Are “open” remote bases legal?.
No. Just as you wouldn’t allow any unknown ham to just walk into your shack and start talking on your radio without your permission, the same rule applies to the use of a remote base. Every user must be specifically authorized by the station’s licensee to use the station, thus making each of them “designated control operators” of the station. By the way, the receiver(s) and transmitter(s) at the remotely controlled station may operate on any frequency for which the acting control operator has license privileges. For instance, if the control operator holds an Advanced Class license, the operator may use a remote base which operates on any appropriate HF phone band, provided that he or she doesn’t exceed his or her own privileges. The control operator may allow other amateurs to talk over the remote base while he is in control, but even though they may hold amateur licenses, these other people are only talking over the station under provisions of the “third party” rules, not as control o
