[Ccarc] Digital voice repeaters

[Tom Murray]

				FCC RULES THAT DIGITAL VOICE REPEATERS ARE REPEATERS
			
			
			
		

		
		
			
			FCC RULES THAT DIGITAL VOICE REPEATERS ARE REPEATERS 



The fcc has ruled that the claim by some owners of digital repeaters
and some frequency coordinators that digital voice repeaters are not
actually repeaters due to the time delay inherent in digital to analog
and analog to digital conversions is erroneous. 



In response to a request for a Declaratory Ruling on this issue from
the Northern California Packet Association the FCC says that when a
receiver and transmitter are tied together as a repeater it is a
repeater. The full text of the FCC response to Gary R. Mitchell,
President of the Northern California Packet Association is reprinted
below. 



ARNewsline will have more on this issue in our next newscast to be released  on Friday, March 27th. 



ARNewsline 



** 



Text of FCC Digital Voice Repeater Decision 





Mr. Gary R. Mitchell 

President, Northern California Packet Association 

P.O. Box K 

Sunnyvale, CA  94087 



        Re:  Petition for Declaratory Ruling filed December 5, 2007 



Dear Mr. Mitchell: 



This is in response to the petition for declaratory ruling that you
filed on December 5, 2007, requesting that the Commission clarify the
definition of a repeater in the amateur service rules. A repeater in
the amateur service is defined as “[a]n amateur station that
simultaneously retransmits the transmission of another amateur station
on a different channel or channels.” You seek clarification of whether
the word “simultaneously” in the definition refers to the signal
information being retransmitted, or to the fact that the receiver and
transmitter must both be active at the same time while acting on the
same signal information. 



Section 97.205(b) of the Commission’s Rules specifies the bands on
which amateur repeater stations may operate. You state that some
amateur radio operators are operating on bands other than those set
forth in Section 97.205(b) with systems that are essentially voice
repeater stations, but that digitize and retransmit the user's voice,
on the theory that because there is a small delay in retransmitting the
signal of another amateur station, the signal is not “simultaneously”
retransmitted and, therefore, the system is not a repeater. 


 Prior to 1994, a repeater was defined as "[a]n amateur station
that automatically retransmits the signals of other stations." The
Commission revised the definition in order to clarify that certain
accommodations for message forwarding systems do not apply to other
operating activities such as repeaters and auxiliary stations. The
Commission proposed to define a repeater as “[a]n amateur station that
instantaneously retransmits the transmission of another amateur station
on a different channel or channels,” but ultimately replaced
“instantaneously” with “simultaneously” because commenters noted that
there is always a small propagation delay through a repeater. As one
commenter explained, “The word ‘simultaneously’ in this case means that
the repeater is receiving and transmitting concurrently, whereas each
signal might be slightly displaced in time between receive and
transmit." 



To be able to repeat another station's transmission, a repeater must be
able to receive a transmission from another station and retransmit it.
Because the word "simultaneously" in the definition is used to modify
"retransmit," we believe it refers to a repeater station's transmitter
being active when retransmitting the signal received by the repeater
station’s receiver from another amateur station. We conclude,
therefore, that “simultaneously” as used in the definition of a
repeater refers to the receiver and transmitter both being active at
the same time. 



Accordingly, IT IS ORDERED that, pursuant to Section 4(i) of the
Communications Act of 1934, as amended, 47 U.S.C. § 154(i), and Section
1.2 of the Commission’s Rules, 47 C.F.R. § 1.2, the Petition for
Declaratory Ruling filed on December 5, 2007 by Gary R. Mitchell IS
GRANTED to the extent indicated above. 


 This action is taken under delegated authority pursuant to
Sections 0.131 and 0.331 of the Commission's Rules, 47 C.F.R. §§ 0.131
and 0.331. 



                                        FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION 







                                        Scot Stone 

                                        Deputy Chief, Mobility Division 

                                        Wireless Telecommunications Bureau 




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