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MURS

The Coconino Amateur Radion Club (CARC) is looking for ways to attract people and get them interested in Amateur Radio. We have lost many active members due to COVID-19 and other reasons. This year, we have had trouble finding people willing and able to help with runner-tracking activities which we normally support. We have had to withdraw support for several races. And we have not been able to find enough people to fully support the activities we completed. Also, we are getting older. We need some younger, energetic people to serve as officers and to organize, direct and participate in our activities!

Some thoughts:
Get back to in-person Club meetings - Zoom just doesn't cut it.
Make it possible for non-licensed people to help with runner-tracking.
Provide a low-effort, low-cost entry into radio social and/or emergency communication.
CARC membership dues discounts for students.

MURS - Multi-Use Radio Service
FRS - Family Radio Service
GMRS - General Mobile Radio Service

To this end, we are looking into equipment and radio services. MURS, FRS, and GMRS are candidate services. My (Phil - AE7OH) main interest right now is MURS. The reasons are:
- Inexpensive Radios - $25 for a basic transceiver.
- I was able to get software from RETEVIS that worked with the Baofeng programming cable to program my RT21V units. CHIRP did not work directly - it lists the RT21 units but not the RT21V units that I purchased.
- No license required.
- Uncluttered frequency bands. (many people use FRS)
- Useful power limit (~ 2 Watts) when coupled with a high gain antenna.
- 2 meter operation - moving from MURS to 2 Meters HAM bands should be easy.

CARC has some FRS transceivers we can use for experiments. The disadvantages of FRS are low power (1/2 watts), you can't use an external antenna and the 450 MHz frequency limits distance.

GMRS has everything, including use of repeaters, but requires a license for operation ($ 70 per year, no test).

Note that Baofeng HAM transceivers can listen to any of the service frequencies:
(150 MHz band for MURS and 450 MHz band for FRS and GMRS)
but it is illegal for HAMS to transmit on those frequencies using unapproved HAM radios.
- I have the frequencies programmed on my Baofengs but set to receive-only.