"bpnjensen" wrote in message
oups.com...
One more item on this matter -

If I were to buy a license for the operations of these radios, it
would be the first time - EVER - that I had paid more for the license
than for the equipment itself. In this case, about 200% of the
equipment value. When I got my Amateur radio license several years
ago, it didn't cost nearly as much as the used equipment I had
purchased for a decent price. When I got my CB license way back when,
it cost $20 -seemed fairly steep at the time, but still only about
1/6th of what I paid for a single radio, and less than 7% of the
overall investment (two radios plus base/mobile antennas was probably
in the neighborhood of $350 all told).

I got a lot of use out of both of those batches of equipment - thus,
the prices of the licenses were both eminently reasonable.

Now, the license costs twice as much as *two* of the radios
themselves? Which I use a lot less than either of those older radio
systems? This is to say nothing of the fact that a license to operate
a car/boat/etc costs nowhere near the price of the vehicles, all of
which have vastly more potential for abuse and irresponsible
operation, with far greater consequences, than 5-watt walkies talkies
with a two-mile effective range. Heavy equipment operators and truck
drivers would go belly-up instantly if the government tried to charge
a proportionally high kind of license fee. Nowhere is there a license
whose fee is so high in comparison to the equipment being operated.

I think the FCC is off its rocker.

This is really an irrelevant point. The cost of the equipment has nothing
to do with what and why a fee is charged. If you had a $2K gmrs
basestation, then you would pay the fee?? What strange thinking. If you
want a kids toy, change to 49 mhz units. What you want is something that
will go for a good distance. Therefore you need to pay the fee to register.
You did that for your ham license. If you had a fleapower qrp station, you
still would have to pay the fee. Again the cost is totally irrelevant to
the equipment used. As a fellow ham, I would think you would know why the
fee needs to be paid. Although, maybe your a no-code that has no concept of
operating being a privilege and not a right. Maybe the FCC IS off its
rocker, but that is not an excuse to rob the government of a fee. That is
just thievery, plain and simple sir. Again, if you don't like it, do
something to change it besides anarchy.
B