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The Rules Say... Number 117 What Is Automatic Control? John B. Johnston W3BE
Q.
There are some very divergent ideas going around
about automatic control. Please untangle. A. Automatic
control is one of the three methods authorized for amateur station control. The other two are local
and remote control. Only stations specifically designated in Part 97, however, may be automatically controlled. Even then, it must cease upon notification
by a FCC District Director that the station is transmitting improperly or causing harmful interference to other stations.
Section 97.3(a)(6) says automatic control is the use of devices and procedures for controlling an amateur station when
it is transmitting such that compliance with the FCC rules is achieved without the control operator being present at the control point. When your station
is being locally or remotely controlled, your station control operator must be at your station control point.
But when your station is being automatically controlled, your station’s control operator need not be at its control
point as long as your station is otherwise in compliance with FCC rules.
Q. What, then, is unattended operation?
A.
Unattended usually means the opposite of attended, i.e., no one is paying any attention.
Whatever it is, it is unsuitable for amateur stations in places where the FCC regulates our service. Section 97.7 says, rather, that when transmitting each amateur station must have a control operator. The
control operator must be a person for whom an amateur operator/primary station license grant appears on the ULS consolidated licensee database, or who is authorized for alien reciprocal operation.
Q. What are the types of operation where an amateur station may be automatically controlled?
A. There are five unambiguous types of special operations authorized for automatic control: 1.
An auxiliary station may be automatically controlled. Read Section 97.201(d). 2. A beacon station may be automatically controlled while it is transmitting on the 28.20-28.30
MHz, 50.06-50-08 MHz, 144.275-144.300 MHz, 222.05-222.06 MHz or 432.300-432.400 MHz segments, or on the 33 cm and shorter
wavelength bands. Read Section 97.203(d). 3. A repeater station may be automatically controlled. Read Section 97.205(d). 4. An amateur station may be automatically controlled while transmitting a RTTY or data emission
on the 6 meters or shorter wavelength bands, and on the 28.120-28.189 MHz; 24.925-24.930 MHz, 21.090-21.100 MHz, 18.105-18.110
MHz, 14.0950-14.0095 MHz, 10.140-10.150 MHz, 7.100-7.105 MHz, or 3.620-3.635 MHz segments. Read Section 97.221(b). 5. An amateur station may be automatically controlled while transmitting a RTTY or
data emission on any other frequency authorized for such emission types provided the station is responding to interrogation
by a station under local or remote control and no transmission from the automatically controlled station occupies a bandwidth
of more than 500 Hz. Read Section 97.221(c).
Note that Section 97.109(e) says that no station,
except a station transmitting a RTTY or data emission, may be automatically controlled while transmitting third party communications.
Even then, every message that is retransmitted must originate at a station that is being locally or remotely controlled.
Q. Who
is responsible for the content of an information bulletin retransmitted by a repeater while under automatic control?
A. Its control operator during the time the announcement is transmitted is the person accountable
for making certain that such bulletins retransmitted by the repeater are in compliance with the FCC rules. Read Section 97.105(a). The control operator of the originating station is likewise accountable
for operating that station properly.
Q. I’ve
heard our repeater retransmitting some extremely indecent conversations while under automatic control. Is
the repeater control operator accountable for that? A. Yes. The control operator, however,
has some short-term reprieve under Section 97.205(g) where it says that the control operator of a repeater that retransmits inadvertently communications
that violate the rules in Part 97 is not accountable for the violative communications. The key word here is inadvertently. It gets
your control operator off the hook for an occasional no-no that slips through before he or she can react in time to prevent
it from being retransmitted. Whenever there is an extended pattern of violative communications being retransmitted
by your repeater, however, you as the station licensee and your control operator must resolve the issue in order for your
repeater to stay on the air under automatic control.
Q. Our repeater transmits the ID announcement using the pre-recorded voice of a non-ham.
Isn’t that third party communications? A.
No. The voice being transmitted does not enter into that determination. Section 97.115(a) says, in effect, it is for whom the message is being sent that determines whether or not it
is third party communications. In this case, the station licensee has chosen to comply with the station
identification requirement in Section 97.119(b)(2) by a phone emission in the English language. Just whose
voice is used in making the ID announcement is immaterial as long as the message is on behalf of party one, in this case the
station licensee.
Q. Field Day GOTA Rule 4.1.1.3 says: As per FCC rules, this station must have a valid control
operator present if operating beyond the license privileges of the participant using the station.
WHICH FCC rules is it referring to? A. That is undisclosed,
but if it is referring to Section 97.115, third party communications, it says that an amateur station may transmit messages for
a third party to certain other stations. The third party may participate in stating the message where the
control operator is present at the control point and is continuously monitoring and supervising the third party's participation.
That non-FCC GOTA rule, however, reads more like it stems from the VPOD Protocol where the non- or under-licensed communicator
acts a surrogate control operator. But that premise is based upon what the FCC
rules do not say. For a further discussion of this baffling topic, read BE Informed
No. 71 Where’s The Rule?
Q. Does our GOTA station control operator
have to be awake at all times during Field Day? A.
Your control operator would have to be present and alert at the control point in order to continuously monitor and
supervise the third party participant or surrogate control operator.
Q. That “anything goes" mindset is destructive, as is that "everyone gets Amateur Extra
Class privileges" and the other nonsense that goes with Field Day. Should our once-valued
protection against encroachment by unqualified communicators become routinely compromised, there may be no U-turn on the superhighway
to our amateur radio morphing into CB on steroids. A. Quite likely. Competitive scoring inducements,
nevertheless, are tacked on for those stations that facilitate unqualified communicators to cause and allow stations to transmit
on our amateur service frequencies. As long as those sessions are limited in duration and number, it may
be unlikely that any serious harm to our hobby will result. Perhaps there even may even be some benefit
to someone.
Q. I moved to a different QTH and obtained a new call sign.
My old license document, however, shows it expiring at a future date. What should I do with it?
A. There isn’t any rule requiring you to do anything with your old license document.
As a result of operator class upgrading, changing of names and mail addresses and the obtaining of vanity call signs,
there are a lot of superseded license documents out there that appear to be valid to those who are not yet aware of the ULS and the license-by-rule provisions codified in Section 97.5 and Section 97.7. That could mean there is some risk of having your document fall
into the hands of persons who would misuse it in your name or as an altered document. If you don’t
want to destroy the document, permanently mark it superseded and keep it secure in your station records.
Q. How, then, does the FCC authorize me as a licensee? A. That paper license is superfluous. You are an amateur service
licensee only when the ULS shows that you have an FCC license grant and that you are authorized to have a station transmitting
on amateur service frequencies. Read Section 97.5 and Section 97.7.
Q. My uncle was a ham in Michigan back in the 1950s. I would like to get his
former call sign but he isn't his old self and doesn't remember his call sign. How can I find out what
it was? A. The
FCC licensee data base six decades ago was before computers took over that work. It was an awkward labor-intensive paper-bounded
process. Periodically, Call-Book Magazine would publish it, but indexed only by call sign.
So, if there is no one who knows his old call sign, your only option is to search, line-by-line, a Call-Book from that
era. Being in Michigan, it is likely his call sign prefix was W8.
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