Also abbrev. for "Family Radio Service," a band established by the FCC in the 1990s for unlicensed civilian use in the United States. The FRS band encompasses 14 channels between 462 and 467 MHz. Maximum legal transmit power is 500 mW.

FRS radios are widely available for between $20 and $100. Most claim a range of two miles, and have a reliable range somewhere slightly under one mile under normal urban usage.

The key to being satisfied with FRS radios is to think of them as expensive grown-up walkie-talkies, not like CB radios. They don't have the range to do CB-like things, but fit nicely in an inside pocket for coordination of tandem driving and suchlike.

Fellow (i.e. member) of The Royal Society, the British equivalent of an academy of science. Being an FRS is highly prestigious in scientific circles.

frowney = F = fry

FRS // n.,obs.

Abbreviation for "Freely Redistributable Software" which entered general use on the Internet in 1995 after years of low-level confusion over what exactly to call software written to be passed around and shared (contending terms including freeware, shareware, and `sourceware' were never universally felt to be satisfactory for various subtle reasons). The first formal conference on freely redistributable software was held in Cambridge, Massachussetts, in February 1996 (sponsored by the Free Software Foundation). The conference organizers used the FRS abbreviation heavily in its calls for papers and other literature during 1995. The term was in steady though not common use until 1998 and the invention of open source, after which it became swiftly obsolete.

--The Jargon File version 4.3.1, ed. ESR, autonoded by rescdsk.

Family Radio Service

Frequecy List one can enter into a programmable scanner.

  • Ch.01 462.5625
  • Ch.02 462.5875
  • Ch.03 462.6125
  • Ch.04 462.3675
  • Ch.05 462.6625
  • Ch.06 462.6875
  • Ch.07 462.7125

  • Ch.08 467.5625
  • Ch.09 467.5875
  • Ch.10 467.6125
  • Ch.11 467.6375
  • Ch.12 467.6625
  • Ch.13 467.6875
  • Ch.14 467.7125

Frequences are in MHz

Note: Ch.01 is used as the National FRS Call Channel. This channel is typically left open for making contacts and then the operators move to another frequency.

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