I got a couple of emails off-list in response to my request for locking down the transceiver for the ham bands only.
The gist of these mails was, that as licenced hams we have been through the training and exams and should be able to stay within our licence conditions, and we should (and generally can) be trusted with equipment that is capable of operating outside the ham bands. I just wanted to make it clear that I don't disagree with this at all, and I was never suggesting that it's the job of the rig manufacturers to lock down devices just to prevent us from doing something wrong/illegal/stupid if we choose to do so. I've also got other rigs capable of transmitting well outside the ham bands. As everybody knows we can and do make mistakes from time to time. For example see the "Operated K3 SSB in CW band - not sure why" or the "Oops I did it again" threads. In short there are many ways to make a mistake, especially when (like me) you are experimenting with various computer controls etc., and having the transmit ranges configurable at the rig firmware level, would provide an extra line of defence - nothing more and nothing less - if you choose to enable that option. If I mistakenly transmit on the wrong frequency within the ham bands, I may be causing a nuisance to others, but that's as far as it goes - but if I transmit outside the ham bands I am (in my jurisdiction) committing a crime and could (in the worst case) be prosecuted and/or lose my licence. Now, I know it's quite unlikely that this would happen when it was clearly a mistake, but still. So that's the reason for my question in the first place. If this was something I could easily do with a firmware/configuration tweak I would have liked to enable it, just as an extra line of defence. If it's harder than that, fine, I can live without it and it will just be a nice thing to have if it one day gets implemented in the firmware. 73, Thomas 2E0ETT ______________________________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:[email protected] This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
