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for being a member of the community. This video was sent to me by one of you guys, and it addresses an issue about FCC licensing and the use of amateur radio bands by someone other than Ham's And for some reason it touches on an issue that I don't quite understand about using radios while paragliding. So let's check this out. This video was sent to me. It is from a channel called heavy Metal Horizons and he's got
a decent sized channel eleven thousand subscribers. Okay, I don't know why a heavy metal channel is talking about Ham radio stuff. You can see his radio stuff in the background there. So we're gonna go through. This is only a five minute video. We're gonna go through this and see what he has to say here. And I want to know what you guys think about this.
Hey, guys, welcome back to heavy Metal Horizons. And in this video, I've got a question to all of the hams out there, and that question is, are Ham radio operators the only ones that care about Ham radio rules?
No? And I'm gonna I'm gonna I'm gonna show you why. I'm gonna give you an example that this guy should understand here in a second. So check this. Okay, So let's keep.
Going now before you answer in the comments section, I already did that. Want to give you guys an example of what I'm talking about. Okay. I used to do paragliding, and I haven't on it in a couple of years because I've just been busy with other things, mostly with the airplane aviation stuff. But when I was doing parid.
So I was so airplane aviation. He mentions right here. So I was poking around here and I found he's talking about an affordable, an affordable aviation radio for pilots. Finally, and I went through and I opened up this video from him. Okay, and I will play the first few seconds of this.
So I meant Iraka November at nine or seven two seven echo play at a quick radio checkleif Iroka nine or seven two seven echo tower? Have you line clear?
Okay, So let's look at this from the standpoint of this. This guy's a pilot. Presumably he's got his pilot's license. I don't. He didn't show his license, but you know, let's he does. He has his pilot license. He's got
a legit call sign on his airplane. Good. Okay, So let's look at this from a standpoint of what if I went and bought that radio he's talking about, which he got from Ali Express, and you know, spoiler alert, I just went and bought that radio because DFW airport's right there, right right there, well back there somewhere turned
around in my own hamshack. What if I got on the aircraft frequencies on AM and just started talking, or what if me and my wife, for me and my neighbor started using aircraft frequencies just to have regular polite conversations about anything at all? Would that be? Okay? I just bought a radio that will let you transmit on airband, So that means I should be able to transmit on airband correctly correct correct? Well, that radio is from tryin it. Yeah,
so is a boufing. So okay, question, you know, something to chew on. Question for later, for later.
Or gliding you would go and you'd go up to the top of the mountain or the launch area wherever it was, and people would start getting their wings set up and their harnesses and everything, and you would hear this, Okay,
all those paragliding pilots were using Ham radios hts. A lot of them were using the Balfing UV five R, and they were using these radios to talk to each other and in some cases maybe talk to somebody on the ground, like an instructor or somebody who was getting photos of them, that kind of thing.
I saw another article on Reddit a while back about why Ham radio operators and paragliders hate one another. And I've been a Ham for thirty years and I've never heard that before I saw this article. This was several months ago, and the only thing I could come up with is that what people who don't have radio licenses
may not know because you're not used to using a radio. Okay, so you may or maybe you do know this, But one of the things about getting a Ham radio license is actually learning how to use the radio so that you can know how to use it, know what it does when you are using it, and a GMRS radio would work in this scenario very well too. But the higher up you get, we have a term in Ham radio called height is might, So the higher up your
antenna is, the farther out you're able to talk. So if you're in a paraglider or you're doing parachute mobile like life at terminal velocity like Carlos does, you are going to be able to talk of much longer distance on a five watt handheld than you would standing on the ground because you're standing on the ground trying to talk to other stations on the ground, and you've got terrain, trees, hills, leaves, buildings, all kinds of stuff in between you and that other station.
When you are several hundred feet or several thousand feet in the air, you have clear line of sight to all those ground stations, so your signal reaches out a lot farther because you are up higher.
None of these guys had Ham radio licenses, but of course they were using a Ham radio, and they were using it in the Ham radio frequency band. And here is the big point that I'm making.
If they're using it in the Ham radio band. Then it's then they shouldn't be doing that. So that's my answer. I'm going to show you the comment I left on this guy's video here in a minute.
Because these were paragliding pilots and they only used the radio for paragliding. They had really no idea about the other Ham radio stuff. They didn't care at all about the fact that they were operating the radio without a license and violating these various FCC rules.
Okay, so why don't they use their paragliding They're in the air, Why aren't they using air band radios? Serious question? I really, I really want to know. You're in a paraglider in the air, you're talking to other paragliding stations, you are flying an aircraft of sorts, talking to ground stations, talking to air stations. Why are you not using airband radio? I'd like to know. No, seriously, I'd like to know what your answer is to that, because those are regulated by the FCC as well, by the.
Way, and not only did they not have a problem, but nobody else who was aware that they were doing it had a problem either. Nobody ever said anything, Nobody.
Ever ignorance of the law is no reason to not obey the law, or something like that.
I'm paraphrasing got reported or anything like that. Now, realistically, your range is not going to be great on these radios, but they're using these when they're up in the air, so exactly, at least they're getting quite a bit of distance, exactly.
And you could do the same thing with GMRS radios two by the way, which you just buy a license or just use FRS radios that are lower power and do the same thing.
In terms of line of sight for the intent and everything. So theoretically, if there was somebody a HAM in the area listening on VHF, they probably could hear what they were saying. Now, maybe you could make an argument that, well, it's paara gliding and if they do something wrong it could be potentially a life or death situation. So maybe the radio usage is justified because it's almost an emergency, or if they don't use it, it could lead to
an emergency. But to be clear, nobody none of these guys were using these.
That's not very very valid argument because he just said that hams were not listening. He said if a ham was listening, they could hear them. But he also said that hams were not listening. So who are you going to call if you get into an emergency situation If all of you, if your whole crew in the air and on the ground, had GMRS or FRS radios, you could call the same people. So that's not and he said, he clearly states that he goes, this is not what
they were doing. He's like, an argument could be made, but it's really not a valid argument.
The radio is like as a justin case kind of thing. It was just a radio that they would use basically as a walkie talkie, like a cheap walkie talkie, to just talk to their other paragliding buddies that were flying. Now, of course, as far as I know, none of these guys got in any trouble because number one, nobody except for the other paragliders really knew they were doing it, and a lot of them were totally clueless about the regulations.
Okay, so once again, if nobody knows they're doing it, why aren't they use an airband?
So nobody's really aware that they're violating the regulations, and nobody within that community, even if they knew about it, would go and like report their friends to the FCC. But if somebody got on that radio and was talking to a HAM, you know, a licensed radio operator, that person would probably have a big problem with it.
So Ham probably So, yes, I'm within, and so would you. Okay, So this guy is heavy metal. Horizons is the name of the channel. Once again, So I'm not a musician, but I know a lot of musicians. Let me ask
you this. Okay, you guys have these wireless receivers that you put on your electric guitars or acoustic guitars, an acoustic electric guitar, maybe wireless receivers you put on a drum set, wireless microphones you put on a drum set to go back to the soundboard in the in the back of how the rear of house, back of house, what it's called front of house, back of house. I know a little bit. I've run a soundboard in the past, but I'm not an expert at all. Okay, So you
have these wireless headsets. The last ones of the wireless headsets are not headsets, but wireless transmitters and receivers for microphones connected to your guitar being received by the mixing board. By the sound mixer by the sound engineer running sound at the rear of house. Okay, so let's say the last ones of these I saw were like five hundred and ten five hundred and twenty five hundred and thirty
megahertz something like that. So what if I was to come in to your venue where you're playing your electric guitar and start talking on that frequency that you're trying to use on your guitar, do you think would you have a problem with it? I mean, it's you know, you're using the frequency legitimately, and I'm using it illegitimately. I don't have a right to talk in that frequency, but I'm doing it anyway because what is it hurt?
Serious question. I'm not joking with that. Now, if you are interested in getting your Ham radio license, I suggest heading over to Ham Radio Prep. They offer courses for all three levels of license. They offer a Balfaning basics course now for courses on HF radio and emergency communications all the like. You could and always save a twenty percent discount on all their courses with the coupon code
of Jason twenty. So get your Ham radio license so that you don't have to run into issues like this one.
The amateur radio operating community do tend to police each other, but if someone outside of that community is using the radio, it doesn't really seem to amount too much.
So my question to you, well, that's very location dependent. I guarantee someplaces it would amount to a lot.
You guys, is how do you feel about this? Do you think the usage of those radios is justified in that situation because there is kind of a safety issue involved, even though technically it's still violating the regulations.
No, because you have many more options besides just the HAM radio frequencies. And in fact, he kind of contradicts himself in my opinion with this comment. I'm gonna stop the video there, I'll put the video. I'll put a link to the video below. You guys can go read it. But here's the comment that I made. And Rob seven forty one comment is on this two months ago when this video was new. I just found this a few days ago. Well, this was sent to me a few
days ago. Okay, so my comment here is the Balfang usually covers one thirty six to one seventy four and four hundred four and one hundred and eighty megahertz Ham frequencies are one forty four to one forty eight. So between one thirty six and one seventy four there is thirty eight megahurtz worth of bandwidth. There, one thirty six to one seventy four is thirty eight megahertz worth. The worth of frequencies inside of that thirty eight megahertz is
only four megaherts. One forty four to one forty eight. That's the HAM radio spectrum. And from four hundred and four eighty that is eighty megahertz worth of spectrum. And inside of that there's only thirty megahertz worth the spectrum that's HAM. There are plenty of frequencies that the Balfang radio can operate outside of HAMD frequencies. What purpose does it serve to use the HAMD frequencies if you don't
have a license, just talk somewhere else. And I know a lot of people will come by and say, well, I've talked about that, or I've seen videos where HAMS will complain about people using frequencies. Uh, you know radios Balfang radios on one fifty one or non licensed GMRS radios on GMR rest free. Yes, And you know what I think those hams are our dorks. I think those hams are just looking for something to complain about. I don't understand that. If you want to use a radio
on another frequency somewhere, I don't care. But the point is, the thing that separates the HAM radio frequency is the same thing that separates the airband frequency. Is the same thing that separates the GMRS frequency, is that HAM radio operators have studied and gone through the steps to obtain the license to talk on those frequencies. Airband is set aside specific for specific air traffic control and conversations amongst airplanes and aircraft, and those frequencies have been set aside
for that regard. So if I don't if I'm not in an aircraft, or I don't have an air pilot's a pilot's license, or some reason for being on those frequencies, I shouldn't be able to just talk on those frequencies whenever I want to, even how much I want to justify it in my own mind. GMRS is the same way. All you have to do is buy a GMRS license,
no test, no external thing is needed. You just go pay thirty five dollars for a ten year license and you get access to those GMRS frequencies, which are the same frequencies as FRS by the way they share the frequencies. But with a GMRS license you can talk up to fifty watts fifty wat mobile radio, fifty watt repeaters, five eight ten watt handheld radios just like Ham radio, and
a GMRS radio would work beautifully in this situation. So why don't all those guys just get GMRS slash FRS radios because they'd be able to do the exact same thing. So he replied to me, like the same. A day later he replied to me, He's like, it's because not absolutely everyone is using the bowel things. Some are using gayser kin with so the hand frequencies are ones that everyone can use. Well, what purpose does someone who doesn't have a Ham radio license? Why do they own a
Ham radio? You know, back when I back in my day, back in my day, back and seriously though, before Amazon and eBay, you had to go to Ham radio store to buy a Ham radio, a Yazu Kin woud Icon Ham radio and guess what you had to show your license to buy. They wouldn't sell you a Ham radio that would transmit on Ham radio frequencies without proper documentation that you were a license to operate those frequencies. I think maybe we should try to get Amazon to implement
something like that. Hey, you want to sell ham radios, great, great, show proof of your ham radio license before you're able to make the purchase. So his reply was, well, because people are using ham radils, well they don't need to. So my reply back to him, then they should have a license. Okay, just like airban, Just like GMRS some years ago, you couldn't even buy a kin winder. You use a ham radio without a license, similar to buying a gun. Now, you don't need a license to buy
a handgun. To buy a firearm in the United States, I'm talking about the United States right now, you don't need a license, but you do have to show proof of ID. I live in Texas. I can't go buy a gun in Louisiana, Arkansas, New Mexico. I can't go buy a gun in another state. I can, but I
can't take it with me. I can go purchase a gun in another state, go to a gun show, go to a gun shop, go purchase a gun in another state, and they will ship it to a FFL Federal Firearms Licensed dealer in my home state, where I have to show ID and do the background check thing. Now, background checks are a little bit unconstitutional in my opinion, because the right to firearms is protected by the Secondmendment the Constitution in the United States. But I'm not getting into
that right now. Whatever the ambiance or whatever the political crap behind this, the simple fact is that today I can't go buy a handgun in another state without getting it shipped home and having to show my ID and proof that I'm eligible to buy that firearm to an FFL inside of my state. Ham radio should be the same way. Some schmo shouldn't be able to get on eBay or Amazon and buy a HAM radio that will transmit on HAM radio bands. They don't have any business
being there. And this guy and this other video here, he's talking about this unaffordable aviation radio for pilots and he gives a link to Ali Express and anybody and this ht will transmit on airband. Maybe I should grab one of these and go just start talking to pilots. Just oh, I'm just talking a pilot. What I bought a radio little transmit over there. I don't know what do you guys think I'm being a little bit facetious right now. I don't actually think I want to transmit
on airban, although airband receive radios are cool. So what do you think I mean? The original title of the original video was do only Ham's care about FCC regulations? Well, guess what your guitar transmitter and receiver is regulated by the FCC. Your airban frequencies, which this guy's obviously a pilot, is regulated by the FCC in the inside of the United States I'm talking about. So do you care about when someone uses your frequencies that's not licensed to do?
So there you go. I want to know put a comment below thank you for watching today? His pinned comment Now, this is this is this is kind of cool. Here his pin comment to the top of his video right here says, attention Los Angeles Ham radio operators. So if any of you, if that applies to any of you guys, you might reach out to this dude. Would you like to help me make videos? Sometimes I need to make a video contact with another Ham, another Ham, So I
guess he's he is a HAM. Maybe as part of a video I'm looking for a person or people who are okay with their voice being heard. Maybe you could even collaborate on some videos. If you're interested, click on my channel name and then go to the more or about section. You can find my email there, So there you go. If you live in the Los Angeles area, go hit this guy up. Maybe you can make some
good collaborations with him. I don't know your name, mister heavy metal Horizons, but if you want ever want to collaborate with me, I'd be happy to do so. We don't have to agree. I like having adult, reasonable, calm conversations about subjects that we care about, whether we agree or not. So, but I would like to know what you the audience thinks. Put your comments below. Seventy three