Why is eBay acting as the FCC? I can still buy lasers that will rip through your retina in the blink of a eye from eBay (lol). The equipment is completely legal to own and operate, and transmit with the proper licensing (which is not required to purchase said equipment).
The purpose of the restriction is to keep people from using hacked baofengs to chat on bands a) they're not allowed to use unlicensed b) could potentially already be in use by another service eg EMS/fire/police.
There are older UV-5R Baofengs that are in demand because they didn't have the software restriction that newer ones have. It's not that they're hacked, it's that they were not locked from the factory
Are newer baofengs locked down? I thought you can still just hold down 3 buttons while power cycling the radio to unlock TX from 400 to 520 MHz.
Regardless, the Quangsheng UV-K5 is largely supplanting the Baofeng as the go-to entry level HT, the 3rd party firmware for that radio is pretty impressive.
That's the trivially easy part. The hard part is convincing potential buyers and sellers that most participants are legit and not trying to scam people.
RIP all those human person made wideband low noise amplifier boards that cost $5. Now I'll have to buy a $50 minicircuits or whatever alternative with an FCC ID. Despite the fact that I'd only use the LNA for receive, it still could generate and amplifies RF not in the ham bands. So they'll certainly be banned. :\
Ah, yes, that pesky FCC for regulating a public shared frequency spectrum. Im sure everybody will just behave in a vacuum of rules and wouldnt possibly do anything bad.
eBay makes waaaay too much skimming 10% off every test gear purchase to be closed minded about this, and in any case they have FCC IDs so they aren't under immediate threat.
It might not even be that much depending on what it is. For example, Baofeng radios would have TX in bands they shouldn't have until the FCC cracked down on them coming in.
So they started selling them restricted to ham bands until the user pressed a key combo to factory reset them, which put them back to iirc 136-172.
Why is eBay acting as the FCC? I can still buy lasers that will rip through your retina in the blink of a eye from eBay (lol). The equipment is completely legal to own and operate, and transmit with the proper licensing (which is not required to purchase said equipment).
The purpose of the restriction is to keep people from using hacked baofengs to chat on bands a) they're not allowed to use unlicensed b) could potentially already be in use by another service eg EMS/fire/police.
There are older UV-5R Baofengs that are in demand because they didn't have the software restriction that newer ones have. It's not that they're hacked, it's that they were not locked from the factory
Are newer baofengs locked down? I thought you can still just hold down 3 buttons while power cycling the radio to unlock TX from 400 to 520 MHz.
Regardless, the Quangsheng UV-K5 is largely supplanting the Baofeng as the go-to entry level HT, the 3rd party firmware for that radio is pretty impressive.
I haven’t bought a UV-5R since 2024. That one is as unlockable with a trivial sequence of inputs.
Are modern varieties truly locked or just “locked ;)” ?
For people that didn't read the article, listings will need to include the FCC ID. So most consumer goods will still be available.
I can see that Meshtastic devices could also be blocked. Also, many don't operate with the FCC rules on the frequencies used.
https://meshtastic.org/docs/legal/
It appears to be part of the "we can't trust anything from China" project. There do appear to be exceptions for low volume sellers.
Ouch,
> new policy will not apply to gear that operates exclusively on amateur radio frequencies
So almost everything is getting banned, at least the existing hardware.
If I read this right, it's only banning stuff without an FCC ID stamped on it. If you want to list, you have to provide the FCC ID.
I believe the FCC ban doesn't apply to used gear but seems like eBay is taking a harder stance.
Who's going to be the first to vibe code an eBay alternative for radio gear?
That's the trivially easy part. The hard part is convincing potential buyers and sellers that most participants are legit and not trying to scam people.
RIP all those human person made wideband low noise amplifier boards that cost $5. Now I'll have to buy a $50 minicircuits or whatever alternative with an FCC ID. Despite the fact that I'd only use the LNA for receive, it still could generate and amplifies RF not in the ham bands. So they'll certainly be banned. :\
This sounds bad for me, a person who just purchased their first SDR yesterday. What unfortunate timing.
Does this now restrict ESP32s since some creative people have figured out how to use them as (limited) SDRs?
Edit: as another commenter pointed out devices with an FCC ID will be fine (for now) which I assume covers these. And you can always DIY a frequency converter: https://hackaday.com/2026/10/15/so-you-want-to-make-your-sdr...
More regulation. If it's not regulation it's more taxation.
Ah, yes, that pesky FCC for regulating a public shared frequency spectrum. Im sure everybody will just behave in a vacuum of rules and wouldnt possibly do anything bad.
Amazon UK now requires ID for "bladed items".
https://discuss.privacyguides.net/t/amazon-uk-now-requires-p...
So that's... kind of all consumer electronics, at this point. (Because of Bluetooth and whatnot.)
According to the title summary, but seemingly not the full details right?
How does this even work with test gear? There's a millions tools that would violate this
It sounds like there's an exemption for used equipment which is what you would find on eBay.
eBay makes waaaay too much skimming 10% off every test gear purchase to be closed minded about this, and in any case they have FCC IDs so they aren't under immediate threat.
I wonder how long the same gear will be sold with ham band only and a lil software patch to go back to normal.
Also frankly the effort is kinda wasted, "breaching" on other bands was never hard and with availability of cheap SDRs, easier than ever.
It might not even be that much depending on what it is. For example, Baofeng radios would have TX in bands they shouldn't have until the FCC cracked down on them coming in.
So they started selling them restricted to ham bands until the user pressed a key combo to factory reset them, which put them back to iirc 136-172.
That's already how it works today. A lot of Chinese radios can either be switched by a key press combo or flashed with alternative firmware.
Nothing wrong with that.