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[font "Arial Black"][red][size 3] I have a question on this new BFT channel thing. I have a Garmin Rino 120and I'm told that I need to have an FCC license to go to the upper channels past 14, is this true? [/size][/red][/font]
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[font "Arial Black"][#ff0000][size 3]AFDan52[/size][/#ff0000][/font]
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Yes you do need a license. Only the FRS (low range) chanels can be used for free, if you use the others, the FCC wants your money. I'd be willing to be that 99% of people that use them don't have a license though.
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I'm sure this will become like CB radios. There was a time when you had to have a license for them. However, there became so many people using them, and it is so difficult to track down someone abusing a mobile radio, that they dropped the license requirement.
Most of the FRS radios out there now have GMRS frequencies on them. These are the frequencies that require the license. As someone else mentioned, I'll bet it is far less than 10% of the users that actually have gotten the licenses.
However, if you are worried about the regulation, the channel most people on this site use is in the FRS range, so no license required. Also, if you are out on the lake, your FRS will get up around 5+ miles since you have a lot longer line-of-sight. I've had mine reach as far as 6 miles before on FRS frequencies.
And congrats on the Rino choice. It is a great setup! The only problem is you need a couple of them to use all the features. I love the fact that it plots the person you are talking to on the GPS, as long as you are using FRS frequencies. This could be critical if you are camping with kids.
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[font "Arial Black"][red][size 3] Thanks for the help guys, i think I got what I was looking for .[/size][/red][/font]
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[font "Arial Black"][#ff0000][size 3]AFDan52[/size][/#ff0000][/font]
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