Handheld FMRS Networking?

[44Dave]

So,
Any radio that is not certified by the government is illegal to own and/or use. This is why a 10meter/cb combination radio is illegal to operate.

Not quite. You are welcome to build your own radio and use it without submitting it to the FCC for type acceptance (as long as you obey the pertinent laws about usage, license, etc).
What makes the 10M/CB illegal is that it was submitted to the FCC and type accepted as either a amateur (10M) or CB but the FCC will not certify one that works on both.

Could I build my own radio that works on 10M & CB? I believe so but I'm not 100% certain

Why would you ever want to build a CB?

OK go ahead & limit yoruself to a specific frequency range & limited power.

Get your ham ticket & a real radio

Yeah, I'm pretty sure I'm already there.

[KJ4VOV]

Could I build my own radio that works on 10M & CB? I believe so but I'm not 100% certain

Could you? I don't know. How good are your tech skills?
Could you legally? No, because Part 95 requires any radio intended to be used on CB frequencies to be certificated, and to be certificated it must not be capable of transmission on any other frequencies.

[44Dave]

Could I build my own radio that works on 10M & CB? I believe so but I'm not 100% certain

Could you? I don't know. How good are your tech skills?

Working on 'em :/ - taking an electronics course to help me make more sense of the hobby... Lots of things are making more sense now than they did previously.

Could you legally? No, because Part 95 requires any radio intended to be used on CB frequencies to be certificated, and to be certificated it must not be capable of transmission on any other frequencies.

Gotcha.

[KJ4VOV]

Could I build my own radio that works on 10M & CB? I believe so but I'm not 100% certain

Could you? I don't know. How good are your tech skills?

Working on 'em :/ - taking an electronics course to help me make more sense of the hobby... Lots of things are making more sense now than they did previously.

Could you legally? No, because Part 95 requires any radio intended to be used on CB frequencies to be certificated, and to be certificated it must not be capable of transmission on any other frequencies.

Gotcha.

Also, something a lot of hams don't realize is that any infraction of FCC rules and regs, even outside the Amateur Radio Service, can have serious consequences for your ham license. There are plenty of cases of folks losing their ham license for violations of Part 95 (using an amp on 11m is the most common, but GMRS violations are showing up in the database now too)

[44Dave]

Well, hell, can't they even pull your license for "bad character"? I'm not sure WTH the FCC is up to sometimes.

[KJ4VOV]

Well, hell, can't they even pull your license for "bad character"? I'm not sure WTH the FCC is up to sometimes.

Yeah, they can, but it's really rare. And even the chief of our team wonders WTH they're doing sometimes, and he works for them.

[buck85]

Thank you again for your understand and clarification.

[GlockASP]

Is FHSS worth looking at? I'm in the market for a set of short-range handhelds myself and was considering opening a thread, but since this one has turned to hopping, figured I may as well ask here. I know they can't be considered secure in any real sense, but does it solve the problem of sharing the frequency with mallwalkers?

There is a company that makes FHSS hand helds. It called TriSquare.

I have a pair and they are not too bad. Never have any interference from other units. You can call each unit by itself or all of them at once. They work better in buildings then the FRS units I have.