ORIGINAL: Sport_Pilot
I never said otherwise!!!! Go back and read the post. I said the Futaba site is outdated because the FCC license is no longer required. They got rid of a bunch of radio repair license requirments years ago, about the only things requireing licence is broadcast and aviation radios.
Sport_pilot,
I'm not quite sure what you are looking at. You state that the only things requiring license is broadcast and aviation radios. If you are speaking about licenses to operate the radio then you are correct, there is no requirement by the FCC for us to have a license to operate our R/C radios. But this is not what we are referring to in the servicing of these radios. The FCC has not done away with thier requirements that I posted earlier in this thread. FCC Regulation 95.221 specifically covers having your R/C radio serviced. If interested you can find the actual regulation here [link]http://edocket.access.gpo.gov/cfr_2007/octqtr/pdf/47cfr95.221.pdf[/link]
This is the current regulation covering this matter and it is identical to what I posted earlier. The regulation states that the radios need to be serviced by somebody who is certified to perform the required work.
The internal repairs or internal adjustments should be performed by or under the immediate supervision and responsibility of a person certified as technically qualified to perform transmitter maintenance and repair duties in the private land mobile services and fixed services by an organization or committee representative of users in those services.
There is no confusion in the FCC regulations on this matter. If a crystal is changed in a RC transmitter in the United States it needs to be done by a person who is certified to work on these radios. This is required in order for the radio to be properly re-tuned to the correct frequency after the new crystal is in the radio. This is done for a very specific reason, and it has nothing to do with the possibility of interfering with somebody else's plane (although this is pretty bad in itself). The 72 Mhz frequencies that we use are very near other frequencies used for commercial purposes, television broadcasting immediately comes to mind although there are other uses as well. If a crystal is changed in a radio and it is not properly re-tuned there is a very real possibility that the radio will start to interfere with the commercial operations on adjacent frequencies. If this happens I can assure you that a visit from FCC officials isn't too far behind that. Fines for interfering with a commercial operation like this can range up to $10,000.
Trying to argue that this isn't required really does a disservice to those coming in to this hobby, and this is why we're not going to argue this point. Many just entering this hobby rely on this forum to give them accurate information, and many tend to take what is said in here are correct and accurate. That is one reason why we strive so hard to make sure that what is put out is correct here. So if we start arguing that this requirement on changing of crystals doesn't need to be done at a shop some may believe that and get themselves in trouble down the line. The FCC regulations are clear in this matter and we're not going to sit here and argue the point.
Ken