expeditionradio writes: > In fact, it would be quite difficult to get a handle on what is > automatic and what is non-automatic, since automation is a moving > target in our changing world of technology. In the FCC's Amateur > Radio Service rules, as far as I know, there are no such terms as > "Fully Automatic" or "Semi-Automatic" used.
If a data station can transmit without a control operator exercising his/her function at a control point, then it must be "automatically controlled". There is nothing difficult about that. Some "automatically controlled data stations" only respond "to interrogation by a station under local or remote control" (we usually call them "semiautomatic"), AND limit their bandwidth to 500 Hz, in accordance with 97.221(c), so they may transmit on any frequency where their emission type is permitted. Others transmit WITHOUT waiting for interrogation by a station under local or remote control (we usually call them "fully automatic"), OR occupy more than 500 Hz, so they are limited to transmitting on the frequency segments listed in 97.221(b). It is NOT difficult for me to know which kind of station I am running, nor to know on which frequencies I may legally transmit. Starting this Friday, there will be nowhere legal between 3.5 and 4 MHz, if my data station is either "fully automatic" in the sense above or wider than 500Hz, and located within the jurisdiction of the FCC, unless the FCC grants the ARRL's request for a stay. Some prefer to change this situation (I'm one of them: I prefer that the stay be granted, and that automatic data stations remain legal betwen 3.620 and 3.635), but there is no basis for a claim that the rules do not say what in fact they plainly do say. The terms "semiautomatic" and "fully automatic" are mere shorthand: that those terms do not appear in the regs is not germane to the discussion. -- 73 DE KW6H (ex-AE6VW) Chris Jewell Gualala CA USA
