OFFICIAL FCC UPDATE REGARDING 97.113 (status = resolution)

He is a different kind of ham. He is a ninjasque ecomm guru with an ink still wet ham radio ticket. He will save the world. He has HT's, even an elite p25 radio, a reflective vest, and a self granted title.

You all better no question the ham radio messiah, for his is your radio savior.

 

Probably 95 percent of this EMCOM stuff is just adults who never grew up, and are still playing "cops and robbers" or "Cowboys and Indians" like they did when they were six years old. They just are wearing the white hats, and all the rest of the hams are the black hat folks.

Honestly, I think that is all it is. A childhood game continued into adult hood, a continuing desire to wear a white hat and "be important."

Ed

 

Damn Ed, you absolute nailed it in the least amount of words. Totally absolutely hit it .

 

We have been told for years and years that we are "going to lose spectrum." It has been a threat held over our heads by the ARRL to encourage us to 'send more money,' just like the televangelists. Join the ARRL and save the spectruim.

There is no commecial interest in two meters, where most of the EMCOM stuff is. There is zero commercial interest in HF.

440 mhz is already a shared band in areas of the country (including here in NM, where government agencies use it.)

But while the threat of loss of spectrum goes on, we GAINED the WARC bands, full use of 160 meters, and more use of 440 mhz in most of the country. We have gained spectrum, yet they keep beating us over the head with threatened losses. We gained shared use of 900 mhz.

We did lose a segment of the 220 mhz band. That's the only loss we have suffered in decades, if ever. And turns out it was never used, as it wasn't right for the commercial purpose.

And what is this talk of the 800 mhz scam? Hams have no frequencies in 800 mhz. Never have had. And wouldn't likely use them if they did. I know of no scam about 800 mhz. A few hams "thought" we might get some spectrum there with relocation of other services, but there was never any official hint it could come about.

I call the spectrum loss boogey man exactly that - a boogey man. Mostly a press for more funds for the ARRL. Or, of course, a press for more EMCOM use, by a tiny percentage of all active hams.

Why, by the way, do we have nearly 50 percent of licensed hams inactive? Out of 630,000 or so, it is estimated only about 320,000 may ever use a radio. Why is that? Because they were brought into amateur radio for the wrong reasons and had NO interest in ham radio. They were brought in during the 90s as 'cell phone hams,' using the cheap and free cell phone. They were brought in as an alternate to business communications. I heard them, computer companies dispatching repairmen, and much more. And they got caught and told to get other methods of communication. They were brought in as Family Radio, "keep in touch with spousy."

When cell phones suddenly became cheap and easy, these "hams" disappeared. They had better things to do. Many of those licenses will expire soon, and the numbers of licenses will likely drop.

And if the EMCOM group finds its dreams of being a 'cheap and easy' public safety radio system are dashed, they, too, will drop the ham radios. And in ten years their licenses will also expire.

As I have said on other posts, I find amateur radio operators can be of use in assisting in disaster recovery communications. I am glad we can. But it isn't a career. It isn't a business. We are not public safety.

We are NOT going to lose any spectrum. That's a straw man threat. Let's park that horse in the barn. No one wants it. Two meters has no value to anyone, (and is getting where it has little value to ham radio!) and today, 440 mhz has little value. EHF and SHF are good for some commercial concepts, but we don't have to worry about interference up there, and we are not going to lose it. We may share it, but we already share most of it.

To be honest, I would not care if the FCC took the two meter band away from hams and gave it to the EMCOMMERS. No amateur radio activity allowed. Go for it. That won't happen, but it would get the 'cops and robbers' group off ham radio and give them their own spectrum.

And as I have been advocating for a while, I would love to see EMCOM moved to its own channels, perhaps just below two meters, like CAP. Give them a place to play and be important, and give ham radio back to amateur radio operators.

Ed

 

The Official FCC Opinion...

Will be put in a Written Document, all of the other opinions are just Hearsay. Wait for the Written Opinion before believing that there will be no enforcement action.

 

Welcome to ham radio.

If you are handling communications for your employer then its a no-no. You have a pretty good handle on that.

As far as telling a ham about the general nature of an outage, I'd be a little reticent about doing that and not because of 97.113. Power companies are like telephone companies and I know telephone companies have a problem with someone not in Public Relations putting out information concerning an outage. There are lots of reasons why which we don't need to cover here.

As for telling people when you'll be in their area, I don't see anything wrong with that but you need to be careful about raising expectations that may not be able to be met. Again, that's not a 97.113 issue per se. This kind of information would be no different than a ham would give who just talked to a crew and asked them where they are going next. It's not really handling comms for your employer, it's private citizen to private citizen. If you get into making any service committments over the radio that, of course, is a different matter.

tim ab0wr

 

I like this statement of his:

"You all are really starting to irritate me with your anti-encomm sentiments."

No one on here is anti-emcomm. We *ARE* against making amateur radio into an emergency radio service. That's what Part 90 is.

XTS is in the anger phase of grief after having seen his view of turning amateur radio into an emergency radio service killed by the FCC.

Sooner or later he'll move into the bargaining phase that so many others are in. Then we'll see what kind of ideas he comes up with.

tim ab0wr

 

i think the law needs to stay as is or we will have many agentes buy ham radio and claiming every thing they do is an emergency. then the fcc will be too hard at work declaring what is and is not emergency. jim ke5ktr

 

Your not reading the same posts I am then. I see the same hams here repeating the same stuff over and over and its all anti-emcomm.

 

The Administrative Procedures Act which covers CFR issues and waivers of which I am familiar with due to my job working on the OCS (Outer Continental Shelf) with the MMS (Minerals Management Service) (Dept of Interior) so here goes:

Waivers of CFR rules may be granted verbally (best to have follow up correspondence on that), by email (good), or letterhead waivers (the Best) but the bottom line is that an issuance of any kind waiver can be made by any administrative employee SUBJECT TO FURTHER REVIEW.

Case in question is that we must fully test a platform in the Gulf of Mexico every month not to exceed 6 weeks (42 days) but when the 42 day limit comes close we call the Administrative Person, she waives the requirement due to transporation/weather/late testors/whatever and we immediately fire off an email to confirm the conversation which is returned as our proof.

Is this email a policy change for FCC, not really, but they do not see a problem in this instance, remember, this is subject to further review so it could be recinded but that is rare unless the public safety, necessity or convience is compromised.

73 de Martin

 

No, it's anti whacker, anti ecomm ninja, anti give away our bands for the all mighty newly minted ecomm techs.

There is a time and place for ecomm. These groups that are popping up are just scary. They have a hero worship for cops and firemen, this is their way to be involved and be an authority. It's scary, really scary. These guys are delusional, believing their little club is an important emergency organization.

Go look at the website for yourself. Read it, then tell me there is nothing wrong down there in Georgia.

http://wc4rav.org/

 

None of this, on any of these threads, is about anit-emcom. It is about anti-converting amateur radio into public safety radio.

A good many of us have, in various years, helped in communications support for things like floods, earthquakes, and the like. That's a good service from amateur radio.

What many of us are fighting is the move to turn amateur radio into something it was never intended to be, to keep its sole focus from becoming an alternate public safety radio service. It isn't. We don't want commercial or government use of amateur radio. We do not want to become extensions of Homeland Security, FEMA, Jimmy's Hospital, or Billy's Sheriff Department.

While it is true we as a whole have veered pretty far away from the once-technical hobby we were for many decades, we still mostly have the hobby interest. More and more, and this is NOT a derogatory comment, it is becoming like CB, that is, just working "skip" (DX) and yakking with buddies. I don't think that is any kind of a problem. We talk. Our license grants us the privilege of talking on the radio. It does NOT make us cops, firefighters, and the like.

Probably, though there are no supporting figures, 95 percent, if not more, of active hams have NO interest in regular emcom activities. That is a LOT of hams! They do amateur radio for the fun of it, for talking to friends, meeting new friends, building equipment, testing antennas, chasing DX, ragchewing on CW or RTTY or AM or SSB, and more 'fun' stuff.

The fear for many hams is tht the conversion will cost them the hobby aspect of it. IT will become 'business radio,' and only those involved in EMCOM will be permitted to use it. It steals from the 98 percent or so of active hams.

We are not, and I am not, anti EMCOM. I am against ANYTHING that takes amateur radio away from us, and some of the EMCOM fanatics are very much interested in doing exactly that.

That is why we argue. We wish to protect this old and honored hobby of amateur radio. They wish to convert it to a service that already exists, and that has nothing at all to do with ham radio.

Ed

 

Since when does the Feces use the capitalized term "HAM" in official correspondence to taxpayers? That seems to be a QRZ thing. Was that letter edited -or faked? If so, by whom?

 

Ooooooo....I'm impressed. NOT!!

 

Here is why you shouldn't go running the the FCC for clarification on every little thing:

Excerpt from 73 Magazine, August 1985.. QRX Column edited by Perry Donham KW1O: