Wireless providers, such as Clearwire Corp., have successfully argued they should be able to prevent customers from using some bandwidth-hogging Internet services, like file-sharing, because their wireless networks have capacity issues.
read more | digg story
federal regulators this week took the first formal step into investigating complaints about how Internet service providers, such as Comcast, manage peer-to-peer file-sharing traffic on their networks.
read more | digg story
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a new report yesterday that says that while the FCC processes about 95% of the complaints that come in, it takes some sort of enforcement action in only about 9% of them.
(PopWireless: This is consistent with GMRS licensees and Amateurs. In 2006 the open relationship we were getting used to ended. The FCC is far more secretive about what they will act on and when. GMRS licensees have been grateful to be sure that serious complaints eventually get handled but on some complaints no action has been seen in years and no status reports are shared with licensees. This article is not about GMRS but about everyone else the FCC serves. It appears the rest of the country is in the same boat. Oh that reminds me, FSI. Foreign shipping Interference on GMRS remains a serious problem and whatever steps were taken in November 2006 by the FCC seem to have worn off. A US military vessel went by Plum Point on Saturday March 15, 2008 using a GMRS input frequency! Click read more below to read the original article.)
On January 14, 2008, the Philadelphia Pennsylvania FCC Enforcement Bureau Field Office cited WestCom Wireless, Inc., (westpenncomm.com) located in
The FCC made a departure from past practice in this citation. In the past the FCC had not taken action against the radio shops programming GMRS channels into customer radios but rather cited or fined the shop’s customers for operation on frequencies on which the customer had no license. The FCC said in the citation:
“Section 90.427(b) states “[e]xcept for frequencies used in accordance with S: 90.417, no person shall program into a transmitter frequencies for which the licensee using the transmitter is not authorized.” WestCom Wireless, Inc. programmed eight Kenwood TK-8160K mobile radios with a frequency for which Harrison Township Water Authority is not authorized.”
Full text of the FCC action is available at the FCC website at: http://popularwireless.com/blog1/aL
It just does not make sense but GMRS continues to cope with unlicensed use of GMRS by public safety agencies. In the last week the PRA reported to the FCC a new unlicensed operation in the north-east USA. “We’re not sure what drives a public safety agency e.g. fire, police, emergency management, public works, or utility to violate FCC Rules but it seems to happen with unfortunate regularity,” said Doug Smith, PRA Board of Trustees.
In some cases the PRA has determined the radio shop doing the work mislead the customer deliberately and the customer in turn did not ask questions one might expect from a professional radio system user. “There is an assumption made that public safety agencies should know better,” said Smith. “These same agencies protect us day-to-day and have sophisticated and coordinated radio systems to do their work. Why then do jurisdictions feel compelled to occupy a repeater pair or simplex frequency in the General Mobile Radio Service when the agency is ineligible to license in GMRS?,” Smith conjectured.
Licensee’s might be inclined to think that public safety pirates believe that no one is watching or really cares. That perception is wrong. Licensees across the United States are fed up after years of assault by professional rule breakers. GMRS licensees are indeed watching. Within minutes of activation one unlicensed public safety system was identified and reported. It does not take long to locate and identify the brazen violator. That said, it should behoove all public safety radio system licensees to do the right thing and avoid unlicensed operation especially in radio services that these entities are not entitled to use in the first place. When such systems are identified and reported to the FCC the agency earns a bad reputation. Playing dumb is not likely to get the agency out of a serious enforcement issue. A public-safety FCC Rules violator believes the FCC Rules are for someone else.
In the last year, the Personal Radio Association has noticed an increase in illegal radio repeaters constructed using Family Radio Service frequencies as input or output channels.
Unscrupulous radio shops fraudulently place customer radio systems on unlicensed radio repeaters to avoid licensing and coordination costs. There is an apparent assumption that the illegal radio system will never be noticed. GMRS frequencies had been used for years for pirate systems. As interest in GMRS grew the radio shops have started to use the Family Radio Service.
Because there is also a growing national awareness of GMRS and FRS abuses these systems are noticed, located, and then reported to the FCC. “We will report every FRS repeater brought to our attention,” said Doug Smith, President PRA Board of Trustees. “These FRS repeaters cause harmful interference to licensed GMRS repeaters,” said Smith.
In the northeast US a Long Island hospital maintenance staff was found on an FRS repeater as was an assembly line located in an Edison, New jersey business park. Another abuse found in the north east was a commercial Part 90 business repeater using an input on an FRS channel. Readers of this magazine also remember the FRS repeater in use by Rockaway Township, NJ snow plows during December 2007.
Too many of these systems are turning up. GMRS licensees and users of the Family Radio Service are requested to alert the Personal Radio Association to any FRS abuses in their communities or to report those systems to the FCC directly using the Gettysburg address listed in the Part 95 GMRS Rules.
On Sunday December 9, 2007 the PRA filed a complaint with the Federal Communications Commission against Rockaway Township, New Jersey. Multiple GMRS licensees with repeaters using 462.700/467.700 MHz have been experiencing severe interference on their repeater input frequency making use of their repeaters almost impossible. A PRA Enforcement Team member used radio direction finding techniques to identify the culprits as the snow removal crews of the Rockaway Township Department of Public Works. The suspect radio system was operating with a high-power and most-likely wide band (25 KHz) repeater output on Family Radio Service channel 13, DCS 071, 467.6875 MHz. Repeaters with inputs on 467.700 are receiving interference.
The PRA contacted the Rockaway Township Mayor’s office by telephone on Friday December 14 at 2:00 PM after there was no apparent resolution to the interference all week long. The day before, one of the victim licensees contacted the Director of Public Works and spoke to him by telephone but to no avail. On Friday the City Administrator agreed to review the matter and requested through the PRA‘s telephone contact a copy of the complaint. Copies were FAX’ed to Rockaway Township and the FCC. The City administrator had not gotten back to the PRA by 5:00 o’clock PM . There was no response from the Township which means GMRS licensees will have to endure a weekend of municipal interference to their systems because a clever unscrupulous radio shop in Rockaway decided to abuse the Family Radio Service with an illegal install.
The PRA’s complainant was interviewed on Friday December 14 and said, “Just prior to noon (a few hours), one of the users (snow plow drivers) played a rock song on the radio for short (02-:05) duration–At least 3 times. It seems they have little knowledge or regard to proper radio use. I also heard, over the last few days, the guys saying “10-4 Good Buddy” and other CB’isms. It sounded like this radio system was somewhat of a novelty to them.”
GMRS licensees and their families are now facing major winter weather over the weekend and may not have emergency use of their own radio repeaters – that they have a right to use as General Mobile Radio Service licensees. An unlicensed municipality has built an unconventional pirate-radio system to respond to Winter weather and in so doing has rendered licensed systems unusable. There may be other radio systems in New Jersey or New York that use 467.675 also experiencing interference.
GMRS licensees in Rockaway Township, NJ and any licensee impacted by the township’s unlicensed system are encouraged to contact the Mayor’s office by telephone to express their opinion on the matter. Please be polite, but ask that the operation on FRS 13 be immediately terminated. Lack of planning on their part does not constitute an emergency on our part.
UPDATE Sunday December 16, 2007
As the snow storm went through New Jersey this weekend the Township’s activity on Family Radio Service channel 13 continued. The Township continues to operate regardless of the interference they are causing innocent victims. You know that if the situation were reversed and citizens were interfering with a licensed city frequency the City Administrator would be on the phone immediately to the FCC demanding action. We can only wait and wonder while the snow plow crews play rock and roll on the radio and shout 10-4 good buddy!
The PRA has written an email to the Mayor, Louis S Sceusi, in hopes an elected official will take a greater interest in the interference the township is causing.
(Annapolis, MD) A member of the Personal Radio Association today reported that from one or more of the three foreign ships anchored below the Annapolis Bay Bridge radio transmissions were heard on GMRS repeater inputs 467.575, 467.650, and 467.700 MHz. One ship seen arriving at about 1030 hours was using 467.575 to handle anchoring procedures.
Ships in US waters are NOT permitted to use these radio frequencies yet some ship’s masters and radio officers remain clueless of applicable international agreements. Ships operating on these channels frequently interfere with LICENSED GMRS users of the radio channels. PopularWireless.com coined the problem “Foreign Shipping Interference,” or FSI. The General Mobile Radio Service is used by American families to coordinate their family activities and personal business. In Europe and Asia GMRS is allocated to the maritime service.
The United States Government, through the Federal Communications Commission revised the list of AUTHORIZED frequencies for use by foreign vessels in 2005. These were negotiated by ITU countries in 2003.
” 5.288 In the territorial waters of the United States and the Philippines, the preferred frequencies for use by on-board communication stations shall be 457.525 MHz, 457.550 MHz, 457.575 MHz and 457.600 MHz paired, respectively, with 467.750 MHz, 467.775 MHz, 467.800 MHz and 467.825 MHz. The characteristics of the equipment used shall conform to those specified in Recommendation ITU-R M.1174-1.”
“Ships have been quiet lately as they sail past PRA HQ at Plum Point, Maryland, ” said Doug Smith, President of the PRA, Inc., Board of Trustees. “It appears the compliance to international treaty may only be within radio range of PRA HQ. The PRA has had similar reports from New York Harbor and the San Francisco Bay Area,” said Smith. A log of FSI complaints is maintained at the Personal Wireless BBS at PopularWireless.com.
(Personal Radio Assn., Inc – Huntingtown, MD) A PRA Enforcement Team member in Virginia made the Association aware of a serious GMRS abuse. A company specializing in parking lot call boxes marketed call boxes designed for use on GMRS radio frequencies. A system in Virginia was found at a local school that used 462.575 MHz, a GMRS repeater output channel. The PRA asked FCC Special Counsel Riley Hollingsworth to investigate. PRA Board of Trustees President Doug Smith referred to this practice as a serious and “pernicious abuse” of GMRS. GMRS licensees throughout the United States are encouraged to monitor GMRS in their communities and listen for and report these devices. Hollingsworth told the PRA that the FCC has information that the GMRS parking lot call boxes are no longer sold. Despite this information a new system was heard from atop a repeater site covering the area around Culpepper Virginia the weekend of November 17, 2007. PRA monitors said it sounded like a new parking lot call box system was being tested. GMRS licensees in the area are actively looking for the unlicensed system which is already causing interfernece to licensed users of the General Mobile Radio Service. GMRS licensees can report commercial intruders on GMRS channels directly to the FCC or through the program set up up by the Personal Radio Association at http://popularwireless.com/blog1/go.
FCC ET Docket No. 04-139: ?Amendment of Parts 2, 25, and 73 of the Commission’s Rules to Implement Decisions from the World Radiocommunication Conference (Geneva, 2003) (WRC-03) Concerning Frequency Bands Between 5900 kHz and 27.5 GHz and to Otherwise Update the Rules in this Frequency Range
In part from International Foot Notes::
?”5.287 In the maritime mobile service, the frequencies 457.525 MHz, 457.550 MHz, 457.575 MHz, 467.525 MHz, 467.550 MHz and 467.575 MHz may be used by on-board communication stations. Where needed, equipment designed for 12.5 kHz channel spacing using also the additional frequencies 457.5375 MHz, 457.5625 MHz, 467.5375 MHz and 467.5625 MHz may be introduced for on-board communications. The use of these frequencies in territorial waters may be subject to the national regulations of the administration concerned. The characteristics of the equipment used shall conform to those specified in Recommendation ITU-R M.1174 (see Resolution 341 (WRC-97)7).
?5.288 In the territorial waters of the United States and the Philippines, the preferred frequencies for use by on-board communication stations shall be 457.525 MHz, 457.550 MHz, 457.575 MHz and 457.600 MHz paired, respectively, with 467.750 MHz, 467.775 MHz, 467.800 MHz and 467.825 MHz. The characteristics of the equipment used shall conform to those specified in Recommendation ITU-R M.1174-1.
PopWireless: Did the FCC really give FRS 8 and a guard channel to foreign shipping in 2005? No. 5.288 takes prescedence.
He’s changed his mind. Not sure for how long but we are sure happy to see him stay for Amateur radio and for GMRS! Riley Hollingsworth rocks! (Click read more to read the latest.
(PopWireless: SouthGate ARC. Click read more!)
The WordPress blog software at this site was upgraded today to 2.3.1. Please contact us if you notice any strangeness.
The PopularWireless.com AIS Google Map introduction page was updated with some useful information on tropospheric ducting.
We encourage readers to leave a kind word for Riley regarding his planned retirement from the FCC. See article on the subject below. Thanks to Matthew for starting the thread. (Thanks to the ARRL web site.)
The following is a list of behaviors that are likely to attract enforcement attention in the General Mobile Radio Service. Nation wide, licensees that want and need to use the GMRS are fed up with the abusers of the service that make sharing almost impossible. Licensees are fighting back.
Some individuals and groups use GMRS like it’s a free band with no rules and no limits. Just like any radio service, the GMRS has FCC Rules (Part 95) to observe. On more than a few occasions, Amateur Radio enthusiasts have installed repeaters in the GMRS and operate on those repeaters in a manner they would never attempt to try in the Amateur service! Following the rules allows sharing of this tiny spectrum allocation among thousands of American GMRS licensees. There are only eight GMRS repeater pairs in the GMRS compared to hundreds in the Amateur service and Business Radio Services.
Review this list to see if you recognize your own behaviors. Do some introspection.
There are behaviors that are rude or that annoy others.
GMRS licensees are encouraged to take responsibility for the GMRS in their areas and just like any good neighborhood watch group report illegal behaviors that make using their radios for the intended purpose difficult.
(Plum Point, MD) A GMRS pirate with several radio users operating as an unlicensed ineligible entity was identified by the Personal Radio Association on the evening of Friday, September 28, 2007. The pirate was operating a GMRS repeater located in the vicinity of Cambridge, MD on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. As of Saturday morning the same organization is operating the illegal radio system despite having been warned that they are operating without a license and may cause serious interference to GMRS licensees. Radio operation is occurring at a park on the Choptank River.
An organizer of the Chesapeake Man Triathlon event in Cambridge, MD was contacted on his cellular telephone. He identified the Race Director as Robert Vigarito. A law enforcement agency on the Eastern Shore provided the telephone number. The contact the PRA spoke with refused to shut down the radio system or to call the radio company that rented them the system citing safety concerns as their event was already well underway and would continue on Saturday, September 29.
GMRS licensees in the DelMarVa area including other unlicensed persons using GMRS are requested to avoid interfering with the event’s communications on 462.675 MHz. The Columbia Triathlon Association, Inc, appears to be the victim of their radio provider as is the case with most instances like this one. The United States Coast Guard is providing law enforcement support on the river and the the Cambridge Police on land near Great Marsh Park. This is a large event. The pirate repeater may only be in operation one more day.
The PRA has filed an FCC complaint form regarding unlicensed use of GMRS by an organization ineligible to license in the GMRS naming the Columbia Triathlon Association and the radio company that rented the repeater to them. The radio company information was provided by the association organizer contacted by the PRA.
A GMRS Pirate is a person, organization, or business that operates two-way radios on the General Mobile Radio Service without having first obtained the required license from the Federal Communications Commission. Organizations and businesses have not been allowed to obtain GMRS licenses since 1989. Only a few grandfathered business users remain that have since renewed licenses obtained prior to 1989. The General Mobile Radio Service is regulated by Part 95 of the FCC Rules and Regulations. Individuals are permitted to obtain GMRS licenses for their personal business and that of their family.
An all too common GMRS piracy problem has existed across the United States for years. Radio companies seeking to avoid paying license fees and performing frequency coordination filings put temporary and even full-time customers on GMRS frequencies hoping no one will ever notice. This fraudulent practice was pernicious enough to encourage GMRS licensees across the United States to form the Personal Radio Association Inc., a Maryland not-for profit corporation. The PRA actively reports GMRS rules violations and unlicensed users to the Federal Communications Commission Enforcement Bureau.
GMRS licensees authorized to use GMRS channels pay a license fee and observe radio regulations designed to facilitate channel sharing of the eight repeater frequency pairs allocated to the service. The business radio services have hundreds of channels to choose from but also have specific rules to follow under FCC Rules Part 90. It is not uncommon for a GMRS licensee to have spent thousands of dollars on their own repeater system that they in turn share with other area families. GMRS licensees are forbidden by rule to rent or to take any renumeration other than actual operating costs to/from others.
The unscrupulous radio companies rent radios on channels they are ineligible to use at the expense of those licensed to use the channels. When a local radio shop breaks the rules to put a pirate on the air the pirate is often uncooperative with GMRS licensees pretty much clueless and unaware of any rules or licensing regulations. Pirates typically operate with unacceptable radio practices causing harmful interference to licensed users of the same channels. Pirates are a persistent nuisance in the GMRS. More information on this topic can be found using our blogroll in the Bubble-Pack Pirate FAQ and GMRS Intruder Help. The PRA website is http://popularwireless.com/blog1/go
Oh, this one plays into so many stereotypes that if a movie scriptwriter composed this, it would be laughed away.
In March of this year the Federal Communications Commission authorized AM HD radio stations to begin twenty-four-hour per day broadcasting on September 14, 2007. This is a major shift in the FCC Rules that formerly protected broadcasters against the expected and now prevalent nighttime interference to stations on channels adjoining an HD broadcaster.
The HD Radio Interference, we will coin it HDRI, is characterized as a loud obnoxious frying egg noise on top of an AM radio station’s analog signal. Here at PopularWireless HQ the kitchen is open and the eggs are cooking big time. A favorite here has been New York’s famous WABC where many enjoy listening to Coast-to-Coast AM in the early mornings. WABC is now plagued by HDRI making listening impossible at times. Across the AM dial the analog receiver is sizzling away.
What does this mean for AM radio? A few things can happen. The AM radio DX’er, the radio listening hobbyist that listens for long distance radio stations at night is not going to give up. These folks will adapt because the hobby is too exciting to give up. The average consumer of AM radio is going to either move to satellite radio, buy an HD radio and keep their fingers crossed, listen to the radio anyway and grit their teeth or just turn it off altogether. Only the radio station’s rating periods will tell who does what.
HD radio is still an expensive upgrade to a medium that basically cost nothing until now. The night worker that listens to a tiny transistor on the table at their job might have paid six bucks for the privilege. HD radios are still priced from $149 and up with most of the popular brands at $299.99. You guessed it. Folks that once listened to their favorite programs at night are going to either put up with the interference or flat out give up.
The FCC is forcing the new upgrade down our throats. It is economy building and social change all wrapped up into a neat little bundle. The bureaucrat thinks the public needs this cool new technology so the FCC is going to take actions which prompt the public to make changes. At least the consumer can elect to do nothing rather than consider an expensive option like a satellite radio subscription or an expensive new radio. But we have to wait and see. Will HDRI drive the public away from AM radio or will FM radio or even shortwave radio be the new entertainment destination?
The big impact will be on consumers already living in challenging AM radio reception areas. Here in Southern Maryland listening even to our local stations can be a daunting challenge. At nighttime, WTNT on 570 kHz lowers their power at sunset. The signal all but disappears requiring the listener to find the same program on stations in far away cities. All across the AM band listeners here are regularly annoyed by the relentless tick-tock-tick-tock and Morse code “RR” of Cuba’s Radio Reloj across the AM dial.
The laws of physics as those laws apply to radio propagation mean that many stations might be heard on the same frequency making listening difficult or impossible. Nighttime radio listening already had significant issues and now, on purpose, and even with great fanfare HDRI was introduced in the mix. Nighttime AM radio is now a complete mess. We will have to wait and see if it ever gets cleaned up or if people just accept the change.
ICOM did what Motorola, Cobra, and RadioShack did not do and that was continue to market a license-free Family Radio Service two-way radio for families. The others might all refer to the GMRS/FRS hybrids as FRS radios but we all know that is not true. The companies that sell twenty-two channel hybrids are all bargaining that the FCC declares GMRS license free by rule. ICOM, however, is living up to its name as a real and quality-radio company with a serious concern for the radio services as each currently exists under the FCC Rules. ICOM is selling a real Family Radio Service radio. No license required.
When the FCC OET unilaterally authorized the twenty-two channel bubble-pack radio with no objections from the Wireless Telecommunications Bureau the assault on the General Mobile Radio Service began. It was the first time in history that a licensed radio service was combined with an unlicensed radio service. What did the FCC expect the major national retailers to do? Wow what a gift! We believe the FCC expected and even anticipated what has actually happened. The assault on the General Mobile Radio Service was planned by American marketers on behalf of off-shore manufacturers and executed by the bureaucrats of the FCC in Washington D.C. It was all about economy building.
The moment the twenty-two channel bubble-pack radios hit the market GMRS was doomed and the FCC knew it and frankly didn’t care. They decided long ago GMRS should be licensed by rule whether or not the individuals licensed to use GMRS had a chance to publicly argue the merits of the move. Walk into a local retailer and ask them if a license is required to use any of the channels in the twenty-two channel bubble packs. We believe the majority will say no or tell the customer that no one will care. Ask the retailer if a school or business is allowed to use the twenty-two channel bubble pack and the answer will be sure no problem! Most retailers now have no clue that the ONLY license-free channels in most twenty-two channel bubble-pack radios are FRS channels eight through fourteen. There are actually SEVEN FEWER license-free channels in the GMRS/FRS hybrid bubble-packs!
Do not suggest that the market place made the decision, that the hand writing was on the wall. or that at the end of the day it’s what the people wanted. This was planned and executed before a GMRS advocacy group like the Personal Radio Association, Inc. could object on behalf of GMRS licensees. People always want something for nothing. Manufacturers and retailers gave away something that did not belong to them because no one was there to object. This was ultimately a for-profit spectrum grab, nothing more nothing less. A grab that the FCC thought was cool! This was one spectrum grab the government bureaucrats felt was socially acceptable so they engineered a way for it to come true for all radio retailers – eventually.
Had the truth been told to the customer at the point of sale, and had stores observed the licensing laws the big three could have continued to sell license-free radios and license-required GMRS radios. That idea was never explored. The nation might now be building new nation-wide GMRS radio repeater systems. Imagine if the public had access to radio systems other than subscription cellular service. Families could be using radio repeaters, base stations, mobile radios, and hand-held radios in national parks, state parks, amusement parks, tourist areas and even in America’s neighborhoods. The American public believes a cellular subscription is necessary to communicate effectively and exclusively with family members!
Keeping the license-free FRS radios would have meant that a TRUE license-free option was available for families desiring simple no-hassle personal radio communication. Instead we now have interminable interference problems in the GMRS related to the illegal use of the twenty-channel bubble packs radios by everyone and anyone. Families have no clue how to use their new GMRS hybrid radios or how to comply with licensing laws.
The retailers – AMERICAN BUSINESS EXECUTIVES made the choice to co opt GMRS. This was a move to do the wrong thing looking at future business quarters of climbing profits. The retail industry had its eyes on GMRS and they were taking it over. Their fingers were crossed behind their backs and the FCC was giving them the wink.
Interestingly enough the FCC OET and WTB did not approve requests for a dual band LICENSE-FREE radios using MURS and FRS! Draw your own conclusions. We DO NOTE that OET approved a marine VHF radio with FRS included but not before the Personal Radio Association objected through channels to rumors of a combined marine GMRS/FRS combo units. Mark our words. We believe that that the Marine/FRS combo radios are going to appear on the nations ski slopes. The FCC OET has opened Pandoras box and now the Marine Radio Service is in serious trouble. The public is going to ASSUME that the license free FRS channels mean using the marine channels on land is no big deal either! You guessed it. Using marine channels on land is not legal unless you have a special license to permit such operation.
Thousands of licensees in the General Mobile Radio Service who have millions of dollars invested in their family communication or personal-family-business systems do care. I believe that every licensee takes notice of ICOM being the only major radio manufacturer still selling a license-free Family Radio Service two-way radio. Every licensee that has ever given up trying to communicate with a family member because little Johnny and Sally were using the GMRS Mr. Microphone to sing silly songs cares a lot. We think ICOM rocks!
In a way it makes sense. I own quite a bit of ICOM’s stuff. Two R8500 receivers and an ICOM 756 PRO III at the high end and a hand-held ICOM GMRS radio at the low end. Their radios have always impressed me as has their customer service. It just doesn’t get any better than ICOM! A company with this kind of quality would as a matter of course do the right thing by the laws of the United State.
Thanks to Motorola, Cobra, Audiovox, and RadioShack American consumers no longer have lots of license-free FRS radio options. Now it’s a trust issue. You sell the 22-channel bubble pack radio and cross your heart that your customer will only use SEVEN of the 22 channels to stay legal. It is absurd. Only seven of the of the channels in most of these radios are actually license free and those channels are FRS 8-14. FRS 1-7 in a bubble pack are often now at GMRS power levels making the channel ineligible as a license free channel.
By the way, not one of the radios we are talking about is even made in the United States. The 22-channel bubble pack boom never benefited anyone BUT foreign manufacturers and the pocket books of US based marketing folks.
None of the major retailers ever bought into helping build GMRS the right way. The little guys under them like AudioVox and Garmin followed in lockstep pushing the 22-channel radios which have devastated the GMRS with horrendous interference levels in urban areas. The FCC is marching alongside. While license applications have gone up and continue to rise the numbers don’t equal radio sales. Humans follow the path of least resistance just like electrons. Most people will not (and have not) license a 22-channel bubble pack.
We think that individuals, businesses, or organizations considering the purchase of license-free radios should consider the ICOM FRS radio before any other. You can use it without a license. You will not be tempted to operate without a license and if you want to upgrade the licensed radio service will still be there waiting for you. Truth be told, the higher powered bubble packs do not provide the significant mileage claimed by the manufacturers. That is unsupported marketing hype. It always has been and always will be marketing hype. Dropping the license free radios and manufacturing only 22 channel bubble packs was also a marketing decision. One that focused on the future – asking the FCC to license GMRS by rule. A future that we believe will doom GMRS to the same fate as CB radio.
We might already be doomed but until then we think you should buy ICOM FRS if you need a license-free option. You can choose your own ICOM dealer or our preferred ICOM dealer, PopularWireless advertiser NSI Communications. We suggest that RadioShack redeem their own reputation after having helped create FRS by selling a REAL FRS radio and then properly train all of their employees. Retailers should STOP referring to the GMRS hybrids as FRS radios! These are NOT FRS radios they are GMRS radios that require a license for FIFTEEN out of the twenty-two available channels. Signs in stores should tell customers that an FCC license is required and that there is a fee. Until then contact NSI Radio. NSI is the the dealer doing the right thing by the GMRS community and the FCC Rules.
The ICOM IC-4088 is still available:
With rapid charger $145
With overnight charger $124
Radio only, no charger $95
ICOM is a TOP manufacturer of two-way radio equipment and systems. This radio is not a GMRS chew toy. It is a quality product that will give you or your organization excellent service and utility. NSI Radio is ready to take your orders so you can stay license free!
© 2009-2012 PopularWireless.com All Rights Reserved -- Copyright notice by Blog Copyright
This site employs the Wavatars plugin by Shamus Young.