[LinuxBender]

For an emergency I personally would disregard FCC regs. I don't think the rescuers will care either. Certainly local law enforcement won't care. Out in the wilderness it is unlikely one will be causing interference using a few extra watts. I say this as someone who used to pump out a few thousand extra watts. People generally get into trouble when they are playing around on frequencies they should not be on and causing interference, especially with businesses or law enforcement. Prolonged interference is what draws the attention of the FCC via complaints, usually because of harmonics from cheap radios. I should add that the FCC are few in number and spread very thin. It is extremely difficult to get them to respond to interference complaints unless the complainant are a big business.

[willcipriano]

The hams tend to be "lawful good"[0] types. It's pretty alien to my way of thinking[1] but that sort would rather follow the law to a bad outcome as opposed to violating it to achieve a good one. If you are in mortal danger please do whatever you can to obtain help.

[0]https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/LawfulGood

[1]https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ChaoticGood

[LinuxBender]

I am a pragmatic minimalist and have +2 to agility.

But I agree that ham's tend to be "lawful good" as you say. That is why I generally do not get along with them but have always had ham gear. I've had the FCC sitting right next to me monitoring what I do and to my surprise they did not care at all that my friends and I were running power since we did not interfere with anyone. I have also had the FCC suggest/imply that we resolve issues with locals that were shutting down some trucker channels since they were too busy. This was in the 70's and 80's. I'm sure they must have evolved by now.

[vitaflo]

You can use any freq in a legit emergency. But it requires “safety of life and protection of property”. You can’t just use it willy nilly.

The reason hams are anal about this is because the FCC grants us frequencies as a privilege. If we abuse that privilege they can easily take it away.

[LinuxBender]

You can’t just use it willy nilly.

Agreed, that is what I was trying to convey.

As an aside, I sat in police dispatch while two of the senior officers were playing light-sabers with their HT's on transmit to create feedback "music" for the dispatcher yes on the repeater main frequency of whom was the biggest software pirate I knew at the time. Kids will be kids.