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- SUBPART B - STATION OPERATION STANDARDS
-
-
-
- 97.101 General standards.
-
- (a) In all respects not specifically covered by FCC Rules each
- amateur station must be operated in accordance with good
- engineering and good amateur practice.
- (b) Each station licensee and each control operator must
- cooperate in selecting transmitting channels and in making the most
- effective use of the amateur service frequencies. No frequency
- will be assigned for the exclusive use of any station.
- (c) At all times and on all frequencies, each control operator
- must give priority to stations providing emergency communications,
- except to stations transmitting communications for training drills
- and tests in RACES.
- (d) No amateur operator shall willfully or maliciously
- interfere with or cause interference to any radio communication or
- signal.
-
-
-
- 97.103 Station licensee responsibilities.
-
- (a) The station licensee is responsible for the proper
- operation of the station in accordance with the FCC rules. When
- the control operator is a different amateur operator than the
- station licensee, both persons are equally responsible for proper
- operation of the station.
- (b) The station licensee must designate the station control
- operator. The FCC will presume that the station licensee is also
- the control operator, unless documentation to the contrary is in
- the station records.
- (c) The station licensee must make the station and the station
- records available for inspection upon request by an FCC
- representative. When deemed necessary by an EIC to assure
- compliance with FCC Rules, the station licensee must maintain a
- record of station operations containing such items of information
- as the EIC may require in accord with Section 0.314(x) of the FCC
- Rules.
-
-
-
- 97.105 Control operator duties.
-
- (a) The control operator must ensure the immediate proper
- operation of the station, regardless of the type of control.
- (b) A station may only be operated in the manner and to the
- extent permitted by the privileges authorized for the class of
- operator license held by the control operator.
-
-
-
- 97.107 Alien control operator privileges.
-
- (a) The privileges available to a control operator holding an
- amateur service license issued by the Government of Canada are:
- (1) The terms of the "Convention Between the United
- States and Canada (TIAS No. 2508) Relating to the Operation by
- Citizens of Either Country of Certain Radio Equipment or Stations
- in the Other Country;"
- (2) The operating terms and conditions of the amateur
- service license issued by the Government of Canada; and
- (3) The applicable provisions of the FCC rules, but not
- to exceed the control operator privileges of an FCC-issued Amateur
- Extra Class operator license.
- (b) The privileges available to a control operator holding an
- FCC-issued reciprocal permit for alien amateur licensee are:
- (1) The terms of the agreement between the alien's
- government and the United States;
- (2) The operating terms and conditions of the amateur
- service license issued by the alien's government;
- (3) The applicable provisions of the FCC rules, but not
- to exceed the control operator privileges of an FCC-issued Amateur
- Extra Class operator license; and
- (4) None, if the holder of the reciprocal permit has
- obtained an FCC-issued operator/primary station license.
- (c) At any time the FCC may, at its discretion, modify,
- suspend, or cancel the amateur service privileges within or over
- any area where radio services are regulated by the FCC of any
- Canadian amateur service licensee or alien reciprocal permittee.
-
-
-
- 97.109 Station control.
-
- (a) Each amateur station must have at least one control point.
- (b) When a station is being locally controlled, the control
- operator must be at the control point. Any station may be locally
- controlled.
- (c) When a station is being automatically controlled, the
- control operator need not be at the control point. Only stations
- specifically designated elsewhere in this Part may be automatically
- controlled. Automatic control must cease upon notification by an
- EIC that the station is transmitting improperly or causing harmful
- interference to other stations. Automatic control must not be
- resumed without prior approval of the EIC.
- (d) No station may be automatically controlled while
- transmitting third-party traffic, except a station retransmitting
- digital packet radio communications on the 6 m and shorter
- wavelength bands. Such stations must be using the American Radio
- Relay League, Inc. "AX.25 Amateur Packet-Radio Link-Layer Protocol,
- Version 2.0," October 1984 (or compatible). The retransmitted
- messages must originate at a station that is being locally or
- remotely controlled.
-
-
-
- 97.111 Authorized transmissions.
-
- (a) An amateur station may transmit the following types of
- two-way communications:
- (1) Transmissions necessary to exchange messages with
- other stations in the amateur service, except with those in any
- country whose administration has given notice that it objects to
- such communications. The FCC will issue public notices of current
- arrangements for international communications;
- (2) Transmissions necessary to exchange messages with a
- station in another FCC-regulated service while providing emergency
- communications;
- (3) Transmissions necessary to exchange messages with a
- United States government station, necessary to providing
- communications in RACES; and
- (4) Transmissions necessary to exchange messages with a
- service not regulated by the FCC, but authorized by the FCC to
- communicate with amateur stations. An amateur station may exchange
- messages with a participating United States military station during
- an Armed Forces Day Communications Test.
- (b) In addition to one-way transmissions specifically
- authorized elsewhere in this Part, an amateur station may transmit
- the following types of one-way communications:
- (1) Brief transmissions necessary to make adjustments to
- the station;
- (2) Brief transmissions necessary to establishing a
- two-way intercommunication with other stations;
- (3) Transmissions necessary to remotely control a device
- from a distant location;
- (4) Transmissions necessary to providing emergency
- communications;
- (5) Transmissions necessary to assisting persons
- learning, or improving proficiency in the international Morse code;
- and
- (6) Transmissions necessary to disseminate information
- bulletins.
-
-
-
- 97.113 Prohibited transmissions.
-
- (a) No amateur station shall transmit any communication the
- purpose of which is to facilitate the business or commercial
- affairs of any party. No station shall transmit communications as
- an alternative to other authorized radio services, except as
- necessary to providing emergency communications. A station may,
- however, transmit communications to:
- (1) Facilitate the public's safe observation of, or safe
- participation in, a parade, race, marathon or similar public
- gathering. No amateur station shall transmit communications
- concerning moving, supplying and quartering observers and
- participants for any sponsoring organization unless the principal
- beneficiary of such communications is the public and any benefit
- to the sponsoring organization is incidental.
- (2) Inform other amateur operators of the availability
- of apparatus normally used in an amateur station, including such
- apparatus for sale or trade. This exception is not authorized to
- any person seeking to derive a profit by buying or selling such
- apparatus on a regular basis.
- (b) No amateur station shall transmit messages for hire, nor
- for material compensation, direct or indirect, paid or promised.
- The control operator of a club station, however, may accept
- compensation for such periods of time during which the station is
- transmitting telegraphy practice or information bulletins provided
- that:
- (1) The station transmits the telegraphy practice and
- information bulletins for at least 40 hours per week;
- (2) The station schedules operations on all amateur
- service MF and HF bands using reasonable measures to maximize
- coverage;
- (3) The schedule of normal operating times and
- frequencies is published at least 30 days in advance of the actual
- transmissions; and
- (4) The control operator does not accept any direct or
- indirect compensation for periods during which the station is
- transmitting any other material.
- (c) No station shall transmit communications in order to
- engage in any form of broadcasting, nor to engage in any activity
- related to program production or newsgathering for broadcasting
- purposes. A station may, however, transmit communications to convey
- news information about an event for dissemination to the public
- when the following conditions are present:
- (1) The information involves immediate safety of life of
- individuals or the immediate protection of property;
- (2) The information is directly related to event;
- (3) The information cannot be transmitted by any other
- means because normal communications have been disrupted or because
- there are no other communication systems available at the place
- where the information is originated; and
- (4) Other means of communication could not be reasonably
- provided before or at the time of the event.
- (d) No station shall transmit: music; radiocommunications or
- messages for any purpose, or in connection with any activity, that
- is contrary to federal, state, or local law; messages in codes or
- ciphers where the intent is to obscure the meaning (except where
- specifically excepted elsewhere in the Part); obscene, indecent,
- or profane words, language, or meaning; and/or false or deceptive
- messages or signals.
- (e) No amateur station shall retransmit programs or signals
- emanating from any type of radio station other than an amateur
- station, except communications originating on United States
- Government frequencies between a space shuttle and its associated
- Earth stations. Prior approval for such retransmissions must be
- obtained from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
- Such retransmissions must be for the exclusive use of amateur
- operators.
- (f) No amateur station, except an auxiliary, repeater or space
- station, may automatically retransmit the radio signals of other
- amateur stations.
-
-
-
- 97.115 Third party communications.
-
- (a) An amateur station may transmit messages for a third party
- to:
- (1) Any station within the jurisdiction of the United
- States.
- (2) Any station within the jurisdiction of any foreign
- government whose administration has made arrangements with the
- United States to allow amateur stations to be used for transmitting
- international communications on behalf of third parties. No
- station shall transmit messages for a third party to any station
- within the jurisdiction of any foreign government whose
- administration has not made such an arrangement. This prohibition
- does not apply to a message for any third party who is eligible to
- be a control operator of the station.
- (b) The third party may participate in stating the message
- where:
- (1) The control operator is present at the control point
- and is continuously monitoring and supervising the third party's
- participation; and
- (2) The third party is not a prior amateur service
- licensee whose license was revoked; suspended for less than the
- balance of the license term and the suspension is still in effect;
- suspended for the balance of the license term and relicensing has
- not taken place; or surrendered for cancellation following notice
- of revocation, suspension, or monetary forfeiture proceedings. The
- third party may not be the subject of a cease and desist order
- which relates to amateur service operation and which is still in
- effect.
- (c) At the end of an exchange of international third-party
- communications, the station must also transmit in the station
- identification procedure the call sign of the station with which
- a third party message was exchanged.
-
-
-
- 97.117 International communications.
-
- Transmissions to a different country, when permitted, shall
- be in plain language and shall be limited to messages of a
- technical nature relating to tests, and, to remarks of a personal
- character for which, by reason of their unimportance, recourse to
- the public telecommunications service is not justified. 97.119
- Station identification.
- (a) Each amateur station, except a space station or
- telecommand station, must transmit its assigned call sign on its
- transmitting channel at the end of each communication, and at least
- every ten minutes during a communication, for the purpose of
- clearly making the source of the transmissions from the station
- known to those receiving the transmissions. No station may
- transmit unidentified communications or signals, or transmit as the
- station call sign, any call sign not authorized to the station.
- (b) The call sign must be transmitted with an emission
- authorized for the transmitting channel in one of the following
- ways:
- (1) By a CW emission. When keyed by an automatic device
- used only for identification, the speed must not exceed 20 words
- per minute;
- (2) By a phone emission in the English language. Use of
- a standard phonetic alphabet as an aid for correct station
- identification is encouraged;
- (3) By a RTTY emission when all or part of the
- communications are transmitted in the same digital code as the
- station identification, or when the communications consist of a
- data emission transmitted on the VHF 6 m or shorter wavelength
- band;
- (4) By an image emission conforming to the applicable
- transmission standards, either color or monochrome, of section
- 73.682(a) of the FCC Rules when all or part of the communications
- are transmitted in the same image emission; or
- (5) By a CW or phone emission during SS emission
- transmission on a narrow bandwidth frequency segment.
- Alternatively, by the changing of one or more parameters of the
- emission so that a conventional CW or phone emission receiver can
- be used to determine the station call sign.
- (c) An indicator may be included with the call sign. It must
- be separated from the call sign by the slant mark or by any
- suitable word that denotes the slant mark.
- (d) When the operator license class held by the control
- operator exceeds that of the station licensee, an indicator
- consisting of the call sign assigned to the control operator's
- station must be included after the call sign.
- (e) When the control operator is using privileges on the basis of
- holding a CSCE, an indicator must be included after the call sign
- as follows:
- (1) KT for Technician Class operator;
- (2) AG for General Class operator;
- (3) AA for Advanced Class operator; or
- (4) AE for Amateur Extra Class operator.
- (f) When the station is transmitting under the authority of
- a reciprocal permit for alien amateur licensee, an indicator
- consisting of the appropriate letter-numeral designating the
- station location must be included before the call sign issued to
- the station by the licensing country. When the station is
- transmitting under the authority of an amateur service license
- issued by the Government of Canada, a station location indicator
- must be included after the call sign. At least once during each
- intercommunication, the identification announcement must include
- the geographical location as nearly as possible by city and state,
- commonwealth or possession.
- (g) A self-assigned indicator may be included after the call
- sign. The identifier must not conflict with any other identifier
- specified by the FCC Rules or by a prefix assigned to another
- country.
-
-
-
- 97.121 Restricted operation.
- (a) If the operation of an amateur station causes general
- interference to the reception of transmissions from stations
- operating in the domestic broadcast service when receivers of good
- engineering design, including adequate selectivity characteristics,
- are used to receive such transmissions, and this fact is made known
- to the amateur station licensee, the amateur station shall not be
- operated during the hours from 8 p.m. to 10:30 p.m., local time,
- and on Sunday for the additional period from 10:30 a.m. until 1
- p.m., local time, upon the frequency or frequencies used when the
- interference is created.
- (b) In general, such steps as may be necessary to minimize
- interference to stations operating in other services may be
- required after investigation by the FCC.
-