FCC Rules and Regulations
Part 97: Amateur Radio Service
97.3 Definitions
(b) Continuation and extension of the amateur’s proven ability to con- tribute to the advancement of the radio art.
(c) Encouragement and improvement of the amateur radio service through rules which provide for advancing skills in both the com- munication and technical phases of the art.
(d) Expansion of the existing reservoir within the amateur radio ser- vice of trained operators, technicians, and electronics experts.
(e) Continuation and extension of the amateur’s unique ability to enhance international good will.
DEFINITIONS
The definitions of terms essential to the operation of amateur radio sta- tions are contained in Part 97.3. Almost all Technician examinations will include one or more of these definitions.
(7) Auxiliary station. An amateur station, other than in a message forwarding system, that is transmitting communications point- to-point within a system of cooperating amateur stations.
(8) Bandwidth. The width of a frequency band outside of which the mean power of the transmitted signal is attenuated at least 26 dB below the mean power of the transmitted signal within the band.
(9) Beacon. An amateur station transmitting communications for the observation of propagation and reception or other related experimental activities.
(10) Broadcasting. Transmissions intended for reception by the general public, either direct or relayed.
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(12) Control Operator. An amateur operator designated by the licensee of a station to be responsible for the transmissions from that station to assure compliance with the FCC Rules.
(13) Control Point. The location at which the control operator function is performed.
(14) CSCE. Certificate of successful completion of an examination.
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(16) Earth Station. An amateur station located on or within 50 km of the Earth’s surface intended for communications with space stations or with other Earth stations by means of one or more objects in space.
(17) EIC. Engineer in Charge of an FCC Field Facility.
———————————————————————- (20) FAA. Federal Aviation Administration
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(22) Frequency coordinator. An entity, recognized in a local or regional area by amateur operators whose stations are eligi- ble to be auxiliary or repeater stations, that recommends transmitter/receive channels and associated operating and technical parameters for such stations in order to avoid or minimize potential interference.
(23) Harmful interference. Interference which endangers the functioning of a radionavigation service or other safety ser- vices or seriously degrades, obstructs, or repeatedly inter- rupts a radiocommunication service operating in accordance with the Radio Regulations.
(24) Indicator. Words, letters or numerals appended to and separated from the call sign during the station identifica- tion.
(25) Information bulletin. A message directed only to amateur operators consisting solely of subject matter of direct interest to the amateur service.
(26) International Morse Code. A dot-dash code as defined in International Telegraph and Telephone Consultative Com- mittee (CCITT) Recommendation F.1 (1984), Division B.I.
Morse Code.
(27) IARP. International Amateur Radio Permit
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(30) Local control. The use of a control operator who directly manipulates the operating adjustments in the station to achieve compliance with the FCC Rules.
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(37) RACES (radio amateur civil emergency service). A radio ser- vice using amateur stations for civil defense communica- tions during periods of local, regional, or national civil emergencies.
(38) Remote control. The use of a control operator who indirectly manipulates the operating adjustments in the station through a control link to achieve compliance with the FCC Rules.
(39) Repeater. An amateur station that simultaneously retrans- mits the transmission of another amateur station on a differ- ent channel or channels.
(40) Space station. An amateur station located more than 50 km above the Earth’s surface.
—————————————————————————- (42) Spurious emission. An emission, on frequencies outside the
necessary bandwidth of a transmission, the level of which may be reduced without affecting the information being transmitted.
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(46) Third-party communications. A message from the control operator (first party) of an amateur station to another ama- teur station control operator (second party) on behalf of another person (third party).
(47) ULS (Universal Licensing System). The (FCC) consolidated database, application filing system, and processing system for all Wireless Telecommunications Services.
(48) VE. Volunteer examiner.
(49) VEC. Volunteer-examiner coordinator.
(b) The definition of technical symbols used in this Part are:
(1) EHF (extremely high frequency). The frequency range of 30–300 GHz.1
(2) HF (high frequency). The frequency range 3–30 MHz (3) Hz. Hertz
(4) m. Meters
(5) MF. (medium frequency). The frequency range 300–3000 kHz.
(6) PEP (peak envelope power). The average power supplied to the antenna transmission line by a transmitter during one RF cycle at the crest of the modulation envelope taken under normal operating conditions.
(7) RF. Radio frequency
(8) SHF (super-high frequency). The frequency range is 3–30 GHz.
(9) UHF. (ultra-high frequency). The frequency range is 300–3000 MHz.
(10) VHF (very high frequency). The frequency range is 30–300 MHz.
(11) W. (watt)2
1The frequency of 1 Hertz (Hz) is defined as one cycle per second. Voice, music, radio transmission, AC power lines, and other signals are usually given in terms of operating frequencies. For example, voice frequencies normally range from about 300 Hz to 3000 Hz. Power-line frequency in the United States is 60 Hz while those in countries such as England and France are 50 Hz. You need to learn the frequency range definitions to help you pass the FCC written examinations as well as their use during amateur oper- ations. You will find that the frequencies of amateur bands can be expressed in kilo- hertz (kHz), megahertz (MHz), or gigahertz (GHz), depending on the particular amateur band.
1 kHz 1000 Hz.
1 MHz 1000 KHz 1,000,000 Hz.
1 GHz 1000 MHz 1,000,000,000 Hz.
2The watt is a unit of electrical power.
Part 97.3(c) defines the standard terms used to describe signal emis- sion types from amateur radio transmitters. The signal types autho- rized for Technicians are given as follows:
1. CW. Sometimes referred to as “continuous wave,” CW is defined as the International Morse Code telegraphy, usually transmitted from a radio transmitter via an operator using a hand key or automatic keying device, sometimes generated by a computer.
2. RTTY. RTTY or radioteletypewriter direct-printing telegraph emis- sions provide for transmission of mostly textual information. Older mechanical teletypewriter equipment has a typewriter-like key- board to generate messages composed primarily of alpha and numeric characters along with generation of punctuation symbols and end-of-line and line-feed control characters. RTTY electrical signals, generated by the keyboards and connected to a printer to print messages, consist of digital codes representing characters such as letters or numbers. Only FCC specified codes (such as the old 5-unit Baudot or the 7-unit ASCII codes) can be used for trans- mitting RTTY signals. The newer personal computers can be used to generate and receive RTTY signals. We’ll cover more on this sub- ject in Chap. 11.
3. Data. Data represents a broad class of telemetry, telecommand, or computer communications emissions. Here’s where the Technician operators can use their PCs for such exciting transmission modes as Packet and AMTOR. In general, the amateur operator is restricted to the use of FCC-approved digital codes.
4. Phone. Phone, or voice communications, allows the Technician operator to talk to other hams via local or long-distance contacts.
The Technician with 5 WPM certification, for example, can use sin- gle-sideband voice on specified frequencies in the 10-meter band and all voice modes on all amateur bands above 50 MHz.
5. Image. Image emission types include facsimile and television sig- nals. Technician operators can experiment with these modes of emission on all amateur bands above 50 MHz.
6. Spread spectrum. Spread-spectrum emissions involving “fre- quency hopping” over a wide band of frequencies are authorized on
some of the higher UHF bands. This is a relatively new technology for amateur operation.
AMATEUR STATION/OPERATOR LICENSE REGULATIONS
Part 97 contains the following FCC regulations concerning amateur operator and station license requirements. You will find that the FCC Amateur Radio License actually covers the operator privileges and the station authorization—two separate licenses on one slip of paper! The operator portion authorizes you to be the “control operator” of your amateur station or another amateur’s station provided the station owner gives you permission.
The combination FCC amateur license also authorizes you to have your own amateur radio station.