The Family Radio Service (FRS) is an unlicensed UHF service. It has twenty-two channels, all of which are shared with the General Mobile Radio Service (GMRS). GMRS is a licensed service, but there is no examination requirement and the fee is low ($35 for ten years as of this writing). Both GMRS and FRS radios are available at retail.
The principal difference between the services is the power level allowed on
each channel and the availability of detachable antennas.
Another difference is that the GMRS service specifies 5 kHz deviation on all
but channels eight through fourteen (where 2.5 kHz is specified) while the
FRS service specifies 2.5 kHz deviation on all channels.
Both services use Frequency Modulation (FM).
Channel
1-7
8-14
15-22
Power
(Watts)
FRS
2
1/2
2
GMRS
5
50
Deviation
(kHz)
FRS
2.5
2.5
2.5
GMRS
5
5
Channel
Frequency
(MHz)
1
462.5625
2
.5875
3
.6125
4
.6375
5
.6625
6
.6875
7
.7125
8
467.5625
9
.5875
10
.6125
11
.6375
12
.6625
13
.6875
14
.7125
15
462.5500
16
.5750
17
.6000
18
.6250
19
.6500
20
.6750
21
.7000
22
.7250
The Multi-Use Radio Service (MURS) is a licence-free VHF service limited to
two Watts power output.
VHF tends to have better range in rural environments versus UHF which tends
to work better in urban environments.
The MURS service has five channels, two of which used to be part of the
“business band” (a licensed commercial service).
Channels one through three specify 2.5 kHz deviation while channels four and
five (the old business channels) allow either 2.5 kHz or 5 kHz deviation.
When it was part of the business service, channel four's frequency was
indicated on popular business radios by a blue dot.
Channel five's was a green dot.
Consequently, some users still call these channels “blue dot” and “green dot”
rather than four and five.
Channel
Frequency
(MHz)
1
151.82
2
.88
3
.94
• 4
154.57
• 5
.60
Last time I looked at MURS there were no commercially available radios type-approved for the service. It looks like Motorola is now selling the RMM2050 and there may be more. I suspect you have to buy them online — I haven't seen any in stores.
I hope you find this information useful! If you have any questions or comments, please drop me a line. If this is the kind of thing you're into, you may enjoy my other articles.
Aaron D. Parks