"Illegal" radios

[WQAI363]

On 7/29/2025 at 1:45 PM, NWHov said:

I am no tech type person so I apologize in advance, just trying to understand or conclude that my UV-5RM is nothing more, per the FCC, than a scanner to receive 22 GMRS/FRS frequencies?  If I want to use the radio only to transmit and receive on GMRS, per the FCC, I need to get a new radio that has is FCC certified (as GMRS) with frequencies added/locked by the manufacture.  Is this correct?

I foolishly assumed that once a two-way radio is no longer typed accepted or certified for a specific service, that radio may continue to be used. On the other hand, manufactures and venders can no longer sell those radios for their original intended service, even though they can still be used, 

[SteveShannon]

1 hour ago, WQAI363 said:

I foolishly assumed that once a two-way radio is no longer typed accepted or certified for a specific service, that radio may continue to be used. On the other hand, manufactures and venders can no longer sell those radios for their original intended service, even though they can still be used, 

That’s generally correct. From 95.335(b):

b) Revoked or withdrawn certification. In the event that the FCC revokes or withdraws a grant of equipment certification for a type of Personal Radio Service transmitter, existing transmitters already in service may continue to be operated unless and until the FCC determines otherwise and gives Public Notice of that decision.

[WSED611]

You can own any Radio you want, however where you transmit is depended on your License that you acquired,

and the max aloud TX/wattage allocated in that frequency range. Most unlocked radio's like the UV-5RM are ham radio's that will transmit in the GMRS band. However the TX Power will exceed what the FCC allows for GMRS band.

You can program any radio you want to frequencies to your liking, but again transmitting on frequencies your not licensed is against the law / FCC regulations.  I am not promoting to transmitting with more Power but I have yet to see the FCC knock on your door because you were transmitting instead of 0.5 watts you hit 2 watts. FCC has better things to do.  The FCC will come knocking if there are multiple complaints of you interfering with neighbors ( alarm system, TV, and possible other electronics).   

Just my 2 cents..

Have fun.

[NWHov]

On 7/30/2025 at 8:51 AM, SteveShannon said:

Well said, and I agree; this discussion should be taken to a separate thread so the OP can get what he needs. 

I'm good.  These conversations are giving me some info/questions I didn't even know I might need (even though I have no idea what it's about).  Continue on.

BTW...I already got what I needed here!

[NWHov]

8 hours ago, WSED611 said:

You can program any radio you want to frequencies to your liking, but again transmitting on frequencies your not licensed is against the law / FCC regulations.  I am not promoting to transmitting with more Power but I have yet to see the FCC knock on your door because you were transmitting instead of 0.5 watts you hit 2 watts. FCC has better things to do.  The FCC will come knocking if there are multiple complaints of you interfering with neighbors ( alarm system, TV, and possible other electronics).   

Just my 2 cents..

Have fun.

Well this may be another thread to start but I am curious about the FCC Volunteer Monitor (VM) Program being a formal partnership between the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and the American Radio Relay League (ARRL).  hhhmmm  HAM enforcers only?  I wonder.

[SteveShannon]

32 minutes ago, NWHov said:

Well this may be another thread to start but I am curious about the FCC Volunteer Monitor (VM) Program being a formal partnership between the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and the American Radio Relay League (ARRL).  hhhmmm  HAM enforcers only?  I wonder.

The MOU between the FCC and ARRL only support monitoring of amateur radio operators. 
https://www.arrl.org/files/file/Volunteer Monitor/2019 ARRL MOU - final 3-12.pdf

[NWHov]

6 hours ago, SteveShannon said:

The MOU between the FCC and ARRL only support monitoring of amateur radio operators. 
https://www.arrl.org/files/file/Volunteer Monitor/2019 ARRL MOU - final 3-12.pdf

What I gather from some posters of this forum is they believe there is less than a 1% chance of any GMRS operator to be charged with an FCC violation.  If so, who would be the ones to find those violators?  Does FCC monitor GMRS?  Do disgruntle HAM operators report GMRS violators to FCC?  Are there any other monitoring programs beside the VM?  Just asking for a friend.

[OffRoaderX]

1 minute ago, NWHov said:

What I gather from some posters of this forum is they believe there is less than a 1% chance of any GMRS operator to be charged with an FCC violation.  If so, who would be the ones to find those violators?  Does FCC monitor GMRS?  Do disgruntle HAM operators report GMRS violators to FCC?  Are there any other monitoring programs beside the VM?  Just asking for a friend.

More like less than 0.0000000001% chance - and its not a belief, its a fact that anyone can look up on the FCC website, which lists every enforcement the FCC has done for the last ~15 years.

• NO - It does not appear that the FCC monitors GMRS
• YES - Disgruntled and very "sad" hams do report violators to the FCC, but the FCC does not appear to care based on the record of enforcements
• PROBABLY a lot of clubs monitoring, but see the points above because it doesn't matter

 

[WRUE951]

52 minutes ago, NWHov said:

What I gather from some posters of this forum is they believe there is less than a 1% chance of any GMRS operator to be charged with an FCC violation.  If so, who would be the ones to find those violators?  Does FCC monitor GMRS?  Do disgruntle HAM operators report GMRS violators to FCC?  Are there any other monitoring programs beside the VM?  Just asking for a friend.

You would have a much better chance getting hit by lightning twice standing at the same place than the FCC knocking on your door with a GMRS violation..  And as Steve Shannon pointed out, there is no organized monitoring VM's for GMRS and i woiuld say there never will.  

[UncleYoda]

What else do y'all cheat on besides GMRS?

[Lscott]

7 minutes ago, UncleYoda said:

What else do y'all cheat on besides GMRS?

People would be stupid to admit to anything in a public forum.

[OffRoaderX]

45 minutes ago, UncleYoda said:

What else do y'all cheat on besides GMRS?

how many stop-signs have you rolled through in the last month how how many times have you exceeded the speed limited by more than 1/2 mph?

[LeoG]

I cheat on my diet.

[LeoG]

18 minutes ago, OffRoaderX said:

how many stop-signs have you rolled through in the last month how how many times have you exceeded the speed limited by more than 1/2 mph?

Way easier to answer when I didn't

[nokones]

1

[marcspaz]

This is just my opinion and by no means intended to be legal advice, but I have to agree with Randy and others with the same type of response. It seems that unless someone is committing some wild infraction, they aren't getting FCC attention. There are way too few enforcement agents and way too many people with radios for anything else.

I used to think it mattered, but time and inaction have unequivocally proven otherwise.

I have an XTL5000 that has the ability to run wideband digital encryption on UHF at 115 watts. From a technology standpoint, it exceeds every single minimum requirement established for type approval. If I where to program it to transmit 20w of output, only able to access the upper channels for high power simplex and repeater operation, narrow-band analog voice only, adhere to all of the other configuration requirements (including not transmitting on non-GMRS frequencies) and the FCC enforcement team knew I did it... I highly doubt anyone is going to care. Shoot... unless I were to get on the internet and start bragging about it, there isn't even any way for anyone to know. Signal interception sure isn't going the tell anyone anything. 

The bottom line is, I would never advocate or condone intentionally violating the rules... but damn dude... the FCC has way more important things to worry about then if you are using an iCom, Kenwood, Motorola, Yaesu, Harris, Baeofeng, TIDRadio, or any other radio. Ensure you don't cause harmful interference by using a quality radio and not acting like a Richard Cranium and im pretty confident if you roll the dice, you won't go to prison or get a $14,000 fine.

[SteveShannon]

2 hours ago, NWHov said:

What I gather from some posters of this forum is they believe there is less than a 1% chance of any GMRS operator to be charged with an FCC violation.  If so, who would be the ones to find those violators?  Does FCC monitor GMRS?  Do disgruntle HAM operators report GMRS violators to FCC?  Are there any other monitoring programs beside the VM?  Just asking for a friend.

Anyone can report interference or non-compliance. The FCC seldom (never?) does anything about GMRS.  I have no idea if many reports are made about GMRS. I know virtually no actions have been taken against GMRS users. 
I have no idea why a ham would be disgruntled about GMRS. I participate in amateur radio and we simply don’t often discuss GMRS often. Probably about 20% of us hold both licenses. 
There certainly are “sad hams” but most hams are not them. In fact many of the people who complain most vehemently about GMRS users breaking the rules aren’t even hams. I’ve seen many more radio professionals complain about noncompliance in GMRS than I have hams. 

[amaff]

11 hours ago, OffRoaderX said:

how many stop-signs have you rolled through in the last month how how many times have you exceeded the speed limited by more than 1/2 mph?

Bingo. 

[WRUE951]

every once in awhile we encounter a nut case whacko that insist on creating kaos on GMRS...   What do you do???  Telling the FCC will not do anything, so now what..  Well, here in 'my' community we have just one 'Nut Case Whacko' and sometimes he is a major pain in the azz.   This 74 year old POS likes to jam local repeaters, make farting and belching nosies and in general be a child on the air waves...  He's been put in place more then once but he always gets a second wind and returns to his childish games.  Aside from calling his name out on the air waves, his home address and even his HAM radio license (N6QIS)  there is nothing else one can do.. Bounding on their door would be foolish.. How this clown got a General Ham i'll never know, or why he got it is even more confusing.  He never talks, he just makes childish annoying noises. That all he does..   This has been gong on for years, and there must be dozens of complaints loged against this clown.  He know's the FCC will never harm him and he is smart enough to stay away from dark alleys..   How you deal with clowns like this is an answer i'll never know..   I guess all we can do is pray someday soon the a$$-wipes die  

[LeoG]

You call Guido and Vinny.  They'll have a talk with him.

[Davichko5650]

19 minutes ago, LeoG said:

You call Guido and Vinny.  They'll have a talk with him.

"Moose, Rocco, help the Judge find his checkbook."

[WRUE951]

33 minutes ago, LeoG said:

You call Guido and Vinny.  They'll have a talk with him.

yup,, thats been done,, Talk is cheap and Guido & Vinny don't do things the way they used to  

[SteveShannon]

56 minutes ago, WRUE951 said:

GMRS...   What do you do???

Well, the right thing to do is tell the FCC over and over.  

[WRUE951]

2 minutes ago, SteveShannon said:

Well, the right thing to do is tell the FCC over and over.  

that's been done, over and over..  two years ago the guy was using some pretty narly fowl language telling two kids to get off his Parrot Channel on Ch. 3    The kids parents called the police and they actually went to his door and talked with him (Ron)..  It didn't do any good.  Seriously, this guy is not all together 'up there'..  His favorite past time is jamming local GMRS repeaters, the main reason i installed a remote shut down..  Every once in awile he gets on HAM bands and makes farting/belching noises.. Everyone knows who he is and where he is but nothing ever touches him...  

[SteveShannon]

Just now, WRUE951 said:

that's been done, over and over..  two years ago the guy was using some pretty narly fowl language telling two kids to get off his Parrot Channel on Ch. 3    The kids parents called the police and they actually went to his door and talked with him (Ron)..  It didn't do any good.  Seriously, this guy is not all together 'up there'..  His favorite past time is jamming local GMRS repeaters, the main reason i installed a remote shut down..  Every once in awile he gets on HAM bands and makes farting/belching noises.. Everyone knows who he is and where he is but nothing ever touches him...  

was the police report submitted to the fcc?