[Elecraft] Operating from a retirement home

[David Gilbert]

The legality of renting a station has been hashed over many times, and I 
think it's pretty clear that the FCC doesn't see any difference between 
somebody renting their house that happens to have a station in it than 
they do for somebody renting a remotely operated station.  The FCC 
specifies that a control operator needs to be present at all times, but 
that control point can be from a remote location as well .. ala VHF/UHF 
mountaintop repeaters.  In any case outfits like RHR require that anyone 
using their stations have a legitimate ham radio license, which makes 
them the approved control operator.

In other words, the owner of the station is renting his gear ... he's 
not selling the "communication" itself that is specified in the FCC 
rules.  RHR has been operating on a large scale for quite some time and 
almost for sure would have come into view of the FCC long ago.

And yes, every contest or award program I'm aware of requires that the 
operation claim the location of the gear, not the operator.

73,
Dave  AB7E


On 12/17/2019 9:56 PM, Edward R Cole wrote:
> First off, I question the legality of renting a ham station for profit 
> (which this example seems to be).  But it seems to be done for renting 
> stations in exotic (rare DX) locations with no heart attack by 
> hamdom.  Treated as vacation rentals.
>
> But owning your own remote located station using internet control from 
> our room in assisted living seems a viable alternative.
>
> Many of these senior facilities ban use of RF devices due to RFI 
> concerns with pace maker users or medical equipment.  Maybe one could 
> use a 5w HT.  External antennas are  problem-some.  My concept was 
> installing my ham station in a "toy hauler" trailer with crank-up 
> tower that could be moved and located in a convenient location.  Also, 
> handy as emmcom station.
>
> Also, some ham groups form a kind of club to jointly own a "super 
> station" which members share.  Such a group in Switzerland own a 
> 45-foot dish which they share using for eme.  But organized as 
> not-for-profit.
>
> I do expect any contest/award operations to claim the physical 
> transmitter location (instead of the remote operator's qth).
>
> 73, Ed - KL7UW
>   http://www.kl7uw.com
> Dubus-NA Business mail:
>   dubususa at gmail.com