From: coleve@cc.uvcc.edu
Subject: Re: Truckers using 2m for business...
Organization: Utah Valley Community College
Date: Tue, 28 Jul 1992 00:30:10 GMT

In article <1992Jul26.172648.14017@coplex.com>, jim@coplex.com (Jim Sewell) writes:
> In article <1992Jul22.005415.273@qualcomm.com> karn@chicago.qualcomm.com writes:
>>
>>I plan to file comments that call for a very simple rule: the only
>>thing you can't do is to *sell ham radio communications*. Period.
>>Anything else goes.  This rule captures the *amateur* nature of the
>>service, it is very simple and easy to understand, and it should limit
>>any abuse to very low levels. After all, what ham wants to provide a
>>large-scale common carrier service to a money-making company for free?
>>
> But Phil, what is to prevent a company such as Federal Express, for example,
> from requiring all drivers to be ham operators and then using the 2M HT's for
       ^^^^^^^^^
> tracking the drivers and giving directions and so on?  [...stuff deleted...]
> this
> would be legal under your rule since none of the people would be paid to use
                                       ^^^^               ^^^^^^^^^^^^^
> ham radio to pass a message, it would be part of their job to do so.  The 
                               ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
> boss could claim that "We are not paying them to talk on the radio, we are
> paying them to deliver packages."
> 
Jim,
  I remember that when congress finally had the FCC ban cigarette commercials
on TV, that one company tried advertising a "cigarette _holder_" that just
_happened_ to be attached to their cigarettes.  The adds lasted exactly ONE
DAY.
   The FCC may have some problems, who doesn't?   They ARE smart enough 
to know that someone who is _required_ by his employer to do something which 
is _part_ _of_ _their_ _job_ is being paid to do it.  FED EX would pay a
pretty big chunk of change for the violation.

   Lets look at the other side of the coin.  Commercial radio interests are
eroding our band space claiming that we don't do enough to serve the public
good.  Well, they may have something.

   I would like to set up a netnews gateway to packet radio.  I think it would
greatly contribute to the level of expertise amoung radio operators.  But I
can't - because someone might say something about something commercial.

   A ham I know had a station set up at a boy scout encampment about 30 miles
from the nearest telephone.  It turned out that the food for the big dinner the
last night of the encampment had never been ordered.  The operator passed a
"very questionable" message which resulted in a whole pig with all the 
trimmings showing up at camp.  Ham radio looked pretty good to those scouts!
But it was "commercial", since the guy who sold the pig made money.

   How about some of these?   1) an aircraft "ELT" receiver on a strategically
located wide area repeater, which sends out . .-.. - when it hears something?
A _nasty_ rebroadcast of another service!  And pretty useful for saving lives,
too.   2) Hams working as part of a back-country medical team, which goes out
on a routinly sceduled basis to provide emergency medical aid to hikers in a
wilderness area?  It gets involved with the regular business of the sherrif's
office, the U.S. Forest Service, several Hospitals, and at least two helicopter
companys.  3) A 1.2 GHz ham radio link to get Internet access to a rural
high school which cannot afford a leased telephone line?  A _real_ use for
GRAPES modems.  4) Hams operating communications links for a forest fire camp
on ham frequencies to order food, supplies, and aircraft?  No one's life is
threatened (yet) and it is the regular busness of fire fighters to put out
fires.

   The anti-commercialism rule is killing this hobby.  I can't blame the kids
for not joining up, since you can't do anything truely important on ham radio
for fear of getting slapped with a fine.  Get rid of it!  If I'm not making
money, it's not commercial, at least not for me.

I, for one, don't want to spend my time talking with the rest of the old
duffers (I'm 42) about which antenna I have and how my lumbago is doing.
Besides,  if we learn to handle significant volumes of real traffic now,
we may actually be of some use when the earthquake hits.
-- 
-- Vern Cole -- Systems Manager -- Utah Valley Community College -- KF7XM
Xref: sparky rec.radio.amateur.policy:1352 rec.radio.amateur.packet:1986