Responsibility of Repeater User vs. Repeater Owner

[WRAF213]

We both know the non-identifying Part 95 repeaters haven't been shut down because the FCC doesn't care about GMRS enforcement. If enough repeaters pop up that do violate their new rules, they might just start issuing fines. It's free money for them.

 

The wording in Part 95 is remarkably unambiguous compared to Part 90, partly to ensure manufacturers produce radios with consistent feature sets. It describes exactly who is authorized to operate a station under a given callsign, exactly when to identify, who's responsible when rules are broken, and describes the special type of station use that occurs when someone authorized under one license operates a repeater authorized under a different license. The rules make identification requirements clear, and the definitions for the terms in the rule necessitating identification are all defined in Part 95 itself. I still haven't been told which part of my interpretation is wrong, I'm mostly just reiterating definitions in Part 95.

[Hans]

We both know the non-identifying Part 95 repeaters haven't been shut down because the FCC doesn't care about GMRS enforcement. If enough repeaters pop up that do violate their new rules, they might just start issuing fines. It's free money for them.

I really don't think that is likely. The number of new non-identifying shared GMRS repeaters that would have to crop up and the number of complaints that would have to make their way through the FCC machine makes the odds look slimmer than slim. Barring something very interesting happening in the radio service, I don't foresee even close to enough licenses, let alone those that put a repeater up, being held between now and the death** of GMRS.

 

(** I'm not stating that GMRS' demise is right around the corner; rather, meaning whenever it croaks, for whatever reason.)

 

The wording in Part 95 is remarkably unambiguous compared to Part 90, partly to ensure manufacturers produce radios with consistent feature sets. It describes exactly who is authorized to operate a station under a given callsign, exactly when to identify, who's responsible when rules are broken, and describes the special type of station use that occurs when someone authorized under one license operates a repeater authorized under a different license. The rules make identification requirements clear, and the definitions for the terms in the rule necessitating identification are all defined in Part 95 itself. I still haven't been told which part of my interpretation is wrong, I'm mostly just reiterating definitions in Part 95.

I agree. The rules, at least to me, indicate that a GMRS repeater can skip ID only when the repeater is held by cooperative ownership of multiple licensees under a written agreement where they all self-identify OR all users of the repeater are under the same license and all they all self-identify. Of course, I left out grandfathered licenses.

 

I'm not really concerned about the FCC because they pretty much ignore GMRS. The reason we probably won't open our non-id repeater, or will get an ID system in place before allowing it to be open, is because I don't want to hear whining from local radio nazis; most likely certain local amateur radio operators. They annoy me far more than the few lids.

[Hans]

Well, the lack of an ID on our repeater setup started bugging me so we ended up buying a used repeater with ID. It's a much more robust setup than we had in storage and were preparing to put on the air so it is a win-win. Thank you to those who contributed to this discussion and corrected some misunderstandings I had about the rules.

 

We were getting ready to purchase our duplexer and a power supply and reasoned that for a $100 more or less, we could get a better repeater with a better (non-China) duplexer and power supply built in. The repeater ID discussion here opened my mind to looking at repeaters again and helped me realize the financial sense in going this route over the original plan. When I originally shopped for repeaters a few years ago, none were as affordable as the one we recently purchased. I wouldn't have even looked around again if it were not for this thread.