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Klystron · March 1st 08, 04:37 PM posted to rec.radio.amateur.moderated

wrote:
Klystron wrote:
[...]

Look for definitions of terms like "declaration of emergency,"
"martial law" or "disaster area." This is heavily traveled territory -
we don't need to reinvent the wheel, here in this newsgroup.

The main point is that there has to be a clear and defined life-and-
death emergency.

But there's also the point of who can declare an emergency? Can the
EMTs say that the ambulance breakdown is an emergency?

Ambulance crews cannot authorize themselves to commandeer property;
only civilian government officials can do that. The gravity of the
emergency has nothing to do with it. It is just not their call to make.

[...]

If you put your shoes in a locker at the gym, are they still YOUR
shoes?

Of course - but if someone needed them in a life-and-death
emergency....

They would have to ASK you for them.

There's also the question of contract provisions as part of the rental
agreement. Shoes in a locker are different from permanently installed
radio equipment requiring power and radiating RF.

Not from a property ownership point of view.

[...]

Of course - but what if the emergency really does meet K2ASP's double-
prong test? That is, it's a real life-and-death emergency, and there
are no other facilities available that can do the job?

As KB9X points out, the quoted person who said "everything we do is
life-and-death" was way out of line, and not representative at all.
But what about real-life situations that meet the two-prong test?
Granted they are very rare, and most of us will never encounter them,
but the time to think about them is before they happen.

We are not the first people to consider these issues. As I said
before, this is well-traveled territory. Phil's 2 prong test pertains to
emergency actions on frequencies that one is not normally allowed to
use. It has nothing to do with the seizure of private property. That is
a topic over which the FCC has no authority or jurisdiction whatever.

--
Klystron