I bought 2 UV-5R radios which I have mounted in 2 of my vehicles for Weather information while we travel. They are little nifty and cool radios.
Are there any frequencies that the FCC would allow for Unlicensed 2 Way operation?
I did research and clearly the FRS (Family Radio Service) and GMRS (General Mobile Radio Service) wouldn’t be allowable due to the UV-5R’s Capability as it exceeds these limits.
Wikipedia has displayed 151.505 MHz Itinerant, Red Dot 151.625 MHz Itinerant, and so fourth, but it’s not clear anywhere online weather the UV-5R is clearly acceptable for use on those channels or anything stating the requirements of them.
I’d rarely use it to transmit but I wouldn’t mind having some frequency on there should I need to communicate between vehicles as in rare cases we do travel as a group.
Any bit of information would be appreciated.
Thanks!
There are no frequencies you would be allowed to transmit on without a license. Those itinerant frequencies you mention require a business band license.
We recently discussed this is a couple of episodes of The Two Way Radio Show podcast, prompted by the FCC enforcement advisory on the sale and use of import radios. You may want to hear at least part of these discussions before using the UV-5R on any of those frequencies.
The radio fraternity - all kinds/all bands - have historically always been firmly involved with law breaking. Yet many of these people are also fairly opposed to law breaking. It’s almost like the point at which operation goes from acceptable to unacceptable is a bendy grey area, rather than a fixed line.
So we have the Government issued licence expect bits of band - US and Europe have them, and loads of people who want to use radios with a bit too much power, with a bit better antennas, and get a bit more range - and not feel bad about it. It’s just a little into grey, soil they’re not really criminals. They could use their radios just outside the exempt frequency range, and nobody would even notice them there, but that would be more into the grey area, operating outside an exempt band, so very very grey? It’s silly really. We get people inland using marine band - no idea why they would do this, and make themselves obvious. Clearly the simplest solution would be to look at the spread of licences channels in an area, then look for unused ones, and hop in. That’s bad of course. Last resort is always applying for a licence and doing it properly? I have no idea why - in the UK, one easily available licence requires no paperwork, just an online application and then instant access to business channels. ?75 for 5 years. Hardly expensive. So why do people not do it? No idea!
I never have any desire to transmit with my UV-5R, it was more of a thought, should I want to communicate between vehicles and to have a “Unlicensed” channel which would allow us to do so. But in this case, I won’t do that.
There are only 7 Frequencies programmed into it and all 7 are simply the Weather channels 162.400-162.550 and the PTT is disabled on them.
When the time comes and I decide to want to use it for 2 way communication, I will then apply for a license with FCC, otherwise receiving the NOAA channels is more then enough for when we travel.