Amateur (Ham) Radio BS and Callsign Thread!

Good catch Tom. Possession of a modded radio is not a crime. Transmitting out of band that one is licensed for is, as well as using amateur radio equipment outside of the amateur bands.

I linked a thread above on why amateur equipment should not be used out of band. In years past a lot of amateur equiment was home-brew, or converted land mobile equipment. Amateur radios are considered part 97 gear. Contrast that with part 90 radio gear which is Commercial Land Mobile radio. All of the part 90 equipment had to be certified by the FCC in a laboratory to insure that the equipment transmitted a stable and accurate frequency as well as not producing unwanted emissions (out-of-band emissions (OOBE) and spurious emissions.)

All that said, most modern amateur radios using microprocessors and digital frequency synthesizers are probably not too much different than the commercial gear. But it's debatable in some circles. For example, commercial gear may have better filters. etc.

And the post below is right on point for this subject.

Good article and a timely post. I agree with the authors assessment. There is probably very little risk of using non-certified radios in the MURS/GMRS frequencies, provided that one follows the power level, bandwidth rules and plays well with others.

Three years ago a petition was filed with the FCC to do away with the licensing of individuals for GMRS, and instead license the GMRS channels by rule, just like FRS. It also hopes to narrowband GMRS channels and restrict the power levels of portable GMRS units to 2W, there is a lot in the petition as it's 95 pages long. That petition is number FCC-10-106A1 and it's still pending!

Couldn't agree more. My XYL is going to get her ticket in Dec/Jan.

 

My Wouxun Uv3D is both part 90 and 97 approved as well as other cheap chinese radios as we all know, again there's that grey area

 

I don't know about anywhere else but in San Diego, 90% of public safety frequencies are now in the 800 Mhz band. San Diego and Imperial counties built a vast Regional Communication System (RCS). It is a Motorola digital trunked P25 System. Thankfully, the inexpensive Chinese radios will not be able to interfere with these transmissions, the cell towers and nextel will do that instead (haha).

I do believe the Baofeng and the Wouxun radios are helping new amateurs acquire radios. I am one of them. I have two UV-B5's and I like them a lot. They work very well. I'd love to have a nice Yae-Ken-Com HT but not at over $200+ in price. I'm just not going to do that. Also, I've managed to interest two of my friends to the point of actually studying to become licensed amateurs. One already has bought two Baofengs. When I programmed the radios for him, using CHIRP, I put in many repeater outputs, however, by setting the 'duplex' vale to 'off' I have disabled his abilty to transmit. I did the NOAA weather channels the same way. It's easy to do but you have to know what to do...

 

You have a good quality radio, and having both certification is an excellent thing.

I have the cheaper Baofengs with only part 97.

If someone was situated like Brandon and had the UV3D for example and he was authorized for xmit on the race frequencies he would be 100% legal to use it on the amateur bands or in the business band (race freq.)

 

Isn't that funny how that works lol

 

Funny I was thinking the Same thing. Well, I just ordered a UV3D. Case Closed

 

Something I have been noticing lately in regards to newly licensed amateurs is the absence of band plan and or operational modes knowledge/usage. A few times I had to ask that folks not use inputs/outputs of established repeaters for simplex usage, when contact was made with parties they were not aware of those frequencies being allocated for repeaters. Likewise FM use in the SSB/CW weak signal portion of 2Meters while SSB 2-ways were ongoing.

 

Interesting. I have observed that here on TW (FM use on weak signal 2M).

For SoCal amateurs, please read the "TASMA 2M band plan." It's so easy a cave man can do it.

 

No, you can mod it all you want many radios allow for extended RX however it also mods the TX and transmissions out of the ham bands are not allowed. The radios are not FCC type accepted to TX in bands other then what they were certified for. Yes it is illegal for you to TX on bands you are not licensed for
and doing so on a modded radio compounds the no no. The offence is ramped and the FCC is strapped so people can get away with it. If you program a police freq so you can listen and you grab the mike on that freq. you will TX on their simplex freq (repeater output) if they are close enough they will hear you, hams have been busted because they have given their call sign on that freq thinking they were on their frequency. Police repeaters have been locked up by out of band radios TXing on their input freq.

 

FMRS radios are limited to 300 MW their antennas are fixed meaning they can not be removed and a gain antennas installed, the Chinese radios do not fit the requirement. GMRS radios are licensed you can apply for one it's an easy process then use your Chinese radio provided it falls with in the out put power shoot you can even use a repeater on GMRS. How ever it would be far easier to just study for your ham ticket instead of trying to find ways around the law.

 

In SoCal, most of the GMRS repeaters are run by react or some form of emergency communication group.

 

on another note, CQWW is this weekend for those wanting to hear HF and the craziness worldwide contesting brings.

http://www.cqww.com/

Conditions are really good right now even on 10meters.

 

Most of the GMRS channels are cluttered with Spanish speaking people that are clearly using more then just a simple gmrs radio based on power output. Then there's a group whos high power stations are dominating the MURS channels 24/7. The LA area has gone rogue due to the lack of FCC enforcement

 

Your right they won't but it will TX on the repeater output frequency The same freq. they hear from the repeater (the one you are listening to). Chances are pretty high that they won't hear you if you key up because they use a from of decode to open the squelch on their radios either DCS or PL. I don't know about your radio it may have a TX inhibit some where in it's program.

 

Yes this is a problem with off shore radios they either have different laws or total disregard for power restrictions I often hear them on the HF bands running 2KW or more and there is nothing the FCC can do about it even if they wanted to.

 

Sounds a lot like what they had in the late 60's and early 70's. They were known as "Tong Wars"

They also had an "Animal House" repeater that was kind of a sacrificial lamb and didn't discourage that element. At least they were all in one place then.

The FCC was a viable resource in those days. They'd actually get out and do something. Now days they want you to do all the work for them and then they'll send the offender a nasty-gram and semi-serious sword rattling.

They really don't want to spend the time to pursue anything that doesn't generate serious revenue for the guv's insatiable coffer$.

 

Yes they do but that does not cover any thing that is transmitted from away it has no boundaries. So if some one is transmitting in Mexico with high power it is still going to interfere with local reception. In the US it is illegal to modify a 10 meter amp to be used on 11 meters ever hear long distance CB on any given day?

 

Thats the 435 repeater that is still going strong...

 

I am an aspiring ham tech. looking to build a custom mobile rig. I ordered a Larsen NMO 2/70B antenna after reading reviews, but I am curious about 1/4 wave antennas as well.

Does anyone have first hand experience testing and comparing a 5/8 wave and a 1/4 wave on 144/440? I know in theory I should have better range with the 5/8 wave but I am contemplating a 1/4 due to weight factors of the thing i'm building.

 

Are you building a backpack QRP system?