Cost of FCC 2-Way-Radio License
Recently I bought a pair of Midland GXT1000VP4 GMRS Two-Way Radios so my wife and I can communicate with each other when she is hiking and I am at our campsite. Now I see that the box says "FCC Licens...
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While the specs by Midland may claim 36 miles it's highly unlikely you will get that even under ideal conditions. Maybe if you were on a cleared mountain top and the other person was on a cleared mountain top and there was nothing between both of you but a body of water. And the conditions were perfect. Radio manufacturers/sellers tend to exaggerate the performance of their products - alot.
Realistically what you can expect is 1-2 miles over flat, unobstructed ground. Any obstructions will greatly degrade the range.
Reading the specs on the Midland GXT1000VP4 it appears to be a standard FRS/GMRS radio. There are 22 standard channels. Channels 8-14 are the FRS freqs. Output for FRS is limited to .5 watt. The other freqs will be GMRS or the permitted combined FRS/GMRS. Power will usually be a bit higher than .5 depending on the radio. With the small cheap GMRS radios power is usually 2 watts but some GRMS can be 50 watts.
Each channel will usually have as many as 38 sub-tones which some makers describe as another channel. Without going into a lot of detail in a way you could say each is another channel altho not. They will just allow you to talk on one sub-tone and not hear another sub-tone.
Midland claims 50 channels which is more than the standard 22 channels. The way they do that is by hard programming a channel with one of the sub-tones. For example with other makes you can go to Channel 7 and then go to sub-tone 3. Or another other combination of the channels and sub-tones. What Midland does to get "50 channels" is hard program say Channel 7/sub-tone 3. Looks and acts like a separate channel but it's just the standard channel/sub-tone combination.
To answer your question about licenses. You'll see why I went into the explanation above. On the FRS channels, 8-14, no license is required. In 2017 the FCC ruled that low power (under 2 watts) FRS/GMRS radios do not need a license. Apparently your Midland exceeds the 2 watts on GMRS. FRS (channels 8-14) would still be low power and FRS does not require a license.
Bottom line, to be legal, if your Midland does exceed 2 watts on channels 1-7 and 15-22 then you would need a license to operate on those channels but not if operating on channels 8-14.
Realistically what you can expect is 1-2 miles over flat, unobstructed ground. Any obstructions will greatly degrade the range.
Reading the specs on the Midland GXT1000VP4 it appears to be a standard FRS/GMRS radio. There are 22 standard channels. Channels 8-14 are the FRS freqs. Output for FRS is limited to .5 watt. The other freqs will be GMRS or the permitted combined FRS/GMRS. Power will usually be a bit higher than .5 depending on the radio. With the small cheap GMRS radios power is usually 2 watts but some GRMS can be 50 watts.
Each channel will usually have as many as 38 sub-tones which some makers describe as another channel. Without going into a lot of detail in a way you could say each is another channel altho not. They will just allow you to talk on one sub-tone and not hear another sub-tone.
Midland claims 50 channels which is more than the standard 22 channels. The way they do that is by hard programming a channel with one of the sub-tones. For example with other makes you can go to Channel 7 and then go to sub-tone 3. Or another other combination of the channels and sub-tones. What Midland does to get "50 channels" is hard program say Channel 7/sub-tone 3. Looks and acts like a separate channel but it's just the standard channel/sub-tone combination.
To answer your question about licenses. You'll see why I went into the explanation above. On the FRS channels, 8-14, no license is required. In 2017 the FCC ruled that low power (under 2 watts) FRS/GMRS radios do not need a license. Apparently your Midland exceeds the 2 watts on GMRS. FRS (channels 8-14) would still be low power and FRS does not require a license.
Bottom line, to be legal, if your Midland does exceed 2 watts on channels 1-7 and 15-22 then you would need a license to operate on those channels but not if operating on channels 8-14.
