Yes. There are several reasons why it should have never received Part 90 certification. Being able to operate wideband out of the box on any frequency the operator chooses is one reason.
For those who may think the FCC is focused only on their little corner of the world stop and think of all the communication and related services they are responsible for ........the word is PRIORITIES .
Yep. Sure. Why not? Presumably such ethical concerns/resolutions would also include NOT STEALING from others.
How is amateurs having keypad programmable radios a bad thing? I thought public service and emergency communications was one of the most important functions of HAM Radio. I’m pretty new to Amateur Radio, but the radio in my truck has made more than one emergency call for help. There are still large areas with no cell coverage.
But you'd better make sure that you don't have other means of communications at the time. And doing it "more one than one emergency call for help" can raise suspicions of whether it is really a call for help, or an excuse to operate where one is not allowed. Here's a scenerio: One comes up on a tractor trailer hung up on a crossing. There's no problem at first, but.............then a train horn is heard in the distance. You don't know exactly far away he is. The normal thing to do would be to call the police. In the first scenario, there IS cell service. But you don't know how long it will take 1) for the train to arrive, 2) for the police to call the dispatcher and stop the train, 3) if you can send out flaggers in both directions to attempt to stop the train, 4) call the train directly with your Baofeng on the dispatcher's channel (assuming you know what it is) If you could reach the train directly, it would save precious minutes, right? What is he hauling? Is it hazardous? Now same scenario--except you have no cell service. Given the unknowns, WOULD you call the train directly (assuming you know the frequency? What if its a gasoline tanker? There are a lot of variables here, lots of unknowns! Thinking to do good, it still might go against you, and FCC might decide your actions were unjustified. OTH, the railroad company might be grateful, OR you just might not get caught at all. Guys, I'll ask you to weigh in! What do YOU think? (I know what I would do based on my career on the railroad).
Question: Can anyone name one ham radio transceiver that is selling on the market right now that for sure doesn't have any Chinese made component or source material in it? Can't positively name even one radio? Is that the sound of crickets I'm hearing? The white noise static of dead air? Perhaps it is air being let out of a balloon that just burst.
Hmm...it's 9/26/18 and Baofeng Tech is still alive and well on E-Bay! I'm glad mine were purchased before this mandate. I have Part 90 Certified Wouxun's and Baofeng's. They should be grandfathered in. Besides, I bought them for a SHTF situation. Laws won't matter if that occurs. Otherwise, I just exercise them on the amateur bands where i'm licensed. I don't believe there is such a thing as a part 97 certification. The amateur is licensed, not the radios.
re: "How is amateurs having keypad programmable radios a bad thing? I thought public service and emergency communications was one of the most important functions of HAM Radio. " The issue is having front-panel "keypad" programmable radios available to the public that can operate outside the ham bands (OR FRS, etc.). Title 47 CFR Part 90 titled "PRIVATE LAND MOBILE RADIO SERVICES" section of the FCC rules has an applicable paragraph that explicitly forbids "front-panel keypad programmable radios" for Part 90 (land mobile radios). It is okay for the 'radio shop' to have programmer that can set up 'channels' and so forth, but, they don't want the guy actually *using* the radio in the field or out in the warehouse (or walking a beat) to have that capability hence the restriction of "front-panel keypad programmable radios" in most radio services covered by FCC regulations in other than Part 97 amateur use ... There was a time that the 'guy' or gal doing the radio work was required to have a First or Second Class FCC license to legally do that work, and, when one got that ticket there is wording on the front of that license that says the license holder is bound to all laws, treaties the US is a signatory too, executive orders, rules and regulations of the FCC which are binding upon radio operators ... wording as summarized from my original wall-mounted "1st phone" issued in 1975 anyway ...
Some of the high-end Icom radios I understood at one time used high-end components not obtainable from China, FPGAs and perhaps some of the high end processors ... one of the reasons Icom does their own manufacturing of high-end product is to keep the firmware out of the hands of the Chinese ... certainly keeping the 'source' code and development in Japan slows down the Chinese from reverse engineering Icom's products ... as an exercise, do a google search to find out what embedded OS (operating system) was used on the IC-756Pro series for instance. Yes, there is very little on this subject. One or two references that I could find when I researched this a little while back.
Nope. Icom uses some Chinese-sourced components. In fact, most manufacturers would rather that you didn't peer too deeply into their manufacturing sourcing.
