Yes, 47CFR97.307 (Mike quoted below) is the regulation that is usually referenced by an ARRL Official Observer (OO) reporting chirp.
Of course, the regulations do NOT provide specific parameters nor have I heard of the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) ever issuing a citation for clicks or chirp as long as the emissions remained within the Amateur band. It all comes down to a matter of personal opinion about what constitutes good Amateur or engineering practice. I got an OO card some years back that said he could definitely hear "...just detectable chirp" on my signal. In the QSO he cited I was chatting with another station about the vintage rig I was testing and how they *all* chirped a bit. It was inherent in the design. Had that OO been 'reading the mail' he'd have realized he need not waste his time advising me he could hear what we were talking about <G>. I'm not denigrating the OO service. The technically-competent OO's provide a real service to the Amateur community to alert Hams when their rigs are mis-behaving in some manner that is observable on the air. On the other hand, I've known a number of new hams to be really upset when they got an OO card, thinking they had been "cited" for some infraction of the rules, especially when the OO quotes an FCC regulation like the one below as if the operator had violated it when, in fact, it was all a matter of opinion. And, as the level of technical knowledge required to get an Amateur license continues to drop coupled with more and more Hams focusing on specific modes and on-air activities, we'll probably see a greater and greater range of "opinion" in the future. One of the very important concessions us Hams have managed to maintain over the years is a minimum of rules that restrict us. In the USA at least, the FCC is very lenient, allowing and encouraging Hams to tinker and experiment and just have fun with a variety of equipment and technologies. What we get is a freedom no other radio service enjoys, but it requires us Hams to be very tolerant of each other and what we think is "good practice" considering what we are doing at the time. There's no rule that says that every rig has to sound as good as an Elecraft rig. Besides, as I observed earlier, I can read a very weak slightly chirpy signal much more easily than one that doesn't chirp, therefore a little chirp is essential to meet the standards of good Amateur or Engineering practice in that case, Hi! Ron AC7AC -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Mike S Sent: Wednesday, September 20, 2006 7:04 AM To: Martin Gillen Cc: elecraft Subject: RE: [Elecraft] Hearing CW - Fundamental Keying Waveform? At 09:13 AM 9/20/2006, Martin Gillen wrote... >Which FCC or ARRL guideline mentions chirp, or otherwise attempts to >regulate the keying waveform? 97.307(a) No amateur station transmission shall occupy more bandwidth than necessary for the information rate and emission type being transmitted, in accordance with good amateur practice. (b) Emissions resulting from modulation must be confined to the band or segment available to the control operator. Emissions outside the necessary bandwidth must not cause splatter or keyclick interference to operations on adjacent frequencies. (c) All spurious emissions from a station transmitter must be reduced to the greatest extent practicable. If any spurious emission, including chassis or power line radiation, causes harmful interference to the reception of another radio station, the licensee of the interfering amateur station is required to take steps to eliminate the interference, in accordance with good engineering practice. And it continues on with regard to specific standards and measurements of spurious emissions. _______________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Post to: Elecraft@mailman.qth.net You must be a subscriber to post to the list. Subscriber Info (Addr. Change, sub, unsub etc.): http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/subscribers.htm Elecraft web page: http://www.elecraft.com
