Emergency transmissions/Pending FCC approval

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SkipSanders

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station of any means of radio communication at its disposal

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These words are the key.

The STATION (not the operator) has certain frequencies (those assigned to amateur radio) at its 'disposal'. All frequencies that station might legally use. Operators, seperately, have other limits on their usable frequencies due to license class.

An amateur 'station' does NOT have non-amateur frequencies at its 'disposal', legally.

Any transmission on non-licensed frequencies, other than those which do not require a license, is transmitting without a license, and subject to all the usual penalties.

Communicating with non-amateur stations is aimed at talking (on ham frequencies) to non-ham stations, such as military, who might be either on ham frequencies themselves, or replying on a different, non-ham frequency.
 

jbaker6953

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station of any means of radio communication at its disposal

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These words are the key.

The STATION (not the operator) has certain frequencies (those assigned to amateur radio) at its 'disposal'. All frequencies that station might legally use. Operators, seperately, have other limits on their usable frequencies due to license class.

An amateur 'station' does NOT have non-amateur frequencies at its 'disposal', legally.

I'm not sure why you have that interpretation of the meaning of "at its disposal." I take it to mean any frequency you are capable of transmitting on and using any signaling method you are able (e.g., FM, AM, SSB, CW, or whatever) ... any method you are capable of getting your hands on. Is there a specific case that defines that phrase so restrictively?

Generally, the rules of statutory construction are such that it is assumed that there is some purpose behind each rule ... that each one serves a unique purpose. Reading the meaning of "at its disposal" in such a restrictive way forces us to conclude that the Commission meant to say: "in an emergency amateurs are restricted to the same rules as they are during non-emergencies." Why draft a rule to tell you that the other rules are rules?

I really can't understand how language suspending Part 97 rules can be interpreted to mean that Part 97 rules still apply.
 

SkipSanders

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The interpretation means that in an emergency, Joe Tech-Class can use all amateur frequencies, including those restricted to Extra Class Only (or whatever the max is these days), instead of only those frequencies a Tech-Class can use.

If you think it means otherwise, ask the FCC. They take questions on their website.

An amateur STATION has all amateur frequencies available to it. An amateur OPERATOR has, outside emergencies, depending on license class, only a subset of those frequencies.
 

gesucks

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§ 90.417 Interstation communication.
(a) Any station licensed under this part may communicate with any other station without restriction as to type, service, or licensee when the communications involved relate directly to the imminent safety-of-life or property.

(b) Any station licensed under this part may communicate with any other station licensed under this part, with U.S. Government stations, and with foreign stations, in connection with mutual activities, provided that where the communication involves foreign stations prior approval of the Commission must be obtained, and such communication must be permitted by the government that authorizes the foreign station. Communications by Public Safety Pool eligibles with foreign stations will be approved only to be conducted in accordance with Article 5 of the Inter-American Radio Agreement, Washington, DC, 1949, the provisions of which are set forth in §90.20(b).

[43 FR 54791, Nov. 22, 1978, as amended at 62 FR 18933, Apr. 17, 1997]


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cdknapp

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Nifog?

Would any of this conversation fall under NIFOG rules? Granted, if it were, it would be covered only under federally declared emergencies...
But, unless your are causing interference with other communications, or there was a complaint filed with the FCC for some reason, I highly doubt anyone would even care, especially if this were done during a true emergency, or a large enough incident where as interops would be used.
 

mmckenna

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As a system manager for a two-county system, I can assure you that agencies like CHP have an extensive list of 'use agreements' granting them access to other state and local agency frequencies. The California Fire Service (through the FIRESCOPE program) had at one point frequency use agreements covering every fire agency in the state, organized by County and Mutual AId Region. A number of County Fire Chief's organizations have kept those agreements up to date.

I'll second this. CHP has MOU's with us to access our frequencies. They send a questionnaire to the police chief or our dispatch supervisor. They forward it to me and I fill it out. It gets sent back to the chief who does some official authorization to allow CHP to use our frequencies.

Usually, this is the preferred way to do it. If you are a legitimate agency, all it should take is your chief contacting the other chief and doing a written MOU.
 

mmckenna

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From the latest National Interoperability Field Operations Guide, Page 4

Don't I need a license for these channels before programming them into radios?

If you are licensed under Part 90 of the FCC rules, you may program frequencies that you are not licensed to us IF "the communications involved relate directly to the imminent safety-of-life or property" or "with U.S. Government stations ... in connection with mutual activities" (see FCC rules 90.427 and 90.417).

However, note that 90.403(g) requires that "(f)or transmissions concerning the imminent safety-of-life or property, the transmissions shall be suspended as soon as the emergency is terminated." Also, the safety of life provision of 90.417(a) makes it clear that the exception applies only when the communications involved "relate directly" to the "imminent" safety of life or property. Because on overriding policy concern of the FCC is the prevention of harmful interference, any exceptions to the general prohibition of using non-licensed frequencies are limited in nature to responding to an imminent threat to safety-of-life or properly, and licensees are not allowed to exceed the bounds of those communications.

See also 90.407 dealing with communications during an emergency which disrupts normal communications facilities and 90.411 dealing with civil defense communications.

There are no restrictions on U.S Government stations programming frequencies into U.S. Government radios.
 

mmckenna

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and more:

How can I use these frequencies if I don't have a license for them?

There are seven ways you can legally use these radio frequencies:

1. You or your employer may already have a Federal Communications Commission (FCC) license or a National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) authorization for some of the interoperability and mutual aid frequencies.

2. For FCC licensees, the non-Federal National Interoperability Channels VCALL10-VTAC14 and VTAC33-38, UCALL40-UCALL43D, and 8CALL90-8TAC94D are covered by a "blanket authorizations for the FCC - "Public safety licensees ... can operate mobile units on these interoperability channels without an individual license." See FCC 00-348, released 10/10/2000, paragraph 90.

3. You may operate on frequencies authorized to another licensee when that licensee designates you as a unit of their system, in accordance with FCC rule 90.421.

4. In extraordinary circumstances, the FCC may issue a "Special Temporary Authority" (STA) for such use in a particular geographic area.

5. In extraordinary circumstances, the NTIA may issue a "Temporary Assignment" for such use in a particular area.

6. If you are an FCC Part 90 licensee, you may operate a mobile station on the Federal Interoperability Channels only when authorized by the FCC (by license or STA) and only for interoperability with Federal radio stations authorized by the NTIA to use those channels. You may not use these channels for interoperability with other State, tribal, regional, or local radio stations - these are not a substitute for your regular mutual aid channels, See FCC Public Notice DA 01-1621, release July 13, 2001.

7. When necessary for the IMMEDIATE protection of life or property, FCC Part 90 licensees may use prudent measures beyond the specifics of their license. See FCC rule 90.407, "Emergency communications". U.S. Government stations are authorized by NTIA rule 7.3.6 to operate on any Part 90 frequency with the permission of the FCC licensee when such use is necessary for communications directly related to the emergency at hand.
 

zz0468

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That is not correct. The applicable regulations are found in 47 CFR 97.403 and 97.405. They read as follows (emphasis added):

I disagree. Part 97 ONLY deals with Amateur frequencies and Amateur operators. It would make no sense, legally, to impart some limited authority to operate unlicensed in another radio services frequency. Would that imply that, if you're NOT an Amateur that you couldn't pick up the microphone and call for help on a commercial or public safety frequency?

In a true life or death emergency, no one is going to quibble. But common sense dictates that you don't use that language in the rules to program out of band frequencies "just in case".

If you dig through the FCC rules, it's not that uncommon to find language that's less than perfect, and requires an element of common sense to stay out of trouble. That common sense is frequently lacking on internet forums.
 

SCPD

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There are some FCC regulations that allow law enforcement agencies to use any unlicensed frequencies in the area, at low power, for unit to unit traffic. I can't remember the maximum power involved, but I think it is a watt or less. I know at least two agencies in the two county area I live in that have unlisted, unlicensed frequencies programmed into their radios. They have used these frequencies for a couple of decades. I don't know the frequencies but have good information that this is true. In addition there are four interagency tactical frequencies used by all law enforcement agencies in the eastern Sierra that are unlicensed as well. I don't know those frequencies either, but have units refer to them every great once in awhile.

I have read the applicable regulations authorizing such use sometime in the last couple of years.
 

nd5y

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There are some FCC regulations that allow law enforcement agencies to use any unlicensed frequencies in the area, at low power, for unit to unit traffic.

You are thinking of this:
90.20 (f)(5) A Police licensee may use, without special authorization from the Commission, any mobile service frequency between 40 and 952 MHz, listed in paragraph (c)(3) of this section, for communications in connection with physical surveillance, stakeouts, raids, and other such activities. Such use shall be on a secondary basis to operations of licensees regularly authorized on the assigned frequencies. The maximum output power that may be used for such communications is 2 watts. Transmitters, operating under this provision of the rules, shall be exempted from the station identification requirements of §90.425. Use of frequencies not designated by a “PP” in the coordinator column of the frequency table in paragraph (c)(3) of this section, is conditional on the approval of the coordinator corresponding to each frequency.

Paragraph (c)(3) is the main public safety frequency table:
Electronic Code of Federal Regulations:
 

northzone

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nd5y

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One of the most interesting FCC licenses I have ever seen is for a private fire company in northern California called North Tree Fire. It includes EVERY frequency in the lowband, VHF highband, 220, UHF, 800, and 900 ranges.

Lots of radio dealers have similar licenses that cover all private land mobile frequencies. It allows them to program radios on prospective customers' systems for demo purposes.
 

ecps92

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Yup a demonstrators license

90.35 - APPLICANT MOBILE RADIO BUSINESS. WILL USE RADIO TO DEMONSTRATE MOBILE RADIO SYSTEMS TO PUBLIC SAFETY AND INDUSTRIAL-BUSINESS CLIENTS AT IRREGULAR INTERVALS IN CONJUNCTION WITH SALES ONLY

One of the most interesting FCC licenses I have ever seen is for a private fire company in northern California called North Tree Fire. It includes EVERY frequency in the lowband, VHF highband, 220, UHF, 800, and 900 ranges.

ULS License - Industrial/Business Pool, Conventional License - WPLZ359 - NORTH TREE ENTERPRISES DBA NORTH TREE FIRE - Frequencies Summary

I know this is a little off topic but we kinda strayed over to radio interop situations.
 

mmckenna

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North Tree Fire used to have a communications division that sold, installed and maintained radio systems. This is likely the reason for that license. I think they dropped the external sales/service division many years back.
 

k5dxm

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Arkansas has nothing to do with FCC RULES, learn to read them once in awhile.

The applicable regulations are found in 47 CFR 97.403 and 97.405. They read as follows (emphasis added):
97.403. No provision of these rules prevents the use by an amateur station of any means of radio communication at its disposal to provide essential communication needs in connection with the immediate safety of human life and immediate protection of property when normal communication systems are not available.

97.405. (a) No provision of these rules prevents the use by anyone or an amateur station in distress of any means at its disposal to attract attention, make known its condition and location, and obtain assistance.

(b) No provision of these rules prevents the use by a station, in the exceptional circumstances described in paragraph (a) of this section, of any means of radio communications at its disposal to assist a station in distress.

There are some who believe these provisions still limit the amateur radio operator to the amateur band, but that's probably because they don't know about 47 CFR 97.111(a)(2) which reads:
97.111(a) An amateur station may transmit the following types of two-way communications:
. . .

(2) Transmissions necessary to exchange messages with a station in another FCC-regulated service while providing emergency communications;

So there you have it. 47 CFR 97.111(a)(2) bestows an amateur station the authority to make the "transmissions necessary to exchange messages with a station in another FCC-regulated service while providing emergency communications." 47 CFR 97.403 and 47 CFR 97.405 define what constitutes an emergency.

In any case, 97.403 and 97.405 specifically state that no part of this (part 97) rule applies in those emergency cases. That means that even without 97.111, the rules limiting amateurs to specific frequencies in 97.301 are not applicable during the emergency situations described in 97.403 and 97.405.

The FCC has always been very clear that one of the primary missions of amateur radio is emergency communications. It seems strange that so many would interpret the rules in a way that contradicts common sense and the very intent of the FCC in establishing the amateur service in the first place.

Will you get in trouble if you hop on to a local police channel to report a crime in progress when you could have used you cell phone? You bet. Will you get in trouble if you hop on to a local police channel to report a man with a gun shooting at people in the park when you have no cell phone and no other immediate means of communication? Probably not. Even if the rules didn't allow it in any way shape or form, would you really decide that saving yourself some trouble with the FCC was worth people's lives? I doubt it.
 

com501

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North Tree Fire used to have a communications division that sold, installed and maintained radio systems. This is likely the reason for that license. I think they dropped the external sales/service division many years back.

Yup, when I retired.:D
 

norcalscan

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Regarding the Redding person who called for help, I believe you are referring to a bounty hunter who was also a ham. He got in a shootout with a high risk felon in a rural area at night and called the sheriff on their dispatch channel. Help came from all around and a manhunt ensued. The sheriff thanked him for their help in finding the felon, then confiscated the radios and reported him to fcc. FCC wrote him a nasty letter asking for full explanation and promising not to do that ever again. One big catch was wether his radio was preprogrammed to tx on part90 freqs or not. He said of course not, he remembered the freq and vfo'd it in to call for help.

If someone is shooting at someone and I can't shoot back or call 911, I'm getting on the radio. They can confiscate every radio and I can go to months of court for all I care if I saved one life. But yes, as someone said earlier, that boat better be on fire, sinking, right now, and they don't know how to tread water. And have the radio already ready when the black SUV shows up to confiscate it.
 

mkewman

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Are there any Calif laws or FCC laws that allow legit public safety entities to transmit EMERGENCY TRANSMISSIONS via radio equipment without an FCC license - For example: If an agency has access to an interoperability system but without a/or a pending license.

Can the agency use this equipment for DIRE EMERGENCIES, not routine communications until the license is approved.

Yes, my understanding is that the sure-fire legal answer is to just file an STA with the FCC. Basically it's more of a "hey we're transmitting! fyi!" an MOU works too.

In reality, nobody's going to care if one Public Safety agency uses say, the county sheriff, were to use the unused 800mhz frequencies of a lets say, their county school district for an emergency, if some sort of MOU were to exist between the Sheriff and the School District.
 
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