The FCC has a notice of proposed rulemaking whose purpose would be to amend Part 97.113 to allow radio amateurs who are participating in government sponsored drills to be compensated by their employers. I am actually not a fan of this idea. While the Part 97 regulations acknowledge the value of radio amateurs to provide voluntary emergency communications, I think it represents a significant shift in the nature of the amateur service to allow a radio amateur to draw pay (even for emergency preparedness) while doing so. I suspect I’m in the minority, but I went ahead and filed my comments anyway:
Hi Mark,
You’re not alone. I posted a comment on there as well from the same point of view as yourself. Don’t really know what else to say other than they shouldn’t change the rules as they stand.
Scott
Mark:
Excellent and well written. Kind of inspires me to leave me own comment.
It seems to me that this is one of those areas where the self-righteous types need to get a life. Think about it. The FCC doesn’t have the budget or the workers to enforce horrible violations of rules today. If you think for one minute that an FCC enforcement agent is going to put on hip waders to roam the black water filled streets during a Katrina event to see if some volunteer hiding in a back room of a trailer is getting paid, forget it. Just go do it and keep your mouth shut about it. They try and enforce this rule during a real event and they would be severely ridiculed. Fine, write a new rule to make it legal. If I understand the rules correctly, all things are suddenly legal in an emergency. Anyone can operate any radio in an emergency and do so with complete immunity.