[OH-KY-IN] Info on Rule Making Petitions

[Bruce Vanselow N8BV]

The information below was taken from the ARRL Letter, Vol 25, No 44
November 3, 2006
It is quite interesting!!       73,   ..... Bruce  N8BV


==>FCC INVITES COMMENTS ON TWO AMATEUR RADIO RULE MAKING PETITIONS

The FCC has invited comments on two Amateur Radio-related petitions for
rule
making. Both petitioners seek changes in the FCC's Part 97 Amateur
Service
station identification rules, specifically §97.119(a). That rule now
requires stations to identify "at the end of each communication, and at
least every ten minutes during a communication . . ."

RM-11346, filed December 9, 2005, by Murray Green, K3BEQ, would raise the
required ID interval to 30 minutes as well as at the end of each
communication. Green argues in his petition that while he has no problem
with the Commission's requirement that Amateur Radio stations identify,
"less frequent identification should not hinder the Commission's
enforcement
of Amateur Radio regulations, as demonstrated by the station
identification
requirements for other radio services." He suggests the current 10-minute
requirement is a result of "an abundance of caution" on the FCC's part.

A second petition, RM-11347, filed May 19, 2006, by Glen Zook, K9STH,
would
revise §97.119(a) to more closely resemble the old FCC §12.82(a)
Transmission of call signs rule. The FCC's Amateur Radio Service rules
were
under Part 12 prior to a revision that put them under Part 97.

In what he calls "a minor but important change," Zook proposes requiring
radio amateurs to transmit the call sign(s) of stations with which they
are
in communication plus their own call sign at the start and end of each
single transmission or of a series of transmissions between stations in
communication "each transmission of which is of less than three minutes'
duration" (operators could omit the ID at the end when the entire series
is
less than three minutes), at least every 10 minutes during a series of
transmissions between stations in communication, and at least every 10
minutes during any single transmission more than 10 minutes long.

"Unfortunately, too many Amateur Radio operators, especially when using
FM
repeaters, do not identify during their first transmission," Zook asserts
in
his petitions. "In fact, a considerable number of these operators never
seem
to get around to identifying even after 10 minutes of operation and a
'fair'
number never seem to get around to giving their call sign at all."

Zook believes his suggested changes will "clarify the existing
regulations
and to help eliminate problems with station identification in the Amateur
Radio Service" and actually legalize some commonplace on-air station
identification behavior.

Comments on these petitions are due by November 29. Interested parties
may
file using the FCC's Electronic Comment Filing System (ECFS). In the
"Proceeding" field, commenter should enter the full petition identifier
with
"RM" in capital letters followed by the hyphen and the five digit number.