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this post was submitted on 30 Jun 2025
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I thought about getting a ham license so are you telling me there is really no need?
You don't need one if there's an emergency, civil unrest would probably qualify as an emergency so non-licensed people can legally transmit.
The FCC hasn't really punished anyone for not having a license other than those that are really bothersome/disruptive or are doing jamming. But like, if there's civil unrest, the laws probably don't matter anymore so you can just ignore the law.
But if you don't have a license, you don't have a callsign, and thus others will refuse to talk to you during non-emergency peacetime.
Get into ham radio if you like radios, that's pretty much the only topic you'll find on the air.
A HAM license realistically is for two things:
1 the test teaches you major items you should know about how radio works 2 how to not fuck shit up for everyone else
For the bands allocated to HAM radio in the US, as long as you're not fucking shit up for everyone else the FCC doesn't really care. A good example of that and my personal favorite rule is the power transmission rule of "only enough power to complete the transmission". Functionally it's so vague that I doubt anyone would ever actually get their license suspended over it.
The group ~~AFRL~~ ARRL has a pretty restrictive "band plan" that I think is where the above comment's salt is coming from. A perception I have and have heard others talk about is the HAM community has a tendency to be borderline hostile to newcomers and are very gate-keepy, which ARRL in my experience embodies.
I have a license purely to play by the rules from a legal standpoint when I'm out in the rocky mountains hiking and camping with friends, makes communicating with different groups way easier
Edit: formatting, typoing ARRL
Do you mean ARRL?
I agree their bandplan is pretty restricty, but it's also not law. It's more for playing nice with each other. Keep high power up here so it doesn't wipe out the people playing with low power, digital here so they don't get overrun by voice, etc. You wouldn't have any idea you're stepping on someone sending Morse if you're on FM. So there's reason for it.
And yeah, with line of sight radios, nobody gives two shits 20 miles from civilization in the woods.
Lol whoops yeah, ARRL. I work in aerospace where we love our alphabet soup and I brainfarted AFRL.
I wasn't trying to say that the band plan doesn't exist for a reason, it absolutely does, some reasons which you pointed out exactly. I've definitely been around guys who treat the band plan like it is the law, and I imagine the original commenter had the misfortune of running into one of those guys and believed him at face value. Imho it's one of the reasons ham radio has been dying as a hobby.
So am I able to goof around on the radio till I get my license or do I really need to have my license first?
Nothing legally stops you from listening. To transmit, you are legally required to have a callsign (which you must broadcast during transmit) and your callsign must be licensed for that frequency.
If you break the law, it's highly unlikely that the FCC themselves will hunt you down and fine you. If you're using it to talk to others on the HAM bands, they'll likely get pissed at you for not being licensed but actually tracking you down is difficult. Using it for your own personal projects, friend groups, etc, it's unlikely anyone would notice you at all.
A license is like $15 for life (just need to occasionally tell the FCC you're still alive), the test will teach you some stuff, I don't see it as that onerous to play by the rules so I'd recommend following them.
It's illegal to push that button until you're licensed.
(No one will search you out if you're not being annoying)
This guy's full of shit. You can talk all you want on the HF bands, they're certainly not exclusively for contesting. You can do Morse code or digital modes too. The "most actual communication is illegal on ham bands" thing is wrong too, you can talk about pretty much anything you want as long as it's not "obscene or profane," according to the FCC.
It's illegal to transmit music, it's illegal to transmit anything encrypted unless you're controlling a satellite, it's illegal to transmit anything for commercial purposes, and it's actually illegal to transmit anything on a regular basis that could reasonably be communicated some other way.
True, for obvious reasons
True, it helps to ensure nothing illegal is going on and enforce keeping commercial interests out. It's a self regulating space, one of the only cases I know of that tends to work due to there being no monetary interests allowed. The point is to communicate information, not hide it.
True, the whole point is to keep commercial interests out. That's what "amateur" means.
False. This is for something like a non-profit wanting to use radios for their operations, they should be steered toward another service like gmrs, FRS, murs, etc. instead of amateur radio.
I call bs on the encryption part too. You just need to publicly post the key for your encryption and say you're not trying to hide what you're saying.
I haven't seen any regulations saying where you need to publicly post the key.
I say license up now and learn it how the shit works. Never know when some "pirate" stations may be needed.