BE
Informed No. 4
WHICH CALL SIGN?
Your options and accountability when
someone uses your station apparatus or vice-versa
John
B. Johnston W3BE
Q. When my ham friend operates my amateur
station, which call sign should he use, his or mine?
A. The one person eligible to answer
your question authoritatively is… YOU! Section 97.119(a) says, in effect, that the call sign transmitted in the station identification
announcement must be that assigned to the station. It is for you, as the person having physical control
of station apparatus (read Section 97.5(a)), to first answer the basic question:
“Under the authority of which of our station licenses am I going to allow my station apparatus to transmit?” Your
answer, therefore, will establish which call sign must be used. It will also determine the extent of your
accountability. Make your choice carefully.
Q. What are my choices?
A.
You have two choices:
Choice One: The station transmits your
primary station call sign in the station identification announcement. This establishes you as the station
licensee, responsible for the proper operation of the station, as it says in Section 97.103(a). You and your friend are both accountable for
the duties of its control operator being performed properly. Note that Section 97.103(b) says that the FCC will
presume that you, the station licensee, are also the control operator unless there is documentation to the contrary.
Choice Two: The station transmits your friend’s primary station call sign
in the identification announcement. This establishes your friend alone as being responsible for performing
properly the duties of both the station licensee and its control operator. You are not accountable.
Q. Which is the better, Choice One or Two?
A. That depends upon your reason for allowing your friend to use your station apparatus. For instance,
if you want to add QSL cards to your station’s collection or improve your station’s contest score, your better
choice would be Choice One. Otherwise, with Choice Two, any resulting QSL cards will be addressed to your
friend’s station and contest points will be attributed there.
Q. My friend is authorized for alien operation. Which is the better choice when he operates my station?
A. Withhold the use of your station and its equipment until you are confident that it will be used properly.
Persons authorized for alien operation in places where the FCC regulates the amateur service do not have to prove that
they are qualified to do so. Further, there is no database of the alien operators operating in places where
the FCC regulates amateur service communications. Otherwise, Choice Two would be preferable to Choice One
because - in view of a somewhat greater chance of a violation of the rules occurring - you would not be at risk.
Your friend would bear complete responsibility for all violations of the FCC rules. The worst choice
would be Number One because you would be fully responsible although you are not the control operator. Section 97.103(a) says that even where the control
operator is a different amateur operator than the station licensee, both persons are equally responsible for proper operation
of the station.
Q. If my friend causes my station to transmit on a frequency channel outside the ham bands, who will the FCC consider
to be in violation of its rules?
A. The licensee
of the station whose call sign was transmitted in the station identification announcement would be accountable.
Under Choice Number Two, therefore, your friend alone would be accountable. Under Choice Number
One, you alone would be accountable unless you show proof that that your friend was the control operator at the time of the
infraction. If that instance, you would be accountable.
Q. What form of proof is required?
A. Thankfully, there are no how-to
rules for that.
Get
it in writing. Require your station log to be signed by the control operator for the relevant time
period.
Q. My ham friend’s station is very much more effective when working DX than is my modest station.
Can I use his station with my call sign to work those rare countries that probably would not respond to my station?
A. As far as the FCC rules are concerned, yes. He would, in effect, turn his
station apparatus temporarily over to your physical control. Under Section 97.5, you would then become the station
licensee of record.
Q. He also has much more time to spend on working DX that I do. Could I designate
him as the control operator of his station when it is using my call sign even though I am not actually there at the station?
A. Again, as far as the FCC rules are concerned, yes. It then would, however, be your station during
whatever periods of time that you agree upon for you having physical control of the station apparatus. Under Section 97.103(b), it would be you – the station licensee,
albeit temporary – who must designate the station control operator.
Q. How may other hams could make the same arrangements with him?
A.
As many as he is willing to enter into similar arrangements.
Q. He is an Extra and I am a General. While he is using my call sign, which frequencies
can he use?
A. Because
he would be the control operator who has been granted an Amateur Extra Class operator license, Section 97.301 makes available to the station all of the possible transmitting frequency bands.
Because his operator class exceeds your General Class, - for which certain frequency segments are not available - Section 97.119(e) comes into effect: an indicator consisting of his station’s call must be included after your call
sign (your call/his call) in the station identification announcements.
This procedure serves to alert the Amateur Auxiliary Official Observers and other
listeners that your station is authorized to transmit on spectrum not otherwise authorized to your General Operator class
of operator license.
July 6, 2011
Supersedes all prior versions