Just curious I was recently at a professional Off Road race and noticed almost all the teams were using Baofeng type radios in the pit areas for different personnel and some spotters along the course were using them also. I always thought you needed a Ham license to use these. I talked to a few guys and they said they were not hams and were using a race frequency. Now I know some of the big teams probably went through the FCC and have designated frequencies for their teams but there are no way some of these low budget teams have done this. I'm curious as to what frequencies they could use to get away with this. Also my sons Mountain bike team uses Baofeng radios for the coaches and spotters out in the course as do all the other teams. I also know that they are using some sort of private channel. How do they go about finding or getting these frequencies?
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There isn't any "race channels". There is no radio service dedicated to racing of any sort.
Some large teams have FCC licensed channels they use.
Some manufacturers (BF Goodrich, Goodyear, a few others) have their own channels that they "let" teams use.
Everyone else is on their own.
Many years ago I did some research into this. I looked into what one of the "racing radio" companies was doing. They were selling high power mobile and hand held radios with "pre-programmed race frequencies". When I started pressing on them and checking the individual frequencies, they were either licensed to individual race teams, individual companies, and a few others like FRS, MURS, marine channels, etc.
This raises some legality issues, actually, quite a number of them. I won't go into the details as it's a lot of typing and it just usually deteriorates into people claiming they'll use "whatever frequency they want and they FCC will never catch them". I'm not going to try to convince anyone what's right or wrong, just holding FCC rules up and comparing it to what the "racing radio" companies are doing.
Anyway, if you do some google searches, you'll find some of the frequencies listed in various places. Mostly look into Baja1000 and similar large races.
The big issue that comes up with these BaoFengs is that the people buying them know nothing about radios. They buy them off Amazon or similar dealers and assume that whatever they came pre-programmed with from the dealer is license free and OK to use. Not the case.
Other issue is that these types of users will decide they want a private channel and will just randomly program in a frequency and claim it as 'theirs'. Again, not the case.
In the U.S.A., -every- radio frequency has rules attached. There are no "free" channels. Radio frequencies either require an FCC assigned license or they are what is called "License By Rule", which means you can use them without an FCC issued license as long as you follow the rules that apply to the radio service the frequencies are in. Often these cheap Chinese radios don't meet the requirements of the rules, so even when on FRS, GMRS, MURS, Marine VHF channels and the like, they are still operating outside the technical rules of the radio service.
In the end, the FCC is too understaffed to do anything about it, unless some fool programs in a frequency used by an agency with enough power to get the FCC to act.
As stated by others, people that do a bit of homework will find that putting these radios on one of the radio services like FRS, GMRS, MURS, will usually not run into any issues. Doesn't mean it's legal, but in most cases it goes either unnoticed, or it annoys someone who never does anything about it.
Usually, when confronted, these types of users will use one of a few excuses:
1. "The dealer said it was legal to use this channel." -wrong-
2. "My boss says we have a license." -rarely-
3. "I'm above the law -or- the FCC will never find me."
4. "*%#! off! I'll do whatever I want"
5. Or just claim complete ignorance -usually 100% the truth.
To do this right, there are a couple of steps that need to happen. Buying a cheap radio is not the first step, ever.
1. Identify the need, coverage expectations, exact type of use.
2. Contact a frequency coordination service to help you find a frequency that fits your proposed usage and area of operation.
3. Apply for FCC licensing.
4. One you have completed frequency coordination and have the FCC license, then -and only then- do you purchase the radios.
Far too often people will buy a bunch of radios first, they try to get a license for the frequency they are on. It doesn't work that way.
I've typed enough, and this is probably just going to trigger an argument anyway....