The combination of both a ham and a GMRS license is actually pretty nice. I got my General class license for ham a couple of years ago, and it's a fun hobby th

The combination of both a ham and a GMRS license is actually pretty nice. I got my General class license for ham a couple of years ago, and it's a fun hobby that does lend itself to disaster preparedness. My sub-$1000, battery-powered HF setup easily allows me to reach out and make contact across most of North America, and I frequently make contacts in Japan, South Korea, and eastern Russia. And with my cheap Baofeng and AnyTone radios I can tap into the awesome regional repeater network we have here in the Puget Sound. However, with those radios I can only talk with other hams. In contrast, my $75 for 10 years GRMS license allows my entire family (the rest of which are not licensed hams) to talk on GRMS channels at up to 50 watts, instead of the 2 watt max you have with FRS. And here in Seattle we get access to some awesome GMRS repeaters, so we can basically communicate with each other anywhere across the city.