The power rule in three lines
The general limit is 1500 watts PEP output — and the pool checks you know it applies on the ordinary bands by asking about several of them:
- 1.8 MHz (160 m): 1500 W PEP
- 12 metres: 1500 W PEP
- 28 MHz (10 m), General control operator: 1500 W PEP
There are two exceptions worth carrying, and one of them is asked directly:
What is the maximum transmitter power an amateur station may use on 10.140 MHz?
200 watts PEP output.
10.140 MHz is in the 30 metre band, where §97.313(c)(1) caps everyone at 200 W PEP. The other exception is the Technician and Novice HF segments, also 200 W.
And the measurement itself:
What measurement is specified by FCC rules that regulate maximum power?
PEP output from the transmitter.
Peak envelope power, measured at the transmitter output — not input power, not radiated power, not what the antenna does with it. Antenna gain does not count against the limit.
And the rule that applies everywhere, always: §97.313(a) requires an amateur station to use the minimum transmitter power necessary to carry out the desired communications. It is the first sentence in the section and the one people forget. Running a kilowatt into a strong local signal is a rules violation even though a kilowatt is legal in the abstract.
Sixty metres
The 60 metre band is unlike every other amateur allocation. Amateurs are secondary there, on specific channels, with tight constraints.
What is the maximum bandwidth permitted by FCC rules for amateur radio stations transmitting on USB frequencies in the 60-meter band?
2.8 kHz.
Which of the following is required by the FCC rules when operating in the 60-meter band?
If you are using an antenna other than a dipole, you must keep a record of the gain of your antenna.
That second one is genuinely unusual — a record-keeping obligation that exists nowhere else in Part 97. The reason is the band’s power limit, which is expressed as effective radiated power referenced to a dipole. To show compliance you must know your antenna’s gain, and the rule requires you to be able to demonstrate it.
The practical summary of 60 metres: upper sideband, 2.8 kHz maximum, ERP-limited rather than PEP-limited, secondary to federal users, and keep the gain record if you are not on a dipole.
New digital protocols
What must be done before using a new digital protocol on the air?
Publicly document the technical characteristics of the protocol.
This is the rule that makes the amateur prohibition on obscured meaning workable alongside constant digital experimentation. A new mode is fine — encouraged, even, since advancing the radio art is the Basis and Purpose — provided anyone can learn how to decode it.
Documented publicly, it is a protocol. Undocumented, it is a code intended to obscure meaning, which §97.113 prohibits.
Check yourself
- You are on 10.125 MHz with a 1 kW amplifier. Legal?
- You run 100 W into a 10 dB beam on 20 metres. Are you within the power limit?
- You write a new digital mode and want to test it on the air. What must you do first?
Answers
- No. 10.125 MHz is in the 30 metre band, limited to 200 W PEP output.
- Yes. The limit is 1500 W PEP output from the transmitter; antenna gain does not count against it. (Whether 100 W is the minimum necessary is a separate question the rules also ask of you.)
- Publicly document its technical characteristics, so anyone can decode it.