Find on this site... Site Index  ·Classes ·Exams ·Clubs ·Hamfests ·Addresses    Search site:    Call sign search:   ARRL Member Login... Username:   Password:    Register    Forgot userid/password?  Quick Links... ·Join or Renew ·Catalog & Store ·ARRL Courses ·Classifieds ·Getting Started

Operating Activities Licensing News/Bulletins Services Education Public Service Support Donate to ARRL ARRL Info Text-only

ARRL Products: Help for Beginners (More) Basic Radio -- FINALLY--an introduction to radio FOR EVERYONE!--what it does and how it does it. The ARRL Ham Radio License Manual -- All you need to become an Amateur Radio Operator. Get your FIRST ham radio license! Now including a guide for Choosing the Right Radio! US Amateur Radio Bands - ARRL Frequency Chart (50 pk) -- 50 pack. Full color, size 8.5 x 11 inches. Online Course: The ARRL Ham Radio License Course -- Prepare for your first Amateur Radio license! US Amateur Radio Bands - ARRL Frequency Chart (11 x 17") -- Full color, size 11 x 17 inches.

Previous: ARRL VHF/UHF Contesting and Awards Survey

Next: ARRL, IARU Continue Push for Limits to 70-cm Spaceborne Radars

"Good Amateur Practice" Means Never Having to Say You're Sorry

NEWINGTON, CT, Oct 9, 2002--FCC Special Counsel Riley Hollingsworth has endorsed a list of several points that he feels help to define the concept of "good amateur practice." Section 97.101(a) of the Amateur Radio Service rules refers to "good engineering and good amateur practice"--considered to refer to maintaining the highest standards of engineering and on-the-air comportment. But the rule lacks specifics.

Riley Hollingsworth, K4ZDH, at home in his well-equipped shack, which includes a mixture of both modern and vintage gear.

"Good amateur practice is a hard thing to define," Hollingsworth conceded. "I'd have to say it's operating with the realization that frequencies are shared, that there's going to be occasional interference and that's no reason to become hateful and paranoid."

Hollingsworth says amateurs have to realize that more people than ever are listening in, especially since September 11, 2001, and that amateurs always need to remember that "our rights end where another person's begin."

A Michigan Amateur Radio club has been credited with distributing a list of "Riley-isms" culled from Hollingsworth's various talks at conventions and hamfests and club meetings around the US. Hollingsworth--who verified that he had been cited accurately--says his various comments represent an effort to flesh out what "good amateur practice" consists of for considerate the Amateur Radio operator.

According to Hollingsworth, good amateur practice means:

• giving a little ground--even if you have a right not to--in order to help preserve Amateur Radio and not cause it to get a bad name or hasten the day when it becomes obsolete.

• respecting band plans, because they make it possible for every mode to have a chance.

• not transmitting a 6-kHz bandwidth signal when there are lots of people on the band.

• not acting like an idiot just because you were stepped on.

• being aware that we all love Amateur Radio, and there's no need to damage or disgrace it just to save face.

• keeping personal conflicts off the air. Settle your arguments on the telephone, the Internet or in person. Just keep them off the air.

• cutting a net or a contester a break, even if you don't have to and even if you have no interest whatsoever in nets or contesting.

• operating so that if a neighbor, niece or nephew or news reporter hears you, that person will be impressed with Amateur Radio.

• realizing that every right carries responsibilities, and just because you may have a right to do certain things doesn't mean it's right to do them in every circumstance.

• you don't "own" or get preference to use any frequency even though you've been on the same spot every morning for years shooting the breeze with Harry.

• not operating so that whoever hears you becomes sorry they ever got into Amateur Radio in the first place.

Hollingsworth notes that the list "doesn't touch on a lot of other technical issues, such as using 1500 W when your signal report received is 40 over 9." Good amateur practice, he said, "just means a lot of things that can't always be quantified."--thanks to Riley Hollingsworth

Previous: ARRL VHF/UHF Contesting and Awards Survey

Next: ARRL, IARU Continue Push for Limits to 70-cm Spaceborne Radars