By Chris Passeau
K6CDP/WRPX768
Hello to everyone.
This is an update on what the Groveland GMRS group is doing.
Richard Combs, KN6HSR/WRMM317, brought the neighborhood radio
watch idea to Tuolumne County. The idea was to provide a radio service
that the non-ham radio community would be able to use during
emergencies.
Thanks to Richard, the idea has taken off for the non-ham
radio community, who do not want to obtain an Amateur Radio License.
We now have four areas in the County that are using GMRS radios: 1)
Strawberry, ; 2) Twain Harte; 3) Columbia; and 4) the Groveland
neighborhoods. Columbia and Groveland are lucky enough to each have
repeaters which provides greater coverage for their areas. Each
neighborhood is conducting a weekly NET.
The Groveland NET is on Saturday nights at 7 pm, PST. We welcome any GMRS licensed user to
check into the NET. The Groveland NET channel (GMRS identifies it as channels not frequencies) is on
repeater channel one. The repeater channel frequencies are: 1) Receive (Rx) = 462.550 MHz; and 2)
Transmit (Tx) = 467.550 MHz with a CTCSS of 162.2 Hz. The repeater is located on Vernal Ridge Drive
[above Groveland, just south of Pine Mtn. Lake (PML)] and provides great coverage. I have been able
to hit the repeater from Tuolumne City, Twain Harte, and Sonora. We now have approximately 60
users on the Groveland repeater.
On August 31st there was a cell and telephone outage in many parts
of the county, including Groveland. The Groveland repeater was utilized throughout the outage by
many people to keep in touch with each other. With the frequent PG&E power outages, and cell phone
outages, GMRS has proven to be a great resource for Groveland.
I would like to thank Richard Combs, Jeff Tolhurst, and Marc Colton, for helping to keep their
neighborhoods safe by bringing GMRS to the non-ham radio communities in Tuolumne County.
73, Chris
