I'll start off by saying I have owned more FRS radios in my life then I care to think about... ever. After being tailed by someone else and dealing with your typical rabel on the waves I have come up with some basic concepts to protect your transmitions.

Also take my use of FRS as to mean FRS GRMS freqs unless otherwise noted. Topics are disscused in 1, 1a, 2 and responses to topics are coresponded with a R1 R2 etc.


1. Never pic a frequency that is easy to remeber. Most FRS radios work off the 1-14 channel concept. Before private codes everyone worked on these 14 channels and much like CB radios the channels were overun with all sorts of converstations. Basicly that ment every redneck poser who didnt own a CB owned FRS. Obvious channel selections then occur. channels 1,2,5,7,10,and I believe 14 were most trafficed. Being in a enviroment of tourists I have a big problem with that.

1a. Privacy channels which came later in my efforts added a new dimension to security. Privacy channels allows someone to easily disapear in the 128 possiblites. Note that the same problem you see with 14 channels now is compounded by privacy channels. I have noticed easy to rember numbers always were chosen. (channels designated [main channel].[Privacy channel]) 1.11 1.23 2.34 12.12 3.33 etc. Obviously in low traffic areas this is not a concern as much. It is even less a concern if you are using a privacy codes. However on the highway etc this becomes more congested and may allow for a concern citizen to scan you out. L

1b. No matter what you do urban enviroments will have people who scan freqancys with scanners. There is no viable way to prevent this with FRS freqs. However some preventive maintance can help solve this problem.

R1. Basicly there are two ways to prevent this problem. Never use commanly used freqancys. Also listen in your area for other traffic before you turn on begin your conversation. Simple as it sounds in high traffic areas this may become difficult

R1a. Basicly the best tactic out there to prevent snoopers is frequany hoping. There are two main problems with this. One is preventing confusion among your team with what freq they should be on. Two knowing when to move. Basicly manual freqancy hoping prevents the casual observer from picking up your conversations. Two basic concepts work the best for freqancy hoping. One is to keep a preplanned list of channels for everyone. Then use a codeword to hop to the next freq or if third parties enter your channel imediatly move. SOP (standard operating proccedures) will have to be defined by your team. Second is to have a mathmatical system. We suggest picking the first 3-4 frequencys randomly then have a odd numbered additon or subtraction so you will eventually hit every channel.

Example

1- 1.32
2-5.25
3-2.03
4. (+5.+7) or (-3.-9) to the last freq. Although subtraction is the most difficult it is the safest as people have a hard time with it in general.

R1b. Since we have no possible way of preventing people from listening in it is imparitive to prevent the casual concerned citizen from listening to a converastion and understanding it. Always use call signs. Never use actually descriptive names of areas if possible. For instance never say, "I am fifty feet away from the old hospital sign." This requires what is called bullseyes. Basicly a bullseye is a pre determined spot or rally point. You can create multiple bulleye's designate them by numbers. Remeber to keep them simple and dont have to many.

more to come.

Will be writing about when to begin countermessures

That's one thing that pisses me off about FRS. These "Privacy Codes" aren't really "private" at all. They are CTCSS (Continuous Tone Coded Squelch System)tones. What that means is that along with your voice, the radio transmits a solid tone with your voice. Another radio that is set to the same CTCSS tone will only unmute when it receives the proper CTCSS tone. This does NOT prevent somebody from hearing you. They just set their "Privacy Code" to 0. All a CTCSS tone does is prevent you from hearing anybody on the same channel as you that's using either no, or a different CTCSS tone. So, to say you have access to 538 channels isn't really true, you only have 14 unique frequencies. CTCSS is also called a PL (Private Line) tone in the Motorola world, and CG (Channel Guard) in the GE/Ericsson/Com-Net/Tyco world.


-Mike

I'm still a little in the dark about what FRS is exactly. Are we talking these: http://www.twoway-radio.co.uk/trolleyed/27/index.htm

Or these: http://www.twoway-radio.co.uk/trolleyed/4/index.htm

?

And is it possible to get onto a SLF with just a standard unliscenced unit?

http://www.batlabs.com/frs.html

That's what we're talking about.

-Mike

Posted by ExKa|iBuR http://www.batlabs.com/frs.html That's what we're talking about. -Mike

Canadian equivolent of PMR then.

North American version, yes.

-Mike

"Privacy Channels" on frs are a joke and offer no such privacy, its is just a selective blocking of others not using the same code, but when using no code you hear everyone.

And i recommend sticking to real radios instead of frs/pmr
that stuff is a toy, when your ass is on teh line do you really wanna be relying on a toy, you dont use a crappy dollar store flashlight do you?

pmr446 is basicly different frequencies but the same use
as FRS just in a different country.
(PMR 446 is all on 446 MHz which is a ham band in the U.S.)
FRS is on 462 and 467 MHZ
A thought; if (in the U.S.) you are a ham, and you have
another person who is a ham aquire some PMR radios and have
a nice cheap low power simplex setup.