[SFDXA] FCC Turns Down Petition to Amend Amateur Radio Identification Rules

[Bill]

    FCC Turns Down Petition to Amend Amateur Radio Identification Rules

10/23/2019

The FCC has denied a /Petition for Rule Making/ to amend Part 97 station 
identification rules to better accommodate and simplify station 
identification during emergency nets, drills, or activations. ARRL 
member Robert A. Dukish, KK8DX, of Canfield, Ohio, had sought a change 
to Section 97.119(a) of the rules to allow a single point of 
transmission for station ID on those occasions. He proposed permitting a 
net control station or other designated participant to announce the call 
signs of every station taking part in the net or exercise, when tactical 
call signs often are in use, at 10-minute intervals, using automatic CW 
identification.

In turning down Dukish’s petition, Scot Stone, the Deputy Chief of the 
Wireless Telecommunications Bureau’s Mobility Division, said commenters 
overwhelmingly opposed the proposal.

“They argue that the current rule strikes the appropriate balance 
between the need to identify the source of transmissions and ease of 
communication,” Stone wrote. “Commenters state that, in their years of 
experience with amateur emergency communications, the station 
identification requirement has not proven to be a burden or obstacle, 
and that the current procedure actually contributes to efficient 
operations by providing a clear indication that a communication has 
ended and the channel is available.”

Stone said some commenters asserted that Dukish’s proposed procedure 
would be unworkable and cause confusion, while others characterized his 
proposal as a solution in search of a problem.

“The purpose of the station identification requirement is to make the 
source of transmissions clearly known to those receiving those 
transmissions,” Stone wrote. “Separating the call sign from each 
transmission would defeat this purpose.” Moreover, he said there’s no 
evidence that the current station ID requirements have hindered Amateur 
Radio emergency communications.

Dukish had filed his petition in December 2018, and the FCC invited 
comments on it in February 2019.

http://www.arrl.org/news/fcc-turns-down-petition-to-amend-amateur-radio-identification-rules