Paul,
IMHO you and others have failed to hit upon the KEY word, or term, in the
Part 97 rules.
The KEY WORD is the "COMMUNICATIONS".
The rule is written so that an amateur station cannot be legally used to
transmit COMMUNICATION, that is, the actual information contained in the
transmissions, "for material compensation".
To my knowledge, all COMMUNICATION via the remote controlled stations is HAM
COMMUNICATION only.
No BUSINESS COMMUNICATION is taking place; just AMATEUR RADIO COMMUNICATION.
IMHO, it is totally legal per written law, and does not require an
exception, or a DR or other permission.
Hypothetically, HRO and AES could lease, loan, rent, time share or whatever
radio systems, to include setting them up, maintaining, paying operation
costs, etc., to any person who presented a valid amateur radio license.
That would be no different from the business those two entities are
currently involved in; that is selling radios and related equipment to any
person who presents a valid amateur radio license. They just did not think
of the 'remote for rent' first and act upon the concept.
Likewise, many, many amateurs hire, pay, bribe with beer, whatever, other
people to install and maintain their radios and antenna systems. Is this
against the law as written? What about all those crane operators and
professional tower climbers that make significant bucks from hams to set up
and rig the ham towers and antennas? It doesn't matter if it is a one time
situation, or on a contract, ongoing basis. If it were illegal, ???????
VHF and UHF Repeaters are not significantly different than HF remote bases.
Group owned, pay your dues required to use repeaters have been in use for
nearly 50 years. Absolutely no difference.
The only requirement, per FCC regulations, for the owner of a 'station for
rent', whether it is locally controlled (the KP2 and KH6 rentals) or
remotely controlled (the RHR Network or others) is, that including proper
identification, the rules and regs are followed for the COMMUNICATION and
communication method that emits from that station.
It is what it is. Evolution of technology.
Mis dos centavos.
73 de Milt, N5IA
-----Original Message-----
From: Paul Christensen
Sent: Thursday, February 05, 2015 8:27 AM
To: topband@contesting.com
Subject: Re: Topband: Foreign stns using NA remotes for K1N
Quoting myself:
'Rather than embracing this commercial abuse of free spectrum, the League
should be scrambling to draft a Petition for Rulemaking to prohibit this
form of paid spectrum access - and that should include all "for profit" and
"not-for-profit" entities. What other countries do is their prerogative'
Taking a detailed look at Part 97, specifically,
97.113(a)(2):
"(a) No amateur station shall transmit: (2) Communications for hire or for
material compensation, direct or indirect, paid or promised, except as
otherwise provided in these rules;"
I see no exemption "as otherwise provided" for RHR's toll-based, income
model. Note that the rule is specific to the amateur station as defined
under 97.3(a)(5).
97.113(a)(3)
"(a) No amateur station shall transmit: (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 still don't see an exemption here for RHR's toll-based business. Here,
the entities affected by this subpart are the amateur station, station
licensee, and/or control operator.
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