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

Rugged Radios has been selling rebranded and grossly-0verpriced Baofeng radios for several years. They cover the buyers with dubious "licensing" schemes using business frequencies, and they program these radios with all manner of frequencies outside the amateur frequencies they are approved for, likely because the races and individual users are so far from civilization that their transmissions would probably never interfere with commercial or amateur users. It was only a matter of time before the FCC cracked down. Baofeng and assorted other Chinese manufacturers started this problem when they began flooding the market with cheap radios that can transmit all across the VHF and UHF spectrums, and the FCC enabled them by doing nothing. Now the genie is out of the bottle, zillions of these radios are in the hands of people who don't care one bit about licensing, and companies like Rugged Radios are sneaking in under the radar with all manner of rationalizations for marketing these radios outside of what they are certified for.

 

The Baofengs themselves are not the big problem with this case. The big problem is that they are programming said Baofengs to operate illegally on business band, marine radio, and GMRS/FRS/MURS frequencies, and telling users that they are somehow operating under Rugged Radio's license.

 

Looks like they are all rebranded TYT radios

 

Baoturds are the problem. If Rugged Radios couldn't but a case of 500 of them for 100 a hundred buck or so there wouldn't be a problem. No Baoturd radios, no problems. Besides the fact that many competent technicians have tested many flavors of the Baoturd radios and proven them to be absolute junk. So yes, the Baoturds are the big problem.

 

Most of the radios in question are Baofengs but yes I see some TYT look-alikes on their site, too, for sure.

All the cheap Chinese stuff it would appear.

 

Think about WEB-SDR-RX-radios... Coverage all frequencies From 0Hz to several GHz!!! !!! All mode!!!

-1SJ

 

Just to confirm, the early Boafeng UV-5R is capable of both receiving and transmitting everything it receives. I don't recall off the top of my head what span of bands that incorporates but it's a general coverage receiver that can transmit on everything.
Now I believe the race cars are on 800-900 mhz bands and the radios I am talking about do not go that high.
But GMRS, FRS yes...easily, in fact, I have mine programmed for that band.

 

Some may be. However, the NASCAR series (plural...their various racing levels) are 450-460MHz. The local dirt track, for track ops, uses the 460 range, as well.

 

......What's a Bao....? Oh, Oh now I get it, ...that's ......creative...

 

Most of Rugged Radios' new FCC ID requests are Change in Identification for marketing purposes of existing TYT products.
https://fccid.io/2AWYH

 

I just looked over their offerings on the website, and you are spot on, looks like rebadged Chinese radios, but at 4x the price...

 

Yeah. Basically exactly what Jason said in the video. But I guess people who don't know any better are willing to pay.

 

And you are aware that they program other radios in the same manner, right? In fact, they still have Motorola and Icom mobile radios listed on their website. So no, the Baofengs are not the problem and getting rid of them does not fix the problem. The problem existed long before these Baofeng radios were even thought of.

Several of these racing radio companies take very good radios (normally Kenwood, with the 100w decks, because 100w has to be so much better than 50w, right?), and program them for marine radio, business radio, public safety, and ham radio frequencies, and tell the user that they are covered by some umbrella license. THAT is the problem.

 

You forgot to mention Bofunk...

 

I bought one of the first Baofeng UV-5R radios several years ago, and it was capable of transmitting well outside the amateur freqencies. Later, I bought two UV-82 radios, both also able to transmit outside the amateur frequencies. Basically the same internals, just a different housing and dual PTT. Recently, I bought a Juentai JT-6188 mobile radio that is also capable of these non-amateur frequencies. Baofeng seems to be getting all the bad press and FCC attention, but they are not the only ones marketing "illegal" radios. But companies like Rugged Radios, by giving buyers some sort of false sense of security with dubious licensing and "our radios are legal because you bought them from us" schemes , are taking the problem to a new level. They're mixing illegal radios with most-likely bogus licensing. It's one thing to sell commercial "type-accepted" radios like Motorola and Kenwood under some kind of grey-area licensing scheme, but it's quite another to knowingly sell "non-type-accepted" radios at 3-4 times their value using deceptive rationale and bogus licensing designed to lull buyers into a false sense of legality. There are very few unlicensed radio services. CB, MURS and FRS come to mind. The rest are licensed. Unless you or your organization are licensed for these services, using them is at your own peril. And using them with a non-type-accepted radio is also at your own peril. The FCC probably doesn't care about (and probably could never find) individual users on illegal radios, but they DO care about companies profiting by selling illegal radios and bogus licensing schemes.