Packeteers get ruling on "repeater stations" by clarifying the term
simultaneous as meaning transmitting and receiving at the same time.
This was in response to the William Cross email in all likelyhood.
If it quacks............ad infinitum .....ad nasueum.
Craig
Federal Communications Commission
Washington, D.C. 20554
March 23, 2009
DA 09-657
Mr. Gary R. Mitchell
President, Northern California Packet Association
P.O. Box K
Sunnyvale, CA 94087
Re: Petition for Declaratory Ruling filed December 5, 2007
Dear Mr. Mitchell:
This is in response to the petition for declaratory ruling that you filed on
December 5, 2007,
requesting that the Commission clarify the definition of a repeater in the
amateur service rules.1 A
repeater in the amateur service is defined as "[a]n amateur station that
simultaneously retransmits the
transmission of another amateur station on a different channel or channels."2
You seek clarification of
whether the word "simultaneously" in the definition refers to the signal
information being retransmitted,
or to the fact that the receiver and transmitter must both be active at the
same time while acting on the
same signal information.
Section 97.205(b) of the Commission's Rules specifies the bands on which
amateur repeater
stations may operate.3 You state that some amateur radio operators are
operating on bands other than
those set forth in Section 97.205(b) with systems that are essentially voice
repeater stations, but that
digitize and retransmit the user's voice, on the theory that because there is a
small delay in retransmitting
the signal of another amateur station, the signal is not "simultaneously"
retransmitted and, therefore, the
system is not a repeater.4
Prior to 1994, a repeater was defined as "[a]n amateur station that
automatically retransmits the
signals of other stations."5 The Commission revised the definition in order to
clarify that certain
accommodations for message forwarding systems do not apply to other operating
activities such as
repeaters and auxiliary stations.6 The Commission proposed to define a repeater
as "[a]n amateur station
that instantaneously retransmits the transmission of another amateur station on
a different channel or
channels," but ultimately replaced "instantaneously" with "simultaneously"
because commenters noted
1 See Petition for Declaratory Ruling (filed December 5, 2007) (Petition).
2 See 47 C.F.R. § 97.3(a)(39).
3 47 C.F.R. § 97.205(b).
4 Petition at 1.
5 See 47 C.F.R. § 97.3(a)(35) (1993).
6 See Amendment of Part 97 of the Commission's Rules Concerning Message
Forwarding Systems in the Amateur
Service, Report and Order, PR Docket No. 93-85, 9 FCC Rcd 1786, 1788 ¶ 6
(1994).
Mr. Gary R. Mitchell
2.
that there is always a small propagation delay through a repeater.7 As one
commenter explained, "The
word `simultaneously' in this case means that the repeater is receiving and
transmitting concurrently,
whereas each signal might be slightly displaced in time between receive and
transmit."8
To be able to repeat another station's transmission, a repeater must be able to
receive a
transmission from another station and retransmit it. Because the word
"simultaneously" in the definition
is used to modify "retransmit," we believe it refers to a repeater station's
transmitter being active when
retransmitting the signal received by the repeater station's receiver from
another amateur station. We
conclude, therefore, that "simultaneously" as used in the definition of a
repeater refers to the receiver and
transmitter both being active at the same time.
Accordingly, IT IS ORDERED that, pursuant to Section 4(i) of the Communications
Act of 1934,
as amended, 47 U.S.C. § 154(i), and Section 1.2 of the Commission's Rules, 47
C.F.R. § 1.2, the Petition
for Declaratory Ruling filed on December 5, 2007 by Gary R. Mitchell IS GRANTED
to the extent
indicated above.
This action is taken under delegated authority pursuant to Sections 0.131 and
0.331 of the
Commission's Rules, 47 C.F.R. §§ 0.131 and 0.331.
FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION
Scot Stone
Deputy Chief, Mobility Division
Wireless Telecommunications Bureau
7 Id.; see American Radio Relay League (ARRL) Comments at 16; Colorado Council
of Amateur Radio Clubs
Comments at 3.
8 See ARRL Comments at 16.
