OK it may seem absurd, but when you hear "the whole story" it will make more sense. In the days when CB was in its infancy, there was a service called for lack of a better term "Class A CB". It was an organized citizens radio service requiring licenses, call signs to be used on the air, etc, just like 27 MHZ (HF) CB, but it was in the 450-470 MHZ band (UHF). The problem was, the equipment was VERY expensive so it was under-utilized until the 80's when Standard Radio began developing a nationwide repeater network and started marketing their radios to consumers going cross-country who wanted reliable communications. That lasted several years until for some reason they pulled the plug on it. That created a vacuum which began to be filled with individual GMRS users putting up their own local or regional repeater systems for wide-area coverage (20-50 miles or more depending on how high they could get an antenna) and GMRS "clubs" emerged. The clubs were comprised of radio users who wanted communications for all members of their family plus a few friends who all wanted to talk together. Some even did public service and emergency communications much like many hams (Amateur Radio Operators) do now. In fact many of the early adopters were hams who wanted their families to be able to use a radio without needing a separate ham radio license for each family member. At some point in all this, the FRS radio service was born, with 7 splinter channels in the 467 MHZ range and 7 splinter channels in the 462 MHZ range which were shared with GMRS. The radios were FRS ONLY and did not transmit with more than 1/2 watt power, used a non-detachable antenna and were type accepted by the FCC for ONLY FRS radio service use (non-licensed). Some stupid manufacturer (or stupid manufacturers) got involved a few years later and convinced (coerced, paid off, bribed, whatever) the FCC to change the rules to allow dual-purpose FRS/GMRS units, which ramp up to 1-2 watts when switched to the GMRS channels, and they added the rest of the "regular" GMRS channels we now see in these 21-channel units. These other channels are the ones which were supposed to be assigned in pairs for predominantly repeater use. At that point the service was ruined. Now any "Joe Consumer" could buy a blister-pack radio and, ignoring the licensing requirements in the package, operate whether or not they interfere with "real" radio users of the previously unpolluted GMRS part of the spectrum. So, yes, you do need a license to operate on 462.550, 462.575, 462.600, 462.625, 462.650, 462.675, 462.700 and 462.725 MHZ. These are the eight GMRS-ONLY frequencies, along with their Repeater-input pairs, which should have remained separate and distinct, should never have been added to the blister-pack radios, for time and eternity. But greed from the manufacturers got in the way because they saw a market for radios which would have a similar price-point to the FRS only radios but, by virtue of the fact that they will transmit from two to four times farther than the FRS only radios, became really popular with outdoorsmen, families, sporting enthusiasts, hunters, fishermen, and - YES - businesses too. Even though using any GMRS channel without a license is ILLEGAL and using GMRS for business is illegal as well (except for those who were "grandfathered in" from the days in the 1960's when GMRS was allowed for business).
I would LOVE to see GMRS users groups, consisting of Licensed GMRS users who obey the law and the intent of the band, pop up all over the US, putting up such a saturated density of repeaters all over the countryside, in cities and on mountaintops, that it becomes totally impossible to use the blister-pack radios on the GMRS channels because of the high powered repeaters and mobiles and base radios overwhelming the signals and driving the illegal users off the air permanently.
That dream may be impossible to realize, though, because the lucrative blister pack market continues to place, cheap, dirty (RF-wise) low-receive sensitivity radios in the hands of what I call "the entitlement generation" who feel it is their right to ignore the laws of the land and use these devices any way they please no matter how it ruins it for other legitimate radio users.
Like I said before, ignorance of the law is no excuse, in the eyes of the FCC.
Am I to understand that if I buy my kid and the neighbor's kid one of those $39 blister pack FRS radios and they get caught using it for their personal use, I might be subject to a $10,000 fine?
This reminds me of back in the day of CB radios - a $5.00 license was "required". I later found out that I was about the only one with a license.
Absurd? I think so. Not for business purposes, but for causal personal use... I sounds like overkill.
