[ARES-SE] Riley's comments @ Dayton

[Mike (KA5CVH) Urich]

==>RILEY REITERATES RECOMMENDATION TO "LIGHTEN UP" ON HAM BANDS

FCC Special Counsel in the Spectrum Enforcement Division Riley
Hollingsworth's main message at the Dayton Hamvention®
<http://www.hamvention.org> 2007 FCC Forum may not have been a new one. 
But it's certainly one he believes bears repeating -- at least until it 
starts cutting through the QRM and QRN that pervade more communication 
channels than our Amateur Radio bands.

"Well, you could have gone to the flea market, but you came to church
instead," Hollingsworth quipped to his Dayton forum audience. "I've got 
you now."

Hollingsworth repeated what for many Riley Watchers has become a 
familiar refrain: That the Amateur Radio community needs to "lighten up" 
on the air. Acknowledging that he was repeating himself, Hollingsworth 
urged his audience to take his message more to heart. "All of you can 
learn from each other," he said, "and you need to work together more and 
show a little more respect for your diverse interests and for the 
Amateur Service as a whole. It isn't about you. It isn't about 
enforcement. It's about Amateur Radio."

As radio amateurs take to the airwaves, he continued, they need to 
decide what's most important -- the best interests of ham radio or their 
ego, pride or perceived "rights."

"I realize I may be preaching to the choir here, but on the air you need 
to be more cooperative and less argumentative -- and I need you to take 
this message with you when you go home," he continued.

As a "homework assignment," Hollingsworth encouraged his listeners to 
read the "It Seems to Us . . ." editorial, "Most Effective Use"
<http://www.arrl.org/news/features/2007/05/01/1/>, by ARRL Chief 
Executive Officer David Sumner, K1ZZ, in May 2007 QST. In his 
commentary, Sumner stressed that interference occurring as a side effect 
of legitimate Amateur Radio activities in crowded bands "is simply a 
fact of life" and that it's "unfair to your fellow amateurs to assume 
that every instance of interference you may encounter is a hostile act."

Hollingsworth offered good news and bad news. "The good news: Nothing is
wrong with Amateur Radio," he allowed. "It is a good service that is 
showing its value to the public on a daily basis."

The bad news, he asserted, making a comparison to "road rage," is "that
there is an element of Amateur Radio that too often reflects present 
society generally."

Hollingsworth urged all radio amateurs to cooperate more and depend less 
on the FCC to solve their operating issues.

"We live in a rude, discourteous, profane, hotheaded society that loves 
its rights, prefers not to hear about its responsibilities, and that 
spills over into the ham bands," he said.

Hollingsworth's bottom line: Be flexible in your frequency selection and
make regular use of the "big knob" on the front of your transceiver to 
shift to any of the "thousands of frequencies and hundreds usable at any 
given time of day or year" as necessary to avoid problems. "The world is 
ugly enough -- don't add to it," Hollingsworth advised.

"We can enforce our rules, but we can't enforce kindness and courtesy or
common sense," Hollingsworth concluded. "And a very wise person, who 
happens to be standing to my left [FCC Wireless Telecommunications 
Bureau staffer Bill Cross, W3TN -- Ed] once told me: 'You can't regulate 
stupid.' If we could, we'd be working for the United Nations instead of 
the FCC."

In his comments, Cross singled out the controversy that erupted recently
over fears that automatically controlled digital stations would 
overwhelm the amateur bands, eclipsing most other modes. Cross cited 
§97.7 of the rules, which requires each amateur station to have a 
control operator and, in essence, to employ a "listen-before-transmit" 
protocol."

When a station is under automatic control, regardless of the 
transmission mode, Cross explained, the control operator need not be at 
the control point, but must employ station control devices and 
procedures while transmitting that ensure compliance with the FCC rules 
and does not cause harmful interference to ongoing communications of 
other stations.

The operational rule, Cross said, is: "Your call sign, your 
responsibility."