Patty Winter wrote:
In article ,
Steve Bonine wrote:
But for the ARRL to defend the right of hams to distract themselves
based on emergency communication is not logical. If they want to make
the case that operating a ham radio is sufficiently different than using
a cell phone that such laws should not apply, I still wouldn't agree but
at least the premise would be logical.

But they did: that article discussed the difference between simplex
(ham radio) and duplex (cell phone) operation. I agree with them that
that's a defensible difference.

The quote from Sumner is, "Simplex, two-way radio operation is simply
different than duplex, cell phone use. Two-way radio operation in moving
vehicles has been going on for decades without highway safety being an
issue. The fact that cell phones have come along does not change that."

It's "simply different"? What's inside that cell phone? A two-way
radio. In both cases you've got two people talking to each other. If
you compared the conversational style between two hams chatting on two
meters and the same two people chatting on a cell phone, you wouldn't
see much difference. Maybe years ago when one party would expound for
9.9 minutes and then hand it over to the other for his 9.9 minutes there
was more difference, but even then you still had distraction.

As for this argument that there was never an issue before, how do we
know this? How much has the population of vehicles capable of two-way
radio communication grown since the cell phone came along? From perhaps
..1% to 80%? I have no idea what the actual numbers are, but I know it's
a huge difference. So now we're seeing the problem. Is this because
two-way radio operation is safe, but bundle the radio into a cell phone
and it becomes deadly? I don't think so; I think it's the population
increase.

The bottom line is that using a ham radio transceiver while driving is
distracting. Depending on what the operator is doing, it can be less
distracting than using a cell phone, or a whole lot more distracting. I
have seen hams operate HF while driving, including changing bands,
picking a new frequency, and adjusting the tuning on both the
transmitter and antenna, and that is absolutely more distracting than
talking on a cell phone. I've also observed a fair number of people
whose idea of operating mobile is to use their HT in the car.

A license from the FCC does not imbue special distraction-avoiding
skill. If limiting cell phone use while driving is A Good Thing, then
the same should apply to use of ham radio.

73, Steve KB9X