[Ares-races] Where do we fit (paid or unpaid)

[Jerry]

  I want to start my reply with thanking Jim and Rick for the first two 
messages on this thread.  Most of my comments are in reply to Rick's 
excellent observations.

I recently made similar comments about amateur radio no longer being 
uniquely able to provide communications in the context of Skywarn 
reporting.  The reality is, the total number of amateur radio operators 
is insignificant compared to the number of people with cell phones and 
other communications systems.  In the early 1970s, when Skywarn began, 
the NWS clearly needed hams.  The growth of other communications systems 
has eroded our uniqueness.  Please, do not waste your time telling me 
how ham radio is sometimes the only dependable mode.  I know all that. 
 But we must admit we no longer have the uniqueness that we did just 30 
years ago.  From a data collection standpoint, especially for the NWS' 
Skywarn program, the information and timeliness is what is important, 
not the person reporting it nor the route by which it arrives.

RACES is directly accountable to their sponsoring emergency management, 
either city, county or state.  This is why it is possible for a city or 
county RACES group to be activated, yet be unable to call upon the 
members of other RACES groups in their geographic area.  Under RACES, 
you must be registered with the emergency management organization for 
which you are providing communications.

RACES was created in the early 1950s (the exact month and year are 
debatable), modeled after the War Emergency Radio Service (WERS) of WW2. 
 The WERS purpose was to provide communications in connection with air 
raid protection, and to allow operators to continue their role in 
providing communications during times of natural disaster, just as they 
had been doing as hams prior to the war.  Some histories of emergency 
communications in the 1950s say the RACES rules were written 
specifically to prevent emergency management (civil defense) from using 
amateur radio for their day-to-day communications.  The RACES rules in 
Part 97 say who may operate, what frequencies may be used, the content 
of messages, message destinations, even how much time may be spent each 
week for on-air training.  In my opinion, these are operating 
restrictions and do not confer any special privileges.

In recent presentations to hospital emergency management groups, many of 
them recognize the potential value of amateur radio, and are installing 
amateur radio equipment.  Many of them intend to use hospital employees 
who are amateur radio operators to operate the radios.  Unfortunately, 
there is Part 97.113 Prohibited transmissions:  (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; (3) Communications in which the station 
licensee or control operator has a pecuniary interest, including 
communications on behalf of an employer....  

In replying to a specific question, an FCC regulator wrote that there 
are no exceptions.  Employees may not use their amateur radio license 
for the benefit of their employer.  This would apply to employees of 
emergency management, fire departments, law enforcement, EMS, city, 
county and state governments, as well as private companies, including 
many non-profit hospitals.  Just as labor laws prohibit volunteering for 
your employer, they key element here is the employee-employer 
relationship.  Although initially shocked by this revelation, it is 
entirely consistent with the original intent of the amateur radio 
service, as a non-commercial radio service.  The full text of the reply 
is below my signature.

I do not see any overwhelming emergency communications need that cannot 
be met under the existing rules of the amateur radio service.  Let us 
keep amateur radio as a non-commercial service, but recognize that each 
licensee has a responsibility to be prepared to provide communications 
for public safety, emergency response, and disaster relief organizations 
when their exisisting infrastructure has failed or is inadequate.  We 
already have overwhelming interoperable equipment that commercial 
services have abandoned for exclusive and proprietary trunked systems. 
 We also have the technical skills, knowledge, and experience to quickly 
establish functional, multi-mode, communications networks where none exist.

Jerry Reimer, KK5CA
ARES District Emergency Coordinator

++++++

Section 97.113 states that no amateur station shall transmit 
communications in which the station licensee or control operator has a 
pecuniary interest, including communications on behalf of an employer.  
There is no exception in the rule for "when availability of outside help 
is limited" or while other radio amateurs would be on their way to the 
hospitals.

If the hospitals are your employer, as compared to you being an employee 
of another company that contracts to the hospitals, then being the 
control operator of a station transmitting any communications on behalf 
of the hospitals would violate the rule.  There is no restriction on you 
establishing a relationship with the local amateur radio clubs in order 
to use amateur radio in case of a communications emergency at the 
facilities as establishing the relationship and coordinating all that 
needs to be coordinated is not transmitting messages or being a control 
operator.  When you are the control operator of a station transmitting 
brief, periodic messages to ensure the station's operational status and 
electrical safety, you are transmitting communications on behalf of an 
employer.  And that violates the rule.

My recommendation is to have non-employees be control operators of the 
station.

William Cross



Rick Hampton wrote:

>Howdy, Neighbor Jim!  (I'm in Londonderry.)
>
>Rockingham Computer wrote:
>
>>a) Exactly what is the original justification for amateur radio
>>anyhow?  Is there something in that original justification that has somehow been lost over the years ?  
>>
>
>The "something" that has been lost over the years is the rarity of two-way radios for communications. Hams just aren't special in that respect anymore.
>
>>Some thouths might include:
>>
>In it's simplest form, RACES serves governmental agencies, ARES doesn't.  The
>thing that seems to have divided ARES and RACES operators (when and where
>that occurred), was the concept that in a REAL emergency RACES operators
>continued operating while ARES operators had to pull the plug.  
>
>>d) Propose a new radio service, one in which amateurs are
>>automatically cross licensed, thus putting some expertise behind
>>establishing a volunteer core (and the equipment, like repeaters for
>>that matter) and relieving the restrictions that we often find when we
>>try to work with others like the red cross and public safety.  In this
>>case we could both be licensed and own equipment for interoperatility.
>>
>Um, I believe this is exactly the reason for which RACES was designed, with
>the equipment for interopretability being amateur radio equipment and the
>license being an amateur radio license.  I don't think we need to reinvent
>RACES.
>
>Remember, it's not the radios that make us an asset, it's the knowledge on
>how to use the radios that make us an asset.
>
>Rick, WD8KEL
>