[FARC] Legal Amateur Radio Operation?

[Joseph M. Durnal]

I've come across something in the Amateur Radio rules that I think I
understand, but someone else is interpreting them very differently.

My question centers on the Amateur Radio station KJ4BSL, which is
issued to 278 ACR RTS HHT, to the attention of Dooley H Buckner SFC.
This license includes no operator privileges and the station
privileges of MILITARY REC.

Mr. Buckner believes that the FCC rules §97.5 b 3 and §97.5 c allow
him to transmit on Amateur Radio frequencies. I'll include the
relevant part 97 text.
§97.5 Station license grant required.
(a) The station apparatus must be under the physical control of a
person named in an amateur station license grant on the ULS
consolidated license database or a person authorized for alien
reciprocal operation by §97.107 of this part, before the station may
transmit on any amateur service frequency from any place that is:
(1)Within 50 km of the Earth's surface and at a place where the
amateur service is regulated by the FCC;

(b) The types of station license grants are:
(3) A military recreation station license grant. A military recreation
station license grant may be held only by the person who is the
license custodian designated by the official in charge of the United
States military recreational premises where the station is situated.
The person must not be a representative of a foreign government. The
person need not hold an amateur operator license grant.

(c) The person named in the station license grant or who is authorized
for alien reciprocal operation by §97.107 of this Part may use, in
accordance with the applicable rules of this Part, the transmitting
apparatus under the physical control of the person at places where the
amateur service is regulated by the FCC.

When I first read §97.5 c above I thought that he was correct, but
after thinking about it some more my thoughts went to the phrase "in
accordance with the applicable rules of this Part" assuming that Part
refers to the FCC rules related to Amateur Radio, Part 97.

The very next section is §97.7, which states that each amateur station
must have a control operator.

§97.7 Control operator required
When transmitting, each amateur station must have a control operator.
The control operator must be a person:

(a) For whom an amateur operator/primary station license grant appears
on the ULS consolidated licensee database

So to operate the Amateur Radio station KJ4BSL in accordance with the
applicable rules of Part 97, it must have a control operator with an
operator/primary station license grant, which is basically a typical
amateur radio license that would be issued to an individual. Since Mr.
Buckner does not have an Amateur Radio license of his own, I suspect
that he is operating the Amateur Radio station KJ4BSL illegally.

I could be completely wrong with my interpretation of the rules, but I
think I'm right on this one. I am looking at it a couple of ways, and
I can see where I think he has misinterpreted the rules. I think the
easiest way to figure this out would be to ask, what are the operator
privileges granted to the Amateur Radio station KJ4BSL. The answer is
that operator privileges are not granted to stations, they are granted
to operators, and no such privileges have been granted to Mr. Buckner
yet.

Since it is against the rules to contact stations operating illegally,
I think I'll avoid KJ4BSL until I find that Mr. Buckner gets an
Amateur Radio license or someone explains that my interpretation of
the rules are incorrect.

73 de Joseph Durnal NE3R