HR2.0 - FCC Hits Rugged Radios with Citation over Illegal Radios

Politics and money. FCC enforcement should be to protect interference of authorized transmissions by unauthorized users period and compliance with norms based upon USA manufactured standards for products sold in the USA (not enforced outside this country). Manufacturers have understood the legalities of selling radios in the US for decades and either mod the radios to comply and make money or sell stuff that doesn't comply and get slapped with a fine. Basic economics. A good analogy is the crap at truck stops sold as legal weed that falls outside anything close to being marijuana (synthetic THC manufactured drugs) Its legal due to the laws. It should not be as it causes more harm than good, but back to radios. China is beating the USA in manufacturing and has been so for many years while we respond with trade sanctions or tariffs on car imports and other Chinese products but we still buy them in bulk. Until the US decides to stop being more concerned with theatrics and makes products affordable here for our consumption, its a losing battle of politics and money. One drives the other. Look up the word GDP sometime and see what each country relies on for its own economy. We are a consumer driven society. If we cannot get what we want we go somewhere we can get it, either legally or illegally or pass laws to make something legal, modify a law with built in loopholes or stop buying something based on our own sense of this or that personal choice. Reduce demand and you reduce supply but that is never going to happen.

Who won out in 1994 when radio scanner makers were put to the test by cell phone companies (which were new at the time), to remake their radios so you could not listen to analog cell phones on unencrypted networks? The ECPA act made it illegal to listen to cell phones so in order to cell a scanner they modded the scanners (usually with a simple diode) to block those frequencies. The world has now become a global economy, we (the USA) have to stop trying to play 1980's games in a 21st century world and get our country back to making our own radios, cars and other products that people outside here want more than China stuff. Is it too late? Maybe but we have come back before.

 

There are really no "unlicensed" services.
Some radio services don't require operator licenses or station licenses but they are still "licensed by rule" which means the equipent operator can only use FCC certified devices and must abide by FCC rules. Modifications made to the device can void the certification and make it illegal to operate the device.

 

Fcc Says : The station licensee is responsible for the proper operation of the station at all times.
So.... They control how there customers use there Radios?

 

Radios have to be appropriately type accepted for the particular service on which it is being used. This action is well within the scope of the FCC.

 

I pass by this place daily on my way to work. It's obviously lucrative as they just built a new complex worthbwellnover a million dollars buildings and real estate.

They purchase baofeng radios and madkeylt them to unwitting off road enthusiasts.

It's an utter travesty, as I've brought up the violations to them a couple of times and got a shoulder shrug.

They deserve what they get as they could care less about legality as long as the people on the Pismo Dunes to Baja 1000 get what they want.

Not to mention the owners kids drive 1000k dollar vehicles to school.

Yeah, fine them. Deeply. It's been brought to their attention what they are promoting is illegal. They don't care

 

If this radios are modified in such a way as to receive Cell Phone conversations that makes then illegal!

 

I once asked them if I needed a license since they market to us off road people. They have some unique setups with overpriced baofengs but I got stuck on no reply about the license.

 

Possibly c ell phon e bands?

 

Baofeng radios can't receive or transmit on US cellphone bands.
The article quoted was written by somebody with little or no radio knowledge.

 

As usual. Journalism and journalistic ethics are dead. True/False, Factual/Fabricated... doesn't matter at all. Unfortunately, the government does it too.

It's all about the clicks.

 

That's exactly what it is. There is absolutely nothing in the citation referring unauthorized receive frequencies.

 

In the 80's I was using a spectrum analyzer in Mass to test equipment for FCC compliance. The 900 MHz cell conversations were easy to listen to and interesting now and then. Cell phones were new and sexy. Heard the Lt Governor swearing at an aid once. Seemed a big deal back then. I don't think listening was illegal but revealing what you heard was.

 

Yep, that fork is in our town, Montclair, NJ, and I think the story relates to Yogi's first Montclair house, at 61 Wayside Place. Considering how the roads connect, there are multiple potential forks that more or less fit the story, but my bet is the fork from Eagle Rock Way.

 

Yes. So as is typical of our US way of doing things, instead of adopting better technology to make random eavesdropping on the calls essentially impossible -- GSM, for starters -- the industry pressured FCC to block receiver coverage of the in-the-clear analog comms in manufacturered products. That took our telco industry off the hook for innovation in mobile comms and let other players in that space on the world stage get ahead of us.

 

So what you guys are saying that nothing has changed from the Gestapo tracking down Unauthorized receivers to the FCC carrying on with the practice. I thought you were the country of the free. We can listen to what we like just not pass the information to a third party.