Hope this is the right home for this.
I am working on my HAM license so I am not the most knowledgeable guy on the subject. That said, I am wondering if there is an all in one radio that will cover the HAM (VHF/UHF), CB, and MURS frequencies? It seems like most guys are running separate radios for each.
Thanks for the help!
Greg
The short answer is that the FCC licensing and use rules basically prevent a single radio design from being able to achieve technical compliance with the different rules for those bands.
For FRS, GMRS, MURS, and CB, the FCC places strict limitations on radio hardware approved for those bands - the hardware must enforce the band-specific restrictions on operating modes (AM, FM, Digital, etc), channel frequencies, power output, and bandwidth (for FM). The restrictions are in place to prevent the radio from accidental interference with adjacent channels, some of which are used for public safety etc. This is a BIG DEAL. Additionally, while MURS (multiple modulation modes) is close to the VHF ham band (predominantly FM) and FRS/GMRS (FM) is close to the UHF ham band (again predominantly FM), CB is way down in the HF bands (11 meter? IIRC) and is AM or sideband.
On the completely nerdy side, *IF* you're a ham who coordinates military and public safety operations (think hurricane response, search & rescue, etc) and *IF* you're willing to spend a few hundred dollars on a ham rig and THEN tear it open and go after it with a soldering iron to do what's called a "MARS mod" (assuming the radio supports it) then it is technically possible to modify the ham rig to additionally transmit in the bands reserved to FRS/GMRS/MURS. (or damage it so it won't work at all!) BUT the radio will not enforce the correct transmit power, channeled frequencies, operating modes, or bandwidths that are, by law, baked-into the radios approved for FRS/GMRS/MURS. Interference is NOT a consideration for the emergency response operations that the MARS mod is intended to support, so there may be interference issues when operating on those frequencies. While it's possible to make your mod'd ham rig's transmissions look pretty close to an approved FRS/GMRS/MURS radio, you could more easily miss and do something that was obviously non-compliant with the rules, possibly causing interference with other public safety and airband communications. Flying Ninja Monkeys with radio direction finding rigs strictly enforce that MARS mod'd radios are only used by those authorized and only for approved operations, so I don't recommend this unless you're actually working MARS ops.
For me personally, I did ham and GMRS licenses and installed two radios: a 50W ham rig with a remote head and a small 15W GMRS rig with all the display/controls on the mic. But I really hate the Flying Ninja Monkeys.
