With regard to the FCC rule. I don’t have it in front of me so I won’t comment on the detail. However the intent is to prohibit type accepted radios from transmitting on frequencies outside of their type acceptance. Radios that can transmit outside of their type acceptance can not be imported.
The rule is not well written so there are many interpretations of the details.
As far as getting a ham license. There are more reasons that just the legalities. As a ham, when I see a new ham has passed his license exam it tells me that s/he is serious about the subject and is willing to play by the rules. I am willing to spend my time, energy and even $$ to help them along, just as others have helped me.
Radio is a very complex subject. As the saying goes,”you don’t know what you don’t know”. It is similar to a rifle in that you can pick it up, shoot it and if the target is close and stationary you can probably hit it. But there is a lot more to it if you want to be effective with it.
When you pass the exam, you are given access to many resources like repeaters. But there are many resources that are little known outside of the amateur community.
Take PSKReporter for example. Throughout the world, hams have special receivers tuned to specific frequencies listening for particular transmissions which are formatted with data. The receivers can interpret the transmission and post the information along with other data on the internet showing the locations of the transmitter and receivers that heard the transmission along with the received signal strength and other information.
So if I am testing an antenna, I can get real time feedback from station around the world. I can make a change and test it again.
here is a link https://pskreporter.info/pskmap.html
Could you “sneek into the system” and use it? Well I would advise against that as hams are quite possessive of our spectrum and constantly watch for intruders. And the fines are pretty stiff.
But it is more that we don’t want the spectrum screwed up. We do things in a certain way because of reasons that you do not understand. It is possible, by using poor performing equipment, to transmit on the second or even third harmonic of your transmitter frequency. You won’t even know that you are causing problems for someone else.
As a member of the ham community you will benefit from the guidance and assistance of others. If you just jump in and begin using the radio…..well..you don’t know what you don’t know.
Ron N1AHH