I said not fully addressed. You can run drills and tests. In the event of an actual emergency, if you are being paid, then it's a problem.
What? No. The reason that they needed an exception for drills and tests is that actual emergencies already are covered by legal principles like necessity, and by these two specific rules:
§ 97.403 Safety of life and protection of property.
No provision of these rules prevents the use by an amateur station of any means of radiocommunication at its disposal to provide essential communication needs in connection with the immediate safety of human life and immediate protection of property when normal communication systems are not available.
§ 97.405 Station in distress.
(a) No provision of these rules prevents the use by an amateur station in distress of any means at its disposal to attract attention, make known its condition and location, and obtain assistance.
(b) No provision of these rules prevents the use by a station, in the exceptional circumstances described in paragraph (a) of this section, of any means of radiocommunications at its disposal to assist a station in distress.
As I said in my first reply to you, and others have suggested, you should sit down and read through these rules. They were on your test.
I wasn't quoting FCC regulations. I am stating fact. It's a HOBBY.
By definition, amateur radio is the non-commercial use of radio for its own sake, but that it's a hobby to some does not contradict that it's also an emergency communication service. Many people hunt or do target shooting as a hobby - that doesn't contradict that they can also use those skills to defend their own lives or be organized as a militia by the government to defend their country. Emergency communications, along with the fostering of international goodwill, advancing the radio art with potential economical benefits, and making available more technical experts again with potential economical benefit, are the explicitly stated reasons why the service exists and why amateurs are given frequency allocations in the first place. Frequencies are a limited natural resource, and the emergency use as well as the economic and technological advantages are what the community gains by giving away this resource to amateurs.
I realize that there are those that are doing this for the right reasons and motivations. I don't have ea problem with them.
What I have the problem with is people getting licensed strictly for ECCOM.
That's like having a problem with people who get licensed strictly for doing moon bounce, satellite communications, digital communications, ragchewing wih their friends, contesting, award chasing, learning about electronics, building better antennas, fox hunting, mountain topping or any other niche of amateur radio which you don't share the enthusiasm for. This is a fairly typical theme with misguided complainers - "it's not
real ham radio unless it's
MY special interest".
As long as they learn and advance their knowledge, it doesn't matter what part of ham radio they enjoy, it matters that they follow the rules, are considerate of others and keep their skills alive. As an ARRL emergency coordinator said on the Ham Nation show recently, it's not the frequencies, gear, or even the training, though important, which make amateurs an asset. What makes amateurs an asset for emergency communications is their continuous practice of technical and operational technique and their ability to improvise communications. That doesn't mean that technician class hams aren't useful, but it means that those who get into amateur radio for emergency communications should get on the air and practice both emergency communications, and get a taste of the rest of this radio service.
IF it ever comes to the point that some hammie repeater is the last thing operational in an area and a state of emergency has been declared, the first thing that will happen is the repeater will be pulled from amateur service and re-purposed for public safety communications.
Which is emergency use of amateur frequencies by on-the-clock unlicensed operators, something you earlier in this thread said was ILLEGAL. Did you mean that they'll go up there and turn its frequency into a public service band? That takes time you don't have and some repeaters are crystal controlled. Sure you if you could re-purpose the amateur repeater because repair techs for the public service repeater take many days to arrive, or if you could scavange parts from the amateur repeater to make the public service repeater function, those amateur radio emergency volunteers would be happy help to do that. Are you that guy who'll rage about losing his nearby repeater because "amateur radio is not for emergency communications!", start jamming it in revenge, and get the FCC and SWAT on the door? Don't be that guy.
If the repeater goes down, amateur radio volunteers can set up another repeater just by connecting a couple regular ham radios together, or they can go to HF NVIS, microwave, improvised high-gain VHF antennas, use mountain sides to reflect signals, etc. A plan which doesn't take into account the loss of an amateur repeater is a poor plan. A plan which doesn't consider amateur radio is just as poor as a plan which considers ONLY the use of amateur radio.