Is there a legit way to use these without a Ham license? I sometimes ski in areas with bad cell service and it would be neat to have an alternative. I've seen portable CB radios but they're on the pricier side
Besides being noncompliant in ways that people are more likely to consider harmless technicalities, such as the antenna being removable.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Mobile_Radio_Service#F...
If you have an emergency you can initiate emergency traffic.
Bought an UV-R5 years ago during a short prepping spree as backup if the mobile net is compromised. Took off the antenna and transmitted less than a second to see if an RTL-SDR would pick up the carrier wave. Then it went into storage and I top up the battery once per year.
> essential communication needs in connection with the immediate safety of human life and immediate protection of property when normal communication systems are not available
(47 CFR § 97.403)
That is, just because your communications are related to an ongoing emergency doesn't automatically give you the right to transmit without a license.
So unless there's another part of the FCC rules that allows this I'm unaware of, even emergency communications made by unlicensed users are illegal.
If you want to get a license just to play on the radio, it is super easy. A Technician license will allow you legally to use any VHF/UHF radio with full access to those bands (plus all of 6m and some access to other HF bands).
It’s extremely simple to get licensed. Put the HamStudy app on your phone, run through the question pool/practice exams until the info is in your memory, and then sign up for a remote exam on HamStudy.org. I studied for my Technician license for like a day and a half and aced the Tech exam. I aced my General and Extra exams within a week using the same method. I have no background in tech or EE. So, yeah, it’s easy.
In my humble opinion, the rules on antenna and transmit power for FRS are annoying - garbage range and prone to interference. I wouldn't want to risk pissing off the FCC or a ham with too much time on their hands by running hot on FRS constantly...
But for occasional backwoods travel with friends or to use in an emergency without clogging up ham frequencies, it's totally possible to reprogram certain Baofengs and these radios to transmit on FRS frequencies with low wattage. In fact, I think FRS was modified to allow higher power now, so the low-end of these radios fits. It's just the antenna reg that they break now.
If you modify a bunch of Fengs to run on FRS/GMRS freqs to talk up and down the mountain out in the middle of nowhere, sure, it’s illegal, but if no one hears your transmissions other that the people on the mountain, it’s not an issue unless you take the FCC regs as moral edicts. But if you’re looking for a way to get a signal out in an emergency, a satphone is still going to be your best bet.
Ideally something that doesn't require everyone to have a license (eg I can just hand a friend a without advance prep) but with a couple miles of range without LOS (maybe I'm underestimating the Toys R Us walkie talkies but I'm assuming they don't reach that far).
I've also seen LoRa based solutions like Meshtastic but not sure how practical it is
He's already seen Meshtastic, which is something I definitely want to play with for his exact use-case: coordinating with friends while skiing.
https://backcountryaccess.com/en-us/c/bc-link-radios/
Any decently made GMRS radio should be fine for coordinating around the ski resort. I've had mixed results with FRS as the range is quite poor. This is amplified by the fact that the other party could be on a different face of the mountain as well as covered by trees. It's also convenient that many GMRS and FRS frequencies overlap, so if someone in your party only has an FRS radio or doesn't have a license, they can still communicate with GMRS users, assuming they're within range.
As another commenter pointed out a satellite communicator would be preferable in an emergency situation, as FRS/GMRS cannot be relied on to request emergency or rescue services. I keep a Garmin inReach Mini for this purpose.
IOW, I think you're solving the wrong problem.
You need to renew the license every 10 years, but as long as you renew you don't need to take a test (which is maybe what you mean by "lasts a lifetime").
Which is absolute shit.
That said, these days the FCC gives absolutely zero shits about what happens on 11m, so I wouldn’t expect any knocks at the door if you modify a non-CB radio for use on CB channels.
So you're right, you could use ham radio, but it does require a license, but it's probably not hard to get.
Also, if you've an emergency, technically whatever you need to do to get help is fine. But it had better be a life and death emergency. Especially if you end up taking over the radio to a government agency, e.g. FAA or DoD.
Yep. If you're reading this, you probably have the technical background to pass the Technician exam pretty easily.
A big chunk of the exam is stuff you learned in the physics class you probably had to take along the way. The rest is largely about specific regulations, like the power limit at this frequency is X, and don't build a tower more than Y tall within Z of airport.
If you can remember "frequency * wavelength = speed of light" and "watts = volts * amps", you could probably get a passing score on the technical part of it without studying in advance.
General and Extra are more like "OK, here's how you can get as close as possible to those things we told you not do to without getting in trouble."