FCC Regulations - Part 97 Amateur Radio Service

[Effective Oct 1, 2006.]

Subpart A General Provisions

Sec. 97.13 Restrictions on station location.

(a) Before placing an amateur station on land of environmental < importance or that is significant in American history, architecture or culture, the licensee may be required to take certain actions prescribed by Sec. Sec. 1.1305-1.1319 of this chapter.

(b) A station within 1600 m (1 mile) of an FCC monitoring facility < must protect that facility from harmful interference. Failure to do so could result in imposition of operating restrictions upon the amateur station by a District Director pursuant to Sec. 97.121 of this part. Geographical coordinates of the facilities that require protection are listed in Sec. 0.121(c) of this chapter.

(c) Before causing or allowing an amateur station to transmit from < any place where the operation of the station could cause human exposure to RF electromagnetic field levels in excess of those allowed under

Sec. 1.1310 of this chapter, the licensee is required to take certain

actions.

(1) The licensee must perform the routine RF environmental evaluation prescribed by Sec. 1.1307(b) of this chapter, if the power of the licensee's station exceeds the limits given in the following table:

Wavelength band	Evaluation required if power \1\ (watts) exceeds
MF
160 m	500
HF
80 m	500
75 m	500
40 m	500
30 m	425
20 m	225
17 m	125
15 m	100
12 m	75
10 m	50
VHF (all bands)	50
UHF
70 cm	70
33 cm	150
23 cm	200
13 cm	250
SHF (all bands)	250
EHF (all bands)	250
Repeater stations (all bands)	non-building-mounted antennas: height above ground level to lowest point of antenna <10 m and power <=500 W ERP building-mounted antennas: power <=500 W ERP

\1\ Power = PEP input to antenna except, for repeater stations only, power exclusion is based on ERP (effective radiated power).

(2) If the routine environmental evaluation indicates that the RF electromagnetic fields could exceed the limits contained in Sec. 1.1310 of this chapter in accessible areas, the licensee must take action to prevent human exposure to such RF electromagnetic fields. Further information on evaluating compliance with these limits can be found in the FCC's OET Bulletin Number 65, ``Evaluating Compliance with FCC Guidelines for Human Exposure to Radiofrequency Electromagnetic Fields.''