W3BE'S BE Informed!
 

 Should you receive a solicitation for this website, it is a scam!  This is a free website for persons who want to know what the rules say for our amateur radio services in these United States.  Nothing is sold or offered for sale.  All legitimate communications relating to this website take place by e-mail (john@johnston.net) or face-to-face discussion at hamfests or other gatherings.  No postal mail, please.  Telephone calls are neither made nor answered.  Donations are never solicited or accepted.

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The Rules Say... .

Can I Use Chinese Radios?

John B. Johnston, W3BE

Q.  Those less-expensive belt-clip Chinese VHF/UHF radios seem to be too good to be true.  Am I being rule compliant when I use them on our ham bands?   

   A.  Very likely, because many hams do so.  The proviso is that you are the one accountable for your amateur station being compliant with the technical standards in Part 97.  The FCC does not review amateur station transmitter types. 

- Continued in column -

To access column, click on button The Rules Say... column in the left panel

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BE Informed No. 6.1, Review of Element 2 Question Pool updated     

  

   Our VECs’ 2010 Element 2 question pool represents the 396 most basic questions our volunteer-examiner coordinators maintain in their combined pools of 1600 plus must-know-the-answers questions. 

   It is to enable our volunteer examiners to assure that all newly FCC-licensed amateur operators are qualified for the massive privileges authorized to a Technician Class operator:  each grantee is assigned a unique station-identifying call sign; each grantee is authorized to have under his or her physical control transmitting amateur station apparatus; and each grantee is authorized to safely and orderly cause or allow 1500 watt PEP amateur stations to transmit an unlimited variety of emission types on numerous frequency bands – exclusively on some and shared with other radio services on others - from on or over practically any place where the FCC regulates our amateur and amateur-satellite services as well as certain other places around the Earth. 

   Their question pools also provide our amateur service community with current competency checks:  Every FCC-licensed and reciprocal alien amateur operator can and should periodically review the questions to assure themselves that they are keeping abreast of regulatory, technological and operational developments. 

   Bannered sections include Domestic requirements, International requirements, Advice to examinees, Attention volunteer examiners, Attention instructors and training aid providers, and Q and A.

Click on No. 6.1 Review El 2 pool in the left panel.

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E-MAIL LIBRARY CATALOG
Order by number in an e-mail to john@johnston.net
For files mentioned in recent columns, click the appropriate button on the left panel.

  BE Informed No. 1.  W3BE CHECKLISTS - Use to review your duties before causing or allowing a station to transmit on amateur service frequencies. The applicable Part 97 Rules are rearranged into two lists; those that apply to the station licensee and those that apply to the control operator.

  BE Informed No. 2.  RILEY'S LIST Of GOOD AMATEUR PRACTICES - Amateur radio's best friend tells it like it should be.

  BE Informed No. 3. SECTION 97.113 SMELL TEST - Your station should never be used for any communication unless "No" can be answered truthfully and completely to each and every one of eleven questions.

   BE Informed No. 4. WHICH CALL SIGN? - Explains your options and accountability when someone wants to use your station apparatus or vice-versa.

  BE Informed No. 5.2 REVIEW OF JULY 1, 2011 ELEMENT 3 QUESTION POOL corrected March 1, 2011 - For examinees, VEs, instructors and training aid providers.

  BE Informed No. 6.1 REVIEW OF QUESTIONS IN ELEMENT 2 POOL EFFECTIVE JULY 1, 2010 - For volunteer examiners, instructors, training aid providers and examinees.

  BE Informed No. 7. ALL ABOUT THIRD PARTY COMMUNICATIONS - Tutorial for instructors and others who want to really understand what third party communications is all about; includes section on Advanced Studies for 1, 2 and 3 Party Communications.

  BE Informed No. 8. COLLECTION OF EXCUSES - Collection of reasons for not complying with the FCC rules. 

  BE Informed No. 9.  HAMFEST UNIFORM - We should all wear color-coded apparel so that anyone can see our class of operator license just by looking.  Humor.

  BE Informed No. 10.1  INSTRUCTIONS TO THE QUESTION POOL COMMITTEE.  Thought to be the instructions thought to have been adopted by the National Conference of VECs on July 24, 2009.

  BE Informed No. 11.  QCWA VETERAN'S ID PETITION - Amendment of Part 97 of the Commission's Rules to Provide for Recognition of Amateur Operators Who Have Served in the United States Military.

  BE Informed No. 14.  ABOUT THAT STATION IDENTIFICATION - Section 97.119 and excerpts from FCC webpage;  Includes recommendations for appended self-assigned indicators.

  BE Informed No. 15.  CLUB STATION LICENSE GRANT DOCUMENT OF ORGANIZATION GO-BY - Discusses requirement for obtaining a club station license grant; Includes a sample Document of Organization.

  BE Informed No. 16.  OBTAINING A CLUB STATION LICENSE GRANT.

  BE Informed No. 17.  WHO DISCOVERED RADIO? - Ray Dio's report. Humor. 

  BE Informed No. 18.  READ THE RULES - HEED THE RULES - W3BE's arguments for complying with the FCC rules.

  BE Informed No. 19.  AMATEUR STATION ANTENNA STRUCTURES - Section 97.15(b) says: Except as otherwise provided herein, a station antenna structure may be erected at heights and dimensions sufficient to accommodate amateur service communications. (State and local regulation of a station antenna structure must not preclude amateur service communications. Rather, it must reasonably accommodate such communications and must constitute the minimum practicable regulation to accomplish the state or local authority's legitimate purpose. See PRB-1, 101 FCC 2d 952 (1985) for details.)  In PRB-1, the FCC granted a Request for Declaratory Ruling.

  BE Informed No. 20.  YOUR CLUB CAN OBTAIN A CLUB STATION LICENSE GRANT.

  BE Informed No. 21.  HOW TO OBTAIN A DECEASED HAM'S FORMER CALL SIGN

  BE Informed No. 24.  WE ARE REGULATABLE (Aren't we?)  - From the questions asked by readers, our amateur service community seems to be having difficulty in adapting to digital technology, particularly with systems of stations.

  BE Informed No. 25.  WHO MUST THROW THE BIG RED SWITCH? -  W3BE standards for a control operator of a station transmitting third party message.

  BE Informed No. 26.  AGREEMENT BETWEEN THE FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION AND THE AMERICAN RADIO RELAY LEAGUE, INC., WITH RESPECT TO AMATEUR VOLUNTEERS -  The FCC and the ARRL agree to cooperate in a joint effort to improve rules compliance in the Amateur Radio Service, as provided for in Public Law 97-259 (the Communications Act of 1982.)

  BE Informed No. 30.  GEPS AND GAPS - A collection of observations, including W3BE's proposed good engineering practices ("GEPs") and good amateur practices ("GAPs") most of which have appeared in the WorldRadio Rules & Regs column THE RULES SAY... .  

  BE Informed No. 31.  HAMSLANGUAGE   The probable meanings of unofficial words and phrases sometimes used in our amateur service community.

  BE Informed No. 32.  STANDARD TERMS AND PHRASES -  A collection for writers about the amateur radio service.

  BE Informed No. 33.  OUR TPMSP "CLASS"  - A report on a movement underway within a segment of our amateur service community that is bent on changing dramatically our operator class structure.

  BE Informed No. 37.  EVALUATION OF JULY 1, 2008 ELEMENT 4 QUESTION POOL - For VEs and instructors; identifies defective, freebee, trick and misleading questions.  Also identifies questions not needed to know in order operate a station properly with Amateur Extra Class operator privileges and questions unnecessary because reference materials are widely available.  Also identifies questions that should have been asked in Elements 2 or 3.

  BE Informed No. 38.  TERMS USED IN PART 97 OF THE FCC RULES - A collection.

  BE Informed No. 41.  THE SIGNIFICANCE OF MY NOVICE RIG - 1954 homebrew 6AG6-6l6 and its significance.

  BE Informed No. 44.1.  EMERGENCY - Questions and answers about our amateur service rules during emergencies.

  BE Informed No. 45.  REMOTE BASE, REPEATER AND OTHER SYSTEMS - FAQ  answers numerous questions from readers. 

  BE Informed No. 48.  FILING COMMENTS ON FCC RULE MAKING PROPOSALS.

  BE Informed No. 49.  QCWA 2009 CARIBBEAN CRUISE - Photos from the cruise of a lifetime.

  BE Informed No. 50.  HOW TO BE CLUB PRESIDENT - Advice when your luck turns bad and you have to serve - Humor

  BE Informed No. 52.  INCLUDING A SELF-ASSIGNED INDICATOR WITH YOUR STATION CALL SIGN - Recommendations for appending self-assigned indicators consistent with Section 97.119(d).

  BE Informed No. 53. COMMENTS IN WP Docket NO. 10-72.

  BE Informed No. 54.  RECONSTITUTING PART 99 OF THE FCC RULES PROVIDING FOR A DISASTER RADIO SERVICE -  Petition for Rule Making to enable our amateur service community to provide radio services during a disaster without negatively compromising the integrity of our amateur radio services or our status as amateur radio operators.

  BE Informed No. 55.  WHAT DO HAMS REALLY NEED TO KNOW AND WHEN DO THEY NEED TO KNOW IT? - An analysis of the privileges-requirements disconnect.  

   BE Informed No. 56.  THE VPOD PROTOCOL AND THE GOTA – Theory of allowing non- and under-licensed persons to use amateur stations.     

   BE Informed No. 57.  THE AMATEUR OPERATOR PRIVILEGES-REQUIREMENT DISCONNECT -  Our VECs and our policy makers have different ideas about operator privileges for our three operator classes.    

   BE Informed No. 58.  HOW TO DOWNLOAD QUERIES FROM THE FCC DATABASE - Directions on performing a query download from search results in the FCC Universal Licensing System or Antenna Structure Registration system, and then importing the raw data into Excel or Access spreadsheets.

   BE Informed No. 59.  QUIET ZONE DIRECTORY - Find out if your station would be in or near a quiet zone and what you should do about it.

   BE Informed No. 60.  HOW THE INTERNATIONAL RADIO REGULATIONS ARE IMPLEMENTED IN PART 97.

   BE Informed No. 61. LET'S GO VE GREEN! Call for replacing our paper logged license examination system. 

     BE Informed No. 62. SO, I’M A VE, NOW WHAT?  -  Answers to questions on how to be a volunteer examiner.  Also answers to questions about using audio/video systems when administering examinations.

   BE Informed No. 65 DIPOLE DIMENSIONS FOR PHONE BANDS - Dimensions for one of our most popular HF antenna types.

   BE Informed No. 66 IS MY REMOTE BASE OK? - Answers to some of the most frequently asked questions concerning remote base stations.

   BE Informed No. 67 CERTIFICATION REGARDING RADIOFREQUENCY RADIATION SAFETY - Read this before signing an application for an FCC amateur service license grant.

   BE Informed No. 68  HISTORIC PLACES FOR PRE-RADIO TELEGRAPHY ENTHUSIASTS TO VISIT - New Jersey, New York, and Ohio. 

   BE Informed No. 69  VISITING OPERATOR RULES - Rules for visiting operators at club stations.

   BE Informed No. 70 MAKE HAM RADIO LAST 1000 YEARS - Talk given by Riley Hollingsworth K4ZDH at 2011 QCWA Annual Convention in Warwick, RI.

   BE Informed No. 71 WHERE'S THE RULE? - Questions are answered about the Field Day GOTA rules.

   BE Informed No. 72  CAN VES AND SCOS USE A/V? -  Questions and answers about volunteer examiners and station control operators using audio/video paraphenalia. 

   BE Informed No. 73 NEW 60 METER PRIVILEGES – Questions/answers about the rules for the 60 meter band.

   BE Informed No. 74 Can I Take A Paying Job As A PROFESSIONAL Communicator? - Questions/answers about accepting compensation in places where our amateur service is regulated by the FCC.

   BE Informed No. 75  HAMS AT SEA - Questions/answers about rules for amateur radio aboard ship.

   BE Informed No. 76  What Was Incentive Licensing?  -  Questions/answers about the most controversial episode to ever take place in our amateur service.

      Read the rules - Heed the rules

Parts 0, 1, 2, 17, 97 and 214. 

Question about the amateur service rules? e-mail john@johnston.net


Report rule violations to fccham@fcc.gov 

 

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W3BE & son Ken - Mystic Islands, NJ - Father's Day
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Want to get in touch? You can send me e-mail at:

john@johnston.net