This morning, I got the following email from a former student:
I’m looking for some wisdom. If I’m communicating over amateur radio channels with a couple groups of people who are using radios without licenses, should I use my call sign? I’m wondering if by doing so, I make myself a target. The groups I’m dealing with are two militia groups and one RV campground, all three using Baofengs. I cannot stop the usage. So do you think it’s wiser to just hide in the group and not identify myself, or always identify myself so I am legal?
Thanks for your wisdom.
Wow. What a question, eh? My initial reaction was that this is really a no-win situation, if you want to be strictly legal. It’s a rules violation to not properly identify, but it’s also a violation to communicate as an amateur radio operator with other stations not operating in the Amateur Radio Service (except, of course, in emergencies).
I asked Dan Henderson, N1ND, the ARRL “rules guy” about this, and he replied,
The FCC doesn’t require amateur licensees to verify whether the other station is licensed before the are allowed to communicate with them – but upon determining that the other station is not one with which you are permitted to communicate, then the burden falls to the licensed amateur to follow the rules and cease communication with the unlicensed station.
I also suggested that he consider reporting the illegal operation to the ARRL. The ARRL Volunteer Monitor Program is supposed to work with the FCC on these types of issues, but I didn’t find any way to do this on the ARRL website. I emailed Riley Hollingsworth, K4ZDH, who’s heading up the program, about this, and he replied that you can report this activity directly to him. His email address is [email protected].
If it were me, I might politely advise them that it’s not really legal to use amateur radio frequencies, and that they might want to use the Family Radio Service (FRS) or General Mobile Radio Service (GMRS) frequencies instead.
FRS is license-free, but radios used on FRS frequencies are supposed to be limited to 2 W output. I’m guessing, though, that they could use their Baofengs on FRS frequencies at the 5 W or even 8 W level, without serious repercussions, even though it’s technically illegal.
GMRS would really be the way to go. Legally using GMRS radios does require paying for a license—which some preppers would be hesitant to do—but you can use higher power radios (up to 50 W!) and even set up repeaters.
Anyway, my question to you is what advice would you give my student?