Why I Got My GMRS License

Kenwood TK-880-1 base station, photographed with my Canon SX520 SH.

If you have never heard of GMRS (General Mobile Radio Service) before, no worries, most people haven't. Up until the year 2020, I wasn't familiar with it either. I somewhat stumbled upon this obscured technology through listening to an episode of Ask Noah Show a few years back.

I don't remember what the episode was about, only that Noah was saying something about "ham radio" (amateur radio). He later went on to talk about the perks of being a ham radio operator and a particular situation where his radio helped get him out of a jam. By the end of the episode, I think I already had a BaoFeng UV-5R radio in my Amazon cart and a new hobby in the making.

Fast forward a couple of years later, and still no license. My ambitious attempt to become a ham radio operator was short-lived and put on the back burner. My radio was now mostly a geeky decoration and the occasional flashlight when a storm would take out the power.

Now comes the year 2020, the "Karen" of all years. And, right before the pandemic (COVID-19) started to wreak havoc, my wife and I bought our very first suburban home in La Porte, Texas. If you've never heard of the place, it's mostly adjacent to the bay and partially surrounded by refineries and chemical plants. So, there is a ton of radio traffic.

Now to the point of this story. After the painfully tedious process of unpacking, I began tinkering with my radio again. I started scanning through frequencies, and to my surprise, a lot of voices started resonating through my radio's speaker. It didn't take me long to figure out that I was listening to a nearby GMRS repeater.

After a few weeks of monitoring radio chatter in the background, my curiosity finally got the best of me. One day, I overheard two guys trying to troubleshoot a Linux printing issue. I wanted so badly to help, but I didn't have a license to transmit. So, I did a little research and applied for one a day or so later. It only took a few days for the FCC to process my application and assign/send me a call sign — WRKD233.

Since then, I've bought a couple of radios and even installed an external antenna on my roof. I still plan to get my amateur radio license, but for now, I'm happy with the GMRS community.

12-foot directional antenna (Yagi) attached to my house, photographed with my Canon SX520 SH.

For anyone just starting like me, you have nothing to lose. It's fun and relatively affordable. Not to mention the benefits it would have during a global disaster or zombie apocalypse. While GMRS isn't amateur radio, it's not far from it. Unlike amateur radio, you don't have to take an exam to get licensed. Don't be a procrastinator like me. Get a license and start having some fun!