Yeah, but I also stand corrected. I assumed we were talking Part 90, but there are definitely a bunch of non-Part 90 HT's from Baofeng, especially the older ones.
So I have to clarify - Part 95 certified radios - legal. Part 90 certified radios - gray area. Everything else commercial - not legal. Homebrew GMRS - not sure, but virtually nobody would be operating this.
Yeah, this isn't the first conversation I've been in where the parts got mixed up.
Best I can tell where the confusion comes in regarding business radios on GMRS is because older business radios used the "Dot" frequencies, some (all?) of which have been refarmed to GMRS, MURS and other services now.
Just because I've gone down this rabbit hole and figured I'd share: one of the issues with all these non-ham bands is they're mostly narrowbanded, meaning the frequencies are spaced out much less than amateur bands.
From the FCC Business Band page:
"450-470 MHz
Available nationwide
Channels are generally spaced every 6.25 kHz
Authorized Bandwidth is 11.25 kHz or 6 kHz (wider bandwidth is permitted only if it achieves equivalent efficiency)"
Whereas GMRS and FRS use either 25kHz or 12.5kHz depending on the channel. And amateur radios typically use 25kHz (unless specifically set to narrowband mode at 12.5kHz).
So what this means is that a GMRS or Amateur radio set to a Business frequency could theoretically be talking over up to 3 frequencies at once and bleeding into others. That's one of the reasons why these radios have to be certified: to verify they're set to appropriate bandwidth for the frequencies.
Hey OP: bet you didn't think you'd be learning all this eh? Srsly though, sorry for the thread jack. I know you were just looking for a radio... hope you like the Midland.