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<DIV>Using the D-RATS automatic E-mail forwarding feature with a manned or</DIV>
<DIV>unmanned D-RATS RF station appears to violate FCC Part 97.219d listed</DIV>
<DIV>below. Since D-RATS cannot accommodate paragraph (1) because
non-hams</DIV>
<DIV>ARE getting on D-RATS, most D-RATS users won’t want to live by
paragraph</DIV>
<DIV>(2). In fact most D-RATS users probably don’t know this problem
exists</DIV>
<DIV>and are experimenting with D-RATS RF at will not realizing that
non-hams</DIV>
<DIV>doing an E-mail forward through their stations might be illegal. So
would</DIV>
<DIV>a file transfer with a non-ham station I should think. D-RATS does
have</DIV>
<DIV>a provision to handle the problem however and that is to disable </DIV>
<DIV>automatic E-mail forwarding and disable file transfers. But that’s a
big</DIV>
<DIV>part of D-RATS function lost. </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>FCC Part 97.219d</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>For stations participating in a</DIV>
<DIV>message forwarding system, the control</DIV>
<DIV>operator of the first forwarding</DIV>
<DIV>station must:</DIV>
<DIV>(1) Authenticate the identity of the</DIV>
<DIV>station from which it accepts communications</DIV>
<DIV>on behalf of the system; or</DIV>
<DIV>(2) Accept accountability for any violation</DIV>
<DIV>of the rules in this part contained</DIV>
<DIV>in messages it retransmits to</DIV>
<DIV>the system.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>What we or any D-RATS user would need is the ability, by the</DIV>
<DIV>“first forwarding station,” to be able to callsign authenticate the</DIV>
<DIV>station initiating the E-mail forwarding. As D-RATS stands now,</DIV>
<DIV>ANY station with ANY text in the callsign field of the D-RATS config</DIV>
<DIV>file could initiate an E-mail forward through ANY manned or unmanned</DIV>
<DIV>D-RATS RF station and have it be automatically forwarded on to</DIV>
<DIV>destination. I think this would be illegal if the callsign of
the forwarding</DIV>
<DIV>initiating station isn’t a valid amateur radio callsign.
The term</DIV>
<DIV>control operator throws me a bit here because an unmanned</DIV>
<DIV>D-RATS RF station has no control operator. I’m not even
certain</DIV>
<DIV>an unmanned D-RATS RF station can exist under Part
97. </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>As for what could be done and where, I would have no clue. I’ll make
a stab</DIV>
<DIV>at it: </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Have a verification routine on the callsign field of the D-RATS config
file</DIV>
<DIV>such that an invalid callsign would be difficult to enter?</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>In the config file for Enable Automatic E-mail Forwarding have a user
enterable</DIV>
<DIV>“Exclude These Callsigns” list, then before incoming mail can reside in an
</DIV>
<DIV>D-RATS user outbox compare the callsign in the header of incoming E-mail
against </DIV>
<DIV>the callsigns in the list and flag it somehow such that it can’t reside in
the</DIV>
<DIV>outbox or anywhere else on the first forwarding station? </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Put call sign verification on the web site for downloading D-RATS
software?</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>To accommodate paragraph (1) of Part 97.219d make an unmanned D-RATS</DIV>
<DIV>station be able to be remotely monitored and the outbox remotely
accessible</DIV>
<DIV>by station control operators such that manual authentication could
take</DIV>
<DIV>place in the event non-hams are attempting E-mail
forwarding? </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Fanciful indeed these fixes and no doubt not even possible. </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
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