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Amazon is indeed responsible for the misleading descriptions, they would not be allowed to market the uncertified devices to Americans. Should the FCC do anything about it, I'd bet that Amazon would (successfully) try to shift the blame to the sellers, who would then claim they are outside the FCC's jurisdiction; the cycle would continue. The whole situation is a mess, and licensed GMRS and Part 90 (both Public Safety and Industrial/Business pools) users are receiving significant interference from users fully unaware that their radios aren't actually FRS radios. The sellers are desperate for sales and most will say anything to secure a sale. Keep digging around Amazon's site and you will find many sellers saying their radios are legal out-of-the-box and a handful of reviewers upset that they aren't. The FCC already fined one distributor a while back for selling UV-5Rs with an incomplete type certification. The internet was naïvely rejoicing, "The FCC made Baofengs illegal!" Yet this barely scratched the surface of the problems with illegal marketing. Over here, there's more activity on the BF-888S channels than on FRS channels, and a handful of commercial users on amateur simplex channels complete with profanity. Reports go nowhere. Users claim the sellers said the radios were legal, and tone squelch on the default channels makes the users unable to determine they are causing or receiving interference. Where is the Commission when you need them?

" Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, Courage to change the things I can, And wisdom to know the difference." Pick one.

The FCC has incredible budget issues........ Wait, I will NOT stand up for a fed agency. Hmmmm, nevermind.

Quite honestly - this is the FCC's job, and they should be the ones enforcing the rules & cracking down on mass-marketers with misleading advertising. The FCC doesn't care, because if they did, they would have actually issued fines to some of the more blatant examples. When the FCC doesn't care, it kind of makes it pointless. What will you do? Threaten them with a non-existing enforcement action?

Perfectly fine, in fact we use MURS as a back-up and BS channel for when the repeater goes down, [Or for when we want to discuss something without the PD or supervisors hearing] MURS doesn't cover the entire property but we can get a few blocks range, especially when on the beach.

I noticed this morning that if you search for "two-way radios" on Amazon, in addition to the product listing, Amazon is also displaying an article from "BestReviews.com" that is recommending several Part 90/97 radios from ArcShell, BaoFeng, and LSeng along with a couple of GMRS radios from Midland and Motorola. The worst recommendation they make is for the BaoFeng BF-F8HP (UV-5R 3rd Gen) 8-Watt Dual Band Two-Way Radio (136-174MHz VHF & 400-520MHz UHF), rather than the GMRS-V1. They fail to mention that the Part 90/97 radios require that the frequencies be programmed for each channel. They fail to mention that these radios are capable of using licensed frequencies that are assigned to business and emergency services organizations. They imply that you only need a license if you are using the GMRS radios, inferring that the other radios do not require a license! While I realize that it's only "tilting at windmills" I did submit a contact from to BestReviews.com to tell them that they are (likely unintentionally) encouraging consumers to break the law by using commercial radios without a license. I also "reported the profile" through Amazon, although the report process doesn't ask for any details. Not sure if they will contact me for details or not. I'm sure that others will agree that these kinds of uninformed recommendations are part of the problem with the marketing of "cheap Chinese radios" to the general public. The question is what can be done about it? While there doesn't seem to be a good way to refute the recommendations in the article through Amazon, maybe if enough others would read the "review" and reply using their contact form we could get them to fix their article. Amazon should have the responsibility for clearly identifying that these amateur and business radios require the appropriate FCC license to be operated legally. They are NOT general consumer products.

I just had an ad pop up on Google for (2) Bf-888s for 19$ and change. Face it, 10$ apiece is a hard price to beat if you just want to talk a mile or so. (2 watt radios)

I made a blog post a while ago about the history of the Travel Tone on GMRS: https://seesharpdotnet.wordpress.com/2018/07/29/the-history-behind-462-675-mhz-and-the-travel-tone/ The Northshore Emergency Association has a very nice history of GMRS (formerly known as UHF Citizens' Band): http://www.nsea.com/nseainfo.htm Here's another interesting read from Doug Smith at Popular Wireless: http://web.archive.org/web/20130320034445/http://www.popularwireless.com/gmrs1413.html

Hi new guys, You are entering an interesting and frustrating hobby. My first suggestion is to go thru the equipment reviews in this forum. Be sure of what your usage is BEFORE you buy! I didn't and it cost me $. Keep in mind that the best way to keep this radio band from going the way of CB radio is for EVERYONE to adhere to the rules. Welcome to the forum. Ask any question you want. Keith T

Yes, that is a typical (and legal) use of MURS radio.