John - Thanks for your kind words. Keep in mind that FRS and the other services are pretty localized, so local consensus will emerge such as a GMRS repeater using digital modulation, and others that prefer to remain analog. Yes, it could be a bit messy in the short term, but I don't think the services, and the users, are being well serve…
John - Thanks for your kind words. Keep in mind that FRS and the other services are pretty localized, so local consensus will emerge such as a GMRS repeater using digital modulation, and others that prefer to remain analog. Yes, it could be a bit messy in the short term, but I don't think the services, and the users, are being well served by retarding the available technology. We used to have the luxury of segmenting different technologies into different portions of spectrum - such as AM broadcast versus FM broadcast versus TV broadcast. But now, we don't have that luxury - ALL the spectrum is allocated. So just like the mobile phone industry adopted digital techniques, so I think these services (and the users, and the vendors) should, and will, adopt digital techniques, to their long term benefit. None of these consumer devices are so expensive that they can't be replaced (and other than GMRS repeaters, there's no expensive infrastructure) with units that perform better and offer more capabilities such as an FRS radio that uses digital modulation and a data function.
John - IIRC, LTE on Amateur Radio is already being done; I just cannot cite the source of that info at the moment. I think I reported on it in a previous ZR. LTE is a "bit heavy" (in my opinion) for Amateur Radio and the "citizen" radio services, with lots of protocol and overhead (the carriers want everything that happens on "their" spectrum to be potential billable events). But, certainly the underlying technologies such as OFDM are usable on Amateur Radio and the "citizen" radio services.
John - Thanks for your kind words. Keep in mind that FRS and the other services are pretty localized, so local consensus will emerge such as a GMRS repeater using digital modulation, and others that prefer to remain analog. Yes, it could be a bit messy in the short term, but I don't think the services, and the users, are being well served by retarding the available technology. We used to have the luxury of segmenting different technologies into different portions of spectrum - such as AM broadcast versus FM broadcast versus TV broadcast. But now, we don't have that luxury - ALL the spectrum is allocated. So just like the mobile phone industry adopted digital techniques, so I think these services (and the users, and the vendors) should, and will, adopt digital techniques, to their long term benefit. None of these consumer devices are so expensive that they can't be replaced (and other than GMRS repeaters, there's no expensive infrastructure) with units that perform better and offer more capabilities such as an FRS radio that uses digital modulation and a data function.
Ah, Steve, you raise points I had not considered. Fork: LTE on the ham band(s)? Wow, what we could do!
John - IIRC, LTE on Amateur Radio is already being done; I just cannot cite the source of that info at the moment. I think I reported on it in a previous ZR. LTE is a "bit heavy" (in my opinion) for Amateur Radio and the "citizen" radio services, with lots of protocol and overhead (the carriers want everything that happens on "their" spectrum to be potential billable events). But, certainly the underlying technologies such as OFDM are usable on Amateur Radio and the "citizen" radio services.
Found the link - Amateur Cellular project (https://xcl.is). Bad news is that I found it in this article - https://www.openresearch.institute/2025/04/29/are-multi-carrier-data-modes-illegal-in-amateur-radio/.