[Ares-races] VHF Marine Band question

[N4AOF]

Let me quote the most significant parts of your message...

----- Original Message ----- 
�97.401
an amateur station may

�97.403
by an amateur station

�97.405
by an amateur station


The reason these are the significant parts of the message is because
they point out that the authorizations in 97.401, 97.403, and 97.405 -- 
just like all of Part 97 -- apply ONLY to stations operating in the
Amateur Radio Service -- a service which exists only on frequencies
allocated to it.  The instant an operator cranks up his or her
transmitter outside the amateur frequencies, it is no longer an Amateur
Radio Station, it suddenly becomes an unlicensed station operating
without authorization in whatever service owns the frequency it is
using.  Crank up your HF rig on 27.405 MHz and you are not an amateur
station, you are an illegal CB station operating in violation of Part
95.  Crank up your 2m HT on the local police VHF frequency and you are
not an amateur station, you are an unlicensed Public Safety station
operating in violation of Part 90.

Each radio service has its own rules -- and those rules apply to
stations operating in that service -- once you choose to operate on a
frequency allocated to a different service, you come under the rules of
that service.  Most services have specific rules for emergency
operation; a few services have no specific rule about emergency
communications in their own service rules and come only under the
general emergency communications rule in Part 2 (which specifically
excludes the Amateur Radio Service).