Some hams will only sell to other Hams. Perhaps it is time or Dealer to ensure the person is a licensed Amateur radio operator
You get what you pay for. The big name manufacturers paid for the R&D, have quality control, paid for a marketing, etc... Its no suprise the Chineese can sell it cheaper when they use/steal another manufacturer's design and roll them out in massive quantities. No need for advertisement because there so cheap everyone is talking about them. That's not competition, it's theft. I own a boafeng so I'm not looking down on you for buying one.
All Chinese radios should be thrown into a wood chipper or sent off to the "Will it Blend" guy on YouTube for proper disposal. https://www.youtube.com/user/Blendtec
The PRC radios are, for the most part, high quality and feature filled. The point here is that the market dynamics should be determined by the REGULATED user scenario. Not by dumping transceivers designed to cross multiple user markets, all of which have different regulation criteria. It is not a personal right to have the opportunity to jam public safety channels with a 'ham' transceiver ---purchased without a ham license. This example is typical of such present issues.
Within the confines and within the borders of the USA; not necessarily true of the rest of the world and/or our hemisphere even ...
That's because China is King at stealing / reverse engineering / copycat our (and some others) legitimate products. Yes, there is a look-a-like FT-8900 for about half the price, you think they just by coincidence their quad band mobile transceiver just happens to look exactly like the real deal? China makes counterfeit Nike shoes and ships the to the US , thankfully they got busted Millions of $$ in counterfeit designer shoes, clothing, ladies handbags DVD's, music CD's and amateur transceivers and the list goes on..... it's the same as us downloading pirate music and movies that are copyrighted...It unethical ! I can't believe I even have to explain this? I don't want to fund the Chinese so their economy can flourish, When ours is floundering. Simple economics. I'm a proud American...America First!
I don't dispute that there are MAJOR copyright violations going on in China. Companies who manufacture there need to take precautions, or choose differently. However, when it comes to HT radios, I know of none that are made in the US, even Motorola's APX's are made in Malaysia. Furthermore, I don't know what radio Baofeng copied when they built the UX-5R, it's physically unique (that I am aware - doesn't look like anything else on the market), and electrically I know of no other "Big 5" radio that uses the RDA1846S and RDA5802N chipsets, so I don't know how it can be considered a copy. Lastly, I don't know that you can say that China's economy is exactly "flourishing" - it's stumbling after a pretty amazing 30 year run. But you have to look where they came from 30 years ago... And is the US economy "floundering"? The same was said of Japan in the 60's thru 80's, was it not? Funny you're defending Yaesu in a way! Your generalization of China, and the HT's that come out of China is just that. Not all the HT's made in China are illegal.
One thing I don't think many have keyed in on is the following statement from the notice (emphasis mine): "Amateur Radio Exception. There is one exception to this certification requirement: if a device is capable of operating only on frequencies that the FCC has allocated for use by Amateur Radio Service licensees, it does not require FCC equipment authorization,8 and an amateur licensee may use his or her license to operate such radios. However, many two-way radios that purport to operate on amateur frequencies also operate on frequencies that extend beyond the designated amateur frequency bands. If a two-way VHF/UHF radio is capable of operating outside of the amateur frequency bands, it cannot be imported, advertised, sold, or operated within the United States without an FCC equipment certification." Now I just checked a couple "Chinese radios" specs and many transmit outside of the US Amateur VHF/UHF bands. Based on my reading of the above that makes them illegal to use. That being said the manufactures could hopefully update the firmware and fix that. Also I wonder if the user disabled operation outside of the Amateur bands if that would be sufficient. Not looking to start a debate just interested on others take on this.
Then they would need to be Part 90 (or whatever frequencies they cover) accepted. Even a Motorola APX8000 can be programmed on FRS frequencies, but is not legal to operate there.
Because sale into the US for these multi-service radios is illegal. Alibaba and the Ebay equivalents need to meet the same standards for type acceptance for ham radio as all other imports. Note this is a US-oriented thread. Hence the FCC issue is pertinent.
