[Elecraft] Amateur Station Operations - rag chews and macro clicks

[Dauer, Edward]

With all due respect, gents, section 97.1 is not what we in the legal biz call substantive.  It is an introductory preamble included there originally for political purposes, and after enactment for purposes of interpreting the regulations that are substantive, when questions about interpretation arise.  The substantive regulations go from 97.2 ro 97.527, though there aren’t nearly 526 of them.  Those are the sections that tell us what we can and, about as frequently, what we cannot do.   The statement of purpose is legally speaking neither a grant of specific operational authority nor itself a limitation.

As for international communications, the proscription of some forms of political discourse was not uniquely a product of the Soviet Union.  The U.S. law is in 47 C.F.R. §97.117   “International communications:
Transmissions to a different country, where permitted, shall be limited to communications incidental to the purposes of the amateur service [namely, the list in 97.1] and to remarks of a personal character.”

I have not researched whether there are any judicial opinions or FCC policy statements that further explain that substantive rule.

All of that said, nothing that anyone has written in this thread which they enjoy or dislike seems to me to be outside the scope of our legal authority.  **HOW** we do it technically and in some respects operationally (e.g. deliberate interference) is of course subject to lots of rules.  But the rest is a matter of culture, tradition, preference, and simple operating courtesy.  On those things I do not opine.  I do what I enjoy.  Within the scope of the substantive law, of course.

Ted, KN1CBR (and a lawyer)


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    Message: 5
    Date: Wed, 15 Mar 2017 17:44:16 -0700
    From: "Lynn W. Taylor, WB6UUT" <KX3 at ColdRocksHotBrooms.com>
    To: elecraft at mailman.qth.net
    Subject: Re: [Elecraft] RTTY
    Message-ID:
    	<c69df99f-7a91-81f7-978e-e7469655cbad at ColdRocksHotBrooms.com>
    Content-Type: text/plain; charset=windows-1252; format=flowed
    
    Okay, Kevin....
    
    Here is the appropriate section: 
    <http://www.ecfr.gov/cgi-bin/text-idx?SID=f320c16fc6e027120cc58558cc7a0926&mc=true&node=se47.5.97_11&rgn=div8>
    
    I was told that basically there was no place for ragchewing in Amateur 
    Radio -- no place at all.
    
    97.1(e) says there is a place for a good ragchew.  Not sure where 
    contesting comes in, but I'll stipulate that it can be fit into 97.1 
    somewhere.
    
    It does not say that every place is a good place for a ragchew, at any 
    time.  It seems intuitively obvious that a DX pileup is neither the time 
    nor the place.
    
    You then compare typing on a keyboard to using paddles, and going back 
    to the post just before mine, it was about using pre-programmed macros 
    for a contest exchange.
    
    The operators aren't really talking.  They're pressing two macro keys 
    and making an entry in the log.
    
    NO MATTER WHAT IT IS, WHAT YOU LIKE TO DO, SOMEONE WILL SAY "THIS ISN'T 
    AMATEUR RADIO."	
    
    I do respectfully disagree.
    
    It may not be what I want to do, but I've seen the Full-Scan TV ops get 
    very excited about their favored mode.  Moonbounce doesn't excite me, 
    but it excites moonbounce enthusiasts.  Satellites?  Did it once, happy 
    to know about it, not enough to really gear-up for it.
    
    There is room for all of this in Amateur Radio.
    
    ... and I'm more than happy to do something else on big Contest 
    weekends, and to steer clear of the pileups.
    
    I won't name the person I quoted, but his technical contributions are 
    significant.  He'd still rather carry on a conversation than just send 
    macros.
    
    In my opinion, it is a little bit sad that we have reduced communication 
    to a couple of macros.
    
    I don't require you to share that opinion, Kevin, nor will I deny you 
    the pleasure of operating that way if it's what you love.
    
    I won't ridicule it either.
    
    73 -- Lynn