In article et,
Joseph Fenn wrote:

I bought 2 of these tiny little FRS radioes so could keep in touch
with wife when she takes her daily walks. I called the FCC
and asked them if any kind of license is required to use thses.
They said certain chnls do require FCC license which costs $75 for
a 1 year period. Chnls 1 thru 7 need this license also the
higher chnls I believe was 16 to 20 also require FCC license.
The others do not require any license or ID when used.
So I set both hers and mine to chnl 12 (frs free useage chnl).
These free chnls per docs have a range of up to 7 miles. The
FCC licensed chnls with same unit have a range up to 14 miles.

Sure... if you're up at 3000 feet on a mountaintop, with a clear view
to the mountaintop on which the other person is standing :-)

More commonly, in a city or in the woods, FRS radios will work
tolerably well for a quarter-mile or so, often to half a mile. Beyond
that, they're marginal to useless.

If you have a GMRS (license-required) radio, which actually puts out a
full 5 watts or so on the GMRS channels (and *very* few of the
dual-mode radios do) you might go a couple of miles in city terrain.
Most of the dual-mode radios have no more power on the GMRS
frequencies than on the FRS and shared frequencies.

Claims of 7 - 14 miles for these radios are sheer marketingbabble -
they're incredibly optimistic.

When my wife was trying to reach me from a shopping center about
10 miles away she did find a spot that worked. But next time
we tried I Could'nt hear her well only a sylable or 2.
She says after she tried 4 or 5 times, some one came up and
said this is the "POLICE" do you need help!!! How in the heck
does FCC get into the picture or better yet how does the FCC
even monitor these FRS chnls. I thought they only monitor 911.

The FCC itself almost certainly was not monitoring.

It might have been the police. Or, it might have been someone from a
community emergency preparedness group (CERT, or perhaps REACT) who
was monitoring and who was willing to call the police on your wife's
behalf. Might even have been an off-duty policeman who keeps an FRS
radio around to speak with her husband :-)

--
Dave Platt AE6EO
Hosting the Jade Warrior home page: http://www.radagast.org/jade-warrior
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