The Club Demo Table and the Autopatch Request
You are the control operator for W2ABC, the club's 2-meter repeater on 147.135 MHz (input 147.735 MHz, CTCSS 100.0 Hz). The club has a table at the county science fair with a 5 W handheld feeding a mag-mount antenna on a metal cookie sheet. A visitor, Maria, holds a valid GMRS license but no amateur license; she wants to speak to her son over the radio. A second visitor, a real-estate agent, asks to use the repeater's autopatch to call a client about a closing, and she offers to donate $20 to the club for the call. A third visitor asks whether she can use the autopatch to call her spouse, who is not a ham. Dave, a Technician, is helping at the table but has stepped away to get coffee. The repeater is open, and you are the only licensed control operator present. The fair runs from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
1. May Maria speak on the club station? If so, under what conditions, and who is responsible for what she says?
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Yes, but only as third-party traffic with you acting as control operator. Maria's GMRS license does not authorize amateur transmissions, and it does not make her a control operator. Under Part 97, an unlicensed person may speak over an amateur station when a licensed control operator is present at the control point and able to control the transmitter. The communication must still be permissible amateur communication: no business or pecuniary interest, no profanity, no music, and no false distress. You remain responsible for the station's proper operation, including identification and power limits. Practically, you should stay within reach of the radio, keep the transmission short, and make sure the station identifies with W2ABC. Maria may give her name, but she must not identify the station with her GMRS call sign.
2. May you place the autopatch call for the real-estate agent? Explain your reasoning.
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No. Part 97.113 prohibits communications for hire or material compensation and communications in which the station licensee or control operator has a pecuniary interest. The agent's call about a closing is commercial business traffic, and her offer of $20 to the club makes the compensation element explicit. The fact that you personally are not the agent does not cure the problem: you are the control operator using the club's amateur station and autopatch to facilitate the business call. You should decline, explain briefly that autopatch use is limited to permissible amateur communications, and offer a commercial phone instead. Do not put the call through and then claim ignorance of its content.
3. What identification is required while Maria is talking, and may she identify with her GMRS call sign?
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The station must transmit the club call sign W2ABC at the end of the communication and at least every 10 minutes during it; good practice is also to identify at the start of the contact. Maria may not use her GMRS call sign as an amateur station identification because GMRS and the Amateur Radio Service are separate licensed services. She can say her name, but the required station identification must be the amateur call sign. As control operator, you are responsible for seeing that the identification is made, even if Maria is the one speaking. If the contact is brief, a single identification at the end may satisfy the 10-minute rule, but the control operator should still ensure the call sign is clear and unmistakable.