G[mloulnal - Quarter Century Wireless Association

Y{hich call sign?
Q. When my ham friend operates my station, which call sign
should he use, his or mine?
A. The one person eligible to answer your question correctly is...
youl Section 97.119(a) of the FCC rules says, in effect, that the
call sign transmitted in the station identification announcement
must be that assigned to the station. It is for you, the owner of the
transmitting apparatus, to first answer the underlying question:
"Under the authority of which of our station licenses am I going
to allow my station apparatus to transmit?" Your answer, therefore,
will determine which call sign must be used. It will also
determine the extent of your liability. IV{ake your choice carefully.
Q. What are my choices?
A. The rules allow you two choices. Moreover, there is no rule
that requires you to make your amateur station or its apparatus
available to any other amateur operator.
Choice Number One: The station transmits your call sign in the
station identification announcement. With this choice, you are
the station licensee, responsible for the proper operation of the
station, as it says in Section 97.103(a). You and your friend are
both responsible for performing properly the duties of its control
operator. Note that Section 97.103(b) says that the FCC will presume
that you, the station licensee, are also the control operator
unless there is documentation to the contrary. An entry in the
station's log should suffice.
Choice Number Tlvo: The station transmits your friend's call
sign in the station identification announcement. Under this choice,
your friend alone is responsible for performing properly the duties
of both the station licensee and its control operator. You simply
make your apparatus available to your friend.
Q. Which is the better, Choice Number One or Two?
A. The answer to that question depends upon your reason for
allowing your friend to use your station apparatus. For instance,
if you want to obtain QSL cards for your station's collection or
improve your station's score in an operating contest, your better
choice would be Number One. Otherwise, with Choice Number
Two, any resulting QSL cards will be addressed to your friend's
station and contest points will be attributed to your friend's station.
Q. Which is the better choice when my friend is not very
familiar with the FCC rules?
A. The best choice would be to withhold the use of your station
and its equipment until you are confident that it will be used properly.
Beyond that, Number Two would be a much better choice
t4 QCWA fournal - Summer 2001
than Number One because - in view of a greater chance of a
violation of the rules occurring - you would not be at risk. your
friend would take complete responsibility for all violations of the
FCC rules. The worst choice would be Number One because you
would be fully responsible although you are not the control operator.
Section 97 .103(a) says that even where the control operator is
a different amateur operator than the station licensee, both per-
sons are equally responsible for proper operation ofthe station.
Q. If my friend causes my station to transmit on a frequency
channel outside the ham bands, whom will the FCC consider
to be in violation of its rules?
A. The FCC holds responsible the licensee of the station whose
call sign was transmitted in the station identification announcement.
Under Choice Number Two, therefore, your friend alone is
responsible. Under Choice Number One, you alone are responsible
unless you have a document showing that your friend was
the control operator at the time of the infraction. If you have such
proof, you are both responsible.
Q. I am an Advanced Class operator. Which call sign should
I use when f operate my friend's station. He is a General
Class operator.
A. If your friend stipulates Choice Number Two, your station's
call sign must be given in the station identification announcement
and your frequency privileges are those authorized to Advanced
Class operators in Section 97.301(c). In effect, your friend
makes his or her station apparatus available to you and you take
complete responsibility for the proper operation of the station.
Under Choice Number One, however, your friend designates you
merely as the control operator of his or her station. In this case,
your privileges are limited to those authorized to General Class
operators by Sections 9"73U@) and (d) unless you include your
station's call sign after that of your friend's call sign when making
the station identification announcement.
Q. There is a club station at our school. I want use it to work
DX with it using my own call sign so that I can get some QSL
cards from foreign countries, but the license trustee won't let
me. He says that we must always use the club call sign. Can
he do that?
A. Yes, assuming the licensee trustee is in charge of the station
apparatus. He has selected Choice Number One and makes the
apparatus available to you merely as the control operator of the
club station.
Q. At our club's Field Day operation last June, there were six