The radio you want does not exist, unfortunately. Not only that, it is illegal to produce, as far as transmitting ability is concerned, in the US. Radios that transmit on Part 95 services, including CB, FRS/GMRS, and MURS, seem to be prohibited from transmitting on other services such as ham radio, even if they otherwise meet all the requirements. FRS radios are prohibited from having a detachable antenna. It is illegal to make modifications to Part 95 radios.
§ 95.655
Frequency capability.
(a) No transmitter will be certifi-
cated for use in the CB service if it is
equipped with a frequency capability
not listed in § 95.625, and no transmitter
will be certificated for use in the
GMRS if it is equipped with a fre-
quency capability not listed in § 95.621,
unless such transmitter is also certifi-
cated for use in another radio service
for which the frequency is authorized
and for which certification is also re-
quired. (Transmitters with frequency
capability for the Amateur Radio Serv-
ices and Military Affiliate Radio Sys-
tem will not be certificated.)
There are numerous little barriers like this to producing radios that can transmit legally on all the usual two way bands even with appropriate licenses where required.
It may be possible to legally make a radio that can legally do CB, FRS, GMRS, and MURS provided that it uses a separate non-detachable antenna for FRS, but no company has done so.
Note that that while some of the yaesu handhelds can receive 100kHz to 1Ghz, which includes the HAM HF bands, they don't have SSB demodulators.
The Baofeng UV-3R, and similar radios, can transmit Weather/Marine/Air frequencies within their band but is only legal to transmit on LMRS and Ham and then only with the appropriate licenses.
Radios such as the Yeasu FT-817/FT-857/FT-897 will transmit on most of the ham bands including HF, 6m VHF, 2m VHF, and 70cm UHF but not 1.3m UHF and can receive something like 100kHz to 1Ghz including CW, AM, FM, Narrow FM, and SSB which would cover most of the 2-way voice services. However, they don't decode trunking or P.25 digital systems that many police/fire/commercial users have switched to.
Many ham radios can receive weather radio transmissions. However, most will not continuously monitor them while tuned to other bands, will not wake up when an alert tone is sent, and will not decode S.A.M.E. (to get alerts only for relevent counties).
You need at least 3 radios plus a Ham license and GMRS license to legally transmit on Ham, CB, FRS, and GMRS plus two additional devices to receive trunked or digital fire/rescue and digtal TV transmissions.
In practice, one would need at least the following for reasonably complete coverage:
- Ham HF/VHF/UHF radio such as FT-817/FT-857/FT-897
- A shortwave radio with full HF coverage and SSB reception - not needed if you have FT-897 or equivalent, though it will allow monitoring additional channel besides what ham rig is tuned to. Example: Grundig G3
- A handheld Ham Radio - redundant if you have FT-897 or equivalent but still handy.
- CB radio, preferably with SSB and weather capability. Consider PA capability if mobile
Examples: Midlant 75-822 is compact CB radio in microphone, can run off 12V or 6 AA batteries, lacks SSB and PA, has channel 9 monitor, weather alert monitor, $75. Uniden Bearcat 980, SSB, PA, weather alert (no S.A.M.E.), SWR meter, no continuous channel 9 monitor, $140
- FRS/GMRS radio
Example: Midland XT511 base camp, Crank-up, AC/DC, FRS/GMRS, weather alert (no S.A.M.E), AM/FM broadcast band, clock, flashlight, USB charger outlet.
- scanner with trunking and P.25 capability (or a laptop/netbook with USB SDL receiver and appropriate software) if your local police/fire/rescue have switched over. Note that a scanner is illegal in some states if you are mobile/portable though in some states this only applies if used while committing a crime.
- A portable TV with ATSC capability (or a laptop/netbook with USB TV tuner). Add NTSC, PAL, and/or DVB-T capabilities if you live in, or near, a country which uses those.
Example: Haier HLT71 with Philips SDV-1225T/27 (portable) or Clearsteam C2 (indoor/outdoor) antenna.
- AM/FM radio (may be incorporated in one of the ones above).
- A cell phone
- weather radio with alert and preferably S.A.M.E capability. In some cases, this
may be available in one of the above radios, though usually without S.A.M.E.
- A netbook/laptop or high end tablet/cell with the ability to encode/decode ham digital modes.
- Also worth considering are Satellite TV, Satellite Internet, Satellite Phone, and/or Satellite Radio.
- Suitable antennas. Examples: Windom/Off Center fed dipole (multiband HF), DBJ-1 or DBJ-2 (UHF/VHF ham), JTD2 discone (most UHF/VHF)
- antenna tuner
- Cables or adapters to power all these off 12V,
- battery, solar panel, and charge controller. Example canadian solar CS6P-240P 240W panel and BZ MPPT250 charge controller and large deep cycle AGM lead acid battery(s).
However, you do get fairly reasonable receive coverage with a decent ham radio. Over the last few years, however, we have lost the ability to receive fire/police and TV audio in many areas due to the changeovers in those systems.
There is some software that can be used with funcube dongle or RTL-SDR USB SDR receivers (repurposed $20 european DVB-T TV tuner) to decode P.25. These cover roughly 64Mhz to 1.7Ghz with some minor gaps.
HF converters are available in kit form. A netbook with an ATSC TV receiver and a RTL-SDR or funcube dongle and an HF converter can receive almost everything.
You cannot legally transmit on most bands, other than CB, FRS, or MURS, without a license, including in an emergency. The exception is to issue or respond to a bon-fide distress call where there is an immediate threat to life or property. If you are not in an airplane in distress and you are not asking for an ambulance, rescue squad, fire truck, police car, coast guard cutter, or wilderness search and rescue team to come to your location, it probably does not qualify. Even then, you must be unable to use other means. And if neither the operator nor the equipment owner have a Ham/Marine/Air license, it is not even legal then by the letter of the law though it may be overlooked. And in the case where the equipment is owned by a ham, the equipment should be part of that ham's normal station(s), not loaned out to a non-ham. The permission to break the rules to issue a distress call is specifically granted to hams, boats at sea (not on shore), and planes in the air, i.e. trained and licensed operators, and not a general exception which applies to everyone. This has been discussed on other threads.
Ten-tec, icom, kenwood, elecraft, and others make ham radio gear. But the kenwood TS-2000 series and Icom IC-7000 are the only ones I am aware of which come close to the FT-817/857/897 in all-band/all-mode HF/6M/2M/70cm mobile capability and those appear a bit less portable. Neither brand covers the 220Mhz (1.3m band).
