FCC Reaffirms Rule Waiver for Surveillance Robot
Amateur radio operators fail on petitions for reconsideration.
Last year we reported on the FCC’s grant of a waiver for a surveillance robot called the Recon Scout, over the objections of the amateur radio community. Well, that’s that, said the amateurs, and went on to something else.
We’re kidding. That’s not what they said. ARRL, the National Association for Amateur Radio, along with three individual amateurs, asked the FCC to withdraw the waiver.
The FCC has now turned down those requests. It dismissed one individual’s petition because he filed it five months after the deadline. It denied the other two individuals’ petitions, and most of ARRL’s, because they largely raised issues the FCC had already addressed in the original grant.
The only changes resulting from the decision are expanded labeling on the device and a longer note in the instruction manual – changes that the Recon Scout manufacturer had publicly endorsed.
