[8D] Hi Gents ,
To Charley , Thank You for your post . I had considered getting into Ham at was a tense time in the hobby due to the no code tech having been established and the prospect of loosing frequencies to ever expanding commercial interests . A very good friend is an Extra (or is it advanced ? He is the top catagory of license , whichever that one is) class Ham and I wanted to get into the hobby as it looked interesting to me . I bought a few radios to listen with , a "Swan 500" , a Heathkit "HW-101" , and a Yaesu (spelling ?) something else and I listened . No transmitting , I would not do that even once without a license , so I bought a Cantenna to practice tuning em up without broadcasting . As I listened , I heard not only the negativity tword the no code , but also that for many , it wasn't the quality of the contact , but the quantity . those contests where they make as many contacts as possible didn;t really seem to be conversations at all , more like roll calls "Present !" , and then on to the next contact . I like that you came here and posted an urging to look into it again . I just may do that
To LCS ,
It wasn't easy to decipher , even after 2 hours of searching and reading , but it seemed that FPV with 72 MHZ rc control and 2.4 GHZ video IS legal within the power limits allowed for each frequency . The rub is , that the power limits (I thought I read 300MW for 2.4 video) imposed on "free use" are so restrictive that ya wouldn't get much further away than LOS anyway before you began to loose signal . So any flights like you hear of encompassing 5 or so miles are being done with Amplified gear , and that's what falls into the license realm .
Since the presented information from sources like wikki and other search programs seems rather confusing to the average Joe (Me
) , it would be really great if some Ham operator would lay out exactly what the regs and restrictions are , and aren't . We have all been told repeadly that a license is required for certain operations , and I want a specific chart as to what is what , frequency and power level wise .
A Nice friendly Ham in the know could clear up a lot of confusion here by setting me straight on what's what . Hint , hint ...... Charley , maybe ?