[arrl-odv:23408] Re: Revised Mobile Amateur Radio Policy

At 03:16 PM 10/13/2014, Sumner, Dave, K1ZZ wrote:
In January 2009 the Board instructed the Executive Committee to develop a policy with the objective of keeping mobile Amateur Radio operation from being impacted by state and municipal �distracted driving� legislation. The EC did so and the resulting Mobile Amateur Radio Policy has been widely circulated and used ever since.
As discussed in the November 2013 QST editorial, Public Law 112-141 (MAP-21) established requirements for states to qualify for federal safe-driving grants. Only the specific exceptions included in the law are permitted, and these do not include an exception for Amateur Radio. Accordingly, the 2009 policy needed to be revised.
The Executive Committee completed work on the revision at its October 4 meeting. The revised policy is attached.
The minutes of the October 4 EC meeting will be available shortly.
It isn't easy to tell what changed, is there a marked-up copy showing the changes? -- Tom ===== e-mail: k1ki@arrl.org ARRL New England Division Director http://www.arrl.org/ Tom Frenaye, K1KI, P O Box J, West Suffield CT 06093 Phone: 860-668-5444

Tom, here are the revisions. As Marty has pointed out, the policy is a bit wordy. It was in 2009 and it still is. Dave K1ZZ -----Original Message----- From: arrl-odv [mailto:arrl-odv-bounces@reflector.arrl.org] On Behalf Of Frenaye, Tom, K1KI Sent: Monday, October 13, 2014 8:57 PM To: arrl-odv Subject: [arrl-odv:23408] Re: Revised Mobile Amateur Radio Policy At 03:16 PM 10/13/2014, Sumner, Dave, K1ZZ wrote:
In January 2009 the Board instructed the Executive Committee to develop a policy with the objective of keeping mobile Amateur Radio operation from being impacted by state and municipal ?distracted driving? legislation. The EC did so and the resulting Mobile Amateur Radio Policy has been widely circulated and used ever since.
As discussed in the November 2013 QST editorial, Public Law 112-141 (MAP-21) established requirements for states to qualify for federal safe-driving grants. Only the specific exceptions included in the law are permitted, and these do not include an exception for Amateur Radio. Accordingly, the 2009 policy needed to be revised.
The Executive Committee completed work on the revision at its October 4 meeting. The revised policy is attached.
The minutes of the October 4 EC meeting will be available shortly.
It isn't easy to tell what changed, is there a marked-up copy showing the changes? -- Tom ===== e-mail: k1ki@arrl.org ARRL New England Division Director http://www.arrl.org/ Tom Frenaye, K1KI, P O Box J, West Suffield CT 06093 Phone: 860-668-5444

Guilty as charged on the wordiness, both in 2009 and now. However, to a large extent, that was intentional. As I originally understood and now understand the purpose of the document as amended, it is not and never was intended to be an advocacy document but an educational one, and one to serve as a resource for our people at the state and local level who need to explain to non-hams why we need to be exempt from mobile cellular and mobile texting statutes and ordinances. There is no need to be concise in a statement that is intended to educate, and to explain our policy, potentially to people who are not familiar with Amateur Radio. And it is not intuitively obvious at all that amateur radio should be exempt from these distracted driving statutes. So while perhaps this document is more wordy than something that we would use on Capitol Hill, for example, I thought and now suggest that it is not inappropriate for the purpose as the EC adopted it. 73, Chris W3KD On Tue, Oct 14, 2014 at 9:29 AM, Sumner, Dave, K1ZZ <dsumner@arrl.org> wrote:
Tom, here are the revisions.
As Marty has pointed out, the policy is a bit wordy. It was in 2009 and it still is.
Dave K1ZZ
-----Original Message----- From: arrl-odv [mailto:arrl-odv-bounces@reflector.arrl.org] On Behalf Of Frenaye, Tom, K1KI Sent: Monday, October 13, 2014 8:57 PM To: arrl-odv Subject: [arrl-odv:23408] Re: Revised Mobile Amateur Radio Policy
At 03:16 PM 10/13/2014, Sumner, Dave, K1ZZ wrote:
In January 2009 the Board instructed the Executive Committee to develop a policy with the objective of keeping mobile Amateur Radio operation from being impacted by state and municipal ?distracted driving? legislation. The EC did so and the resulting Mobile Amateur Radio Policy has been widely circulated and used ever since.
As discussed in the November 2013 QST editorial, Public Law 112-141 (MAP-21) established requirements for states to qualify for federal safe-driving grants. Only the specific exceptions included in the law are permitted, and these do not include an exception for Amateur Radio. Accordingly, the 2009 policy needed to be revised.
The Executive Committee completed work on the revision at its October 4 meeting. The revised policy is attached.
The minutes of the October 4 EC meeting will be available shortly.
It isn't easy to tell what changed, is there a marked-up copy showing the changes?
-- Tom
===== e-mail: k1ki@arrl.org ARRL New England Division Director http://www.arrl.org/ Tom Frenaye, K1KI, P O Box J, West Suffield CT 06093 Phone: 860-668-5444
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participants (3)
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Christopher Imlay
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Sumner, Dave, K1ZZ
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Tom Frenaye