3rd Party Education Session

This information was collected by Andrew, W2BOS and provided as an education session on HVN on Monday, 23 January 2023. It is provided here for posterity.

Ham Radio started as a message passing advocation in Connecticut (see HVN website for history)
Originally ham to ham, but soon it was someone-else to ham to ham OR ham to ham to someone-else
The hams are the “control operators”
FCC Part 97.115 codifies the rules (see reference at the end)
That ‘someone-else’ is the “third party”, and the communication is called “3^rd Party Communications” EVEN IF THE third party is at the control point because they are not capable of being a control operation
Because of the potential of these 3rd party messages becoming commercial in nature, rules and regulations have been established
Note (IMPORTANT) that a license ham “capable” of being a control operator at either station is not considered a third-party
The message need not be in “real-time” (e.g.: a message may be taken from a 3^rd party by a ham and sent at a later time over Amateur Radio
ARRL has some examples:

Ham to ham communications, even if relayed by another station at a later time, is not considered “3^rd Party
Letting your neighbor make a contact while you are at your station is consider “3^rd Party” even if short or for training purposes

When INTERNATIONAL COMMUNICATIONS ARE INVOLVED, RULES CHANGE
US must have an international agreement to those countries that specifically allow 3^rd party communications
See my email I sent out that has the web link such a list and I have updated HVNET.ORG with this list
If you are asking to be part of such 3^rd party communications and you know that it is not legal, decline to accept the message
ANOTHER EXAMPLE: If a DX station asks you to pass a message along to a family member or friend, that’s 3^rd party traffic if they are not a ham. Check the list!

The list of contries that have authorized Third Party Agreements is on the ARRL web page linked here.

FCC Part 97.115 – Third Party Communications

(a) An amateur station may transmit messages for a third party to:

(1) Any station within the jurisdiction of the United States.

(2) Any station within the jurisdiction of any foreign government when transmitting emergency or disaster relief communications and any station within the jurisdiction of any foreign government whose administration has made arrangements with the United States to allow amateur stations to be used for transmitting international communications on behalf of third parties. No station shall transmit messages for a third party to any station within the jurisdiction of any foreign government whose administration has not made such an arrangement. This prohibition does not apply to a message for any third party who is eligible to be a control operator of the station.

(b) The third party may participate in stating the message where:

(1) The control operator is present at the control point and is continuously monitoring and supervising the third party's participation; and

(2) The third party is not a prior amateur service licensee whose license was revoked or not renewed after hearing and re-licensing has not taken place; suspended for less than the balance of the license term and the suspension is still in effect; suspended for the balance of the license term and re-licensing has not taken place; or surrendered for cancellation following notice of revocation, suspension or monetary forfeiture proceedings. The third party may not be the subject of a cease and desist order which relates to amateur service operation and which is still in effect.

(c) No station may transmit third party communications while being automatically controlled except a station transmitting a RTTY or data emission.

(d) At the end of an exchange of international third party communications, the station must also transmit in the station identification procedure the call sign of the station with which a third party message was exchanged.