Last Updated: June 25, 2001
Creation of the Citizens' Radio Service
Initial National Interest in UHF Personal Radio
FCC Advisory Committee Recommends GMRS Changes
Origin of the Personal Radio Steering Group
Purpose and Goals of the Personal Radio Steering Group
Current Projects and Services of the Personal Radio Steering Group
A Bi-Monthly Newsletter, the Personal Radio Exchange
An Aggressive Presence on the Internet
The Periodic Revision of the GMRS National Repeater Guide
The Coordination of Ad Hoc "Working Groups"
A Bibliographic Research and Printing Service
Other Recent PRSG Projects of Special Interest
For Further Information about the Personal Radio Steering Group
Creation of the Citizens' Radio Service
The Citizens Radio Service (CRS) was originally created in the late 1940s. The first spectrum allocated to this new service was the entire band from 460 to 470 MHz. This was "Class A" of the CRS, subsequently (mid 1970s) renamed the "General Mobile Radio Service" (GMRS).
In its first two decades, the GMRS grew very slowly. Most of the early licensees were commercial and industrial users. (This was before the FCC had created most of today's business and industrial radio services.) Nationally, there were only a few personal or family users, and only a handful of personal-use and public-service-oriented repeaters. Chiefly responsible for this early lack of popularity were the high cost of UHF radio equipment, its short range of operation without a repeater, and (especially) misinformation about the availability and suitability of this service for personal use.
Over the first two decades of the existence of Class A Citizens Radio, the FCC reallocated most of the 10 MHz of this UHF radio spectrum as it created the various new UHF commercial and industrial radio services. Only 4% of the original 1940's allocation remains available today for general personal use.
Initial National Interest in UHF Personal Radio
In the mid 1970s, the number of individuals licensing and using the GMRS primarily for personal and family use or to enhance their participation in local volunteer public-service groups began to increase rapidly. These persons desired a high-quality communications resource to replace the increasingly congested and abuse-laden Citizens Band Radio Service.
Most of the new repeater systems were modeled after forerunners in Chicago (IL) and Ann Arbor (MI). With assistance and encouragement from these early models, new systems were soon installed in Washington (DC), Philadelphia, Dallas, Atlanta, Omaha, and within two years, in more than three dozen other major urban areas throughout the country. The resulting ten-fold increase in GMRS licensing by the end of the 1970s represented a more than hundred-fold increase in the interest in using the GMRS for personal and family communications.
FCC Advisory Committee Recommends GMRS Changes
In early 1976, Congress authorized the Federal Communications Commission to create the Personal Use Radio Advisory Committee (PURAC). The PURAC was initially concerned primarily with the Citizens Band Radio Service, which had been experiencing an explosive growth. However, a separate Task Area within the PURAC was created to examine just the GMRS.
The final PURAC Reports in 1978 contained a comprehensive, 300-page analysis of the GMRS, and made more than 100 recommendations for changes to improve the quality and utility of this personal radio service.
After the PURAC completed its work in 1978, the interest in UHF personal radio which it had generated at the national level transferred to individual user groups. These groups had constituted a significant portion of the new wave of interest and licensing in the GMRS.
Most of these groups had traditionally existed to support or to coordinate various public-service activities. GMRS was merely a tool through which they could accomplish their primary organizational objectives, such as the monitoring of the National CB Emergency Channel 9, or the providing of communications assistance to local public-safety agencies.
However, there was no organizational structure designed for persons whose main interest was in promoting disciplined personal and family use of UHF radio, and not in those other peripheral (if admirable) goals of public-service volunteerism. Some persons who could have made valuable contributions of effort and expertise to the GMRS as an evolving and maturing UHF personal radio service found no sympathetic forum for their views and talents within those groups.
In addition, these pre-existent regional and national public-service groups had priorities of their own, and were unable to mobilize or to sustain a continuing advocacy and educational effort on behalf of GMRS and the other contemplated UHF personal radio services.
Origin of the Personal Radio Steering Group
After the expiration of the federal PURAC charter in late 1978, several "study groups" and voluntary "notification networks" were created to encourage public participation in FCC rule-making inquiries, to study proposals for new personal radio services, and in general to carry on some of the programs of the PURAC.
These groups were subsequently brought together under a common structure, the Personal Radio Steering Group. By consolidating these individual volunteer efforts, a greater degree of administrative support and coordination was possible, and a broader exposure of their individual activities could be achieved.
Purpose and Goals of the Personal Radio Steering Group
By consensus, the type of personal radio which we advocate is the capability for individuals to communicate with one another for specific, directed, non-superfluous and non-frivolous purposes. Citizens of our contemporary mobile society need access to this kind of disciplined UHF mobile radio medium, in order to facilitate their normal family and personal business activities.
This definition has been chosen specifically to distinguish this concept of a functional personal radio service from that of a recreational service. The latter is adequately represented by the Amateur Radio Service and the Citizens Band Radio Service.
Furthermore, there is broad user recognition of the importance of emphasizing mobile-oriented communications. With only eight channel pairs available for repeater and conventional operation, and another seven for low-power, non-repeater operation, there is insufficient spectrum to accommodate the kind of point-to-point communications which are more appropriate for telephone or for CB radio. Otherwise, important mobile-to-mobile and mobile-to-base communications, especially those providing assistance to travelers and reporting local emergencies, would be blocked.
Current Projects and Services of the Personal Radio Steering Group
The PRSG is a private, non-profit corporation funded primarily by subscriptions, literature sales, and private contributions. Members of the PRSG Board of Directors are active nationally in a variety of personal-radio activities. We collectively strive to promote the continuing personal use of the GMRS, and to protect this service from the threat of encroachment and usurpation by commercial and industrial interests. We also encourage the evolution of this service to more completely respond to the legitimate needs of citizens in our contemporary, highly mobile society to communicate with each other in order to coordinate their mutual activities.
The primary functions of the PRSG are to publish and distribute information in support of these objectives, and to offer other services for personal-radio users in such areas as licensing, FCC data retrieval, and assistance with local enforcement problems. We also encourage public participation in FCC inquiries and proposals concerning personal radio.
The PRSG provides a number of direct services and publications for the personal-use radio community.
> A Bi-Monthly Newsletter, the Personal Radio Exchange.
The PRE brings news of interest to the personal-radio community. For many years, this printed newsletter was the primary vehicle for announcing and distributing the other printed products and services of the PRSG. An annual subscription to the printed PRE newsletter costs $40.
In recognition of the changing nature of publishing, PRSG is now converting our newsletter over to an electronic format. "Web publishing" will enable us to provide our information services to a broader range of GMRS users more efficiently and less expensively. The annual subscription for the electronic version of our newsletter is now only $10.
> An Aggressive Presence on the Internet.
The PRSG's Web site provides general information about the GMRS and other personal radio services, and about the various on-going PRSG projects. The Web site's library files include the complete FCC Rules pertaining to the GMRS, the FRS (Family Radio Service), and the new Multi Use Radio Service (MURS).
The PRSG newsletter and the Internet presence are our primary on-going activities. In addition, there are the following related products and services.
> The Periodic Revision of the GMRS National Repeater Guide.
This is a national list of all GMRS repeaters. The Guide is our most popular and widely distributed publication. It also contains useful information on how to get started in the GMRS.
> The Coordination of Ad Hoc "Working Groups."
These groups review pending FCC inquiries and rule-making actions, and coordinate the filing of petitions for changes in the FCC rules pertaining to the GMRS, the FRS, the MURS, and to the various other current or proposed personal radio services.
> A Bibliographic Research and Printing Service.
This makes available copies of research projects, FCC filings, and other items of special interest to the personal-radio community.
Announcement of these and other services and materials is made through the PRE Newsletter and here on our Web site. The printed and online versions of our newsletter are our primary method of distributing these materials.
Other Recent PRSG Projects of Special Interest
In the mid 1980s, PRSG led a successful battle to prevent the FCC from dismantling the GMRS and converting this valuable spectrum instead into a low-power, non-repeater, unlicensed "Consumer Radio Service." This proposal would have reduced the GMRS to a mere "high-tech kiddie-talkie service" stripped of many of the benefits and advantages which current GMRS licensees enjoy.
In the late 1980s, PRSG proposed to the FCC an alternative regulatory approach, including an extensive analysis of the then-current GMRS rules. Many of these considerations had been pending since the 1978 PURAC Reports, and from rulemaking petitions going back even to the early 1970s. The FCC subsequently acted on this PRSG analysis, and eventually agreed to re-orient this service to meet the communications needs of personal licensees.
In the early 1990s, the PRSG began a review of pending equipment type-acceptance applications and marketing programs. PRSG representatives meet periodically with representatives of major manufacturers of GMRS radios, to encourage them to introduce special features and capabilities uniquely intended for and needed in the GMRS personal-use market.
These meetings with manufacturers have resulted in some GMRS-specific radio models which respond to long-sought operational features. PRSG diligence in reviewing proposals for new GMRS radios has enable us to obtain an FCC denial of one proposed radio which would actually have been illegal to use in this service.
In the mid 1990s, PRSG coordinated a nationwide effort to protect incursion into GMRS spectrum by the new "Family Radio Service." Although our efforts were not entirely successful, final implementation of the FRS did include some protections for GMRS repeaters.
In the late 1990s, PRSG led an only partially successful effort to resist the FCC's dismantling of certain long-standing protections for mobile operations in the GMRS, and the FCC's abandonment of collecting any meaningful technical information in the licensing process. We did succeed in persuading the FCC to return "the GMRS 675 channel" (462.675 MHz and 467.675 MHz) back to general use. The FCC's attempt to turn it into an "emergency-only channel" would have led to a massive abandonment of the offering of emergency and traveler assistance repeater services to the GMRS traveling public.
In years 2000 and 2001, PRSG has been extensively involved in the creation and guidance of the new Multi-Use Radio Service (MURS). The FCC has needed public pressure (under the PRSG leadership) to assure that this VHF (150 MHz) spectrum is used in a manner that produces the greatest benefit for its intended users.
For Further Information about the Personal Radio Steering Group
To inquire about current and prospective products and services from the PRSG, write to:
Telephone (voice) inquiries can be made to: (734) MOBILE 3 (or (734) 662-4533). The best times to reach our volunteer staff are late afternoons and evenings (to 1 AM Eastern time).
Thanks for your interest in the GMRS, FRS and MURS, and in the activities of the PRSG. We would very much appreciate your subscription to our newsletter. We would also be interested in hearing your comments and suggestions about other services which we could offer to the GMRS personal-use community.