FCC Letter Includes Operating Reminders for Nets

FCC Special Counsel for Amateur Radio Enforcement Riley Hollingsworth recently took advantage of an enforcement-related letter to issue some operating reminders for nets.

On November 3, Hollingsworth wrote Alan E. Strauss, WA4JTK, of Carol City, Florida, to follow up on earlier complaints about the "14.247 DX Group," for which Strauss serves as net control. The FCC had contacted Strauss earlier this year regarding complaints that the 14.247 DX Group monopolized that frequency and interfered with ongoing amateur communications. The November 3 letter included correspondence the FCC received on August 4 that Hollingsworth said conflicts with Strauss's explanation of interference alleged to have occurred to the net in July. Hollingsworth said the case will remain open, and the FCC will continue to monitor net operations.

Hollingsworth used the occasion of the Strauss letter to again point out that amateur frequencies are shared, and no net has a greater right than any other ham to a given frequency and cannot take over a frequency unless it is voluntarily relinquished.

If the frequency is not relinquished, Hollingsworth said, amateurs must exercise "good Amateur practice" in choosing another frequency that does not disrupt existing communications. "A net 'taking over' a frequency from existing legitimate communications or deliberately operating disruptively close to existing legitimate communications will be considered to be engaging in deliberate interference," he wrote.

Hollingsworth also told Strauss that the practice of "identifying only by the last two letters of an Amateur call sign is a violation of Part 97" of the FCC rules and that such practice "must not be condoned by your group." Some amateurs had construed the statement—widely reported elsewhere—as a tightening of FCC station identification enforcement policy. Hollingsworth says that's not the case.

"All we said was that if only the last two letters are given, it doesn't meet Part 97," he said. He pointed out that if a calling station using an abbreviated ID is never acknowledged and given a chance to give a complete call sign, a legal ID would be lacking for that communication. To be strictly legal, stations using a suffix-letter ID always must identify within the first 10 minutes of the communication (and each 10 minutes thereafter) with a complete call sign. Hollingsworth restated the requirements in a follow-up letter to Strauss on November 16.

Hollingsworth this week also reminded net control stations not to encourage rule violations by requiring check-ins to use two-letter IDs without allowing a legal ID at some point within the time limits of the rules.

Knowledgeable sources in Washington say the amateur license restructuring issue has moved to the front burner at the FCC, and a Report and Order could be released before the end of 1999.

The Amateur Radio community has been awaiting license restructuring—known officially as the 1998 Biennial Regulatory Review of Part 97 (WT Docket 98-143)—for nearly one year now. While no one has mentioned a hard-and-fast date to wrap up the long-awaited proceeding, reports from several sources suggest that the R&O draft is in its final stages and could be complete within a month or so.

During a recent visit to top FCC officials in Washington, League officials pressed again for early action on the license restructuring rule making. They were assured that the issue was not stalled and that the Wireless Telecommunications Bureau was "working very actively" to move restructuring along.

Whatever its final form—and no one has hinted at that—license restructuring poses significant implications for Amateur Radio and its future direction and growth. On August 10, 1998, the FCC proposed to phase out the Novice and Technician Plus licenses, leaving just four amateur license classes in place—Technician, General, Advanced, and Extra. The Commission also asked the amateur community to express its opinions on Morse code requirements for licensing and testing, but offered no specific recommendations.

At its July 1998 meeting, the ARRL Board of Directors—attempting to get the jump on restructuring—issued its own plan to restyle Amateur Radio. Among other details, the ARRL plan also calls for four license classes and for "refarming" Novice/Tech Plus subbands to provide additional spectrum for higher-class operators. Under the League plan, the Technician license remains unchanged, and the General becomes the entry-level ticket to HF operation. The ARRL proposed Morse code requirements of 5 WPM for General and 12 WPM for Advanced and Extra class.

The restructuring debate generated more than 2200 comments to the FCC, many of them from individual amateurs. Once the FCC approves the Report & Order, a Public Notice will be issued, and the actual R&O will be released probably within a few days.