In article ,
wrote:

I don't think the FD person wanted the repeaters. He said they could
use the frequencies, not the repeaters. And the frequencies are public
property, after all. An amateur or club might own the repeater but
they don't own the frequencies.

I think there's a significant difference between a one-time emergency
use (if regular comms go down), and regular use of the frequencies as
a substitute for a properly-licensed/managed public service radio
allocation.

As I understand it, this issue came up in a big way some decades
ago, after World War II. During the war, normal amateur-radio
communications were all shut down (for security reasons). The whole
RACES system was set up to allow specially-licensed stations (part of
civil-defense organizations) to use the ham-radio frequencies for
communication.

Some years after that (after ham-radio communications were allowed
again) some controversy arose over the use of the ham frequencies.
From what I've heard, there were some public-safety organizations in
small towns (police and fire) which started using the ham frequencies
regularly... they got ham licenses and set themselves up as RACES
stations and tried to justify their full-time tactical use of the ham
band under the "RACES training and drill" rules.

Hams complained. The FCC agreed with the complaints, deciding that
this was not an appropriate use of the ham frequencies, and instituted
new rules which strictly limit the frequency and duration of RACES
training drills that any given RACES organization can undertake
(basically, the equivalent of two long weekends per year). These
rules still exist today, and I imagine that many of us here had to
answer at least one question about this on one of our ham exams :-)

The Rules in 47 CFR 97.113 specifically forbid "Communications, on a
regular basis, which could reasonably be furnished alternatively
through other radio services" as well as communications for hire or in
which the operator has a pecuniary interest. I think that the first
of these prohibitions would probably be ruled to apply to a fire
department which (as a matter of course or regular practice) makes use
of the ham band or repeaters. The FCC would (I believe) certainly
rule that there are other bands and radio services which are
specifically intended for public-safety use, and that these are
reasonably available to fire departments and etc.

Real, short-term emergency use, when a regular fire-department or
other radio service fails for some reason, is a different matter...
but this isn't a "regular basis" of communications.

--
Dave Platt AE6EO
Friends of Jade Warrior home page: http://www.radagast.org/jade-warrior
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