> "FRS is licensed by rule. This means an individual license is not
required to operate an FRS radio provided you comply with the rules. You
may operate an FRS radio regardless of your age, and for personal or for
business use if you are not a representative of a foreign government."
The same website also states:
"You can operate a FRS transmitter at any place where the FCC regulates
radio communications, subject to certain limitations. A FRS transmitter
may not be modified /and must be certified by the FCC/."
This is also valid for GMRS in §95.1761, GMRS transmitter certification:
(a) Each GMRS transmitter (a transmitter that operates or is intended to
operate in the GMRS) must be certified in accordance with this subpart
and part 2 of this chapter.
If the Arcshells aren't specifically certified for GMRS, then you can't
legally use them.
Regards
Bernhard AE6YN
Fremont, CA
On 12-May-20 11:55, Chance Fulton wrote:
The license isn't a physical license, that part is only to use the
higher powered GMRS frequencies that are usually included in blister
pack radios from big box stores.
"FRS is licensed by rule. This means an individual license is not
required to operate an FRS radio provided you comply with the rules.
You may operate an FRS radio regardless of your age, and for personal
or for business use if you are not a representative of a foreign
government."
https://www.fcc.gov/wireless/bureau-divisions/mobility-division/family-radio-service-frs
That said, the Arcshell radios are most certainly not legal for FRS
(for many different reasons), and probably not for GMRS by (at least)
not being type accepted for part 95 use.
-Chance
On Tue, May 12, 2020 at 2:45 PM Bernhard Hailer <[email protected]
<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:
> GMRS does require a license, and FRS doesn't.
This statement is incorrect. Even FRS requires a license, but in
the case of this service it is free of cost: the license comes
with the radio, /which must be FCC approved/ for this particular
service. Many of the cheap radios don't fulfill this requirement
and are not legal to use.
As stated by other posters already: it would be your best option
to get a ham radio Technician license. It's not very difficult,
you must go to an exam session (35 questions multiple choice,
easy; the difficult thing these days with COVID-19 is the
availability of such exams, though). With a Technician license you
are legally allowed to use radios not approved by the FCC while
operating on ham bands - but still not on GMRS or FRS or CB or
MURS. These services /always /require FCC approved equipment.
Regards
Bernhard AE6YN
Fremont, CA
On 12-May-20 08:11, Mark Blackwell wrote:
GMRS does require a license, and FRS doesn't. A citizens band
radio doesn't require a license either, but I don't think its
your best choice. Hilly terrain may be an asset or a big problem
if you have neighbors on the other side of the hill.
Not being FCC approved may involve more than just which
frequencies are being used. I is certainly possible, or even
likely that even if its on the right frequency, the transmission
may not meet the requirements to be legal. For your system to
work, it needs regular practice.
From your brief description, the best option I see is having
neighbors in key spots get an amateur radio license. It does
require a test, but the first test isn't that hard. There are
three level of licenses in amateur radio. The technicians
license is the lowest, and the test isn't that hard. It's
likely to work for most of your options. The General License
allow a lot more privileges, but it is a harder test. The
Amateur Extra is the highest level, and by far the toughest
test. For me I was really ready for the Tech in about 2 weeks.
The General took about a month of study and the Extra about 2
months. This is a few minutes of study a day, not an 8 hour a
day crash course. Not everyone would necessarily need a license.
The benefits are many. Even without power, many larger more
powerful units can be powered with batteries, generators or a
host methods that don't require the grid to be working. It also
counts on no infrastructure like cell towers or the internet.
Though some in amateur radio use the internet for many things, if
its out it isn't essential
Check out the ARRL website. There is a lot there that is good
information that I think will go a long way to helping you make
the best decision for your community. Also local ham clubs are a
good starting point as well.
--
Mark Blackwell
[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>
On Mon, May 11, 2020, at 6:53 PM, Jonathan Pierce wrote:
Best wishes from a Noob,
I am a FireWise neighborhood council member in a rural,
high-risk forested area (70 miles from the Paradise Fire) of
northern California. Several neighbors and I want to set up a
backup evacuation radio notification system for our
neighborhood in the event that power (lose cable internet and
VOIP phone service) and cell towers are down (the local tower
burnt last year during an event). And we have spotty cell
coverage at best.
We found the best-seller Arcshells on Amazon are powerful and
reach through our hilly neighborhood OK. But I understand that
1. The devices are not FCC approved; 2. Antennae is removable;
3. Stock programming is a mix of FRS and GMRS frequencies. Fire
chief has given go ahead for us to use them if we don’t
interfere with any of the EMS, police, and fire frequencies. The
stock frequencies programmed in the Arcshell AR-5 are indeed
different than all the official ones used.
But some neighbors want the radios reprogrammed so they are
strictly only using FRS frequencies. I’ve been able to query and
download the memory from an arcshell, and I believe I have
figured out how to save a modified memory profile to a file so
that it could uploaded to all units.
Questions: 1. Using the chirp edit function can I just go
ahead and change all channels’ frequencies to strictly FRS
permitted ones? 2. Do I need to change any of the other settings
like Tone Mode, Tonesql, DTCS Code, etc, or can they just remain
as is?
Thanks for your knowledgeable help!
Jonathan
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Chance Fulton
[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>
810.441.5795
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