TO: ALL WOOD COUNTY EMERGENCY COMMUNICATIONS AMATEURS
ALL NON-WOOD COUNTY EMERGENCY COMMUNICATIONS AMATEURS
FROM: KEN HARRIS WA8LLM
WOOD COUNTY EMERGENCY COMMUNICATIONS INCORPORATED
WOOD COUNTY BULLETIN NR 15.42 DATE: October 18, 2015
SUBJECT: GOVERNMENT OWNED AMATEUR EQUIPMENT
Several years ago questions came up about Government Owned Amateur Radio Equipment.
Question: Can a state or local government own and provide a repeater, or other amateur equipment for Amateur Radio operators? If so, how is it licensed?
Answer 1: Countless state, county, and city governments provide voice repeaters, packet nodes, base stations, portables, and other Amateur Radio equipment for their Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Service (RACES) Operators. Nothing says a ham has to own the equipment he or she operates. Thank goodness! Those governments have literally put their money where their mouth is. They value the high level of professional communications services provided by their Amateur Radio operators, and prove it by providing quality equipment. It is fully operational alongside their police, fire, local government, and other radios. Some Governments agencies are often willing to pay more for commercial grade public safety type radios, that will also function in the Amateur bands, so that they may be maintained by their own technicians in their government radio vaults and elsewhere. It does not require a ham to maintain a ham radio.
Answer 2: A government-owned radio is licensed to any agreeable Amateur Radio operator. The State, County, or City communications officer, if he/she is an Amateur, RACES (Radio Amateur Civil Radio Service) or ARES (Amateur Radio Emergency Service) officer may be a good choice. At one time local governments could license their RACES radios under a block of special Callsigns reserved for RACES stations. Although these are no longer available, there are still some of these Callsigns active by virtue of timely license renewal actions.
Ken Harris WA8LLM
WCEC
Wood County WV