In an earlier post we told you about H.F. 9 which will make it a crime for ham radio operators to use their mobile rigs or handhelds while operating their car. H.F. 9 is not the only bill concerning the use of wireless devices while driving. H.F. 17, for instance, is limited to those under the age of 18 years. Both of these bills, along with HF84 and H.F. 155, havebeen submitted to the transportation committee of the House. They are currently in a transportation subcommitee headed by Rep. Abdul-Samad, Rep. Arnold and Rep. Quirk. A list of organizations for and against the proposed bills can be found here.

As noted earlier, we have contacted the A.R.R.L. about the pending legislation. According to their website, on January 30, at the instruction of the Board of Directors at its January 2009 meeting, the ARRL Executive Committee adopted a policy statement on mobile Amateur Radio operations. The statement addresses the growing number of proposed state and local laws and ordinances regulating the use of cellular telephone and text messaging, inadvertently affecting Amateur Radio mobile communications. ARRL Regulatory Information Manager Dan Henderson, N1ND, noted that as of February 1, 2009, the ARRL was aware of proposals in 11 states: Georgia, Hawaii Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Montana, Texas, Utah, Virginia and Wyoming, as well as several local city or town proposals.

In its statement, the Executive Committee urges state and municipal legislators to limit the scope of their proposals, limiting them to devices such as full duplex wireless telephones and related hand-held or portable equipment. Alternately, it suggests that licensed Amateur Radio operation be listed specifically as an exclusion to the proposed regulations. On behalf of the DMRAA, we have proposed the latter.

We are asking all of our members to contact the three representatives listed above and email them your concerns about the proposed bills. We would ask that you nicely and politely request that they add an exclusion for federally licensed amateur radio operators. Feel free to also send them a copy of the A.R.R.L.’s statement as an attachment to your email.

Their email addresses:

[email protected]

[email protected]

[email protected]

Please also include us in on your emails: [email protected] so we know who to thank for helping to save Mobile Amateur Radio.