this post was submitted on 12 Jan 2026
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You just can't legally transmit without a license. You can own a ham radio and listen all you want.
Perhaps where you live.
Internet 101: Laws aren't the same everywhere.
Edit: My point wasn't specifically about amateur radio (I'm also one) nor where I live, but about the old-as-the-internet habit of people scoffing about what is and isn't legal without even knowing where the person they're replying to lives.
On the radio front, numerous countries require licences to legally listen to public broadcast radio (Switzerland, Slovenia and Montenegro are examples). If your handy dandy Baofeng UV5 can pick up broadcast FM radio frequencies, in such countries it will fall under licencing requirements even if you never transmit.
What if the "laws aren't the same" remark was about "you can't transmit without a permit"? Not about the "you need license to listen"?
Early evening in the western hemisphere, OP posted a large sum of perfectly native fluency English, so yeah, I'll assume US or Canada. Can't have a conversation without making reasonable assumptions. But please, feel free to add to the conversation, where do some of these exceptions exist? Don't just "um, actually" the conversation, add to it!
yes they are