Q Fred, W9MMZ, asks, “Our club’s 2-meter repeater has recently become inhabited by a group who are using it as a party-line, often holding QSOs lasting one, two and sometimes three hours, often in the wee small hours of the night. You rarely hear call signs. When users of a repeater fail to follow the FCC rules for proper station identification, is the control operator liable?”
A If a person operates through a repeater in violation of FCC rules, it is up to the control operator (CO) to take control of the situation. In short, the CO must shut down the repeater as soon as he or she is aware that violations are occurring. If they are aware of the fact that illegal communication is taking place and do not disable the system, they can indeed be held liable.
Of course, most control operators are not monitoring their
repeaters in the middle of the night. Whatever takes place on a
repeater operating under automatic control while the CO is
unavailable is classified as “inadvertent” activity. In this situation,
the CO is not liable. According to Part 97:
§97.205 Repeater station.
(g) The control operator of a repeater that retransmits inadvertently communications that violate the rules in this Part is not accountable for the violative communications.
From QST April 2000
