[EIDXA] ARLB011 ARRL Executive Committee Issues Mobile Amateur Radio Operation Policy Statement

[Jim Spencer]

For those who have not seen the ARRL position:


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Sent: Tuesday, February 03, 2009 2:40 PM
Subject: ARLB011 ARRL Executive Committee Issues Mobile Amateur Radio 
Operation Policy Statement


> SB QST @ ARL $ARLB011
> ARLB011 ARRL Executive Committee Issues Mobile Amateur Radio
> Operation Policy Statement
>
> ZCZC AG11
> QST de W1AW
> ARRL Bulletin 11  ARLB011
> From ARRL Headquarters
> Newington CT  February 3, 2009
> To all radio amateurs
>
> SB QST ARL ARLB011
> ARLB011 ARRL Executive Committee Issues Mobile Amateur Radio
> Operation Policy Statement
>
> On January 30, at the instruction of the Board of Directors at its
> January 2009 meeting, the ARRL Executive Committee adopted a policy
> statement on mobile Amateur Radio operations. The statement
> addresses the growing number of proposed state and local laws and
> ordinances regulating the use of cellular telephone and text
> messaging, inadvertently affecting Amateur Radio mobile
> communications.
>
> In its statement, the Executive Committee urges state and municipal
> legislators to limit the scope of their proposals, limiting them to
> devices such as full duplex wireless telephones and related
> hand-held or portable equipment. Alternately, it suggests that
> licensed Amateur Radio operation be listed specifically as an
> exclusion to the proposed regulations.
>
> "At the start of each new session, you see a flurry of this type of
> proposal in state legislatures across the country," said ARRL
> Regulatory Information Manager Dan Henderson, N1ND.
>
> As of February 1, 2009, Henderson said that the ARRL is aware of
> proposals in 11 states: Georgia, Hawaii Idaho, Illinois, Iowa,
> Maine, Montana, Texas, Utah, Virginia and Wyoming, as well as
> several local city or town proposals.
>
> "These proposals are usually intended to regulate cellular telephone
> and text messaging by drivers as a matter of safety but, when they
> are written in very broad terms, can include Amateur Radio mobile
> operations in the 'net' they cast," Henderson continued. "The
> Executive Committee's policy statement gives a good, concise
> background of the role the Amateur Service plays in public safety
> and service communications. It also highlights the differences
> between communications conducted by cellular telephone and those
> using Amateur Radio. Finally, the statement offers some suggested
> statutory language for state motor vehicle codes which would protect
> Amateur Radio mobile operation."
>
> The ARRL recognizes that driver inattention is a leading cause of
> automobile accidents. The policy statement raises the fact that cell
> phones utilize full duplex communications -- where the user is
> talking and listening simultaneously. The Executive Committee
> statement says "Two-way radio use is dissimilar from full-duplex
> cellular telephone communications because the operator spends little
> time actually transmitting; the time spent listening is more similar
> to, and arguably less distracting than listening to a broadcast
> radio, CD or MP3 player. There are no distinctions to be made
> between or among Amateur Radio, public safety land mobile, private
> land mobile or citizen's radio in terms of driver distraction. All
> are distinguishable from mobile cellular telephone communications in
> this respect."
>
> The ARRL Policy Statement also recognizes the responsibility of the
> amateur community to conduct its activities in a manner that does
> not create unsafe operation of their motor vehicle. "Safety has to
> be a top concern at all times," Henderson concluded.
>
> The ARRL Policy Statement can be found on the web at,
> http://www.arrl.org/govrelations/MobileAmateurRadioPolicyStatement.pdf.
> NNNN
> /EX
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