Tech Forum

I don't know the particulars of the church vs the FCC back when Mara was flourishing, but during an emergency, I know the radios won't be used for normal church operations, rather they will assist with the health and welfare of the community surrounding them.

As far as around here, there are cities, hospitals, clinics, even morgues that have purchased ham equipment and made a place for it AND the antennas in and on their places of business. Many of them (if not most) are not licensed to operate the radios, instead, they have made arrangements for local ARES operators to come in and operate them for drills and/or real emergencies where normal communications are disrupted or overloaded. Again, I see no conflict of interest, but rather a safety net to help the needs of the general public should normal communications fail.

Some information about what happened can be found here. It makes for interesting reading considering that the hospitals in my area have a "network" including equipment permanently installed and quite a few of the members are employees.