A couple of my friends were thinking about getting DMR radios, like the cheap Baofeng's just to listen to the local businesses using DMR radios. My question is can the be programmed to listen to them or do these radios require a license? I watched a programming video where the guy had to put in his license info before he could program it. They came to me because I programmed scanners for years up until all the P25 and talk group stuff started and could not give them a good answer so here i am.
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- Thread starter scanman75
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The cheap Baofengs can't be programmed for true DMR but there are some DMR radios out there for around a hundred bucks you can program if you have the data for the particular systems.
Most of these systems are relatively low power and you need to be within a few miles to reliably monitor them. Once you do, you will find little of interest to listen to unless you happen to work there and have an interest in the particular company.
You do not need a license to monitor or receive transmissions. If you are going to transmit then that is technically a different story.
Most of these systems are relatively low power and you need to be within a few miles to reliably monitor them. Once you do, you will find little of interest to listen to unless you happen to work there and have an interest in the particular company.
You do not need a license to monitor or receive transmissions. If you are going to transmit then that is technically a different story.
you won't need a license to buy them or to listen to them but you will need an appropriate license to transmit a signal.
Back when I first got licensed (1975) and bought my first radio, the store I bought it from actually required me to show my license before he'd sell me the radio; the idea being, if it can transmit (even if you don't use the transmitter), they had to make sure the radio goes to someone who's properly licensed or the seller would get into serious trouble.
I'm not sure if the seller was being over-cautious or if there was an actual rule about that; if there was, it might even have changed since then. I've maintained that, though, when I sell a transmitter or transceiver on e-bay: I tell people I will only ship to licensed hams and will send only to a valid location I can confirm on the web. (Even if it's not required legally anymore, I'm not about to stick my neck out and get into trouble because the radio ended up where it shouldn't.)
i've been a licensed ham since 1983, bought lots of radios and have never been asked to show a license. i have been asked IF i had a call but in those occasions i did not get the impression that the sale would be canceled if the answer was 'no'.
ecps92
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and AES, and others...
Thanks for the info, my friend is blind and loves listening to radios, especially the local school buses, which are now DMR and was looking for a way to listen without spending $600 for a scanner. we both are from the old CB radio days and miss that a lot !
Which radios are you referring to for DMR that are around $100 ? also I've seen the Anytone radios that are a couple hundred, are they any good?
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