Category Archives: FCC

The FCC has adopted rule changes to Part 97.113, allowing employees to communicate on behalf of an employer during emergency preparedness drills.

I’ve posted several times about this topic, see EmComm Trouble, Time to Change the Rules,  FCC Moving Ahead on the topic.

The new version of the rules are listed here:

(a) * * *

(3) Communications in which the station licensee or control operator has a pecuniary interest, including communications on behalf of an employer, with the following exceptions:

 

(i) A station licensee or control station operator may participate on behalf of an employer in an emergency preparedness or disaster readiness test or drill, limited to the duration and scope of such test or drill, and operational testing immediately prior to such test or drill. Tests or drills that are not government-sponsored are limited to a total time of one hour per week; except that no more than twice in any calendar year, they may be conducted for a period not to exceed 72 hours.

 

(ii) An amateur operator may notify other amateur operators of the availability for sale or trade of apparatus normally used in an amateur station, provided that such activity is not conducted on a regular basis.

 

(iii) A control operator may accept compensation as an incident of a teaching position during periods of time when an amateur station is used by that teacher as a part of classroom instruction at an educational institution.

 

(iv) The control operator of a club station may accept compensation for the periods of time when the station is transmitting telegraphy practice or information bulletins, provided that the station transmits such telegraphy practice and bulletins for at least 40 hours per week; schedules operations on at least six amateur service MF and HF bands using reasonable measures to maximize coverage; where the schedule of normal operating times and frequencies is published at least 30 days in advance of the actual transmissions; and where the control operator does not accept any direct or indirect compensation for any other service as a control operator.

 

The FCC does allow for drills that are not government sponsored, but did include some time limits on these exercises. At first glance, these rules look reasonable to me. What do you think?

        73, Bob K0NR

The FCC has released a Notice of Proposed Rule Making (NPRM) concerning use of amateur radio by employees of governmental and other agencies. I had previously posted my thoughts on this topic back in October 2009.  A read of the NPRM on the FCC web site reveals that the FCC clearly sees this as an issue that needs to be addressed.

The tone of the NPRM is “what is the best way to address the problem” rather than “should we address this issue”?  In fact, the FCC went ahead and proposed this specific rule change for Part 97.113:

§ 97.113 Prohibited transmissions.
(a) ***
(3) Communications in which the station licensee or control operator has a pecuniary interest, including communications on behalf of an employer, with the following exceptions:
(i) A control station operator may participate on behalf of an employer in a government-sponsored emergency preparedness or disaster readiness test or drill, limited to the duration and scope of such test or drill, and operational testing immediately prior to such test or drill.
(ii) An amateur operator may notify other amateur operators of the availability for sale or trade of apparatus normally used in an amateur station, provided that such activity is not conducted on a regular basis.

The ARRL article concerning this development provides a good summary of the proposal. N5FDL has a brief discussion of the NPRM on his blog. Comments can be filed electronically on this NPRM on the FCC Electronic Filing Comment System.

I think this is moving in the right direction.

– 73, Bob K0NR

Part 97.113 has been the topic of much discussion lately, ever since the FCC communicated a rather narrow interpretation of the rules. See my previous post on this topic for more background information. From the ARRL web site, we find that the ARRL Board of Directors has chimed in:

The Board instructed the ARRL staff to seek a change in Section 97.113(a)(3) of the FCC rules to permit amateurs, on behalf of an employer, to participate in emergency preparedness and disaster drills that include Amateur operations.

This is not really a surprise and despite the usual criticism coming from some quarters, I am encouraged that the board sees this as an issue that requires action.

N5FLD lists the specific wording that the ARRL Board has approved, expressing some concern about the particular text chosen. I think we are clearly headed towards the standard FCC rule making process that will give everyone their say and, hopefully, we’ll arrive at a reasonable decision.

The February issue of CQ Magazine, arrived in the mail today, with a W2VU editorial taking on this topic. Rich points out that if you really want to get picky about it, ham radio publications are at risk due to a narrow interpretation of Part 97.113. For example, if an author is getting paid to review a new ham transceiver for publication in CQ, can he actually put it on the air without getting the foul flag thrown for “pecuniary interest”? So CQ wants to broaden the discussion, and has their own proposal for Part 97.113.

My read: stay tuned as we hash through this. There is enough support (based on good reasoning, I think) that this issue will get addressed. But it will take some time.

73, Bob K0NR

The FCC continues to drive out any ambiguity on how it interprets Part 97.113. (See previous post EmComm Trouble From the FCC. ) On October 20th, the FCC released Public Notice DA-09-2259, which reiterates the principle of no amateur radio communication on behalf of an employer, even if the employer is a government agency such as a fire or police department. OK, I think they got that point across.

The FCC also described a process for requesting a waiver of this rule for a specific emergency preparedness drill. A governmental entity, not the amateur radio operators involved, must apply to the FCC for a waiver in advance of the drill. According to N5FDL, the FCC intends these waivers to be for very specific events and not a regularly scheduled activity such as a weekly net. This can help facilitate a major event but is still fairly limited. I wonder how many waiver requests the FCC be receiving? I suspect there will be many.

A group of radio amateurs, The Amateur Radio Policy Committee, consisting of N5GAR, WB6NOA and N5FDL have filed a Petition for Rule Making with the FCC to address this situation. Basically, they propose that an additional item be added to the section of  rules (Part 97.111) that calls out Authorized Transmissions:

(6) Transmissions necessary for disaster relief or emergency response, including training exercises, planning, drills or tests, without regard to whether the amateur operator has related employment, where the transmissions are for the exclusive use of amateur radio operators for noncommercial purposes.

This seems like a reasonable and measured approach to changing the rules to support emergency communications training activities, without opening the door too wide. I am not sure why they proposed to modify Part 97.111 instead of 97.113 where other employment exceptions are handled (e.g., control operator of a club station that sends telegraphy practice, teacher in a classroom setting). The RAIN Report has an interview with N5FDL concerning this petition.

I still believe the FCC could have avoided this ruckus with a slightly more liberal interpretation of the rules. They didn’t do that, so now we will have to go through the rule making process to deal with the situation. I suppose that the FCC could decline to address the issue but this seems unlikely to me given the legitimate public interest in supporting emergency communications. (Anyone remember 9/11 ?) We’ll likely get to a reasonable outcome that protects the amateur radio service from undesirable encroachment while still enabling emergency communications training.

What do you think?

73, Bob K0NR

There has been quite a ruckus about the FCC and Part 97.113 concerning emergency communications but I have been taking a wait and see attitude about it.  These FCC Rules say:  No amateur station shall transmit communications in which the station licensee or control operator has a pecuniary interest, including communications on behalf of an employer.

The question on the table is whether this prohibition strictly applies to employees of a public safety organization. For example, is it a violation of the rules for a firefighter or hospital employee to use ham radio as part of a emergency communications practice exercise? Apparently, the answer is yes.

Read this posting on the N5FDL Blog for more details, including some correspondence with the FCC. The ARRL offered this explanation in the September issue of QST. This article reports that W0WLS is withdrawing from ham radio emcomm work after getting a letter from the FCC’s Laura Smith.

The K3NG Report says that The FCC is Throwing the Baby Out With the Bathwater.  I agree.

If you are involved with emergency communciations, you should make sure you understand this latest development.

   73, Bob K0NR