These aren't just your childhood walkie-talkies. These are sold as GMRS radios which means legally, you must have acquired a GMRS license from the FCC to transmit on them. This license is simply a pay-to-play piece of paper which doesn't require a test like ham radio licenses do. Without the license, all you can do is listen to other people talk, or listen in on aircraft if you are somewhere with a lot of air traffic.
If you understand GMRS radios, you can program these not only for the standard 21 channels, but also program them to communicate properly with any local GMRS repeaters for much longer ranges of communication. If you don't know what a repeater is, these probably aren't the radios for you.
According to the FCC, a single radio can not be used to transmit on both GMRS and ham frequencies. However, if you turn it on while holding down both the PTT and #8 buttons, the radio becomes unlocked, allowing you to access both ham and GMRS frequencies. In this condition, you can listen in on the local 2m and 70cm ham radio operators and GMRS users, but transmitting now would be illegal.
Regardless of being locked or unlocked, you'll have the ability to listen to FM commercial radio, AM airband, and NOAA weather frequencies but the radios won't transmit on those.
One can use the free radio programming software "CHIRP" to program these radios The radio can store 999 different channels, allowing me to program it for hit pretty much any repeater in Texas.
One other thing I really like about these radios is that the batteries can be charged directly via a USB-C cable from a USB port. That saves a lot of space and clutter.
If you understand GMRS radios, you can program these not only for the standard 21 channels, but also program them to communicate properly with any local GMRS repeaters for much longer ranges of communication. If you don't know what a repeater is, these probably aren't the radios for you.
According to the FCC, a single radio can not be used to transmit on both GMRS and ham frequencies. However, if you turn it on while holding down both the PTT and #8 buttons, the radio becomes unlocked, allowing you to access both ham and GMRS frequencies. In this condition, you can listen in on the local 2m and 70cm ham radio operators and GMRS users, but transmitting now would be illegal.
Regardless of being locked or unlocked, you'll have the ability to listen to FM commercial radio, AM airband, and NOAA weather frequencies but the radios won't transmit on those.
One can use the free radio programming software "CHIRP" to program these radios The radio can store 999 different channels, allowing me to program it for hit pretty much any repeater in Texas.
One other thing I really like about these radios is that the batteries can be charged directly via a USB-C cable from a USB port. That saves a lot of space and clutter.
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