I went to the manufacturer's site for my radio (futaba-rc.com) and did a little research.
Under the "How do I change the frequency of my transmitter?" on the FAQ it lists the following FCC stuff...
The applicable Federal Regulation is as follows:
TITLE 47—TELECOMMUNICATION COMMISSION (CONTINUED)
PART 95—PERSONAL RADIO SERVICES
Subpart E—Technical Regulations
Sec. 95.645 Control accessibility.
(a) No control, switch or other type of adjustment which, when
manipulated, can result in a violation of the rules shall be accessible
from the transmitter operating panel or from exterior of the transmitter
enclosure.
(b) An R/C transmitter which incorporates plug-in frequency
determining modules which are changed by the user must be certificated
with the modules. Each module must contain all of the frequency
determining circuitry including the oscillator. Plug-in crystals are not
considered modules and must not be accessible to the user.
I've done some work for the Feds in the past, so I understand how there is a lot of red tape and inconsistency in their guidelines (I almost lost my job once because I moved a piece of furniture to get something I had dropped; it was somebody else's job to move furniture and I was supposed to call them to move it for me to get my pen). But what I understand of the above is the following...
[*]I'm not allowed to change the crystal.[*]Anything that I can manipulate/adjust on the radio without disassembling it is okay.[*]Plug-in crystals must not be accessible to the end user
According to the above, that little pull out modular thing that says 72.xxx on the outside of my radio
can't be the crystal (although it looks like one to me) because I can manipulate it without opening the radio enclosure and it is
very accesible. If the argument exists that the radio enclosure is opened by pulling that out, then taking the battery out would also be illegal. And if it is the crystal, then futaba (and just about every other Tx manufacturer) isn't following the law. It's like watching a cop speed or roll through a stop sign when he's not responding to a call.
I'm not trying to find a loophole. It's just as easy to drop $7 on a Rx crystal. But I may need to change it at some time and it seems rather far fetched that swapping out a crystal without touching/modifying any circuitry would be likely to cause any problems. I can relate to the idea because I don't want end users at work touching my machines; you use it, I fix it, don't touch it otherwise. But you can readily buy everything you need to swap out your crystal in any hobby store and can complete the switch in less time than it takes me to type out this post, but it's illegal to do so?
I guess my only other approach is trying to find out what it takes to become licensed to swap crystals out. Any ideas on where to start looking for that info?