[thulldud]

I think a state of emergency overcomes lack of a permission slip.

It sure does on the radio. No matter what sort of radio license you have (or don't), when you are in a real emergency, the FCC and everybody else will tell you, use whatever equipment is at hand and transmit on whatever frequency it will work on to get help. If anybody gets a citation in that situation, it will be the one who interferes with the emergency communications, not the one who is in trouble.

[zeugma]

It sure does on the radio. No matter what sort of radio license you have (or don't), when you are in a real emergency, the FCC and everybody else will tell you, use whatever equipment is at hand and transmit on whatever frequency it will work on to get help. If anybody gets a citation in that situation, it will be the one who interferes with the emergency communications, not the one who is in trouble.

Yup. Rules written back before we became a socialist state run by sociopaths. 

IIRC, there were a couple of questions on the HAM exam about that very issue. OTOH, falsely declaring an emergency to get priority will prompt folks to lower the boom on you.