Date: Tue, 02 Jan 2001 15:54:25 -0500

From: William Cross <bcross@fcc.gov>

To: Keith E. Lamonica, Esq. <keith@lamonica.com>

Subject: Re: W7DXX Remote Base

Keith:

Good to talk to you again too. These questions keep coming up as you guys put these systems together.

As I mentioned, we don't regulate systems-we regulate stations. As I also recall, the answer a couple

of months ago was .....such operation is OK as long as the foreign amateur does not exceed his/her

authority of license AND THERE IS A RECIPROCAL OPERATING AGREEMENT BETWEEN THE US AND THE

ALIEN'S GOVERNMENT. That would be consistent with the rules that apply to this situation.

The real issue here is Who is the control operator of station W7DXX. Section 97.7 answers

the question-a control operator must be a person whose license grant appears on the ULS database

or who is authorized for alien operation by Section 97.107.

See http://www.fcc.gov/wtb/amateur/reciparr.html for the list of reciprocal countries.

Those eligible under recips include all the Canadian hams and licensees from a slew of other

countries including many European and Central/South American countries. The foreign amateur

does not exceed his/her authority of license is a condition in Section 97.107-always has been.

(This is why we get odd situations where a ham from Finland on the way to a DXpedition to

Howland Island can't (legally) operate 40M SSB in the continental US but can at a US Pacific

territory-the rules authorize SSB at 7075-7100 at our Pacific islands, which overlap with the

privileges the Finn has in ITU Region 1.) Section 97.301(a) and (b) authorize those holding

CEPT licenses and IARPs to be control operators and they get either Tech or Extra Class privileges.

So a European ham holding a CEPT license from a country that does not have a recip with the

US could be a control op based on his or her holding the CEPT license. Likewise a European

ham that does not have a CEPT license or a recip agreement could not be a control op of W7DXX.

The internet connection with IP is a common carrier system so it is in a sense an

extended mic cord. The amateur service rules don't address common carrier systems-our

authority starts at the mic connector and the knob diddling-so to speak. The definition of

local control, Section 97.3(a)(30), may help you sort all this out.

Fortunately for me though, you are the one who gets to sort out all this who has what authorization

stuff because it's your station and (Section 97.103) you are responsible for its proper operation.

Also remember Remote base isn't in the rules-this is some system configuration you

guys invented.

BTW, I was listening to the Marine Mobile Net on 14.313 on your website when you called.

Bill