On Sunday, July 14, 2013 9:26:04 PM UTC-4, wrote:


Are you still working on getting your amateur radio license? I am pretty sure you can get a Baofeng dual band walkie Taklie for about $40 on Ebay and use it on the amateur bands and the marine band. Plus it has a FM radio..


Dan

Mea Culpa. The Baofeng in not legal on the marine band or the frs, murs, or GMRS bands in that it is not FCC part 95 approved. It is not so much that it will not work at those frequencies , because it will transmit and can receive on those bands. The problem is that the operator can program it to other frequencies. And FCC 95 requires that the radios be designed so they can only be used an those frequencies. So if you have bought one of these, you can use it to monitor the marine band frequencies. But you can not legally transmit on those frequencies.

But do not go buy a marine band radio on Ebay unless you make sure it complies with the narrow band requirements that went into effect last January.

Sorry about that

Dan