Rugged Radios finally gets an FCC Smack-Down

[cmpsa]

I do FCC licensing for a living, and the 1st thing I tell my customers is pick a frequency band 1st, and then I apply for their FCC license in the public safety or industrial/business frequency pool. Once the FCC license has printed with their licensed frequencies, then the radios get programmed. They are complete incompetent morons to sell radios with "pre-programmed" frequencies thinking these freqs will work great for the racing community. Many years ago I worked for a Kenwood & Motorola radio shop that just programmed in any VHF or UHF freqs into business radios. He put business users on fire, police, ham & GMRS channels, etc. The salesman only wanted commission for selling a radio. I ended up doing FCC licensing for them, as a vendor/sub-contractor. Thank goodness I got involved to put that horrible past habit to a stop. PLUS industrial/business "itinerant" and "red dot, green dot, gold star freqs" all required FCC licenses to, as they are not licence free !!

1) Obtain FCC license first.
2) Program radios to FCC licensed frequencies, and nothing further.
3) No FCC license yet - Don't sell any radios (yet) !.

 

[ladn]

Carry around a Bao Feng radio and show it to those losers.

But is yours that pastel blue? Those custom cases have to be worth $100 for the bling factor!

 

[wowologist]

But is yours that pastel blue? Those custom cases have to be worth $100 for the bling factor!

Actually the blue cases as well as the yellow and red cases have been out for literally years. For a while a few years ago they were selling them at chum prices (like 2 for 25$)because no one really wanted them. Then I think they came out the camo version which seemed to be a hit for a short while.

 

[KK4JUG]

But is yours that pastel blue? Those custom cases have to be worth $100 for the bling factor!

If I carried a pastel blue radio around, I'd have to turn in my man card.

 

[kayn1n32008]

If I carried a pastel blue radio around, I'd have to turn in my man card.

Here in Canada, we have CSA rated(IS) radios that are blue. We call them smurf radios, and they are a staple in the oil field.

 

[chrismol1]

They are complete incompetent morons to sell radios with "pre-programmed" frequencies thinking these freqs will work great for the racing community.

Make no mistake, they know exactly what they were doing. $$$$$$$ is all that matters. They say "no problem use our license". In that case we should abolish the FCC licensing since everyone will be licensed under one giant license. Your right, they are morons

 

[nd5y]

Now they have their own FCC grantee code with one product.
Looks like they got that on 11/17 and the first product was granted on 11/26.

https://fccid.io/2AWYH-GMR5-MOB

Two more radios today.

https://fccid.io/2AWYH-H3RB

https://fccid.io/2AWYH-GMRS45

Both are ID changes of existing TYT products.

 

[62Truck]

I do FCC licensing for a living, and the 1st thing I tell my customers is pick a frequency band 1st, and then I apply for their FCC license in the public safety or industrial/business frequency pool. Once the FCC license has printed with their licensed frequencies, then the radios get programmed. They are complete incompetent morons to sell radios with "pre-programmed" frequencies thinking these freqs will work great for the racing community. Many years ago I worked for a Kenwood & Motorola radio shop that just programmed in any VHF or UHF freqs into business radios. He put business users on fire, police, ham & GMRS channels, etc. The salesman only wanted commission for selling a radio. I ended up doing FCC licensing for them, as a vendor/sub-contractor. Thank goodness I got involved to put that horrible past habit to a stop. PLUS industrial/business "itinerant" and "red dot, green dot, gold star freqs" all required FCC licenses to, as they are not licence free !!

1) Obtain FCC license first.
2) Program radios to FCC licensed frequencies, and nothing further.
3) No FCC license yet - Don't sell any radios (yet) !.

Had a radio shop by me that would sell their customers radios and then progarmmed them on FRS.

I remember one time I heard the local hospital security comms coming over FRS channel 7. The hospital volunteers used FRS radios, hospital security was on VHF DMR. The radio shop had set up a link from FRS channel 7 to VHF DMR so the hospital volunteers could communicate with security. The radio shop was within walking distance to the hospital and they had the link set up right at the shop.

 

[div3405]

Here is Rugged radios current frequencies used a Pismo Beach Dunes:

 

[drdeputy]

Here is Rugged radios current frequencies used a Pismo Beach Dunes:
View attachment 104486

Link doesn't work....

 

[jhooten]

Had a radio shop by me that would sell their customers radios and then progarmmed them on FRS.

I remember one time I heard the local hospital security comms coming over FRS channel 7. The hospital volunteers used FRS radios, hospital security was on VHF DMR. The radio shop had set up a link from FRS channel 7 to VHF DMR so the hospital volunteers could communicate with security. The radio shop was within walking distance to the hospital and they had the link set up right at the shop.

A shop sold one of our schools a bunch of 6 channel radios and programmed them 442.000, 442.100, 442.200, 442.300, 442.400, 442.500.

 

[rsmith7799]

These are some of the frequencies they are using. The Web can find anything......

 

[nd5y]

Rugged Radios used to have a lot of frequency lists on their web site. Last time I looked (long time ago) they removed all of them.
They had slightly different lists for different radio models and some of the frequencies changed every year or so.

 

[mancow]

If this country had some VHF and UHF freqs set aside for a CB or FRS type of use without all the ridiculous type certification BS this would be a non issue.

 

[fwradio]

Make no mistake, they know exactly what they were doing. $$$$$$$ is all that matters. They say "no problem use our license". In that case we should abolish the FCC licensing since everyone will be licensed under one giant license. Your right, they are morons

The only problem with the Rugged Radio license from the FCC is that they had it issued with station designators for private, internal use. It could legally only be used by Rugged Radio in their operations. There is a different designator that they should have had put on for allowing others to use their channels. It's a slippery slope to do that as well. They would be responsible for anything a user who is covered under their license does.

 

[krokus]

If this country had some VHF and UHF freqs set aside for a CB or FRS type of use without all the ridiculous type certification BS this would be a non issue.

MURS is VHF
FRS is UHF

There is nothing ridiculous about type acceptance, as it is supposed to keep splattering, crap radios off the air. If anything, they need to get serious about enforcement, and testing of the gear. So this Rugged Ridge slap is a good opening salvo.

 

[mancow]

MURS is VHF
FRS is UHF

There is nothing ridiculous about type acceptance, as it is supposed to keep splattering, crap radios off the air. If anything, they need to get serious about enforcement, and testing of the gear. So this Rugged Ridge slap is a good opening salvo.

Baofeng and such sure. I meant more along the line of a state of the art Apx8000 or equivalent. In that regard its just market manipulation because it obviously fast exceeds specifications.

 

[mmckenna]

Baofeng and such sure. I meant more along the line of a state of the art Apx8000 or equivalent. In that regard its just market manipulation because it obviously fast exceeds specifications.

Wouldn't be hard to do, just takes time and money to do the acceptance testing and fill out the paperwork.

Issue would be that some of the rules preclude other services, like specifically MURS not permitting other services on the radios.

But unlikely the FCC is going to roaming around in undercover cars with US Marshals looking for CB'ers and MURS users to bust.

 

[fwradio]

If this country had some VHF and UHF freqs set aside for a CB or FRS type of use without all the ridiculous type certification BS this would be a non issue.

Type Acceptance certification isn't a hard or expensive thing to get done. It does ensure that the radios shouldn't cause problems.

But we have seen in the recent past where radios have been type-accepted for 1W and then sold putting out 4-5 Watts. All newly-certified Part 90 equipment below 520 must also be 6.25 kHz as well. I have seen some engineering reports (same offender as the one the FCC smacked for the power issue) that claimed 6.25 kHz analog operation when they submitted for FCC type-acceptance. The actual radios delivered only did 12.5 kHz and 25 kHz analog (25 kHz analog was not included in their type-acceptance).

I deal with a lot of companies in China that are trying to push junk on us to sell here. Some of that junk is being sold by others; some of it certified for amateur or GMRS/FRS but they are selling it as commercial gear. I've had some of those Chinese companies tell me that FCC certification isn't required if we don't sell to many. Others claim that their equipment is FCC compliant and they put the FCC logo on there, but no actual type-acceptance. Most Chinese companies don't have any clue about the FCC rules here. They build the radios with amateur radio features and then try to sell it as commercial. Some of the new "companies" here in the US selling this stuff don't have a clue either. I am seeing advertisements on Facebook for amateur equipment being sold as professional radios as well as a lot of non-FCC compliant or certified equipment.

 

[Project25_MASTR]

Now I'm curious as to witch Rugged itinerants line up with mine....