Thats One Laura

[N9FE]

Amateur Radio License W8ROX

EB-10-GB-0104

Dear Mr. Hathaway:

In March of 2010, the Commission received several complaints of
interference to the Century Club Net operating on 3902 KHz. At my request,
staff at the Commission's monitoring station began investigating in order
to determine the location of the interference. Over the next month, the
staff at the monitoring station confirmed that the interference was taking
place and used their direction finding equipment to determine that the
signal was coming from a location north of Athens, Ohio. The Commission's
Detroit Field Office was notified and they began a field investigation
into the matter. On July 21, 2010 at approximately 10:20 PM, the field
agents heard an audible transmission interrupt the ongoing Century Club
Net. They began using their vehicle's direction finding equipment to
determine the location of the offending party. At 12:40 AM, they had a
positive DF to a beam antenna located at (address withheld). At that time,
they knocked on the door and attempted to inspect the station. No one
answered the door. They returned the next day at 4:21 PM and inspected the
station.

During the inspection, you indicated to the agents that you were unaware
that your station had been transmitting during the time in question
because you had been having problems with your push to talk button getting
turned on accidentally. As part of the inspection, the agents took
pictures of your equipment, including a close up of your push to talk
button and its relative position to your microphone and the rest of your
equipment. Your argument that you were unaware that your station had been
transmitting during the time in question because of this problem with your
push to talk button is unpersuasive. One of the Commission's field agents
specifically noted in his report that your push to talk button is not
located on or near the rest of your equipment as it is strung through the
handle of your desk drawer and away from the desk top where the remainder
of your equipment is located. Moreover, according to the agents, the push
to talk button appeared to be in working order during the inspection.

Your operation as described above, and verified by the Commission's field
staff, is contrary to the basis and purpose of the amateur radio service
as set out in Section 97.1 of the Commission's rules and a violation of
Section 97.101(d). Please be advised that the Commission expects you to
abide by its rules. This letter serves as notice that, if operation of
this type reoccurs after receipt of this letter, you could be subject to
severe penalties, including license revocation, monetary forfeiture
(fines), or a modification proceeding to restrict the frequencies upon
which you may operate.

Sincerely,

Laura L. Smith

About ten more to go !!!

[N2CHX]

Nice. More of this and maybe the bands will be a little cleaner.

[KC2UGV]

Wait, the FCC still has mobile monitoring teams? I thought those went the way of the dodo?

[N2CHX]

Wait, the FCC still has mobile monitoring teams? I thought those went the way of the dodo?

You've obviously never hunted down pirates with David Vigilone.

I think I've worked with our field office to track down half a dozen pirates and other interference problems over the years. The vehicle they use is pretty cool. No visible antennae, it's all built into the roof and they can monitor anything from DC to daylight, display occupied bandwidth, spurious emissions, field strength, etc. You've probably sat behind David V. at a traffic light and never knew it. Last pirate bust I assisted with was on the roof of the Fairfax and he was running about 50 watts into a vertical dipole on 95.7.

Personally I think the FM "pirate" issue would completely go away if the FCC would stop bowing to Big Radio and allocate some FM spectrum to low power unlicensed stations allowed to run a watt or two like they do in Canada and other places.

Back to the ham bands... If they'd just enforce the rules like this more often the bands would be a lot more pleasant.

[N8YX]

You've obviously never hunted down pirates with David Vigilone.

I think I've worked with our field office to track down half a dozen pirates and other interference problems over the years. The vehicle they use is pretty cool. No visible antennae, it's all built into the roof and they can monitor anything from DC to daylight, display occupied bandwidth, spurious emissions, field strength, etc. You've probably sat behind David V. at a traffic light and never knew it. Last pirate bust I assisted with was on the roof of the Fairfax and he was running about 50 watts into a vertical dipole on 95.7.

Personally I think the FM "pirate" issue would completely go away if the FCC would stop bowing to Big Radio and allocate some FM spectrum to low power unlicensed stations allowed to run a watt or two like they do in Canada and other places.

Back to the ham bands... If they'd just enforce the rules like this more often the bands would be a lot more pleasant.

Ask them how they're doing WRT shortwave pirates, particularly those who operate right below 40M (and have done so for years).

Ham jammers could stand to borrow a technique or two from their pirate brethren. It's very hard to hit a moving, intermittent target. It's also very hard to locate someone with that fancy DF equipment when they've backpacked into a deserted, wooded area, set up a semi-permanent, well hidden stash of batteries and a solar charger then carried a K2 or similar lightweight rig along and strung up a very unobtrusive wire antenna...

[W3WN]

I know it's never going to happen, but I for one would be happy to pay a reasonable license renewal fee (in the $10 to $20 range) if the revenue generated would go directly to funding the FCC enforcement people.

The bands would clean up in relatively no time. And some miscreants who would object to paying the guvmint a red cent would drop out altogether.

Makes too much sense though. It will never happen.

[N8YX]

I know it's never going to happen, but I for one would be happy to pay a reasonable license renewal fee (in the $10 to $20 range) if the revenue generated would go directly to funding the FCC enforcement people.

The bands would clean up in relatively no time. And some miscreants who would object to paying the guvmint a red cent would drop out altogether.

Makes too much sense though. It will never happen.

What would be more effective is the in rem seizure and auctioning off of repeat violators' equipment, or the immediate levy of stiff fines. Accompanied by property liens, if necessary.

The tools are out there. The will is not.

[W2NAP]

Personally I think the FM "pirate" issue would completely go away if the FCC would stop bowing to Big Radio and allocate some FM spectrum to low power unlicensed stations allowed to run a watt or two like they do in Canada and other places.

they should quit bowing to big corp radio. and also they should not let these bible banger groups buy a shit load of stations and also toss up hundreds of translators everywhere..

just in my area i count 30 bible banger stations on FM

ALSO, tighten ownership rules. your allowed 1 AM and 1 FM per market

[N2CHX]

I know it's never going to happen, but I for one would be happy to pay a reasonable license renewal fee (in the $10 to $20 range) if the revenue generated would go directly to funding the FCC enforcement people.

The bands would clean up in relatively no time. And some miscreants who would object to paying the guvmint a red cent would drop out altogether.

Makes too much sense though. It will never happen.

I'd pay it. And yeah it probably would clean things up a bit.

[N2CHX]

What would be more effective is the in rem seizure and auctioning off of repeat violators' equipment, or the immediate levy of stiff fines. Accompanied by property liens, if necessary.

The tools are out there. The will is not.

That's what they USED to do.