I got screwed over by HobbyKing who never let me cancel an order even though they were over a month late and still hadn’t shipped it.
I’m glad they got fined, they’re definitely shady.
FCC reaffirms $3M fine for marketing unauthorized drone transmitters
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Re: FCC reaffirms $3M fine for marketing unauthorized drone transmitters
#12This is unfortunate but I’m more displeased with the ARRL. They spend millions on lobbyists and politicians, pay the President A quarter of a million a year, and they’re really not doing that much for it. The website is seriously lacking an up-to-date information about state and federal issues, and I’m very dismayed at what seems to be a lot of money spent but very little to show for it. Ive been an Extra since 2002…
I do professional microwave radio systems and have next to no interest in getting involved in analog ham stuff.
Re: FCC reaffirms $3M fine for marketing unauthorized drone transmitters
#13Earlier quoted context omitted.
Linux allows individuals to override tx frequencies and power on many devices, but at least that’s done in software. I could understand if the dips were for setting bits on a frequency divider and could allow selecting any frequency, but having them directly correlate to reserved frequencies is beyond the pale.
>but having them directly correlate to reserved frequencies is beyond the pale. The whole point of this cheapo hardware is that it can be used for whatever just by setting switches and therefore achieves massive economies of scale. They sell the same hardware to the drone makers and the radio makers and so on. IIRC these switches were not user accessible. The manufacturer set them in the right position.
Possibly, although I’ve definitely got some old Hobbyking video kit where the DIP switches are totally user accessible and can definitely go into bands they aught not. Likely not the same kit (it’s about 10 years old now) but… there’s very likely still super sketchy stuff available there.
Re: FCC reaffirms $3M fine for marketing unauthorized drone transmitters
#14Earlier quoted context omitted.
Linux allows individuals to override tx frequencies and power on many devices, but at least that’s done in software. I could understand if the dips were for setting bits on a frequency divider and could allow selecting any frequency, but having them directly correlate to reserved frequencies is beyond the pale.
>but having them directly correlate to reserved frequencies is beyond the pale. The whole point of this cheapo hardware is that it can be used for whatever just by setting switches and therefore achieves massive economies of scale. They sell the same hardware to the drone makers and the radio makers and so on. IIRC these switches were not user accessible. The manufacturer set them in the right position.
> IIRC these switches were not user accessible.
They were definitely user accessible in at least some of the products. Here are a couple of the devices named in the FCC complaint which obviously had exposed DIP switches:
https://hobbyking.com/en_us/aomway-700tvl-cmos-hd-camera-nts...
https://hobbyking.com/en_us/1-2ghz-mg-500mw-8ch-a-v-wireless...
https://hobbyking.com/en_us/x40-l-25mw-tx-cnc-alloy-cas.html
There were undoubtedly a number of others which could be switched between frequencies in other ways, like with a pushbutton.
Re: FCC reaffirms $3M fine for marketing unauthorized drone transmitters
#15Ahh, hobbyking. I used to order RC and electronics stuff from them, back before off the shelf drones became common enough that regulations ramped way up. Their checkout pipeline used to have a drop-down box for what percent of the orders value to declare on the customs documents. IIRC, the default value was 30%... It was also always interesting seeing what machinations they were using when orders of LiPo batteries wo…
> ...and showed up with a surprising lack of stickers related to the contents.
Yeah... screw 'em if they're doing that.
I've never ordered from them, because I really, really do not like pouch cells (pouch LiCoO2 is terrifying). I've done a lot of work with lithium packs, mostly 18650s, and was the sole supplier of rebuilt BionX ebike battery packs in North America for a few years until some other people got their rears in gear and undercut me (I was so tired of building packs by the end...).
But I shipped ground. Period. The hazmat requirements for 300+Wh packs were pretty stiff, and I met them. The UPS guy out here knew me as "the battery guy," and I had to explain to any sub on the route that, yes, this was legit, yes, I have all the paperwork right there, yes, I'm registered... look, just call base, ask about "the battery guy," they'll know who it is.
And since I shipped a lot to Canada, I filled out my customs forms properly, with actual value. I had a few people ask me about some "creative valuation," and... nope. Not going to screw around when sending hazmat internationally.
I got out of it partly because people undercut me, partly because the requirements for shipping lithium were getting ever more strict. I'll do stuff locally now, but I deliberately didn't renew my hazmat shipping training.
Re: FCC reaffirms $3M fine for marketing unauthorized drone transmitters
#16It's somewhat surprising for a radio amateur group to take it upon themselves to complain to the FCC about interference to a whole bunch of infrastructure-critical systems like satellite positioning, air traffic control, etc. Sounds a bit like spectrum vigilantism to me. Or was there actual harm done to these systems? You'd hope that if it was really critical there'd be more investigations by the government vs waiting for private groups to complain.
Re: FCC reaffirms $3M fine for marketing unauthorized drone transmitters
#17It's somewhat surprising for a radio amateur group to take it upon themselves to complain to the FCC about interference to a whole bunch of infrastructure-critical systems like satellite positioning, air traffic control, etc. Sounds a bit like spectrum vigilantism to me. Or was there actual harm done to these systems? You'd hope that if it was really critical there'd be more investigations by the government vs waitin…
This is kind of what the ARRL does. Amateur radio is supposed to be self-policing. They want to minimize FCC headaches from any kind of hobbyist radio, in order to maintain flexibility and tolerance.
Re: FCC reaffirms $3M fine for marketing unauthorized drone transmitters
#18This appears to be "video streaming" style transmitters, not an ADS-B out sort of location transmitter or anything. And it seems that HobbyKing just... hoped nothing would happen. > As spelled out in ARRL’s 2017 complaint, the ARRL Laboratory had documented that the operating frequencies of these drone TV transmitters near the 1.3 GHz amateur band were dip-switch selectable for frequencies internationally assigned fo…
Linux allows individuals to override tx frequencies and power on many devices, but at least that’s done in software. I could understand if the dips were for setting bits on a frequency divider and could allow selecting any frequency, but having them directly correlate to reserved frequencies is beyond the pale.
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Re: FCC reaffirms $3M fine for marketing unauthorized drone transmitters
#19It's somewhat surprising for a radio amateur group to take it upon themselves to complain to the FCC about interference to a whole bunch of infrastructure-critical systems like satellite positioning, air traffic control, etc. Sounds a bit like spectrum vigilantism to me. Or was there actual harm done to these systems? You'd hope that if it was really critical there'd be more investigations by the government vs waitin…
Not really surprising, radio only works if we all play by the rules. Even a small 5w transmitter up high enough can easily cover over 100 miles.
Most radio groups tend to be disaster recovery and communication adjacent so they care about infrastructure even if it's not directly on the ham bands.
Re: FCC reaffirms $3M fine for marketing unauthorized drone transmitters
#20It's somewhat surprising for a radio amateur group to take it upon themselves to complain to the FCC about interference to a whole bunch of infrastructure-critical systems like satellite positioning, air traffic control, etc. Sounds a bit like spectrum vigilantism to me. Or was there actual harm done to these systems? You'd hope that if it was really critical there'd be more investigations by the government vs waitin…
Making an official complaint to the appropriate government enforcement agency is the exact opposite of “vigilantism”. Vigilantism would be hams deliberately crashing the drones with jammers, or something.