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You may want to look at this:

http://www.arrl.org/sections/?sect=wwa

ALERT: Fri, March 9, 2007; 2:48 PM ET


Legislative Update 3/9/07 (Modified)

March 8, 2007. HB 2335 Was Placed on Second Reading by the Rules Committee.
In mid afternoon of Thursday March 8th, 2007 it was passed out of the rules committee and is NOW Headed to the House Floor for a Full House Vote.
That Full House vote is expected to take place on Saturday or Monday.

SB-5037 passed last night!

Another Success! The cell phone bill passed the senate last night. The bill contains an exemption for Amateur Radio! It reads;

15 (3) Subsection (1) of this section does not restrict the operation

16 of an amateur radio station by a person who holds a valid amateur radio

17 operator license issued by the federal communications commission.

The House version HB-1868 does not have that amendment, however.


Have you sent in your Emails?


Update 3/8/07

HB-2335 - the Repeater Leasehold Excise Exemption

We are still waiting for the bill to be `pulled' in the Rules Cmte. the 2nd time. That may happen this afternoon at the 1300 session.

Here are the ways you may track and see just what any action is happening in either House or the Senate.

http://flooractivityext.leg.wa.gov/defa ... ?chamber=3 This page documents the floor activity.

TVW Live Video Feed from the Floor of the House or Senate. http://www.tvw.org/mediaplayer/LiveWME/ ... HasVideo=1 TVW has streaming video of the house debate. It may be fun to watch when we see our bill get on the schedule.

Various Cell Phone Bills

Some of these are still alive. None have been amended to exempt Amateur Radio or to target driver behavior rather than the use of onboard devices. Please visit http://apps.leg.wa.gov/billinfo/search. ... &year=2007 to learn the status of each of them.

Updates

on both of these issues will be provided here as information becomes available.

Legislative Update on HB-2335 - the Repeater Leasehold Excise Exemption 3/6/07

Success - so far!

On Fri. 2 Mar. the following Hams attended the House of Representatives Finance Committee meeting in Olympia; Art N7CC, Bill KL7BB, Dave KC7RRH (with harmonics Ben and Sarah), Lee KI7SS, Mark KE7AYD (with his bride, Carolyn), Scott N7SS, and of course I was there. We all signed up to testify for HB-2335 but the bill's sponsors cautioned that the committee was very pressed for time and were already in favor of the bill. Based on that, KE7AYD and N7NVP provided the testimony. When one of the committee members asked a question about who else occupies a typical communications site on public land KC7RRH provided a clear, succinct answer. Also testifying was Bob Carlton of the WA Assoc. of Elected Officials. Bob spoke for the Pacific Co. Sheriff, John Didion. He stated that during the Nisqually earthquake in 2001 the only communications out of the county was Amateur Radio. The Sheriff is very appreciative of the Amateur Radio support the county receives and encourages the legislature to pass the tax exemption.

While the staffer was reading the bill and its analysis, the Committee Chair commented that he had received more email on this bill than any other issue this year with the exception of the NASCAR track. Translated, that means you all did good! You deserve a "Very well done" for your part in the email/letter/phone call campaign. Thank you!

At this point the Finance Committee has received so many emails that their email accounts are overloaded and they don't have the time to answer all of the letters of support sent. I will prepare and mail a thank you letter, on your behalf, thanking them for their support of Amateur Radio.

Once our testimony was done the public portion of the meeting was closed and the Chair opened the Executive session and called for a vote on our bill which was passed unanimously. Note that HB 2335 was one of four bills read to the committee that morning. None of the other three were voted on.

Current status

Reps. Miloscia and Priest are sheparding the bill thru the rest of the process. It needs to be "pulled" to the floor for a vote before it goes to the Senate. Representatives have been identified to pull the bill and support for it on the floor is positive but still needs reinforcement. The sponsors are confident in their ability to get the bill passed by the full House floor vote. They will keep KE7AYD and I informed of the progress and will advise when we need to target the Senate with another communication barrage from the constituency.

The expectation is that the full House will vote on it this week. Their action will be documented at http://apps.leg.wa.gov/billinfo/summary.aspx?bill=2335.

In addition to your letters and phone calls, some of the information provided to the committee to convince them that Amateur Radio repeaters are important; of the almost 25,000 licensed Hams in WA almost half are restricted by license level and must use a repeater in order to provide emergency communications (I didn't mention simplex for clarity). They were also told we put in 40,000 volunteer hours and drove 87,000 miles during the last 10 months of 2006. And, they were reminded that the state has a history of supporting Ham radio as evidenced by our call sign vehicle license tags, significantly reduced rent at DNR communications sites for our repeaters and an annual Governor's proclamation for Amateur Radio week at the end of June.

Getting to Second Base - What you can do to get the bill out of the House.

The next major step is for House Bill 2335 to be approved by the entire Washington State House. We anticipate the bill will come up for vote sometime this week (March 6-11). It is critical that statewide, we express to our representatives how important it is for House Bill 2335 to be passed. Please contact your local district state representatives and let them know your feelings about House Bill 2335 as soon as possible.

Help them understand the important role Amateur Radio repeaters play in emergency communications. Let them know that Amateur Radio groups are unable to charge for the use of the repeaters because of Federal Communications Commission (FCC) regulations. Tell them that without the passage of House Bill 2335 many of these systems may be forced to shutdown because of the leasehold excise tax obligation. We anticipate that most House Representatives will be supportive of our case. Please be friendly, considerate and respectful. They will want to hear from you their constituents about the "HB-2335 Amateur Radio Repeater Leasehold Excise Tax relief bill".

To find out whom your local representatives are and their contact information please refer to http://apps.leg.wa.gov/DistrictFinder/StateWide.aspx. Click on the map to link to your legislative district.

If you already know who your representatives are you can lookup their email address at http://apps.leg.wa.gov/memberemail/Defa ... ?Chamber=H

Be sure and CC: your comments to Frank Chopp Speaker of the House: chopp.frank@leg.wa.gov.

Success can be assured with an effort by all the friends of Amateur Radio in Washington. This is progressing at a very rapid pace. Please do not delay in emailing your letter of support.

You can track the progress of the bill online by going to http://apps.leg.wa.gov/billinfo/summary.aspx?bill=2335 . At that site you can also read all of the supporting documents that have been attached to the bill.

Please address any questions to: n7nvp@arrl.org.

Thank you very much to all who took an active part in getting us this far.

73,

Ed, N7NVP


--Deeply Shrouded & Quiet
--KD7YVV/AE, Kirkland, WA

So are cops going to give other cops tickets while on duty. Can you use a hand free device?

So can you use hands free devices? or are any and all cell phone use banned while driving? How about scanners in your car?

Hands free devices are quite popular here in California. That way you can use one hand for steering and the other hand for communicating with nearby motorists.

I thought the other hand was for shooting other motorists?

negative,,,,,

coffee

makeup

waving to LEO's

_________________
I generate Board Warnings

I would guess thought that use of a cell phone without it causing an accident is insufficient to charge a 2nd degree negligent driving (if they are charging people neg 2 for just use of a cell phone, I would like to know what courts are going with this). 5037 would seem to allow to pull over and cite for simple use of a cell phone.

What court/area is this being done in? Are there more mitigating circumstances than simply, "I was using my cell phone next to my ear and I got in a collision".

Even with some kind of collision involved, Negligent Driving 2nd Degree seems a bit steep. Some jurisdictions do have an "Inattention to Driving" municipal code (still an infraction), and that would be a lot more reasonable.

Brad/N7JGX
Whidbey Island, WA

_________________
Whatever.....

My understanding from listening to the news was that if this "law" would only be enforced as a secondary offense. In other words a police officer would have to have another reason to stop you ie; no seatbelt, speeding etc before they could cite you for using a cellphone. This would be similar to when in the late 90's an officer could not cite you for not wearing a seatbelt unless he observed and stopped you for a separate violation. Is this still true or not?

_________________
Richard
Do you know Bunnery?

How are people being charged for this and what crappy attorney can't get their client off. The statutory requirement for negligence that the prosecutor would have to show to prove neg driving 2nd degree is "doing of some act that a reasonably careful person would not do under the same or similar circumstances or the failure to do something that a reasonably careful person would do under the same or similar circumstances." RCW 46.61.525 http://apps.leg.wa.gov/RCW/default.aspx?cite=46.61.525

So you are telling me that the courts are buying the argument that no reasonably careful person would use a cell phone while driving under the similair situation of just driving? I don't buy that. How many citiations for neg 2 for just using a cell phone have there been and how many have been sticking? And how is this even being tracked through all the district courts state wide? I guess what I am asking is what is the statement "Just so you know the WSP is charging cell users while driving with second degree Negligent driving and the charges are stiking" based on? I dont support this law either, but I dont think we will sway people with statements like that.

Perhaps the Agressive Driving Team is using the Neg Driving charge for idiot "in and out of traffic" drivers, and being on a cell phone is just an added comment to the citation?

I really don't know. Just speculation on my part.

As mentioned, Neg 2 is a relatively high standard (as far as infractions go). For the "average" driver operating their cell phone, there is usually no erratic driving involved - the are just going down the road and talking - not going "in and out of traffic". Neg 2 seems real steep for that.

Again, what part of the state is doing this "your on a cell phone, here is your Neg 2 ticket" - without any other mitigating factors to the driving?

Brad/N7JGX
Whidbey Island, WA

_________________
Whatever.....

The WA LEG is going to have to come up with an infrac besides dry neg for using cell phones and driving. Sheesh.
Reminds me of Barney Fife and "Citizens arrest"! 'cuz he flipped on main street.
Anyway, watch this become one of those DWLS 3 deals.

But the weaving is the factor. Just using a cell phone by itself while driving nice and straight down a road is not neg 2.
They could make a law that if you are in an accident and you were on the phone you are responsible, but that won't bring in revenue like this would.

What's worse is text messaging while driving.
It makes it hard to hold my beer.
Nuk Nuk!
(drum noise here)