Privileges follow the control operator — everywhere
The Technician rule carries straight into more complicated cases.
When may a 10-meter repeater retransmit the 2-meter signal from a station that has a Technician class control operator?
Only if the 10-meter repeater control operator holds at least a General class license.
Ten metres has repeater privileges above 29.5 MHz, and using them requires the appropriate class — held by the repeater’s control operator. The Technician originating the signal is not the one operating on 10 metres; the repeater is.
Automatic control on HF
What is required to conduct communications with a digital station operating under automatic control outside the automatic control band segments?
The station initiating the contact must be under local or remote control.
Two automatically controlled stations must not converse with each other outside the designated segments — someone has to be responsible in real time for starting it.
On what bands may automatically controlled stations transmitting RTTY or data emissions communicate with other automatically controlled digital stations?
Anywhere in the 6-meter or shorter wavelength bands, and in limited segments of some of the HF bands.
VHF and above: essentially unrestricted. HF: narrow designated segments only, to keep automated systems from occupying scarce spectrum without supervision.
Third-party traffic
Which of the following would disqualify a third party from participating in sending a message via an amateur station?
The third party’s amateur license has been revoked and not reinstated
Note the shape of it: an unlicensed third party is fine, under a control operator’s supervision. Someone whose licence was revoked is not. The rule exists so that a revocation cannot be worked around by having a friend hold the microphone.
What are the restrictions on messages sent to a third party in a country with which there is a Third-Party Agreement?
They must relate to amateur radio, or remarks of a personal character, or messages relating to emergencies or disaster relief
Amateur matters, personal remarks, or emergencies. Business is out, and so is anything that could displace a commercial service.
When may third-party messages be transmitted via remote control?
Under any circumstances in which third party messages are permitted by FCC rules.
Remote control changes nothing about third-party rules. If the traffic is permitted, it stays permitted through a remote link.
ITU regions
The frequency allocations of which ITU region apply to radio amateurs operating in North and South America?
Region 2
The world is divided into three: Region 1 is Europe, Africa, the Middle East and northern Asia; Region 2 is the Americas; Region 3 is most of Asia and Oceania.
This is why the band tables in §97.301 have three columns, and why 40 metres runs to 7.300 MHz here and stops at 7.200 in much of the world. When you read an allocation table, find the Region 2 column.
Spread spectrum and 2.4 GHz
What is the maximum PEP output allowed for spread spectrum transmissions?
10 watts.
Low, deliberately: spread spectrum occupies a wide swathe and shares it with other users by design.
In what part of the 2.4 GHz band may an amateur station communicate with non-licensed Wi-Fi stations?
No part.
Worth reading twice, because the hardware overlaps and the temptation is real. Amateur mesh networking uses Wi-Fi equipment under amateur rules, talking to other amateur stations. Communicating with unlicensed Part 15 devices is a different thing, and it is not permitted.
Frequencies to leave alone
Why should an amateur operator normally avoid transmitting on 14.100, 18.110, 21.150, 24.930 and 28.200 MHz?
A system of propagation beacon stations operates on those frequencies
The NCDXF/IARU International Beacon Project: eighteen stations worldwide, each transmitting in turn on those five frequencies, so anyone can hear which paths are open. Transmitting there does not break a rule — it is not an exclusive allocation — but it degrades a shared resource everyone uses.
This is a band-plan courtesy of the most useful kind, and it is asked because it matters.
Special care
Which of the following conditions require a licensed amateur radio operator to take specific steps to avoid harmful interference to other users or facilities?
All these choices are correct — when operating within one mile of an FCC monitoring station, when using a band where the amateur service is secondary, and when transmitting spread spectrum emissions.
The common thread is that in each case someone else has a stronger claim to the spectrum than you do.
Check yourself
- A Technician works you on 2 metres through a linked 10 metre repeater. What must the repeater’s control operator hold?
- Which ITU region are you in, and what does that change?
- Your friend’s licence was revoked last year. May they say hello through your station?
Answers
- At least a General class licence — the repeater is the station operating on 10 metres.
- Region 2. It determines which column of the §97.301 allocation tables applies, and hence where several band edges fall.
- No. A revoked and unreinstated licence disqualifies someone from participating as a third party — which is precisely the case the rule exists for.