[Elecraft] 97.315

[n2ey at aol.com]

In a message dated 4/6/07 12:34:08 AM Eastern Daylight Time, 
rondec at easystreet.com writes:

>§ 97.315 Certification of external RF
>power amplifiers.

>(a) No more than 1 unit of 1 model of
>an external RF power amplifier capable
>of operation below 144 MHz may be constructed
>or modified during any calendar
>year by an amateur operator for
>use at a station without a grant of certification.


Those are the old rules. They don't apply any more. 97.315 has been 
rewritten.

Back in early October, 2006, FCC revised Part 97 so that 97.315 is now 
this:

>From pages 42 and 43 of the Report and Order for 06-140:

[begin quote]

15.  Section  97.315  is  revised  to  read  as  follows:

§  97.315  Certification  of  external  RF  power  amplifiers.

(a)  Any  external  RF  power  amplifier  (see  Section  2.815  of  the 
 FCC  Rules)
       manufactured  or  imported  for  use  at  an  amateur  radio  
station  must  be
       certificated  for  use  in  the  amateur  service  in accordance  
with  subpart  J
       of  part  2  of  the  FCC  Rules.  No  amplifier  capable  of  
operation  below
       144  MHz  may  be  constructed  or  modified  by  a  non-amateur  
service
       licensee  without  a  grant  of certification  from  the  FCC.

(b)  The  requirement  of  paragraph  (a)  does  not  apply  if  one  
or  more  of
       the  following  conditions  are  met:

        (1)  The  amplifier  is  constructed  or modified  by  an  
amateur  radio
             operator  for  use  at  an  amateur  station.

        (2)  The  amplifier  was  manufactured  before  April  28,  
1978,  and  has
               been  issued  a  marketing  waiver  by  the  FCC,  or  
the  amplifier
               was  purchased  before  April  28,  1978,  by  an  
amateur  radio
              operator  for  use  at  that  operator's  station.

        (3)  The  amplifier  is  sold  to  an  amateur  radio  operator  
or  to  a
               dealer,  the  amplifier  is  purchased  in  used  
condition  by  a
               dealer,  or  the  amplifier  is  sold  to  an  amateur  
radio  operator
              for  use  at  that operator's  station.

(c)  Any  external  RF  power  amplifier  appearing  in  the  
Commission's
       database as  certificated  for  use  in  the  amateur  service  
may  be
      marketed  for  use  in  the  amateur  service.

[end quote]

These changes eliminate the old "one per year" rule, which had been 
around for
decades (since 1978 IIRC).

Complete story at:

http://www.arrl.org/arrlvec/brief/2006/1017.html

Links to the Report and Order:

http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/FCC-06-149A1.doc
http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/FCC-06-149A1.pdf
http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/FCC-06-149A1.txt


Link to complete Part 97 *as amended*:

http://www.arrl.org/FandES/field/regulations/news/part97/

----

Fun fact:

FCC does not directly maintain a database with all their rules, nor do 
they publish them. Instead, that is handled by the Government 
Publishing Office, who only update it annually. Changes between annual 
updates are published in the Federal Register and on the FCC website.

So if you search the FCC site for Part 97, you will find a link to the 
GPO site where you can download the *old* Part 97 from before the 
October 2006 changes. Then you have to search the Federal Register to 
get the changes since the last update, and splice them in.

Your tax dollars at work!

Or you can go to a website (like ARRL) where that work has been done 
for you.

Just to make it more of a sporting course, the FCC Report and Order 
does not name questions in the question pools that no longer reflect 
the actual rules. That's left to the QPC/VECs to figure out and remove.


73 de Jim, N2EY

________________________________________________________________________
AOL now offers free email to everyone.  Find out more about what's free 
from AOL at AOL.com.
=0