Autopatch is not ancillary operation. It involves third party traffic and is covered under 97.115 [note item (c)] and is defined under: 97.3(a)(46) Third-party communications. A message from the control operator (first party) of an amateur station to another amateur station control operator (second party) on behalf of another person (third party).
In this case, the AP user is the second party, the person on the phone is the third party, and the control op is the first party. That is the only way a non-licensed person can use Amateur Radio frequencies. They have to be under the direct control of a control operator. Ancillary operation is something like doing a DTMF pad test or temperature readback or tone paging, or even controlling a remote base as long as the primary control is on AUX frequencies or another legal means of control such as phone lines. Joe M. George Henry wrote: > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Jim" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > To: <[email protected]> > Sent: Friday, September 21, 2007 9:02 AM > Subject: Re: [Repeater-Builder] NFCC votes to recommend FCC treat all > repeaters as repeaters > > [snip] > > > > You're right-the definition is pretty loose. Some of it is dependant on > > the intent. A UHF 'repeater' that has a 'normal' simplex or half-duplex > > base station tied to it, and whose primary purpose is to repeat the 2M > > signals to UHF and the UHF signals to 2M, is a remote base, and in > > auxiliary operation. But a UHF 'repeater' that most users transmit on > > the UHF input and listen on the UHF output, and once in a while someone > > brings up the 2M base, is only a remote base when that is on-line, so it > > is normally in repeater operation, and in auxiliary operation only when > > the remote base is enabled. > > Same with things like auto-patch: normally it's in repeater operation, > > and can operate under automatic control, but when someone uses the > > auto-patch, the station is no longer a repeater, but a > > remotely-controlled base station, and requires a control op. > > Even querying the controller for the time of day falls into that category. > > -- > > Nope: 97.205(e) says: > > "Ancillary functions of a repeater that are available to users on the input > channel are not considered remotely controlled functions of the station" > > 73, > > George, KA3HSW
