I'm still waiting to hear what the "several other legitimate reasons" are for offering modification services for extending transmit on ham tranceivers.
So far, we've got
1.) MARS / CAP (debunked)
2.) Because the owner will mess up their radio trying to modify it themselves (soon to be debunked)
3.) The old "it's for emergencies!" (Weak, at best)
Am I missing any or is that all the reasons that there are?
Now that we've established that Mars/Cap is not a legitimate reason, lets talk about owners breaking their radios trying to diy. I have a hard time believing this because there will still be a large number of customers that will be confident in their diode removing abilities to do it themselves to save money and possibly foul up their radios in the process. Now if you were offering the modification for free upon request as a mid term cost reduction strategy, I'd have an easier time believing that. Alas, I don't.
If someone modifies their radio direct them to the manufacturers warranty service department. If this is such a big problem for your own 30 day return policy (Assuming that's what you're talking about), put a safety seal label on the radio's housing that says "warranty void if seal broken".
Oh but "It's for emergencies!"
This may be a reason for someone to carry a frequency agile radio, or even modify a ham radio or transmit wherever they have to in a life or death situation. You can easily find where I have said on here time and time again that if someone is in a life or death emergency, they should transmit wherever they have to in order to get rescued. Fine or no fine, when your life is at stake, who cares about a fine?
But it doesn't justify promoting and offering a service whereby the modification is done for a price. That just encourages people to do the modification. And we're talking about hams here. Contrary to what the pictures in the brochures would have you believe, hams are not exactly known for their backcountry hiking, mountain climbing, mountain biking and expeditions in the wilderness where things such as cellphones and shouting won't get you the help you need.
Perhaps in another time, where we didn't have ePIRBS and PLBs and cell phones up the wazoo, and someone to actually talk to outside of the ham band on wideband 20 or 25 khz channels, we'd see a plausible reason here.
As for the UV5R, not that it has a whole lot to do with what we're talking about here...
as a couple of others have said, it does have a part 90 cert. But TECHNICALLY, it doesn't for how people want to use it. Starting with the bogus emission designator. What is that?! Or the insanely low power levels. People are going to use these for FM voice with 4 or 5 watts and thereby use the radio in a way that it isn't certified for.
How is that relevant to the discussion of modifying ham radios for profit?
Because if anyone sells one of those UV5R's (specifically because many other Chicom radios have legit part 90 certs) as a part 90 radio to be used for business or public safety, they too would be engaging in an unethical business practice.
But a Puxing 780 or Wouxun or any number of others are perfectly legit. If you, as a dealer, don't think it's ethical to sell them, then by all means, don't sell them. But that's not a reason to encourage and promote people to modify their ham gear.
I'm going to tell you why modifying ham radios and the use of the front panel programmable chinese radios has contributed to the slow, agonizing death of our hobby. And by "our hobby," I'm talking about monitoring, which is what this website and forum is primarily about.
If you've listened to any of the last remaining holdouts on vhf/uhf conventional, be it public safety or even mall security, it doesn't take long before you start hearing kerchunking and unauthorized transmissions, be them on purpose or accidental. I know of a ham who would never intentionally transmit on a public safety channel for which he is not authorized but because he had a modified radio and was not paying attention to what channel he was on at the time, he threw out his call sign over the police dispatch channel!!!
I'm not naming any names!!! :lol:
Bad, bad, bad, idea.
And when enough of this crap happens, when the vote comes up for migrating to some encrypted multi million dollar unmonitorable radio system, there isn't any opposition.
Therefore, modifying ham radios has played a role in the death of our hobby. I have a problem with the wholesale promotion of modifcation services for that reason.
