I believe that you have to have a properly
licensed control operator, at a control point, for
any transmission made on amateur radio except in
the case of emergency. Emergency is further
defined as threat to life and property.

I have, on various boy scout camporees, place a
two meter, rock controlled radio, set on 52, in
the disaster sight. The boys were on there own,
but there was always someone with a stronger
radio, close at hand, to monitor, w/o the boys
realizing it. Never had a problem, and did some
sole searching about definition of control point.
Decided that the stretch, if any was worth it, and
I was willing to defend my decision if necessary.

--
73 es cul

wb3fup
a Salty Bear

"Bill Frovik n0mnb" wrote in
message ...
go for it. as long as u share your info and
results with the ham
community..and it wouldn't hurt to get ur
ticket..
73's de n0mnb
"Leo Szumel"
wrote in message
...
Hi,

What we'd like to do is use amateur radio for
some university research
projects. Specifically, we would like to use
AR equipment in sensor
network research. Sensor networks are
basically like APRS without people
at the transmit nodes, and more than just
position information is
reported (maybe temperature, etc). Also,
multi-hop relay may be employed.

I've examined Part 97 rules and tried to read
as many applicable threads
as possible. My interpretation is that:

(a) automated transmissions are OK (with
caveats)
(b) AR can be used for educational
(non-commercial) purposes
(c) AR can be used for data transmissions,
using encrypted
authentication, provided the data payload is
unencrypted

Part (b) is the most shaky becaues it seems to
dependon "reasonable use"
and other gray terms. Certainly my proposed
use is not "hobby" but it
seems to me to fall into the category of
"experimentation" and
(hopefully) "advancing the field."

What do you think of using AR bands for
relaying sensor information for
research purposes? Would an FCC Special
Temporary Authority be
appropriate/required?

Sincerely,

--
Leo Szumel | ECE Graduate Student, UC Davis
Email: