[Ground-station] Paid personnel as operators or license grantees of Amateur Satellites

[Paul Williamson]

This summary fails to mention that there is a list of four exceptions to
the pecuniary interest rule in Part 97.113(3). This suggests that the FCC
could grant a further exception for satellite operators if it saw fit to do
so, without running afoul of the ITU.

One of those exceptions was added in Docket 92-136, which also relaxed the
rule prohibiting any "business" communication. My point is simply that
rules can be changed, even rules we've come to view as immutable.

  -Paul


On Tue, Apr 10, 2018 at 5:22 PM, Bruce Perens via Ground-Station <
ground-station at lists.openresearch.institute> wrote:

> Paid Ground-Station Control Operators and Amateur Sattelites
>
> Paid personnel are not allowed to be control operator or license grantee
> of Amateur Satellites. In the United States, this means that a paid
> employee of the sponsoring organization of the satellite, for example a
> professor at the university that has built the satellite, can not be a
> control operator or the license grantee.
>
> I recently corresponded with our IARU Divison 2 representatives regarding
> this issue. Thanks to Edson W. R. Pereira PY2SDR and Ray Soifer W2RS for
> this information:
>
> The issue regarding paid operators is due to the definition of the amateur
> radio service as defined by the ITU.
>
> ARTICLE 1 Terms and definitions
>
>    - No. 1.56 amateur service: A radiocommunication service for the
>    purpose of self-training, intercommunication and technical investigations
>    carried out by amateurs, that is, by duly authorized persons interested in
>    radio technique solely with a personal aim and without pecuniary interest.
>    - No. 1.57 amateur-satellite service: A radiocommunication service
>    using space stations on earth satellites for the same purposes as those of
>    the amateur service.
>    - No. 1.96 amateur station: A station in the amateur service.
>
> The same definition is used by the FCC: https://www.fcc.gov/
> wireless/bureau-divisions/mobility-division/amateur-radio-service
>
> The key point here is the term “pecuniary interest” — in otther words,
> “without financial compensation”. The definition is related to the
> *operation* of an amateur radio station, as you have stated in your
> message. Persons, including amateur radio operators, could be financially
> compensated to design and build amateur satellites, but according to the
> regulations, as they are presently written, the person cannot be
> compensated to operate the station.
>  If the station will operate under a US FCC amateur license, the control
> operator may not be an employee of the sponsoring organization, whether or
> not he is being directly compensated for operating the station.  The
> license grantee is also deemed to be the operator of the space station
> operating under his license.
> For those reasons, FCC licenses most Cubesats as experimental, not
> amateur.  Experimental licenses do permit operators to be compensated.
> However, experimental stations may not communicate with amateur stations.
>
>
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>
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