At first glance it [GMRS] looks like it has the capabilities I may need or want.
But I hafta wonder what are the downsides?
I hafta wonder how that may come into play with somethin like the easier access GMRS.
Many people come to this conclusion, yes.
Ham radio is an entire fraternal hobby by itself, not a walkie-talkie service, as you've found out.
Some people who weren't really familiar with what ham radio is all about found out that hams do indeed have 2-way portable radios, so, that's how the miscommunications started.
Then the Chinese cheap radios cemented the idea in people's minds, the majority of whom (a) don't bother to get a license, with the foolhardy rationalization of 'I don't need a license in an emergency' and (b) don't actually know how to use the radios anyway, they just carry them around because tacticool.
The 'big' thing you probably need to know a lot more about is ... repeaters.
Repeaters are what makes GMRS radios (and ham VHF/UHF, too) useful.
By themselves, the little handheld radios are actually quite pointless. Cheap, yes, but pointless.
But with a
repeater, gee. Now you're talking!
But nobody will tell you about repeaters in such frank language up front, partly because the people who know assume you already know, too.
In turn, repeaters are only actually helpful if they are ideally physically located. And, I mean,
ideally.
As in, on the tops of tall towers that are FAR above average terrain height for at least 10 miles in every direction.
Ideally locating a repeater is VERY challenging and can be rather costly.
Non-ideally situated repeaters are worse than useless.
It's also hard to frequency-coordinate these to avoid interference over wide areas.
Then, how to share the repeater (it is by definition a shared resource) is a major issue in GMRS.
So, there's a long explanation to partially answer your question "what are the downsides?"
If you go
here and search on 'North Carolina' you'll find five GMRS repeaters , three of which are 'open'
vk1nam.wordpress.com
n9taxlabs.com
