In the

U.S. The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

, Part 97 is the section of

Federal Communications Commission The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains jurisdicti ...

(FCC) rules and

regulation Regulation is the management of complex systems according to a set of rules and trends. In systems theory, these types of rules exist in various fields of biology and society, but the term has slightly different meanings according to context. Fo ...

s that pertains to amateur radio and the conduct of

amateur radio operators An amateur radio operator is someone who uses equipment at an amateur radio station to engage in two-way personal communications with other amateur operators on radio frequencies assigned to the amateur radio service. Amateur radio operators hav ...

. It is a part of Title 47 of the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR).

Subparts

Part 97 consists of six subparts (A through F) and two appendices.

A. General Provisions

Subpart A contains fifteen sections, numbered 97.1–29. Subpart A defines a number of terms relevant to the provisions of Part 97, and establishes the amateur service as a "voluntary, noncommercial communications service" devoted to advancement of the amateur art, the skills associated with it, and the international goodwill that it brings, especially with regard to the provision of emergency communications. It also establishes the basic constraints and rights that pertain to amateur licensing and conduct, including licensing requirements and limitations on station equipment and power output.

B. Station Operating Standards

Subpart B contains eleven sections, numbered 97.101–121. Subpart B details the standards of communication conduct expected of amateur operators, including the types of transmissions authorized and prohibited by the FCC, limitations pertaining to third-party and international communications, and on-air station identification requirements. Among other limitations, this section forbids the transmission of "music using a phone emission," except incidentally during authorized rebroadcasting of signals from a U.S. government space station (typically communications from the

Space Shuttle The Space Shuttle is a retired, partially reusable low Earth orbital spacecraft system operated from 1981 to 2011 by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) as part of the Space Shuttle program. Its official program ...

C. Special Operations

Subpart C contains eleven sections, numbered 97.201–221. Subpart C details rules and regulations pertaining specifically to a number of special operating procedures, including auxiliary and repeater stations, message forwarding, communications between Earth and space stations, telecommand and the transmission of coded telemetry data, and automatic station control.

D. Technical Standards

Subpart D contains nine sections, numbered 97.301–317. Subpart D sets forth all requirements pertaining to amateur radio frequency allocations, the emission modes allowed, and the technical standards according to which they may be used.

E. Emergency Communications

Subpart E contains four sections, numbered 97.401–407. Subpart E supports the service of amateur radio operators in times of disaster by establishing basic standard operating procedures to use in case an emergency should occur. Primarily, it authorizes ''any'' use of radio technology for the "immediate safety of human life and immediate protection of property," regardless of all other FCC regulations, when no alternative is available. It also establishes the

Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Service The Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Service (RACES) is an emergency radio service authorized in Part 97.407 of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) rules and regulations governing amateur radio in the United States.Volunteer Examiner Coordinator A Volunteer Examiner Coordinator is an organization that has been approved by the Federal Communications Commission for the administration of amateur radio license examinations in the United States. The VEC system is established and outlined in Par ...

s (VECs), organizations that accredit and organize the volunteer examiners (VEs) who administer test elements to prospective licensees.

Appendices

Part 97 has two appendices: *Appendix 1: Places Where the Amateur Service is Regulated by the FCC *Appendix 2: VEC Regions

References

External links

* *{{citation , url=http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/CFR-2009-title47-vol5/pdf/CFR-2009-title47-vol5-part97.pdf , title=PART 97—AMATEUR RADIO SERVICE , author=Federal Communications Commission , year=1998 , archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20100602114235/http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/CFR-2009-title47-vol5/pdf/CFR-2009-title47-vol5-part97.pdf , url-status=live , archivedate=2010-06-02 Amateur radio in the United States United States communications regulation Federal Communications Commission Code of Federal Regulations Radio regulations