Batboard

I dont know but i think this is the wrong place to post this but seriously, how do you get it.
I have 2 Motorola SP10 VHF radio and 1 Motorola CP200 VHF radio. These radios are business band but can i use them for personal use? I dont own a business or anything but i just want to use it like for example when i go on road trips i need to communicate with another car. My question is how do you get an FCC license. I dont have a marine radio and the FCC says you dont need license to operate a marine radio but this isn't a marine radio. So can someone guide me, step by step on how to get one. I have money so I just need the steps and links. I dont want the FCC to catch me operating without my license so yeah Please help and thank you.



Thank You and have a nice day

-QQCCA

NOTE: Edited one time to delete software question which you get only from Motorola under license, and we also recommend that you read the Forum rules carefully before posting.

Go to your local radio shop and see if they have a licensing group.

Does RadioShack work? and how old do you have to be to get one?

Okay, here we go. Sit back and pay attention.

1. There a quite a few different types of radio services in the USA at this time.
2. The Amateur Service requires a technical test and license for four classes of license, all of which are free except for an exam fee. (One important thing to know about the Amateur Service is that it is strictly non-commercial, whereas all of the other classes discussed below can be used for commercial purposes.)
3. The Land Mobile Radio Service requires no technical test but costs money, as well as a good reason, to obtain.
4. The MURS (google it to see what that means) service requires no test and no license and allows operation on five VHF channels at not more than 2 watts of power. It is still regulated by the FCC and has some fairly simply operating rules.
5. Forget the Marine service; if you don't have a boat it's not open to you.
6. Forget about Radio Shack. There probably is no one there who is competent to advise you or answer your questions.
7. There is a UHF Citizens Band (called GMRS, or sometimes just CB) where you can run decent power, the license costs $80 or so, but your present radios will not work there because they're VHF and this band is UHF. There is a somewhat related service to GMRS called FRS (Family Radio Service). FRS requires no license to operate. These are portable radios limited to one half watt power and are also UHF. These are the el cheapo radios you see being sold in blister packs at Target. They're good for very short distances, depending on conditions but are considered to be more like toys by most people.

So there, speaking very broadly, are your options. If your only need is to speak car-to-car during road trips then the MURS service would probably work for you. If after you do some more investigating the Amateur Service looks good you might want to invest your time and effort in getting a license. Books about getting the Amateur Licenses are available at http://www.ARRL.org. You may also wish to do a lot of Googling and also some searching on this Board to get more information.

And, just so you know, unlicensed operation is investigated by the FCC, usually, but is prosecuted by the Dept. of Justice, and you definitely don't want to go there. The fines they can and do assess can be huge and they do it every day.

As far as age requirements are concerned, there are none for the Amateur License, or for the MURS service where there actually is no license involved. I believe that there is an age floor for the Citizens Band and the Land Mobile service.

Think it over, do some investigating, and then get back to us with more questions. One last thing is that there might be an Amateur Radio club located in your area. If there is they'd probably be willing to help you get started and you could pick up a lot of useful information (tons of it) in a very short time.

www.wrronline.com

Call these folks, they will walk you through it.

I was thinking of getting a license where you just have to pay for it. I dont want a Amatur license because i dont own that much power. I only own a 3 radios and can i just go down to a motorola authuroized dealer and ask them how am i suppose to get a FCC license. My other question is that, do you need to registar a business with the IRS in order to obain a FCC license? PLease and thank you for your help guys.

I dont use my radios for anything business realated. I am just a collector and i sometimes use them.

I cannot use the MURS channels because my SP10s dont support 4. I need to at least have 4 channels.

Thank You

And i just asking HOW DO I LEGALLY GET PROGRAMMING SOFTWARE FOR MY CP200!!! I AM NOT ASKING FOR PEOPLE TO GIVE IT TO ME!!! I JUST WANT TO FIND OUT HOW CAN I PURCHASE IT FROM MOTOROLA!!!!

Please do not assume i am asking for software..... i am not doing that!!!

Go to your Motorola dealer and see if they can help you get a business license. You can also get the software through them, or you can call 800-422-4210 and go through the procedures for licensing the software directly from Motorola.

The amateur service has NO minimum power requirement. You do NOT need to go the legal limit, as a matter of fact the rules state to use "the minimal power necessary to achieve communications."

One other factor to consider an Amateur (Ham) license, is IF you are traveling, and out of cell phone range and need assistance, there is USUALLY (not all the time) some one to contact on the VHF (2 meter) band some how, some way.

Hope this helps....

Chuck K0CMK
(Licensed 31 years)

Tom in D.C. wrote:Go to your Motorola dealer and see if they can help you get a business license. You can also get the software through them, or you can call 800-422-4210 and go through the procedures for licensing the software directly from Motorola.

So i dont need to registar with the IRS to get a business band license from the FCC? I heard that you have to registar your business with the IRS and by the way, i dont own a business at all. I am just a collector.

Thank You for all your help but i am still kind of confuse. So i will go down to Bearcomm and ask them to help me get FCC license right? (BearComm is a authorized dealer by motorola.

If you were asking my advice, which you're not but I'll give it to you anyway, the advice would be to cool it and not spend any money on any radio committment whatsoever until you knew a whole lot more about the subject. You should be in a position to tell a vendor what it is you want and need in exact terms, otherwise the odds are that they're going to sell you something that will turn out to be wrong for your purposes.

To clear up a little confusion - a business band radio license and actually being a registered business are two different things. Have you considered just getting a pair of license-free FRS portables?

qqcca wrote:I cannot use the MURS channels because my SP10s dont support 4. I need to at least have 4 channels.

Thank You

Can you elaborate on this? If you are saying that your SP10s are only 2 channels, then have them programmed with 2 of the MURS channels (a one time charge at your local MRSS). Having an FCC license will not increase the number of available channels in your radios.

Why would you want to go throught the expense and hassle of obtaining frequencies from a coordinator and then turn around and give the Federal Government some more money for the license (if you are only going to be talking car to car) when MURS would be perfect for you?

Oh yeah, and good luck obtaining four frequencies on VHF, with authorization to use them everywhere (because you're travelling and authorizations are specifically geographic), for personal, non-business use...

I understand people. Thank You for your help but i guess i will just be sticking with the MURS channels.
Thank You for all your help and have a nice day.