[drewbug]

47 CFR § 97.403: Safety of life and protection of property.

> No provision of these rules prevents the use by an amateur station of any means of radiocommunication at its disposal to provide essential communication needs in connection with the immediate safety of human life and immediate protection of property when normal communication systems are not available.

[tzs]

I'm sure there must be something that covers it, but I'm not sure it that.

That seems to only apply to amateur stations, which 47 CFR defines as stations in an amateur service. I.e., ham radio stations.

I've got a ham radio license, so it would cover me if I transmitted outside of the ham bands, or exceeded power limits, or used an unauthorized modulation method to try to help save lives and protect property, but for someone without a ham license I think we'd have to look elsewhere for legal cover.

[timonoko]

I think some guy in Oregon ended in prison because he activated the EPIRB dozens of times -- for broken fingernails and other such emergencies.