit up to 1,500 Watts, or 1.5 KW, so power is not an issue for Hams.

Finally we come to other radio services like MURS, GMRS/FRS, and some Walkie-Talkies in the 49 MHz range. Any Ham Radio that has been MARS/CAP modified can be used on these frequencies.

The advantage to this is you don't have to buy another radio. However, the Government (FCC) doesn't like it because Ham radios are military grade construction and put out a lot of power, as well as being capable of broadcasting on other Bands besides MURS, GMRS/FRS, etc.

The Government doesn't trust you! It believes that if you use your Ham Radio on these frequencies you will not abide by the rules, especially if you get into a fight with someone on the airwaves who is just running a little 5 watt FRS rig.

In closing I'd like to say that my personal reason for owning radios that go out of band--especially ones that have a little feature called "Cross-Band Repeat" built in--is that it makes it VERY HARD for the Government to listen in on your conversations. :)
 

DrewSTNY

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The other thing with MURS if that you can get sensors that transmit pre recorded audio clips for different things. One of the more common uses is perimeter monitoring
 

DoctorZ

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DrewSTNY

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It's only claiming the 5 channels. There are PL tones that can be used to selectively un-squelch the channel. Not sure what plan of action would want to use the PL tones, but they are available regardless.

That's only one example. I think you could do a weather station with the right stuff, like a Raspberry PI and some text reading application to broadcast sensor readings every so often.

Nothing says you have to use MURS, but it might be the only one of the GMRS/FRS/MURS frequency plans that allows for automated operation. Not sure about that, you would have to check it out.

I really like the Baofeng for monitoring. They have a couple different models that you can program in the FRS/GMRS/MURS frequencies. I picked up a few BF-888's just to do FRS frequencies, but they can do GMRS as well and have a scanning feature for a lot less than the Motorola radios. They have replaceable antenna and can be programmed however you want to use them.
 
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DoctorZ

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It's only claiming the 5 channels. There are PL tones that can be used to selectively un-squelch the channel. Not sure what plan of action would want to use the PL tones, but they are available regardless.

That's only one example. I think you could do a weather station with the right stuff, like a Raspberry PI and some text reading application to broadcast sensor readings every so often.

Nothing says you have to use MURS, but it might be the only one of the GMRS/FRS/MURS frequency plans that allows for automated operation. Not sure about that, you would have to check it out.

I really like the Baofeng for monitoring. They have a couple different models that you can program in the FRS/GMRS/MURS frequencies. I picked up a few BF-888's just to do FRS frequencies, but they can do GMRS as well and have a scanning feature for a lot less than the Motorola radios. They have replaceable antenna and can be programmed however you want to use them.

I have a wired weather station which is a lot less prone to rf interference, but more prone to lightning strikes. I'm also looking into a BaoFeng BTECH UV-50X3.
 

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I'd like to pop a question in here that no one seems to ever ask. Regarding MURS which is limited to 2 Watts (legally); if I'm out in the middle of nowhere with no one around and no one on the frequencies and I need more range can I pump my transmission up to 5 Watts on a MURS frequency? I mean, is somebody really going to object or even notice?
 

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