[aprssig] Broadcasting?

[VE7GDH]

Richard N1JDU wrote on 03/08/2005

> Sure they do (at least some of them do)  You ever hear of K1MAN??

Nope.

However, I did a search and read a bit (just enough) about him. He, like 
other hams, do not "broadcast". Perhaps it is bordering on symantecs, but to 
me broadcasting means transmission by a commercial (or at least not amateur) 
station intended for the general public. When hams make a transmission it is 
usually to a specific station, but not always. We are perfectly capable of 
making transmissions intended to be some kind of an announcement not meant 
for a particular station, but it isn't "broadcasting" in spite of the number 
of times the word "broadcast" is used on the website of the individual that 
you mentioned, even if some of this particular individual's "listeners" are 
not hams. Just because an SWL or two might happen to be listening, it 
doesn't make the source of the transmission a broadcast. Of course, if the 
FCC decided that he was broadcasting, then it's a different ballgame! I 
understand there are substantial penalties.

Hams don't broadcast. They transmit. We are only licensed to communicate 
with other licensed amateur radio operators. Amateur radio is not "private" 
and there is nothing to prevent SWLs from listening in. APRS is not 
broadcasting. Let's get back on topic. <g>

This thread started when someone mentioned that a particular APRS station 
had sent an APRS bulletin about a plane crash with hundreds of fatalities 
which was completely false. A plane skidded off the end of a runway in bad 
weather and burned, but there was not a single fatality. Let's hope that 
such false bulletins like this one are never sent again. Bulletins, if an 
individual deems that there is a valid reason for sending it, should be 
factual.

73 es cul - Keith VE7GDH
--
"I may be lost, but I know exactly where I am!"