

			       FCC PASSES RULE 
			DE-REGULATING RESPONSIBILITY
			FOR REPEATER COMMUNICATIONS


			 PR DOCKET 93-85 RE-DEFINES
			     THE WORD "REPEATER"
 
			   By Tom Blackwell, N5GAR
 

On April 13, 1994, the Federal Communications Commission
released a long awaited Report and Order, addressing issues
raised in a Petition for Rule Making submitted in January, 1991.
It is now being published in the Federal Register.  The new
rules become effective June 1, 1994.

The Rule on the responsibility for repeater communications, in
part 97.205(g), was combined in the proceeding with new rules on
high speed digital message forwarding systems, i.e. packet.

Joe Jarrett, K5FOG, and I filed a Petition for Rule Making on
the matter of voice repeaters, after the ARRL asked that its
petition on a similar issue be withdrawn.  We asked for a new
section, 97.205(g), to provide relief from responsibility for
repeater owners who experienced improper transmissions
originated by others.  The FCC assigned it number RM-7649.  In
March, 1993, this was included in PR Docket 93-85, along with
the other issues. 

I developed the proposed language because of various repeater
problems I had observed in the Dallas area over a period of
years, on my study of the Communications Act, and the amateur
repeater rules.  Repeater owners found themselves in a position
of having to constantly interpret the Commission's rules, and
judge the communications originated by others.  This
responsibility proved, at times, to be complex, and clouded by
personal politics.  Long term controversies developed where
individual repeater owners and control operators turned off
their systems on other users.  The answer was de-regulation for
the repeater operators, to put all the legal responsibility for
a communication on the person originating the transmission. 
With the new rule, the repeater owner no longer has to worry
about being accountable for communications he retransmits
inadvertently.  Clearly, a control operator does not have the
opportunity to know the content of someone else's communication
until it is completed.

The rule states:

  97.205(g)  The control operator of a repeater that retransmits
  inadvertently communications that violate the rules in this Part
  is not accountable for the violative communications.

The definition of a repeater, in Part 97.3, is changed to read:
 
  (36) Repeater.  An amateur station that simultaneously
  retransmits the transmission of another amateur station on a
  different channel or channels.

The Notice, FCC 94-76, was unanimously approved by the
Commissioners.  It follows over three years of process under the
Federal Administrative Procedure Act, which included a comment
period and reply comment period.  RM-7649 was endorsed by a
number of clubs, organizations, news services and individuals,
representing many constituencies of the hobby.  The list
includes the Westlink Report (Burt Hicks, Editor), the Amateur
Radio News Service (Bill Pasternak, Editor), and 73 Magazine
(Dr. Wayne Green, Publisher).  

Also in the Report and Order are changes in rules regarding high
speed digital message forwarding systems, brought on by
petitions from others.  In these networks, a message is later
re-transmitted from system to system.  The Commission decided to
require control operators of the first forwarding station to
either authenticate the identity of the station from which it
accepts communications, or accept responsibility for the content
of the message.  The decision is not without explanation.  The
Commission believes the vulnerability of an unsupervised system
would make it an easy target for misuse by "uncooperative
operators" and non-licensees.  It says it would be difficult to
establish after the fact that a particular station originated a
high speed digital transmission, so there must be on-going
oversight of the system.  With this, the Commission adopted the
following:

  97.219  Message forwarding system.
 
  (a)  Any amateur station may participate in a message forwarding
  system, subject to the privileges of the class of operator
  license held.
 
  (b) For stations participating in a message forwarding system,
  the control operator of the station originating a message is
  primarily accountable for any violation of the rules in this
  Part contained in the message.
  
  (c)  Except as noted in paragraph (d) of this section, for
  stations participating in a message forwarding system, the
  control operators of forwarding stations that retransmit
  inadvertently communications that violate the rules in this Part
  are not accountable for the violative communications.  They are,
  however, responsible for discontinuing such communications once
  they become aware of their presence.
 
  (d)  For stations participating in a message forwarding system,
  the control operator of the first forwarding station must:

  (1)  Authenticate the identity of the station from which it
  accepts communications on behalf of the system; or

  (2)  Accept accountability for any violation of the rules in
  this Part contained in messages it retransmits to the system.

It has adopted the following definitions:

  97.3 Definitions.

  (28) Message forwarding system.  A group of amateur stations
  participating in a voluntary, cooperative, interactive
  arrangement where communications are sent from the control
  operator of an originating station to the control operator of
  one or more destination stations by one or more forwarding
  stations.

  (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.

It is hoped that this deregulation of the responsibility for the
owners of voice repeaters will not only be fair, it will reduce
the need for control operators to constantly "police" their
repeaters, on perceiving a need to protect their licenses.  It
is also hoped that the situation that developed where operators
of linked packet systems received forfeiture notices from the
FCC is now precluded. 
  
For further information, contact:
 

				Tom Blackwell, N5GAR
				P.O. Box 25403
				Dallas, Texas 75225


