"Robert Bonomi" wrote in message
...
In article ,

*sigh* "requires FCC approval, in one form or another" would include FCC
provisions granting limited operations privileges -- for testing, etc.,
even
on a 'blanket' basis -- under the auspices of a properly licensed
engineer.
The stock 'restricted' radio operator's license of a pilot isn't
sufficient.

Double *sigh*. There is no such thing as a "properly licensed
engineer". Nor is a restricted radio operator's license a reality in
today's pilot world. Where have you been for thirty years?


If you got out for "under a thousand dollars" excluding your labor, it
sounds like you have/own/operate your own FCC-certified testing facility,
is that correct?

That is correct.




If one has "resources already in place", that have been amortized as "sunk
costs" from 'doing it previously' on other work, and hold the requisite
professional engineering accreditations so that you don't have to
out-source
the technical requirements, I'll grant the sub-$1,000 (exclusive of labor)
possibility. For a _first-time_ effort, however -- as the original
poster was proposing -- using that accounting methodology, one must
include
_all_ the costs of getting those resources in place, That's _how_ they
get to be 'sunk' costs for the subsequent projects

Would you care to estimate what your 'first time' costs would be, starting
from having just a basic set of 'hobbiest' tools?

Sure. Spectrum analyzer through 4 GHz. on the surplus market $800.
Antennas from 30 to 3000 MHz. using water pipe and copper foil another $50.
Antenna masts using 4x4 doug fir another $50. Low freq receiver to do the
30 kHz. through 30 MHz. stuff another $200. 12 volt batteries to obviate
the line filters $50. Switching power supplies to power the test equipment
$50. Frequency counters on the used market $50. Oscilloscopes another
$200. Sig gen another $200. What are we up to? Less than $2K? And this
is the FIRST time around. Next time is simply the expendables.

Jim









You, yourself, said in another post, that it would take the OP more than
"a thousand hours, and ten thousand dollars", to 'legally' do his project.

Since labor has been excluded, if the OP does the design work himself,
it's "free". there's maybe a couple of hundred dollars in parts. and
he assembles it himself (that's "free" labor, too.)