[Mobile-Portable] Want advice...

[W6OAL at aol.com]

Buck,

    What are you smoking? I'm having a real difficult time wading through 
your dialog. CFR title 47 is very clear and concise If you are licensed under 
part 97 you are limited to the frequencies of the Amateur Radio Service. If you 
have your radioshack CB special you are bound under the provisions of part 96. 
It is spelled out that you do not modify ham radio (or CB) equipment to be 
operated on any other bands of frequencies. The public service frequencies are 
established for public service personnel and their usage, not some ham that 
thinks he's a communicator and has an emergency.
    You are wrong about Navy shipboard equipment. I retired on 22 years from 
the Navy and have operated on the ham bands from ships, aircraft and ground 
stations of the Navy. All that is needed is the permission of the CO of the 
facility in order to use military equipment on the ham bands on a noninterference 
basis, and it is encouraged.
    You are wrong about the VHF emergency frequency. It is 121.5, and this is 
the frequency that the aircraft emergency beacons (ELT's) are on when a plane 
goes down, if so equipped. The UHF emergency frequency is 243.0 MHz and you 
probably are not even aware of the CW emergency frequency of 8364.0 MHz or that 
2182 kHz besides being a calling frequency is an emergency frequency or that 
500.0 kHz is also an emergency frequency.
    There are a few sickos in our society that have modified their equipment 
to get on police and fire frequencies and they have been prosecuted for their 
stupidity. If you have modified equipment you are liable to be prosecuted if 
you use it and are caught you will be prosecuted and justifiably so. If hams 
modify their equipment to operate on other than the frequencies of the Amateur 
Radio Service what next, CBers doing the same, FRS users doing the same? In 
essence leave your equipment alone and use it for it's intended use - emergency 
or not. Your hypothetical cases are more remote than believable.
    I spent four years with NTIA - ITS, Spectrum Usage and Measurement Group. 
We were like the FCC to the government electromagnetic spectrum users. We 
used to have one hell of a time keeping commercial entities off of the government 
and military frequencies. Every now and then we would run across a ham that 
thought he was some sort of 'do-gooder' and had his equipment modified so he 
could be on some agencies calling or emergency frequency and on occasion 
interrupting traffic. The FCC (our very close partner) who takes a very dim view of 
this sort of actions, was called in, the equipment was confiscated and the 
'do-gooder' was severely warned, fined and/or imprisoned. I would not dream of 
modifying any of my equipment to operate on any service other than the service in 
which it was intended to be operated. Sure I have a General Class commercial 
radiotelephone license, an Extra Class ham radio license and a special federal 
license issues by NTIA for working with Secret Service and other government 
entities as a consultant but I would still never have a piece of ham equipment 
around that was modified to operate on anything but ham frequencies. Seldom in 
a lifetime does one come across a situation where an emergency has to be 
reported by other than phone or cellphone, but to modify a piece of equipment to 
prepare for such an emergency situation is just plain ludicrous (and illegal).
    If you want to be a public servant then join the police force or the fire 
department and all the communications equipment for emergencies will be at 
you disposal and APCO will sanction your use of same. So, the best advice I can 
give you is; LEAVE YOU DAMN HAM BAND EQUIPMENT ALONE! If you ever come across 
an emergency situation and have ham equipment with you and can't declare an 
emergency and get help on the ham bands, use your cellphone, On Star, FRS, CB, 
semaphore, smoke signal but stay the hell off of the public service bands.


Dr. David A. Clingerman, ScD (CEO)
Olde Antenna Lab of Denver
(retired Navy, ex-NTIA, FCC Auxiliary)