my partner and i received a cheap handheld ham radio and we've both been afraid to use it, since we're unlicensed. even though you can listen just find with no license i've been nervous about like... accidentally pressing the transmit button and i accidentally do it on an emergency frequency, somehow. anxiety is a funny thing
anyway, i just looked up what happens if you ham it up without a permission slip from the FCC and basically? nothing will happen. as long as you don't run a pirate radio station or harmfully interfere with emergency frequencies, you'll have to be really annoying and rack up a ton of complaints before the FCC will... send you a polite letter asking you to stop. it then takes more egregious infractions to get to the stage where they fine you. at least that what it seems like from my cursory research
so i think i'll stop being scared of accidentally pressing the button lol
