K2GW writes:
Part 97 says the first reason that the Amateur Service even exists at all is to provide Emergency Communications. And if we don't, we'd be hard pressed to explain why the federal government lets us have over $12,300,000,000 worth of radio spectrum just to play with.
And that's just a conservative value of our VHF and UHF allocations (123 MHz x $100 million per MHz) alone if the federal government auctioned them off. Add in the HF allocations (which is harder to price), and the figure is much higher.
BTW, that means the federal government has invested about $18,000 per licensed ham, so at the typical volunteer value rate of $20 bucks per hour, I hope you've already given back your equivalent 118 days of public service as a ham.
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"lets us have"? " invested about $18,000 per licensed ham"?
Those statements presuppose I am on board with the government auctioning of the PUBLIC AIRWAVES to the highest bidder, a concept I do not agree with, and I have good company if you read the debate that went on about this in Congress.
And I have NEVER said I was opposed to providing Emergency Communications, I am an active member of my ARES Group, and have completed the required IS and EmComm courses. The issue is one of an Unnecessary Invasion of Privacy.