Here is an excerpt from the Winlink Terms and Conditions on 3^rd party traffic restrictions.?? Using “Emergency” in the subject line in a non-emergency to circumvent US 3^rd party restrictions law is a great way to get kicked off the system…

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Tom N5TW

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Third-Party Traffic
Third-party traffic is any message transmitted between licensed amateurs that is either from or to a non-licensee. Between amateur stations in the Western Hemisphere (with a few exceptions) there is no restriction on third-party traffic being passed over amateur radio. Many countries outside of the Western Hemisphere also now permit third-party traffic over amateur radio. Messages between duly licensed amateurs if they originate from or are delivered over the Internet are not considered third-party traffic. Third-party traffic rules only deal with that portion of the message path which is transmitted over the amateur radio spectrum.

For example: if a message originates from a non-amateur as an internet email in the U.K. and is delivered to a U.S. amateur over the radio from a gateway station in the US, no third-party rule is broken even though the U.K. does not allow third-party traffic over amateur channels. This is because third-party traffic is permitted between two US stations. Likewise, a message originating from a U.S. amateur and passed by radio to a U.S. gateway is okay even if it is addressed to the Internet address of a non-amateur in the U.K. Again, third-party traffic is permitted between the two US stations.

The Winlink System servers automatically enforce US FCC rules regarding third-party traffic when at least one station in a circuit is licensed in the USA. US rules prohibit third party traffic between stations licensed in the US and a foreign country that does not have a third-party traffic agreement with the United States. A list of those that do is kept at:?. Should a message from or to an internet email address be proposed for transfer between stations where third party traffic is prohibited it will be held at the CMS for delivery by a pathway that will not violate the governing rules, and a service message will be delivered instead describing the situation and how the message may be legally retrieved. If a Winlink user tries to send third-party traffic through stations that do not permit such traffic, the message is refused and a service message will be delivered instead, describing the situation and how the message may be legally sent. These Winlink Terms and Conditions of Use are more conservative than the governing FCC rules in some situations.

Users and sysops must make themselves familiar with third-party rules for the country in which they are operating as well as linking with if they are exchanging messages from or to internet addresses or non-amateurs. US gateway sysops should know that §97.219(c) provides protection for licensees operating as part of a message forwarding system. "...the control operators of forwarding stations that retransmit inadvertently communications that violate the rules in this Part are not accountable for the violative communications. They are, however, responsible for discontinuing such communications once they become aware of their presence."

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