Fears Sweden's new driving regs may hit amateurs

Fears Sweden's new driving regs may hit amateurs

Sweden's national amateur radio society, the SSA, has written to the Government to point out the unintended consequences of mobile phone driving legislation on radio amateurs

A Google English translation of the SSA post reads:

We have previously written about the ban on the use of mobile phones in conjunction with driving on February 1.
http://www.ssa.se/29036-2/

In a letter to the Ministry of Food and Transport, SSA wishes to draw attention to the fact that the wording of the new legislative text may have had unintended consequences not only for us radio amateurs but also for the transport industry.

SSA believes that the new law should be formulated so that it is clear that the prohibition does not apply to the hand microphone to a vehicle-mounted communication radio. The whole letter is available here:
http://www.ssa.se/download/sektioner/iaru-myndighet/ovrigt/SSA_20180219.pdf

SSA site in Google English
http://tinyurl.com/SwedenSSA


http://www.southgatearc.org/news/2018/february/fears-swedens-new-driving-regs-may-hit-amateurs.htm

 

Oregon passed a “no cell phone while driving” law that also affected hams because 2-way radios were not exempted.
We are trying to amend this. (Meanwhile, every cop that transmits while driving gets a ticket...right?)

 

Have not researched this particular law but similar laws I have come across law enforcement and other emergency services are exempt which is a simple matter of common sense.

 

Yeah, I exaggerated. They did exempt emergency services, but as usual amateur radio was not even on their radar.

 

Did find a 2015 version of the Oregon bill which did exempt hams but apparently there have been some changes along the way including 2017 just not sure which is the current law.

 

In the UK, Amateur and CB Radio and also Business Radio are exempt from the requirement for hands free operation. The legislation gives band limits which are the Cellular bands.

 

In California a directive has gone out to the CHP that a wired microphone attached to a mobile radio by a licensed user is exempt from the 'hands free rule' the only problem is that most officers have not read it.

 

Oregon certainly is overly stupid in it's mobile electronic devices distracted driving law.

Last weekend I was on my way to the Albany Oregon gun range for my first time to meet a fellow ham friend who practically lives there and invited me down for a visit.

I had 2 rifles in cases in the back seat of my 4-runner and although my 10meter and 6 meter mounted GE Orion mobiles were turned off due to zero propagation an OSP TROOPER pulled me over as he claimed my antennas drew his attention.

Although he saw my rifles in the cases all his comments and interest was directed towards my mobile radios and my mobile GPS asking why I had these items and at no time did he even show interest in the guns only the electronic devices even after telling him where I was going when he questioned me as to why I had mobile radios and a mobile gps unit.

In the end he gave me a verbal warning about mobile Electronic devices pertaining to the Oregon Distracted driving law, even though the gps uses voice prompts he still lectured me as to not having the radios and the gps turned on while driving.

He claimed that in the future after a public awareness grace period expires no more warnings will be given and I may as well remove the antennas and mobile electronics as they are a magnet to future stops by OSP.

I'm sure glad that I didn't spend a lot of money on my mobile radios because in the end not using them mobile anymore won't be a big loss.

 

On what planet is an antenna probable cause? Using that logic it’s okay to pull anybody over at any time. Everybody has a cell phone right? And they don’t even have antennas. Can it be hands free? If not, then simply having a passenger is probable cause that you are committing a crime!

That’s all stupid.

Ed

 

You guys just bogarted G4TUT's thread.

 

Well, not exactly (in case of the Swedish law, to get back to topic). They actually didn't exempt emergency services. Not the first time. They had to rush an updated law only 2 weeks after the first law, since they hadn't realised what impact the law would have...

 

Actually, the impact on amateur radio here would be quite limited, as mobile operations are already "dead" for all practical purposes.

The repeaters remain mostly silent, and the little occupancy present is composed of fixed-to-fixed station traffic where the operators absolutely love the sound of their own voices.

73/
Karl-Arne
SM0AOM

 

Very true. Also from a technical point of view there are reasons to stay away from the repeaters here. Many are carrier-only activated, spewing out QRM that happen to be on their input frequency. Many have too high deviation, especially on 2 meter. Some even have input frequencies in the Satellite segment!

No, this law should be no problem for ham operators. Law or not, you should not fiddle with things like a ham rig while driving. The remarkable thing with this law is the complete lack of understanding of the consequences for emergency services and public transport.

 

Also, the repeaters are mostly un-coordinated, and there is a definite over-establishment in especially the metropolitan areas. Many put up a repeater just to boost their egos.

It can be estimated that there is a repeater available for about every two reasonably active amateurs here; almost 400 repeaters compared to about 1000 active.

73/
Karl-Arne
SM0AOM

 

A state senator in Virginia tried to pass similar legislation. It was different from the Swedish and other locations in that it seemed to specifically target amateur radio. While under the banner of "distracted driving", the proposed legislation specifically said, "This section shall not apply to federally licensed amateur radio operators who are reporting an emergency, participating in a public service function, or communications involving a drill or training with local state or federal government agencies". The proposed legislation went on to say, "This law shall not apply to operators of Citizens Band radio equipment". Eventually, the bill was amended to totally exclude Amateur Radio. Fortunately, this bill died in committee but I have to wonder why this senator singled out Amateur Radio. I had wondered, had it passed, what would happen with other two-way users such as drivers of taxi cabs, utility vehicles, etc.