Prep Comms - Gmrs 5 So Many Channels

Episode Date: January 11, 2026

Most new GMRS users hit the same wall: thirty channels on the screen, all looking equal… but they're not. Some are full-power. Some are handheld-only. Some can hit repeaters. Some won't carry your voice past the yard. In this episode, we break down GMRS the way real families actually use it: • The three channel groups that matter • What power limits mean in the real world • Which channels give you real range • Why Channels 8–14 feel so weak • The only three channels your family needs to know • How repeaters actually work on GMRS If you've ever wondered why GMRS feels "strong one minute, weak the next," this episode clears it up. BLACK FRIDAY LIVE: I'm hosting a Live Zoom call on November 29th at 1 PM Eastern to help you build a simple winter-ready communication plan. (your invited!) Register at: https://live.prepcomms.com DECEMBER 9 WINTER WORKSHOP: Same link gets you access to the Dec 9th session as well. News Mention: This week's nationwide CodeRED outage is a reminder of why you need a WX radio & alternate comms matter. Full WYFF report here: https://www.wyff4.com/article/emergency-notification-system-offline-after-vendor-cybersecurity-incident-officials-say/69533822 Show close: 73 y'all & God Bless. Yes, Night Cafe assisted with the photo for this episode (like always)

There's a moment every new GMRS user runs into. You get the radios in your hand. You hand them out to your family. And the first thing the kids do is just start scrolling through the channels and they're like, wow, there's channels everywhere. Here's something nobody tells you. Well, they probably do. But I'm going to tell you. Some of those channels, they look useful.

And you're like, oh, we'll just use that one. But there's not enough power there to even carry your signal past the driveway. And if you don't know the difference, your GMRS radios are going to disappoint you. So we're going to talk about it, how to fix it, and how to move forward with it here on the prepcoms podcast. Welcome back into the prepcoms podcast. I'm Caleb Nelson, K4 CDN. It's been a full week here. Yeah, I've got my baby daughter with a birthday today.

And the fire page has been going off. It's November. It's almost Thanksgiving. It's literally Thanksgiving week when I'm recording this. And, yeah, Black Friday's on the way. I got a big announcement about Black Friday here in just a moment. I've got stuff to do. I've got to get the GMRS 50 Pro out of the woods,

into the truck and doing some range testing with the youngest son. Probably going to do that between Thanksgiving and Christmas. I've talked to people all week, literally, about how to get connected with your family in case. So we're going to talk about some things as we progress today. Thank you for being here, by the way. I'm Caleb K4 CDN, WRBR 27. Over the last few episodes, we've talked about what GMRS is. What can it do? And we've even had a show about the feedback from the listeners. You thank you guys, by the way. It was awesome. But today, let's talk about clarity. And this is what I was kind of inferring there in the cold opening. Today we're going to talk about our channels, what the power levels that are allowed on those channels and which one you should actually be using. All right. So, I mean, everybody's going to be going to be. I'm going to talk about our channels. Today, we're going to talk about our channels, what the power levels that are allowed on those channels and which one you should actually be using. All right. So, so I mean, everybody everybody's going to everybody's going to everybody's have an opinion. Let's get that out of the way. You may have, you may have an opinion that's different than mine and you may like doing your stuff better. This is what I would do if I were

solely utilizing GMRS for my family. You know, one of the problems that I've found with the whole thing in regards to GMRS is that they say you got 30 channels and you do, air quote, but they don't do the same job. They don't allow the same output power. You can use some on repeaters. you can use some just simplex, which means point to point or radio to radio. Some of them you can only use handheld to handheld. And some are basically kind of useless unless you're just in the yard together and you can see each other. But, you know, the display on the radio doesn't really tell you that. And that's where a lot of new GMRS users run into a brick wall.

Man, I did not realize I was so stopped up this morning. I don't know where this has come from. I've re-recorded, by the way. So you'll hear people say, my radio really works well over here on this channel, but it doesn't work worth a flip. I think something's wrong with it on this one. And I get it. That's your frustration. And the fact is it's not really your fault.

It's just the way that it is. So let's try to make some sense out of what we're doing. And let's just divide the frequencies, the channels up in the three groups. All right. So let's just call group one channels 15 through 22. And this is where you'll find most people utilizing GMRS, at least locally here. All right. These frequencies between the channels 15 to 22, maximum output 50 watts.

The repeater frequencies live there. You got full power. You can use your antennas. These are the frequencies that you're going to talk, right? So you can talk across town. You might be able to talk across your farm through the typical terrain. These are the ones that you should pick up. You should pick a channel in here, especially for like in car use.

If you have a radio mounted in your car, probably anywhere from 20 to 50 watts, you should kind of hang out there. And your family should know that as well. So group number two would be channels one through seven. Now, these are five watt frequencies. And they kind of overlap with the FRS, which we've already talked about. But these are five watts maximum output. They're only used for simple.

And these are, you know, around the neighborhood, you're camping, around the yard. They're useful, but they're limited because they're five watts out. And a lot of these radios, you haven't even, you know, improve the antenna. You're just walkie-talkie to walkie-talkie. But if you guys are all within, you know, a certain amount of bubble space, you're going to be fine. And again, if you need more distance, let's go back to Group 1, and that's Channel 15 through 22. You're taking notes, right? This will be, speaking up, in the show notes for you.

channels 8 through 14 and you sit there and you scratch your head and you're like why did they do this to us why did they put the half watt frequencies in the middle of the freaking range i don't know so these channels are literally half a watt handheld only no mobiles no base stations and it's really no different than the than the frs frequencies that your 15 dollar radios your kids have can use now the great thing about this is if your kids already have a couple of sets of a walkie-talkies like a lot of kids do. You don't have to, you know, buy yourself a set of those to talk on to them. You can use channels 8 through 14 on a GMRS radio and it will transmit the proper output power to be able to talk between channels 8 and 14. So if you guys are at the

park together and you're on the trail maybe or again, you're in the yard or the kids just one day over or, you know, you guys are driving pretty close in cars like if you're traveling for the holidays, you'll be fine. You'll be fine. Again, all these channels, they look the same on the screen. It's just one, two, three, four, it doesn't say, oh, this is low power, oh, this is high power, oh, this is ultra low power. Oh, you can only use your handy talk here. I don't know why they did it that way, but it is what it is. So just be aware. This all will be in the show notes. And again, there's people with different opinions and that's okay. Now, GMRS, one of the strengths of it over FRS is the ability to use high power up to 50 watts and you can also utilize repeaters.

Okay. So repeaters, I've talked about them before and they just have to make sense to you to make sense. Okay. So let me try to make this really simple. I was talking to my kid the other day of kind of explaining repeaters. This is what we came up with. You have a radio and you transmit up to the repeater because let's just think of a repeater. being on a heel or being on a mountain or being on the top of a high building because it has a

greater line of sight than you down on the street level. Okay. So you're transmitting up to the repeater. And the repeater transmits down to everyone else. Okay. And that's how your little five-watt walkie-talkie goes from working around your yard to talking to your wife at the grocery store. Okay. Elevation matters. So the repeater antenna is above ground level. usually the highest point that somebody can get it. And then it transmits down to everyone that can, can I say this, see the repeater? Or maybe, you know, if you're at the repeater, you could see that out in the distance. So elevation matters, knowing how to program your radio matters,

knowing how to connect with the repeater owner, getting permission, going through the myGMRS.com website, doing it right. That's why repeaters work. That's why they're great. Let's see here. Channel's 15 through 22 also allow you 50 watts. Now, this is great because if you've got, say, the BTEC GMRS 50 Pro that's doing about 42, 43 watts out on my ham radio antenna, it works like a banger. I mean, I've tried it on the ZBM2 Industries whip. I've utilized the Wilcom's roll-up we have in the store.

I've used my ham radio vertical at about 30 feet. It works. Not only does it work to get you. into the repeater that's further away, but it also allows you to talk Simplex further, from your car to your wife's car, from your base station in your house, to your buddy's base station, two neighborhoods over. So it gives you repeater access, long range Simplex. And again, Simplex, remember, it's just simple. Simplex, simple. It's just radio to radio. And this is how, this is where and why, you'll hear me say, your handy talkies are cute. I mean,

mean, they really are guys. And I have an embarrassing amount of handy talkies. And I use two of them. And that's all. And a lot of times I just use one. And I have access to all kind of radio frequencies with ham and GMRS and my business itinerant license. I mean, the fire department, I mean, yeah, and I use two. So next time you're on Amazon and you're so just, oh my gosh, look, it's another set. $22. If you don't need them, don't buy them. Buy a good antenna. Replace the antennas on what you have.

Maybe skip buying three or four sets of walkie-talkies additionally that you already have and purchase a full power base station and get you an antenna to put on your chimney and really do some talk. And I know nobody wants to hear that. That sounds so boring, man. I get it. And it's a lot more expensive. I understand that too.

You should see my radio shack. But here's the thing. If you really want to have success in any radio service, you really need to use the maximum amount of power allowed with the best antenna that you can afford. So what would that be in this regard? Well, it might be a walkie-talkie with a improved whip. It might be your walkie-talkie with a roll-up antenna. It could be a base station with a roll-up or a base station radio with a vertical mounted on your chimney. When I say vertical, I mean an antenna.

Okay. So there's a lot of ways to skin the cat, but don't just get hung up on walkie-talkies. I know they use them on TV. I know you watch NC whatever and they're talking in a walkie-talkie and it's across the country. Guys, that's linked over the internet and it's television to start with. So you're trying to build redundant communications with zoo-eat communications for your family. If you can, buy a real radio. And I mean a base station or mobile. that has 20 to 50 watts out and put up an antenna. Okay, you can do the quarter way from the store, the roll up from the store. You can do verticals on Amazon. You can do a Yagi antenna. However, just, I don't want to get hung up here. I'm getting hung up. Sorry.

All right, so channels 15 through 20, 50 watts, this is where you talk. Okay. Channels 1 through 7, 5 watts out. This is your walkie-talkie. Works well around the neighborhood and maybe even at Walmart. channel's 8 through 14 walkie talkies from from your house to the end of the driveway you just got to remember channels 8 through 14 are ultra low power if they're not performing like you think they should it's because there's not enough power going out your antenna okay let me get a

sip of coffee here because something's going on with my sinuses and this just started today i've started pressing my own coffee it's kind of good you guys should try it um my buddy Chris did that years ago and I thought it was weird and I like it. Thanks Chris. K and 4 BDQ. Listen, your family doesn't need to know everything we just talked about. Okay. Here's here's where the Sharpie marker comes in. Here's where the, all right guys, we're going to talk for just a few minutes around the dinner table about these radios we just bought. Okay. So you, the man in charge, the woman in charge, who's ever making these decisions for your family or even your group, You've got a mag group or something, okay?

You pick the best repeater channel. Now, what does that mean? Well, you have to do the research to find, one, are there repeaters local to me? Two, do I have permission to use them? Because you went to my gmrs.com and you got permission. And then three, how well does it work with our radio situation? We all have walkie-talkies or there's a base station in the living room and there's one in the truck. Pick the one that works the best for your area.

All right? And that's your repeater channel. So family. A repeater helps us talk further. When we're away from home, this is the channel we use. If we're around the house, we're going to use these frequencies. Channels 15 through 22, pick one you like. And then the local channel.

Channels 1 through 7, why not? This is where you'll find the Channel 3 project. We'll talk more about that coming up. But you just have to decide. Okay, so we need a repeater channel. Got it. We need a house or a Simplex channel that works best that we can utilize with dad's radio in his truck. Plus, mom's really nice walkie-talkie. He buys her for Christmas this year. She'll love it. I'm kidding. I'm really kidding. Don't do that. I did. Actually, she liked her

walkie-talkie that year about them. But that's beyond the point. Pick your channels for your Simplex channel. The one that you can use high power and walkie-talkies on. Those are 15 through 22. and then a local channel around the house. We use three simply because of the Channel 3 project. I don't want to keep dancing around the Channel 3, but it's a whole story, it's a whole show into itself. That's it. That's all you got to do.

Pick a channel for your repeater. Pick one for your high power simplex. Pick one for your local. Take your Sharpie marker, write it on there. If you guys have a pace plan or if you have a pocket card that says, hey, if the power goes out one day or if I text you the family safe word and you're supposed to turn the radio on, put those channels in there. Yeah, I got ahead of myself there, but you should be thinking about this stuff.

This is prepcoms, by the way. I'm not going to go a whole lot deeper in that. Just to stress again that channels 8 through 14 are going to disappoint you, but they will work with your kids' walkie-talkies. You've already bought them. So if you already have some around the house and you have bought some GMRS radios to utilize, you can utilize channels 8 through 14 with your kids' little radios, you're legal. Everybody can talk. Everybody's happy. And the kids are learning something good to do in case he ever need to. Now, this is going to be kind of a short show. Again, it's Thanksgiving week. I'm thankful for you, by the way. You know, this audience is just turning out to be amazing. Not that I'm shocked, but I really appreciate all the back and forth with you guys and the shares. I've been doing a lot on Instagram and YouTube. And it's just a lot of fun. So thank you for being here. Before we wrap up,

up today. I got a couple of things that aren't necessarily down the GMRS road, but I think we need to mention them. All right. Did you see the headlines this week about the Code Red app outage? Do you know what Code Red is you should? If you go back and listen to some of the earlier episodes of the program, we talked about alternate ways to receive weather alerts, government alerts, missing kids, those kind of things. And a lot of people subscribe to the Code Red app. I was forced to do so because my county decided, Spartanburg County in South Carolina,

decided to just stop caring about their Blue Alert Civil Defense alarm system. Actually, they don't even know whose responsibility it is. That's how awesome our government is here. But anyway, the Code Red app that we have on our phones, all of our phones, by the way. It got hacked. Somebody broke in, stole all the information. I don't know what they're going to do if anything with it, but it screwed up the app.

And it took the system down nationwide. And did my county think to tell me the ones that forced me to use it? No. No. I had to find out from the South Carolina Emergency Management Division that the app that was forced upon all of my county and told how awesome it was has been. jeopardized. And now, I guess we're just, you know, you better have a weather radio. That's the point I'm getting to. You got to have a weather radio. They're on Amazon. They're 40 bucks. They're at Walmart.

Buy one. Get one. Okay. If you don't know which one to buy, go listen to the shopping show. I just recorded a couple of weeks ago. They're in there. There's Midland. It's about 40 bucks at Walmart. Get one. All right. I've got to tell you this. I'm excited about this. I've never, well, I kind of did this for my 50th episode with Ham Radio 360, but this is different. This is a Black Friday live Zoom call. I've got a little training I want to do with you. It's like just, you know, 10 minutes at the most. And then I want to open it up to a full-on Q&A hangout kind of a thing with whomever is there.

Black Friday, 1 o'clock Eastern time. Now, I know that's early for you guys on the left coast out there. you're going to be in the turkey coma, but here's the deal. I mean, what else are you going to do on Black Friday? Maybe watch football? I probably will, yeah. I've got to go to my parents' house and have Thanksgiving all over again, so I'm really stoked about that.

But that afternoon, I'm going to be live on Zoom, and you're invited to join me. November the 29th at 1 o'clock, you can register. I'd like for you to register to get you in on Zoom at live. coms.com. All right. live. prepcoms.com. And that same link, if you go there and you sign up for the Black Friday hangout, basically, we're going to do a December 9th workshop webinar at 7 o'clock on December the night.

So you register for one, you get into both. The workshop will be a little different. It's more of a training opportunity, whereas here on Black Friday, we're going to hit on a couple of points about winter, travel, weather, and whatever, and then we're going to just whomever is there, we're going to chat. You got questions. We're going to make up some answers. You know what I'm saying.

Anyway, I want to invite you to come November 29th at 1 o'clock, and you can register at live. prepcoms.com. There's an advent calendar in my link tree on Instagram. It's free. It's all about comms for you and your family, and I think it's kind of cool. So check that out. All this stuff is in the show notes, by the way, as well as the link to sign up for the

Black Friday Hangout. I've got some Black Friday Stupid Price. on the network that I've mentioned before. We'll talk about that Black Friday as well as there'll probably be a link to that in the show notes. So anytime you ever have a question, go to the show notes first. They're the same on the podcast as well as the YouTube play. And they're also at prepcoms.com.

So it's all there. It's all there. Maybe too much, but it's all there. All right, I got to go. I appreciate you being here. I'm thankful for you. And if we don't get a chance to catch up, on Friday at 1 o'clock for the Black Friday hangout.

I appreciate you. I'm thankful for you. I hope you have a fantastic time with your family this week. I know that's not easy for everybody. A lot of families just don't get along, and a lot of families are missing people that were there last year. So just be the best version of you that you can be. And I hope you have a great day. I hope you have a great week,

and I appreciate you being here with me. Next time we're going to walk through some actual use. of these GMRS radios. We're going to talk about the Channel 3 project and more. But until then, 733, y'all. God bless.