Family radio service

The Family Radio Service (FRS) is a since 1996 in the United States (because of the popularity later in Canada and Mexico shared) citizens' band radio application . In Europe basically comparable with Freenet , PMR radio (PMR446) or SRD radio (formerly LPD).

Technical information

Frequencies in the UHF band are used to avoid the disadvantages of the interference situation in the 27 MHz band of the CB radio . FRS works with frequency modulation (FM) instead of amplitude modulation (AM). The permissible transmission power is 500 milliwatts. A total of 14 channels are available. The frequencies from channels 1 to 7 are shared with the GMRS General Mobile Radio Service , which in the USA can only be operated with a license. In this way, the owners of the other device category can still be reached.

FRS two-way radios support CTCSS to make unwanted radio traffic from other users inaudible. Although manufacturers like to sell this as a “private channel function”, it does not protect against unwanted eavesdropping, but only reduces interference from other co-users on well-frequented channels.

Only devices with a permanently attached antenna are approved. The range is approx. 500 m to 1 km, strongly dependent on the environment. The operation of these devices is not legal anywhere in Europe.

Used channels

FRS shares channels 1-7 with GMRS.

channel	frequency
1	462.5625 MHz
2	462.5875 MHz
3	462.6125 MHz
4th	462.6375 MHz
5	462.6625 MHz
6th	462.6875 MHz
7th	462.7125 MHz
8th	467.5625 MHz
9	467.5875 MHz
10	467.6125 MHz
11	467.6375 MHz
12	467.6625 MHz
13	467.6875 MHz
14th	467.7125 MHz