[aprssig] Radio Pirates

[Stephen H. Smith]

On 1/14/2012 11:56 AM, Bob Bruninga wrote:
> Chinese Radios invade:
>
> Went to local flea market today (34F degrees out) for a wwod stove and was shocked to see a guy selling brand-new boxes of VHF and UHF, and Dual band HT's fully programmable from 140 to 170 and 440 to 570 MHz 5 to 7 watts.
>
>
>
> I guess I knew that these were available, but now that they are being sold in large quantities at general (non ham) flea markets, I guess the cat is out of the bag. They have full TT pads too..
>
>

You must live a very protected and sheltered life.  These have been widely 
offered at flea markets and swap meets (both general and ham/electronic) for at 
least 5 years now.     They are are also sold through many highway truck stops 
and CB shops.

Over 15 years ago, when I was working on a wide-area mobile-data project for 
Southern California Gas (900 MHz data network covering half the state of 
California), I spent the better part of a week chasing interference to one of 
their VHF dispatch channels in the Los Angeles area.  It turned to be an 
Armenian carpet cleaning company in Glendale, CA who had been sold "low cost 
long range" FM radios by a vendor at a  swap meet. After we eliminated them, we 
discovered three more users (a local courier/delivery service, an medical lab 
service and an independent pizza delivery joint) also using our channel with 
the same radios but set to different PL codes!

Love's  (major chain of Interstate highway truck stops) has been busted by the 
FCC and fined some insignificant amount 4 or 5 times now for selling  "10-meter 
Amateur Band Transceivers" that also conveniently also cover 11 meters (with 
full VFO control!).   The FCC's feeble enforcement attempts don't seem to deter 
them.  They are STILL available......