[Ares-races] Paid vs volunteer radio operators

[Rick Hampton]

Bill wrote:

> Rick,
>
> It appears that all those phone patches from military bases and ships that were common  years ago were illegal. Not
> because of the phone patch, but because the ham operators were on active duty, employees of the US Government and
> operating government owned  equipment located on  military bases, ships and aircraft. They were all over the ham bands.
> I know for a fact that the ham operators running phone patches from the hospital ships out of the South China Sea were
> not off duty. There are many other analogies.
>
> W3USS was located in the Senate Office Building.
>
> http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/2044/#top
>
>  I wonder if Bill Cross would have told Barry Goldwater he could not operate this station.
>
> Bill

No, Bill, I think not.  Those operations are perfectly legal under the
rules for the Military Affiliate Radio System
(M.A.R.S.), which is a DoD sponsored military operation, not a civilian
operation like amateur radio.  M.A.R.S. operation
also allows for things like operation outside of frequencies allocated
for amateur operations.  In fact, these frequencies
are military frequencies.  You even have to use a different, M.A.R.S.
issued call.  Two different services with two
different sets of rules.  M.A.R.S. is not Amateur Radio is not M.A.R.S.

Rick