Rob, there is definately a putrid smell of "knowing who butters your bread" on this issue. There has GOT to be a $$$ issue on why Icom, Yaesu, Kenwwod, etc can sell rigs that are so easily converted for 11m use and are perfectly legal for sale, yet Ranger cannot. Worse, they make an example of the 11m rigs, yet there are probably more rigs that are capable of the same infractions on the business/MURS VHF and FRS/GMRS UHF bands, yet you never hear a peep about that!
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That's because they are regulated under a different set of rules and standards.
The amateur rules were written as such because we are concidered an experimental radio hobby, the rules had to be written in a way that allows home brew experimentation to thrive. Home brew radios would obviously not comply whith FCC certicifation, so anything we use does not have to be FCC certified, but we are held to a higher technical standard by the words....."operate in accordance with good Amateur practice"....that is the cover-all piece of wording that requires us as HAM's to build, maintain, and use equipment that does not cause undue interfearance to other radio services, or other amateur stations.
CB, GMRS, FRS, Emergency services, commercial braodcast, Marine, and aviation are held by a different set of rules requiring "Certified" equipment.
Again, because the amateur service is not tied down to using "Certified" equipment is the reason why it is legal for a licensed HAM to posses and use these "export" type radios, but only as long as we use them on the bands we are licensed to operate on.
Most of the confusion associated with this thread has come from trying to make sense from several different sets of rules....and I believe Highlander did point this out....
You can't read the rules governing the CB service, and expect them to also apply to the amateur service, or the other way around. It's like thinking that because the fire engine that just passed you on it's way to a fire, first stopped, then proceeded through a red light, that you also have the right to do so. Or because the police cruiser heading to an accident was traveling 15 miles an hour over the posted speed limit, that you also have the right to do so.....the rules for police and fire are different than those written for civilian motor vehicle traffic, just like the rules written for the amateur radio service is different that those written for every other radio service......
Plus what you said about making sense of anything written by the federal government is also true......