[DARC] Fw: Delaware Restrictive Ham Radio Bill Defeated

[newberry at juno.com]

I want to thank each and every one of you in the Delaware Section for
your efforts in educating the Delaware Legislators about Amateur Radio
and especially our Legislative Team who by their efforts defeated
legislation restricting the use of Amateur Radio in Delaware. 
 
Let me retrace the Genesis of this legislation from the Amateur Radio
point of view.
 
A Hand Held Cell Phone Bill was introduced into the Delaware General
Assembly with the intention of preventing the use of Hand Held Cellular
Technology and Text Messaging while a vehicle was in motion. Language in
the Bill included the language “Electronic Communication Devices”
that produced acknowledged unintended consequences.
 
The Cell Phone Bill although not hostile to Amateur Radio was ambiguous
with reference to the phrase   Electronic Communications Device and
legislation was introduced to amend the Cell Phone Bill by defining for
the purposes of this bill, an “electronic communication device “
shall not include Amateur Radio.
 
This amendment to exclude Amateur Radio passed but another amendment
was tacked onto this amendment that added the phrase “during
emergency conditions requiring such use.” I discovered that this
amendment was suggested by one of our own members who personally are
against equipping any device in a motor vehicle to his Senator, as I
polled the Delaware Section during last weekend’s Field Day
exercise.
 
We again tried to have this amendment removed and failed by one vote.
This Cell Phone Bill passed the Delaware General Assembly and was
passed to the Governor for approval.
 
The unintended consequence of the Cell Phone Bill as passed is that it
forbids the use of Amateur Radio in a mobile environment even if
equipped with a hands free device and restricts use to “emergency
conditions requiring their use”, without defining the emergency
condition allowing operation, in effect making this Cell Phone Bill
more restrictive for the Amateur Radio Service than for its intended
target the cell phone users.
 
We mounted a campaign to notify the Governor’s office about the
language of the Cell Phone Bill and pressed the issue of the
distinction between cellular phone technology and two-way radio
communication devices, this action created another unintended
consequence from the legislation as passed.
 
This prompted the Delaware Legislature to amend the Rules of the Road
to exempt two-way commercial and government radios from the provisions
of the Hand Held Cell Phone Bill.
 
We pressed the issue again and the Delaware Legislature again amended
the Rules of the Road to exclude two-way radio communications devices
with fixed placement in the vehicle from the list of prohibited
devices. This was one of the last Bills passed by the Delaware General
Assembly in extended session on July 1, 2010 at 12:48 AM.
 
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ARRL Delaware Section
Section Manager: Frank T Filipkowski Jr, AD3M
ad3m at arrl.org
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