It's not just para-gliders, off road four wheel drive and dune buggy types are also using VHF amateur frequencies. We need to demand enforcement or we will loose use of 2 meters. Write the FCC and ARRL. Protect our band.
The Bofang etc 2m radios are very very cheap $25 or so.. AM air radios start at about $600+ blame the flooding of the market by offshore companies who ignore importation rules and the people who know better but buy them anyway.
The Baofeng radios are cheap and that certainly helps sell a lot of them - even to our pilots. But there are a large number of Baofeng dust collectors out there too. Also the basic aviation hand-held radios are nowhere near that expensive. For that money I could get a GPS handheld with which I could navigate and follow the glide slope to land at instrument airports. There is even a Rexon brand (apparently a Baofeng type product) aviation radio which has Bluetooth and some of us have purchased - not quite as cheap as a Baofeng but it works. The biggest drawback to using the aviation frequencies is that they are all allocated to other usages and we would be unable to communicate how we need to. I have had two longer flights (3 hours and 1 hours) where I and one other pilot stayed in direct communication using cell phones. No PTT, sound was fairly decent, worked ok under about 3000 feet. Great concept, wish we could do that up to higher altitudes and not lose signal but so far, the gadgets just don't exist.
"" aviation frequencies is that they are all allocated to other usages and we would be unable to communicate how we need to."" unless your a ham, it's illegal for you to use ham frequencies with illegal radios.. a mans personal integrity is all that keeps him legal. Like the laws or not, bottom line, it's up to YOU to follow the law. Dan kb7uxe
Not sure what you mean - or maybe you misunderstood my intent. I am neither encouraging nor condoning unlicensed use of the ham bands or any other bands for that mater. Aviation radio was suggested as an alternative but that is no better than any other radio which would make us illegal. We need to, as a group, decide on and deploy a communications standard which is legal, not horribly expensive, allows us to understand how to reach each other, works above cell phone altitude, and creates a reliable communications path in all directions from the pilot.
QRZ Can take their opinion and my subscription money and shove it up their 7200 khz, 3883k, or 14.313MHz. These pirates are no more CBers than they are jack asses. Its not limited to paragiders , look at Paintball/airsoft players, hunters, most any folk who outdoors and finds a 20 dollar sale on ebay, CB is the farthest thing from their mind. This post is asinine and biased. Hams need to look into their own house before pointing fingers at any one else. Online forums are flooded hourly with whining about tuning up on top of on going QSOs, ignoring band edges and separation, phone on CW portions, Data on Phone. Get over yourselfs and look in a collective mirror. What has the OP done to help the problem besides blame and label then post paragraph after paragraph of useless info? Recordings? Locations? Photos? Any evidence to pass onto authorities? Just whining and blaming others to make himself feel self important.
No one is forcing you to participate, sir. Accusing others of what you are doing (projecting) is not productive. We get enough of that nonsense with MSM fake news. Hams try to police themselves e.g. OO and such. The OP is attempting to alert licensed operators of pirates. Nothing wrong with that at all. His intentions seem to have merit. Being that you are just a beginner in this hobby; perhaps you should re-examine your own operating practices. Good day to you.
Have you considered MURS? https://www.fcc.gov/wireless/bureau-divisions/mobility-division/multi-use-radio-service-murs
§95.2707 Airborne use of MURS not authorized. Notwithstanding the provisions of §95.307, MURS operation is not authorized aboard aircraft in flight.
