E1F

Prohibited communications and other rules

Know where spread spectrum is allowed, what Line A restricts, what you may not send for money, and how amplifier certification works.

11 pool questions1 on the exam

Syllabus: Miscellaneous rules: external RF power amplifiers; prohibited communications; spread spectrum; auxiliary stations; Canadian amateurs operating in the US; special temporary authority

Some modes and places are restricted: 222 MHz and Line A

Bands in order, not to scale. Frequencies in MHz.

Spread spectrum is allowed only above 222 MHz. Not on 6 m or 2 m.

Schematic, not to scale. Line A sits south of the Canadian border; the Mexican border is on the other side.

Line A runs roughly parallel to and south of the US-Canada border. North of it, in the contiguous 48 states, stations may not transmit 420 to 430 MHz.

Memory hookLine A: near Canada, off 420 to 430.

No pay, no business interest, no secret messages

Pecuniary interest = any money to be made. There is no small-amount exception.

Amateur radio is not for money. A message to a business is legal only if neither you nor your employer has any pecuniary interest. Meaning-obscuring codes are banned even on a mesh network, though email and third-party traffic are not.

RememberAny financial interest: no. Hidden meaning: no.

External amplifiers need FCC certification

Certification requires clean output at full power.

One certification standard is clean output at full power. A dealer has one pool-listed way around it: a used amplifier moving from one amateur to another.

Canadians, auxiliary stations and STA

Three one-line rules.

An auxiliary station transmits point-to-point within a system of cooperating stations, for example a link carrying repeater audio.

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Go deeper

Compendium articles on the ideas in this lesson, beyond what the exam asks.

Check what stuck

Practise the 11 pool questions for this group. Answers are shuffled, and every one comes with a one-line "why".

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