mmckenna
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You do not need a license to just listen. You can program the radio for receive only. Unless you have an FCC issued license, just don't program the radio to transmit. It's that easy.
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Baofeng New operator, need help
- Thread starter TheHighClimbs
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You do not need a license to just listen. You can program the radio for receive only. Unless you have an FCC issued license, just don't program the radio to transmit. It's that easy.
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Unless someone is in the area, they are not listening via RF. You can't listen with the UV-5R, regardless of encryption.
ecps92
Member
stumble across them all you want - it is called "Searching" when you use a scanner
KD8DVR
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you may listen. You may not transmit
TheHighClimbs
Member
Who are you, so wise in the way of words?
There is no such thing as "unknown FCC frequencies". All the frequencies from daylight to darkness are known. However, you might find an unknown user on a portion of the electromagnetic spectrum. As others have said, you can listen just don't transmit on any frequency for which you do not have a license, permission, or type-accepted equipment.
TheHighClimbs
Member
Noted.
TheHighClimbs
Member
Perhaps”unknown” was the wrong term. What I was meaning to ask is how do I find unoccupied frequencies so I can “listen” in peace. I’ve tried to find frequencies I assumed where “empty” if that’s the right word, but then I started receiving something, I couldn’t quite make it out.
An unoccupied frequency would be quiet...as in nothing to listen to. You want to find a frequency that actually has traffic. Unfortunately in your county, the sheriff's office uses a digital mode (DMR) which you cannot decode with an analog radio (UV-5R). Your radio can be used to listen to somethings, but no your sheriff's office.
mmckenna
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Depends on the equipment you have. If you have a scanner, you can set it up to search between the band limits of the scanner. Back when I was young, and before the internet was something we all had access to, there were books of frequencies, or if you were lucky, you'd get a fuzzy copy of a list of local stuff. The rest of it was up to you to find. Using the 'search' function on the scanner was a favorite pass time.
Set the scanner up, let it run, see what you hear.
Or, get one of the cheap SDR radios that plug into your scanner and give you a nice spectrum display that will show you a wide slice of spectrum at once.
Yeah, most stuff —should— be licensed and show up on FCC searches, however, there's a lot of stuff that won't:
-Federal users don't fall under the FCC, they fall under the NTIA, and the NTIA doesn't have an easily searchable database like the FCC. Finding federal stuff can be a challenge.
-Unlicensed users. Yeah, there's a lot of users out there that assume the rules do not apply to them, or that "no one will know", or are not smart enough to understand. Pretty easy to find them.
-There's unlicensed or "license by rule" stuff that won't be well documented and those can be fun to search.
It's a good idea to know where to look, but that's kind of hard to do. A good place to start is to see where people should be, and compare that to what your scanner/receiver will cover.
Start here:
A good place to see assignable frequencies for public safety users is on the FCC Public Safety Pool page:
Federal Register :: Request Access
www.ecfr.gov
For business/industrial users, you can look here:
Federal Register :: Request Access
www.ecfr.gov
If you find something and want to figure out what it is, you can use the frequency search on this site, or you can use the FCC search page:
ecps92
Member
If you want unoccupied and silence - shut off the radio
What do you expect to hear on an unoccupied frequency
is that a troll nibbling at my ankles ?
TheHighClimbs
Member
I need clean frequencies to operate my net of communication on
TheHighClimbs
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Shame
Bingo
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You are limited to where you can transmit. I'm not sure who you are communicating with, but figuring that out would be a good start, then you can determine where you want to chat (GMRS, FRS, amateur radio, etc).
mmckenna
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And where, exactly, in the RF spectrum do you plan on doing this?
The bands that this radio will cover do require licenses to use. I know not everyone agrees with this and some choose not to abide by the rules, that's not for me to judge.
But just because you do not hear radio traffic on a frequencies does NOT mean it is not in use. Without going into lots of details about how radio systems and repeater work, it is entirely possible for you to not hear radio traffic on a frequency, but still be able to cause harmful interference to other users, even public safety users.
While the Chinese who like to sell these POS radios to unknowing American users do not care about this, you should. Before you start transmitting on what you think is a 'clear' frequency, you need to understand how these things work.
If you are hoping to avoid government interference, there are ways to do this that will reduce the chances.
I'm not going to assume you are trying to do anything devious. I'm only going to offer the above words of warning, and my offer to help you do this correctly. All you need to do is ask.
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