The FCC just released Public Notice DA 18-980, Enforcement Advisory No. 2018-03 Dated 24 SEP 18 that states: TWO-WAY VHF/UHF RADIOS MAY NOT BE IMPORTED, ADVERTISED, OR SOLD IN THE UNITED STATES UNLESS THEY COMPLY WITH THE COMMISSION’S RULES. This is a huge win for the big 5! Personally I'm please with this decision. Baofeng, Leixen, TYT, Wouxon and all the other cheap Chinese stuff and the copy cat transceivers will be banned! Flooding the American amateur radio market with Chinese electronics (mostly stolen technology) is bad business. It hurts everyone. I want companies like Yaesu and Icom's R&D to keep coming out with new stuff, it's difficult to compete with a $35 dual band transceiver when the market is flooded with Baofeng crap! Being involved with public safety (firefighter) I've been opposed to amateurs having keypad programmable 136-174 and 406-512 transceivers, this has already been a problem. Attached is a .pdf of the FCC public notice -M.A. Lacy W5TXR "What's in your ham shack?"
Way to go FCC!! Wait till the US is flooded with several hundred thousand of these Chinese pieces of junk ...THEN... ban them. Yep, good job.
'What's in YOUR trash can'? Techs--Stop drinkin' the kool-aid. Hey--everyone knows the PRC --never--'steals' technology....right? SEE: https://forums.qrz.com/index.php?th...absorber-technologies-receive-patents.624176/ !
Somehow don't think the Chinese will grab their rubber ducky and call it a day this might be a setback hardly a game ending move. Stay tuned .
Where does it say that? It's an advisory - a warning about the existing laws. My UX5R is Part 90 certified and legal on the ham bands as well.
Did you not read the pdf? All of the relevant regulations are annotated throughout the document. Do you not know what footnotes and references are? However, the difference is operating them is also illegal (except for amateurs using them on amateur bands of course). That may make a difference IF they make some enforcement. The only problem is the cutbacks in recent years in the enforcement agency of the FCC, which is also facing even more severe cutbacks in the Executive proposed budget, so this may be a regulation with dull teeth if the President has his way. What will probably make a huge difference is that eBay will be held financially libel for having these products marketed on they're site, and they should be able to delete any listings fearing they will get fined, which will substantially take a bite in the fees they collect on each listing. I contacted my eBay rep and he told me they received this notice from the FCC directly and have been discussing implementing a ban that requires copies of the FCC authorization number for any listing for such radios on the US eBay website from any country, foreign or domestic. When you go to list a particular model it will be checked against a database automatically for the FCC authorization. Any model not listed will not be able to be listed on eBay US. He was not sure about when that will happen. The FCC estimated (in the letter eBay received) that at least 80% of such radios sold in the US are done so via eBay. Supposedly Amazon is doing the same.
Both. The recent proposed budget (which contains the NIST/WWV cutbacks) also deals a 30% budget reduction for the Enforcement Bureau.
I'll add my very first 2 cents, here. Being involved with Ham Radio and Commercial Radio for 50 years, I've always sided with regularization. The print media always chided us broadcasters for drinking too much Kool-aide, but I've seen too many examples of how things look without common sense. Accordingly, I have been waiting anxiously for this day.
All of my Wouxun radios are FCC Part 90 Certified, and it was well worth the 50 bucks I paid for each one of them. You can NEVER own to many radios, and yes I also own a Yaesu. Probably the most noteworthy radio I own is a Powerworx DB-750X which will transmit out of the Amateur bands, I had to send a copy of my Amateur Radio license to purchase it. Nowhere on the radio does it have a statement saying it is Part 90 certified.
The FCC's advisory is years over due at this point in time. That said, never saying anything about Rules being openly violated can imply they don't care about the Rules or that the Rules are out dated. Better late than never some will say. However you can't un-ring a bell. It's mixed bag. Those of us in the RF industy can hope for better FCC Enforcement actions going forward, but given the issues of late with HF/VHF RF noise from modern LED lighting (both Part 15 & Part 18) there are many battles the FCC has to fight with. And funding is but still a large one.
The biggest problem isn't Baofengs... it is the proliferation of unlicensed RFI-generating lighting, powerline RF modems, power supplies, and induction power devices. There is a prioritization of Part 15 devices (and other devices that don't even meet Part 15) to the detriment of licensed services. Devices which even comply with the low level emission limits of Part 15, if proliferated everywhere, create a high noise level everywhere. Part 15 was written in the past century, without expectation that every home would have dozens of emitters with harmonics and spurious emissions over a broad spectrum of LF-HF-VHF-UHF-microwave. "This device complies with Part 15 of the FCC Rules. Operation is subject to the following two conditions: (1) this device may not cause harmful interference, and (2) this device must accept any interference received, including interference that may cause undesired operation." How do you tell all your neighbors that they must remove all their new LED bulbs from their home lighting? How do you tell your entire town that their new LED street lights need to be removed because they cause harmful interference? FCC, if you want to actually enforce a rule, please go out and enforce Part 15. That will make the biggest difference to the most licensed services.
This is not an action by the FCC, it's an enforcement advisory. Nothing has been confiscated, nobody has been arrested, and this will probably never happen. Yes, the regulations are cited, that's not the point. There is no application of the law, just a PUBLIC NOTICE that the laws are on the books. So, hooray for our side!! But while this PUBLIC NOTICE may help you sleep better at night, the companies producing the devices already knew the law and have no doubt already planned their next move. This is kind of like putting up a No Trespassing sign in your back yard because kids are cutting through....they'll keep cutting through despite the sign until the police show up, and then they simply take the long way home.
I did read it. It says you must comply and be type accepted. Nowhere did it show that " Baofeng, Leixen, TYT, Wouxon and all the other cheap Chinese stuff and the copy cat transceivers will be banned!" There are a lot of radios out there that don't have acceptance, but a blanket statement such as I quoted is what I am referring to.
