On Tue, 5 May 2009 22:08:34 +0000 (UTC), hmmm <hmmm@hmmm.org> wrote:

>What you and Jeff are ignoring throughout this entire thread is that the
>original poster is referring to products that are marketed on the web
>and elsewhere, NOT products in hand after purchase, which display NO
>user ID. The original question remains unanswered, either by you or
>anyone else here.

The FCC does not distinguish between incidental radiators that are
sold, gifted, donated, or otherwise used within the US borders.
Somewhere in the rules and regs (I'm too lazy to look) is an itemized
list of all the possible buzzwords that qualify for an item to be
"sold" in the USA. I'm fairly sure that sold over the internet
qualifies for inclusion as being "offered for sale". Once qualified
the item must be clearly labeled in accordance with FCC 2.925 and
15.19, which includes the applicable FCC ID number.

Re-reading the original question, it possible that the OP is asking if
the FCC ID number must be on the outside packaging or otherwise
prominently displayed on the advertising literature, web pile, or data
sheet. Apparently, this is not the case. The radio must be labeled,
not the packaging, literature, data sheet, etc.

The reason the FCC originally provided the FCC ID search site was to
comply with a court ruling that demanded that such information be
public BEFORE being offered for sale. They really didn't want to do
it as back in the stone age of BBS dialup access, it was a rather
expensive and time consuming exercise. There was also a problem that
a product might have several FCC ID numbers and revisions, which would
produce a labeling problem. Providing the necessary information via
the internet was deemed easier that dealing with the labeling problem.

There are a substantial number of radios offered for sale on eBay that
have not been tested for incidental radiation and do no comply with
any FCC regulations. Ostensively, they are being offered for sale
outside of the USA and therefore do not require FCC certification.
However, they seem to be appearing more and more in place of certified
commercial radios. I recently had to do an impromptu troubleshooting
exercise on some RF related issues with some handheld radios at a
sporting event. The radios were from China, had no serial number tag,
no FCC ID, and were little better than junk. However, as they were
owned by a charity, I could see their logic as they cost about 1/5th
that of a real radio. I'll leave this as a problem for someone else
to solve.

Also, please note that having FCC certification does not somehow imply
that the product is reliable or suitable for the intended purpose.
I've seen some fairly awful designs, that managed to pass Part 15, but
don't work very well.


--
Jeff Liebermann jeffl@cruzio.com
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558