E1497: Can We Use HAM RADIOS on FRS Frequencies?

sign up today and thank you for the support. Why do you think it is that Ham radio operators get upset and get mad when you use a Ham radio on an FRS and GMRS frequency. I've got an answer for that, and it might not be what you expect, So let's go. Today's video is sponsored by ham dot Live. Take your Ham radio net to the next level by using the free tool at ham dot live, available on every platform. Check out the link in the description blow

for the interview I did with the creator. This is a question I've heard several times in the past, and when I saw this Reddit article, I thought, yeah, I need to make a video about that, because quite frankly, it's something that comes up a lot. It's something that comes up a lot, and there's I kind of have two minds about it. I have two thoughts about it, and I'm torn between which one I actually believe more So,

I want to show you this article right here. This is again from Reddit, and this is a new subreddit I found called low Sodium ham Radio. There's some good stuff in there, little bit more salty, little bit more wild wild West in that subreddit over the amateur radio subreddit, I think, but some very good information, good people in there as well. So why do so many hams get incredibly asmad? That's a new one on me, asmad. Okay, good, when you use a ham radio on FRSGMRS that's been

programmed properly, okay, and he quotes, but it's illegal. Bro Aside from that, if I programmed a handheld radio and he says a handheld radio right here, A lot of people will tell you that a Bowfang UV five R is a ham radio and while the balfang technically targets Hams, they target a lot of other groups as well. Okay, so there's been a lot of So some kid buying a bowfang off of Amazon and using it on some frequency that a bowfang will transmit on. That doesn't make

it a Ham radio. It will transmit on Ham radio bands, but most of them. Some of the newer ones are locked down, but most of the older ones were just full of and transmit anywhere. That makes them not really not technically a Ham radio. There's a lot of Part ninety commercial radios out there that'll transmit one p thirty six to one seventy four and from four hundred and four eighty or maybe upwards of five twenty megahertz. It covers all of the bands, GMRSFRS, ham Radio, Marine Band,

all of the things. That doesn't make it a Ham radio just because it transmits on Ham radio frequencies. It's a Part ninety commercial radio that can be used on more multiple services. So just because of Bowfang transmits on Ham radio frequencies doesn't necessarily make it a Ham radio, although a lot of people use it on Ham radio. Is completely legal to use on Ham radio, and Bowfang themselves target Ham radio operators like my target Ham radio

operator channels like this one. They've sent me a lot of emails in the past, and they sent me a lot of radios as well to do videos about. So technically it can be considered a Ham radio, but when I talk about Ham radio, I'm an actual handheld Ham radio. Are you talking about because he says handheld radio in this article right here right there, highlight it says handheld radio? Are you talking about a bowfang? Are you talking about like a yazu icm Kinwood radio that you've mars moded.

Either one could do what you're talking about. So just something to think about is set it to use zero point five or two wats depending on the channel, and twelve point five killer Hurtz channel with who am I hurting? The FCC nor ised has literally never given even the most most minuscule of cares about the above situation, and it saves me from having to carry a second radio. Okay, okay, so let's let's break this down first. Okay, let me

say this first off. You're right, I don't care. I don't understand why Hams would care that you're using a Ham radio, be it a bowfanger, an actual Ham radio like an icon kin would yazu. Okay, I don't understand why Hams would care if you're using those radios on FRS frequencies. I don't get it. I know it exists.

In thirty years of being a Ham radio operator. I have never seen anyone get mad, either on the air or in person on the air, on the air, using the radio, or in person in Ham Radio club gatherings or in Hamfest group gatherings. I've never met anyone who was mad at someone else for using their Ham radio

on FRS frequencies or GMRS frequencies. Same frequencies. But by the way, GMRS has eight repeater channels that FS doesn't have, and FOS has a lower channel output that they can use over GMRS with the frequencies or the first twenty two frequencies on both services are all the same. So I've never seen that. Now I know it exists because I've seen hundreds of comments from you guys out there saying, why do people get mad about this? People are getting I got yelled at this. I got heard someone get

mad about this. I heard someone get yelled at about this. I read this on an Internet post somewhere, Reddit, Facebook, Twitter, whatever. So why do people get mad about this? I don't know. I don't know. I don't get it. It's a stupid thing to get mad about. I understand if you're talking about unlicensed people transmitting on Ham radio frequencies. That's a totally different game, totally different ball of wax. That's not

what we're talking about today. Today, we're talking about using a handheld radio that's not meant for FS to transmit on FOS frequencies. Yes, it is illegal, yes, to have a FCC certified radio to transmit on FRS and on gmrs. This is stupid. This is a stupid rule because those radios typically are made in China, and they're typically not the quality of radio that say a Motorola or an Icon or a Kinwood would be if you were to modify those A lot of Motorola radios are Part nine

EM will transmit on those frequencies. Anyway, It's stupid to think that a Part ninety five certified radio from the FCC, which comes from China, and maybe the certification maybe was fudged on a little bit. I don't know. Would some is somehow less disruptive than a really good Motorola or Icon radio that's been modified to transmit on FS frequencies. I don't care. It's going to be a cleaner signal from a Motorola or an Icon than it is from some cheap Chinese radio that you buy in a blister

pack from bast pro shops anyway. So I don't get that. I really don't. I don't get it. Okay, I don't know. I know again, I've never seen it in person. I don't know anyone who's upset about this, but I know it exists because people talk about it on the internet all the time. I've never heard anyone talk about it on the air, but they talk about it on the

internet all the time. So I don't get this. But having said all that, don't come along and say no one cares, because if they didn't care, they wouldn't make a rule or a law over it. Okay. So it is illegal. It is illegal to use non certified radios on FRS, on GMRS, okay, on business band. Ham Radio doesn't have a certification process. Part ninety seven is an experimenter's license. We can build and use our own radios and transmitters. It's basically the only service out there that

you can do that. GMRS you can't do that, CB you can't do that, FS business, most of the business bands you can't do that. So Marine band you can't do that. So Part ninety seven is a radio experimenter's license, so it doesn't really there's no such things a Part ninety seven certified radio, but there is Part ninety five certified for FURS and GMRS part whatever it is for CB. I forget. It is illegal to use use a other

classification radio on those frequencies because it's not certified. It's a dumb rule, it's a dumb law, but it is there. So the part that I have seen people get upset about is simply that when someone says it's illegal, people like to blow up at you and arguable, oh no, one cares. It's not a little no, it's not yes. It is. Go ahead and do it if you want to. I'm not telling you not to do it, but don't

tell me. Don't come by and tell me. Nobody cares and it's illegal because you can get busted for that if you just get on the air and you're a total jackass and someone calls you out and you get caught with it somehow. The likelihood that you're going to get caught with that is very, very very minimal, Okay, but it is not zero. It might be like zero

point five percent chance, but it's not zero. You could totally do that, and there's stories, and there's stories I've shared on this channel about people getting caught for faulty transmitters on GMRS, for transmitting on GMRS with that license and this kind of thing. So people do care, But I don't really understand why Hams get so upset about another services frequencies like FRS, FRS or not Ham radio frequencies. So why do we care. I don't get that. I

really don't now. If you are a Ham radio operator or really a GMRS operator and you want to run a net on your local GMRS or Ham radio repeater, check out ham dot live. This is a free service that works on any platform Windows, Mac, Android, iOS, anything, Linux,

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that interview in the description BLOW. So go check that out website and let me know what you think about it. So a few of the comments on this article, Okay, a lot of ham's are just role playing as code enforcement. So I want to make something perfectly clear. Now, this does not This does not include FRS frequencies. Remember when I said a minute ago, I don't get it. Okay, there is a thing in the ABRL called a volunteer monitor program. Volunteer Monitor program is a formal agreement between

the FCC and the ABRAL. Volunteers trained and vetted by a DOBRL, monitor the airwaves and collect evidence that can be used to both correct misconduct and recognize exemplary on air operations. So, in other words, it's not just policing the bands, it's recognizing good operators on the band. Cases of flagrant violations are referred to by FCC by a DOUBLEL for action and accordance with FCC guidelines. This program re energizes enforcement efforts in the amateur radio bands. So

this does not include frsgmors, make that perfectly clear. To my knowledge, GMRS does not have a program like this. But since basically the dawn of time, HAM radio operators have been self plas leasing long before the FCC. Ever, got involved. A lot of people want to get rid of the FCC. I would vote in favor of getting the FCC out of ham radio because ABRL and radio transmissions existed before the FCC did. I'm actually looking at maybe doing some sort of video about history of the FCC.

But we'll see program re energizes enforcement efforts in the amateur radio bands. We're not talking about that here. A lot of hams are just role playing against code enforcement. Why why why are they role playing as code enforcement on an FRS frequency. I don't know. I don't get it. It's a dumb thing to do. Stop doing it. If you're doing this, no one cares. I don't care. Okay, now, if you're talking about again, if you're talking about unlicensed

people on HAM radio bands, that's different. That's what this is for. But as far as people using radios on FURS, I don't care. So here we go. Right here. Hams are still able to build an operator own radios. This is what I was talking about part ninety seven minute ago. On the HAMD bands is covered under our license. In fact, aside from experimental situations, hams are the only ones they

able to build and essentially certify our own equipment. FSGMRS are type certified for s such as much like ism. I'm not sure what that is. The device is license, so to speak. I bet this is a major woosh though, loll I know you're either quoting from the original commercial with the family Guary Pernie. That's funny. So I don't get here's a good comment. I don't get mad about it because I do the same thing, but I do tell people to shut up about doing it because it

doesn't need to be openly obvious. Yeah, when people actually get mad is when I don't want to bother getting on a license and I'm just going to buy this bail fing and use it. However, I want correct the first roll of Ham radios on FOSK on FRS club as you don't talk about Ham radios on FURS club. What is an f S club? Never heard of such a thing. Never heard of such a thing as an f r S GMRS club. Sure, GMRS club. I never heard of him as f S club. I think you're

making a joke. I laughed at it. It's kind of funny. Some Hams just don't like FRS in general. I've never heard this either, I've never heard this either. My good friend told me I'd rather die than I'd rather die than call for help on an FRS radio, and I'm pretty sure he was serious. Well, then this guy is probably probably just an old curmudgeon because I've never I used f for us. A few times, some couple of my hunting buddies I hunt with don't have a GMRS

or HAM radio license. We use f FORS radios to talk to each other when we're out at the hunting lease. And it's very possible that I used one of my part ninety certified radios to do that. But you don't know that, You don't know that, You have no idea if that's true or not. So agreed HAM and GMRS user.

Right here, I'll hand an FRS to a friend and GMRS to a family member who has no desire to learn, and take a tech test tech test, and we'll have a great day skiing safely, keeping in touch, coordinating lift up to the end. And because FORS GMRS are interoperable, in other words, they're all the same frequencies, it's really easy for us. GMRS a very useful and I'm glad to have a license in addition to my to radio license.

One is a support tool in pursue the hobby, the other as a hobby that can be applied sometimes to other hobbies, but more often as not the hobby itself. And this guy says that's where I'm at. My spies has no interest in hand However, I got GMR lessons, GMRS license and three handhelds because your GMRS covers your entire family. So long story short, a bunch of babbling from my end on that. So I apologize, thank you for listening this far if you've made it to this

part of the video. I don't get why anyone cares what radios you use on FURS And if this is something if you're a Ham radio operator and you've gotten mad at someone for using their radio on FRS, what the heck man? Seriously, if they come over to Ham radio and start babbling on six top five to two without a license, that is something we should politely address them about. We shouldn't get mad and start yelling at him over the air, start calling them out on the internet.

Give me a break, okay, but using your radio on FRS, who cares? I like to know what you guys think about this, I would like to an honest discussion in the comment section of this video. Put a comment below let me know what you think. Thanks for watching today. By the way, YouTube thinks you want to watch these videos next, so go check those out.