[PHX-Skywarn] Re: [WX7PHX] New SKYWARN radio

Wed, 18 Jun 2003 13:21:24 -0700

At 12:41 PM 6/18/2003, [email protected] wrote:
>Thank you for this information Stan, I appreciate it.
>
>Lee

I meant to stay out of this thread, but I need to throw in a caution.

I seriously doubt that the FCC would consider Skywarn operation to be 
automatically an emergency [with imminent threat to life or property, and 
with no other communications means available). If it was, you wouldn't even 
need a ham license to operate on Skywarn! The emergency clause allows 
ANYONE to operate on ANY frequency.

We have had to deal with this on the Hurricane Watch Net when non-ham 
military operators and other government agencies come up on our frequency. 
The same issue applies: hams can't talk to non-hams on ham frequencies 
without an emergency. We generally discourage them unless we feel they are 
in a good position to judge the need for communications (such as when a 
British destroyer needed contact with the Cayman Islands after Gilbert in 
order to send in their first evaluation chopper - there may very well have 
been people in need of emergency medical assistance). Likewise I once send 
a Mayday on 121.5 when I was not involved in aircraft operations, but my 
life was in imminent danger at the time.

A rule of thumb that might work... if the situation is so dire that you 
really don't care about your license or FCC enforcement actions, then it is 
probably a genuine emergency. Otherwise, it probably isn't!

BUT... the issue is moot anyway. Unless there is something going on that 
the powers that be haven't mentioned here, there is IMHO no conceivable 
reason that Skywarn would need HF in Phoenix, so techs/tech+'s have nothing 
to fear. That doesn't mean we can't *have* it - but we hardly need it!

John

John Moore

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