Missing Vessel reported on the Maritime Service Net on 20 meters

Oh brother....

Where in Part 97 did you find that?

Who determine what is "good moral"?

If it is not a hobby, what about :
Part 97 : Sec. 97.113 Prohibited transmissions [HR][/HR] (a) No amateur station shall transmit: (1) Communications specifically prohibited elsewhere in this part;
(2) Communications for hire or for material compensation, direct or indirect, paid or promised, except as otherwise provided in these rules;

(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:

 

It is baffling where this narrow, arcane interpretation of "service" keeps coming from. It is a distorted view of what amateur radio is about.

Amateur radio is a "service" in the same way that CB is a "service" or the family radio "service" or the land-mobile radio "service" or the experimental radio "service" or any of a dozens of other "services" provided by the FCC in Title 47 regulations.

The word "service" simply is used by the FCC regulations to describe a "service" that they, the FCC, is providing to us, the public. The service the FCC provides to us is to allocate ranges of radio spectrum for us to engage in our hobby. That's all. The FCC themselves have stated that amateur radio is a hobby activity that incidentally has some emergency communcations value.

Look it up.

The very definition of the amateur radio "service" is that of a hobby activity. 97.3(a)(4) Amateur service. A radiocommunication service for the purpose of self-training, intercommunication and technical investigations carried out by amateurs, that is, duly authorized persons interested in radio technique solely with a personal aim and without pecuniary interest. This is the definition in the FCC regulations, and it is verbatim the definition in the international radio regulations.


The term radiocommunications service is defined in Title 47 Part 2, Radiocommunication Service. A service as defined in this Section
involving the transmission, emission and/or reception of radio waves for specific telecommunication purposes.

You see that the FCC definition of any radiocommunication "service", including the amateur radio service, merely means that it's something they administer involving radio. That's all. There's nothing else there.

As a small part of the hobby, sometimes amateur radio can be of some value for emergency or disaster communications. And that's great. But that is not the only reason why we exist. Emergency communications is mentioned only as a secondary subset of just one of the five reasons stated as the basis and purpose of amateur radio.

 

Its a hobby! Its not a bunch of fools gathering around on a traffic net waiting for the "big one". Professional first responders do not need a bunch of reflective vest wearing,HT carrying whackers getting in the way of serious business during an emergency. I promise you the professional first responders can do a better job then joe blow ham operator.

 

I don't understand why there's all this strife, anyway. I don't see anyone who has said that amateur radio should not have nets in place that could be used to help boaters in trouble. It's a good thing. I haven't seen anyone say that it isn't a good thing. All they're saying is that these nets are subject to the same rules and regulations as everyone else on the bands, and should remain so.

Obviously efforts should be made to avoid interference to the nets. There's already regulations covering malicious interference. Especially if there's actual emergency traffic in progress. I have not seen anyone here advocate that the nets should be maliciously interfered with or emergency traffic should be disrupted.

But the nets also have to realize that they cannot reasonably expect full quiet conditions plus or minus 5 or 10 kHz on both sides of 14.300 all the time, and that interference that may occur incidentally to other legal activity on the bands is not necessarily all malicious. Not everyone even knows that such nets exist.

If the nets feel that they are being maliciously interfered with, as mentioned earlier, there are already FCC regulations against malicious interference. Record it, get the callsign of the offender, and file a complaint. Ask the ARRL to focus their Official Observers on monitoring 14.300 during periods of heavy band activity such as contests.

The nets also have to understand that their routine operation is not "emergency communications". The routine activity that goes on 99.9999% of the time - taking check-ins, passing weather reports around, and generally shooting the breeze with their buddies - is not "emergency communcations". Emergency communications exist only when there is an emergency.

 

This is what virtually all real hams who understand what amateur radio is about see when they look up the Basis and Purpose in the FCC regulations, Part 97.1

§97.1 Basis and purpose.-
The rules and regulations in this Part are designed to provide an amateur radio service having a fundamental purpose as expressed in the following principles:
(a) Recognition and enhancement of the value of the amateur service to the public as a voluntary noncommercial communication service, particularly with respect to providing emergency communications.
(b) Continuation and extension of the amateur's proven ability to contribute to the advancement of the radio art.
(c) Encouragement and improvement of the amateur service through rules which provide for advancing skills in both the communications and technical phases of the art.
(d) Expansion of the existing reservoir within the amateur radio service of trained operators, technicians, and electronics experts.
(e) Continuation and extension of the amateur's unique ability to enhance international goodwill.



This is what a small handful of hams with distorted views of amateur radio see when they look at the same section:

§97.1 Basis and purpose.-
The rules and regulations in this Part are designed to provide an amateur radio service having a fundamental purpose as expressed in the following principles:
(a) Recognition and enhancement of the value of the amateur service to the public as a voluntary noncommercial communication service, particularly with respect to providing
emergency communications.
(b) Continuation and extension of the amateur's proven ability to contribute to the advancement of the radio art.
(c) Encouragement and improvement of the amateur service through rules which provide for advancing skills in both the communications and technical phases of the art.
(d) Expansion of the existing reservoir within the amateur radio service of trained operators, technicians, and electronics experts.
(e) Continuation and extension of the amateur's unique ability to enhance international goodwill.

 

Anyway - did the missing boat ever turn up? It's been about a five days at this point, hasn't it? If they're still missing, that's not good.

 

Well, most times when you get these notices, it is just about using any resource out there, and so they make the announcement on ham radio so that those vessels who might not be paying attention to the commercial frequencies get the message to watch for the missing vessel, not to try to reach the missing vessel. Pleasure boats don't always listen to the marine band radios for various reasons.

That being said, I remember coming back to the states on the ATT cable ship Global Link, when we were contacted by the U.S. Coast Guard to try to contact a sailing vessel who was demasted and trying to communicate with shore. So, I fired up my onboard ham station and made contacted and moved them to VHF to assist them. When we had established contact, he said he was under way using half his mast and could we please provide him some ice cream. Otherwise he did not require assistance. I beleive he was fined for misuse of the emergency notification system. My captain was fit to be tied.

Yes, ham radio is a hobby, but traditionally has been very active and useful during time of emergency, both on land, and at sea. If a boat is going to be at sea, I agree that they should carry the proper marine radios for safety. However, I recognize that a lot of people don't. One of the things I have found over the years, having been in Search and Rescue, it that most people who get in trouble, do so because of a lack of proper preparation for the area they are going in. I don't know how to stop this, but maybe a fine along with repaying the cost of a search and rescue operation might help, but I don't really think so. To quote a recent comedian, "You can't fix stupid!"

73,

Mike W7DME

 

9HJW read post #103 ... it was reported as bogus...

 

Well, many would disagreee with your interpretation of what our HOBBY is and how it is defined by the FCC. There are several reasons for not requiring members of our
hobby to be of "good moral character". Your definitions of good moral character and mine, im sure, differ widely. It is not our givernments job to regulate moral values.
You need to read the constitution. I see no wording in the regulations prohibiting old men, disgruntled or otherwise.. I would guess that our hobby's ranks would
be down to a quarter of what they are if that were the case.

NI7I

 

Ok I have read eveyones comments. I only have one question.
Where is the article about the missing boat???????? I can't
seem to find that anywhere. I click on read the full article but
all I get is the forum

 

Yes it was found and the crew is safe.

 

by LPQ:

by UQA:

Which is it?

 

According to this (previously offered as proof of a real emergency): http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/f106/missing-skiff-mexican-west-coast-73771.html it was bogus.

Read all of it.

Kinda smug....aint he

 

Can we examine some details?

1. The US Consulate called the NCS via Amateur Radio. There is no Consular Agent in Guadalajara, MX. Here is a list: http://mexico.usembassy.gov/eng/edirectory.html

2. No Agent = Unlicensed operation.

3. NCS took the QSO to 14.350 USB. Legal in a real emergency but really bad form, Emergency or not. The FCC will look the other way in case of Emergency Communications but only when no other means of communication is available. I guess our imaginary Consular Agent didn't have a phone. I have no idea what the FCC would think about a fake emergency. The part in red is always overlooked by those who are prepared to act illegally in the name of Emergency Communications.

I'd say this was a huge black eye for the MMSN......

 

Here's another US Government web site that says there is

http://guadalajara.usconsulate.gov/