Tag: regulations

  • 1934: How the FCC Took Over Amateur Radio Regulation

    Part of our The Evolution of Amateur Radio timeline series. By the early 1930s, amateur radio had already changed regulatory hands once, from the Department of Commerce to the newly formed Federal Radio Commission under the Radio Act of 1927. That arrangement didn’t last long either. In 1934, Congress passed the Communications Act, creating the…

  • 1945: How WWII Shut Down Amateur Radio, and How It Came Back

    Part of our The Evolution of Amateur Radio timeline series. This is the second time in this timeline that a world war forced amateur radio off the air entirely. It happened in WWI, and it happened again in WWII, only this time the shutdown lasted longer and the technology amateurs came back to was completely…

  • 1946: The 2 Meter Band Opens and VHF Takes Off

    Part of our The Evolution of Amateur Radio timeline series. The HF bands reopened in late 1945, but the bigger long-term shift for amateur radio happened just after, when the FCC reshuffled the VHF spectrum and handed hams the band that would eventually become the backbone of local and regional communication: 2 meters. A new…

  • 1987: GMRS Established as a Licensed Family Radio Service

    Part of our The Evolution of Amateur Radio timeline series. Not everyone who wants a two-way radio wants to study for an amateur license or learn Morse code or memorize band plans. The FCC recognized that gap decades ago, and GMRS is one of the results: a licensed service on UHF frequencies near amateur’s 70cm…

  • 2000: MURS Opens Up License-Free VHF for the Public

    Part of our The Evolution of Amateur Radio timeline series. FRS gave the public a license-free option on UHF in 1996. Four years later, the FCC did essentially the same thing on VHF, opening the Multi-Use Radio Service in 2000 and rounding out the trio of personal radio services that sit alongside amateur radio today:…

  • 1996: FRS Launches, No License Required

    Part of our The Evolution of Amateur Radio timeline series. By the mid 1990s, the FCC had already created GMRS as a licensed family service, but it still required an application, a fee, and a wait. In 1996, the Family Radio Service arrived to close that gap completely: no license, no fee, no waiting. Just…

  • Getting Licensed: A Beginner’s Path Into Ham Radio

    How to get your Technician ham radio license in 2026: what’s on the new 2026-2030 exam, how to study, your first radio, and the path beyond.

  • GMRS Radio: The Complete Guide

    Everything you need to know about GMRS radio: the $35 license, real-world range, repeaters, and which radio to actually buy first.

  • Understanding PRB-1 and Local Antenna Ordinances

    PRB-1 is the federal rule hams cite constantly when a local ordinance tries to ban antennas outright. It is also frequently misunderstood. Here is what it actually protects, and what it does not.

  • Private, Secure, or Obscure? What Part 97 Actually Lets You Do With Your Comms

    FCC Part 97.113 bans encoding messages to hide their meaning, but that still leaves a lot of legal room for OPSEC, signal obscurity, and data integrity. Here’s how privacy, security, and obscurity actually break down across analog, digital voice, and data modes on the ham bands.

Categories

×