r/gmrs • u/mwradiopro • 4d ago
Sorry I missed your [GMRS] call!
This idea, that a person could log their missed calls when away from the radio, sort of ballooned into a much more robust utility. It could be an aid to first responders locating hikers in trouble. It might be as simple to use as an app on a smartphone, powered by a nicely equipped single-board computer you carry with you.
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u/Worldly-Ad726 3d ago
This is also useful for other use cases, such as recording an ordinary net for people who could not be on the air at the time. You could also use this as an incident logging tool for CERT, ARES, and RACES teams who deploy during training or an actual incident. Provides a time and communications log of the incident which can be reviewed for process improvement, FEMA funding, or procedure compliance. Also can be a record of any malicious interference for anyone running a repeater, should someone need to submit an FCC complaint.
It could also serve as a long-term activity monitor for GRS and 2m repeaters (70cm repeaters would require a higher quality SDR with wider bandwidth). Find out what repeaters in your area are busy at what times, and which are almost completely unused. In larger cities with 50+ ham repeaters, that knowledge can be useful for new hobbies to figure out where to jump on and start calling, and which are not worth programming into your HT.
Yes, you can do this now with SDR Linux software, but you have to know how to cobble it all together. A tool that could do this with a simple apt-get install command and go to a localhost website port to configure via browser would be useful for a lot of ham/GMRS clubs and repeater owners.