SB61 in CT Needs your support.

Fortunately Washington state just passed a cellphone usage law that specifically exempts amateur radio operation while driving as long as operators hold a valid FCC license.


RCW 46.61.667
Using a wireless communications device while driving.

(1) Except as provided in subsections (2) and (3) of this section, a person operating a moving motor vehicle while holding a wireless communications device to his or her ear is guilty of a traffic infraction.

(2) Subsection (1) of this section does not apply to a person operating:

(a) An authorized emergency vehicle, or a tow truck responding to a disabled vehicle;

(b) A moving motor vehicle using a wireless communications device in hands-free mode;

(c) A moving motor vehicle using a hand-held wireless communications device to:

(i) Report illegal activity;

(ii) Summon medical or other emergency help;

(iii) Prevent injury to a person or property; or

(iv) Relay information that is time sensitive between a transit or for-hire operator and that operator's dispatcher, in which the device is permanently affixed to the vehicle;

(d) A moving motor vehicle while using a hearing aid.

(3) Subsection (1) of this section does not restrict the operation of an amateur radio station by a person who holds a valid amateur radio operator license issued by the federal communications commission.

other states should do the same and word it so that HR operators are exepmt
KF7RJM

 

Or, you can support safety on the highways and not exempt hams from distracted driving regulations.. Hams are most certainly no better at "distracted driving"
than any other group of drivers... Perhaps worse.. who knows..??

Lee
NI7I

 

That is so wrong it's rediculous.. I'm fairly certain that if there w3re a study done about how "SAFE" hams are while operating their radios, you would
find statistics to back up having hams shot for even cponsidering operating while driving.. If you are gpoing tpo ban cellphone use, you need also ban ham radio use..

NI7I

 

Then it should have been easy to fight the ticket, given that HR does not fit the definitions given in the law. If the people chose not to fight it, then that is their own business.

Joe

 

One did, one did not. However, one still has to take a day off work, pay for parking near the courthouse, etc. when fighting a ticket; I believe the ham who decided not to fight the ticket figured it would be cheaper to just pay the fine than to jump through the hoops of fighting it.

Part of the rationale for the bill is to reduce the possible need to have to go to court for such a ticket by reducing the odds that such a ticket would be issued in the first place.

 

Are Amateur Radio Licensees exempt from NEC violations??? Better double check your 240V subpanel installation and review the NEC.

But Hams shouldn't be exempt from locals laws, or should they?

 

I would consider that an error in judgement.. There is no justificatiopn for ham radio operators to be excluded.

NI7I

 

What? You have never been guilty of operating when driving? I work a very odd schedule...i work long hours in the early morning one day and then work late at night the next....I operate while driving to stay focused. What if you are involved in a ARES/RACES training exercise? Are you going to pull over to participate? What if someone happens to be monitoring and they hear a distress call? They pass a police officer and they see that and pull you over...? I don't think that its fair to put us in the same category as cell phone users. We can put the mic down or even grab the wheel as soon as we are done transmitting...along those lines you would have to include emergency personnel in that as well.

 

If I were a non-ham WA driver, that wouldn't make me feel safer, knowing someone's Amateur Radio license legally qualifies him/her to walk and chew gum at the same time. As hams, there's almost never an occasion when we must use our rigs while driving. Now, in addition to cell phone users who ignore the law, I have to watch out for hams legally using their rigs while driving.

 

If any state passes a law that doesn't exempt amateur radio, the ARRL hasn't done the job we are paying them to do. What are they doing, sitting on their butts in Newington? Isn't this the main reason they exist, it's not just to print a glossy magazine. The ARRL is to amateur radio as the NRA is to gun owners.

 

Trucks are exempt already

 

This whole thing smells of special interest legislation, as in "insurance lobby" influence. And somebody rich with a beef has it in for amateur radio. Look at all the toadies here taking on the mobile rig manufacturers and vendors.

 

Yes, either pull over oir have a second person in the car to operate the rig. You are noit going to get pulled over because you ar "monitoring" your radio. A person using a phone
has the same ability toi put it down. Personaklly, I would limit how emergency personell could use their radios..

NI7I

 

The only thing that makes mobile HR operation illegal is a law that states that it is illegal. In most states, no such law exists, and rightly so. The fact that HR is exempted in most states is because the law is primarily aimed at people who text, talk on a phone, or play with an Ipad. Most states also exempt a person using a GPS device. Why would a GPS device be exempted, but not HR?

Operating a HR is more closely related to smoking a cigarette, or drinking a soda or coffeee in the car. Many people do it with no problem. Is it distracting? Sure, it can be. But so can conversing with passengers, watching kids in the back seat, adjusting the radio or mirror, or looking at the speedometer. In short, "legal" or "illegal" is only defined by the state you are in, and what restrictions they want to put on you. To be safe, any of you that support these laws, please don't come to AZ, where we have no cellphone laws of this type. Your life will not be safe.

Joe

 

When you are talking on your unimportant play radios, your brain is in the Bahamas. Turn the flippin' radio off and start acting just as though you are a responsible member of a society. A ham driving a car with a mike in his hand is probably worse than cellphone user. Pull off the road if you have something that important to do on the radio; otherwise, grow up.