https://youtu.be/LrNiZosyAjA?si=hQ4nRgggEDkugSg6
We all know you need a license. So let's get that out of the way right from the get go.
This guy gives a simple, easy to follow guide for those that can only afford a Baofang for comms in a SHTF scenario. Really helpful overview for preppers.
Thanks for the link.
About voice "scrambling" is legal - maybe.
"Oddly, even the FCC – at least, the part of the FCC that certifies GMRS radios – seems to have accepted voice inversion as permissible. When the manufacturer applied for certification, it handed over technical diagrams that fully disclosed the voice privacy feature. The instruction manual, submitted with the application, explained how to use the feature. The FCC routinely approved the certification. That amounts to a finding of compliance, say the FCC's own rules, based on the information in the application.
But the people in the enforcement wing of the FCC – the people who levied the fine – disagree. They claim a feature can be in violation of the rules even if the radio is certified, and even if the FCC knew about the feature in approving the certification"
( see FCC Applies Novel Rule Interpretation, Levies Fine | CommLawBlog (https://www.commlawblog.com/2009/07/articles/enforcement-activities-fines-forfeitures-etc/fcc-applies-novel-rule-interpretation-levies-fine/))
Read the entire thing. Bottom line, the cats that issue the fines see VI as 'illegal" - YMMV.
Take away - no matter what some random dude on the YT says, always check the FCC rules in force before you try something. You are more likely to keep you wallet intact that way.
These a lot of other wats, perfectly legal, to make you comes "less public". - some of these cost money.
Oh, and hams are allowed to legally use freq hopping, spread spectrum technology. And that ARS license costs the same $35 as your GMRS ticket.