4 ms·

I can't recall a prior instance when the FCC (or any other regulator) fined a ham for interfering with amateur radio activities. Pretty cool to see! 73 VE3EQL

MandieD 3y ago
Non-hams when they see an FCC enforcement action against a ham behaving badly (a “lid”): “isn’t that a bit much? Maybe it was an honest mistake…” Hams: “Good, serves him right. Jerk knew exactly what he was doing.” (and anyone with a US 1x3 callsign is hardly a newb who just got their Technician license) 73, KI5UKQ / DL4AD
- 1827163 3y ago
  Absolutely ridiculous. That makes me want nothing to do with the hobby, period. These hams are behaving like animals with a dominance hierarchy. With "newbs" and status in that hierarchy based on license class / callsign. And reacting aggressively, completely out of proportion, to outsiders who intrude on their territory. Akin to a dog with behavioral issues. This attitude in amateur radio is so common, we are supposed to be better than that. Many years ago I built a high voltage power supply to drive a metal halide or sodium lamp from batteries, and one of my coworkers who was a radio ham, was threatening me that I could get fined thousands for interfering with amateur radio. That was my direct experience, and I have heard this kind of thing happening so many times to others. It's always the hams making the bulk of complaints to the authorities, as well. And if I remember correctly it's actually tying up FCC resources...
  - rolph 3y ago
    i was a member of a ham club for a brief span. you are describing many of the reasons i walked away and went solo.
    - 1827163 3y ago
      Makes you want to use powerline Ethernet for everything, which happens to stomp on the HF radio bands. Perfectly legal to install and use, a nice replacement for all those trailing cables. Yes, civil disobedience is how these draconian rules get changed, assuming everyone does it. Notice ham antennas down the road? Then get some powerline Ethernet adapters, ensure they are fully regulatory approved for the country you are in. And that is perfectly legal civil disobedience too, which is likely to cause utter hell for that amateur operator, who likely supports this draconian punishment for such a trivial matter.
      - 1827163 3y ago
        Even better if some product came onto the market, that used wideband powerline communications for its functioning, and practically everyone's got one. I think some electric car chargers might do so in the future. That would not go down well with amateurs, at all! When everyone down the street would have, in effect, legal jammers. MaxLinear have some nice ones, complete with datasheet, it also works in MIMO mode, not for just powerline but pretty much anywhere. https://www.maxlinear.com/document/index?id=23257&languageid=1033&type=Datasheet&partnumber=88LX5152&filename=88LX5152_88LX5153.pdf&part=88LX5152 https://www.maxlinear.com/document/index?id=23257&languageid... Update: I think solar inverters are causing big problems here already, so it's only a matter of time now as they become increasingly popular. So we can kiss those amateur radio enthusiasts and their utterly draconian punishments goodbye in the long term. https://hfdxarc.com/technical-pages/how-to-reduce-electromagnetic-interference-in-solar-power-systems/ https://hfdxarc.com/technical-pages/how-to-reduce-electromag... https://www.pa9x.com/how-the-replacement-of-solar-panel-micro-inverters-lead-to-50-db-less-qrm/ https://www.pa9x.com/how-the-replacement-of-solar-panel-micr...
        1827163 3y ago
        It's been like this already, for quite some time (!), at lest here in the UK, VDSL2 to thank for that: https://rsgb.org/main/technical/emc/vdsl-interference-reporting/ https://rsgb.org/main/technical/emc/vdsl-interference-report... So it's already being jammed, with the noise floor going up, although not to the point of being unusable.
      - 3y ago
curiousfab 3y ago
There were many such cases in the past. https://www.arrl.org/news/glenn-baxter-ex-k1man-sk-engaged-in-protracted-enforcement-battle-with-fcc https://www.arrl.org/news/glenn-baxter-ex-k1man-sk-engaged-i... https://www.arrl.org/news/radio-amateur-to-pay-7-000-face-restricted-privileges-to-settle-fcc-interference-case https://www.arrl.org/news/radio-amateur-to-pay-7-000-face-re... https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/DA-15-1375A1.pdf https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/DA-15-1375A1.pdf

MandieD 3y ago

Non-hams when they see an FCC enforcement action against a ham behaving badly (a “lid”): “isn’t that a bit much? Maybe it was an honest mistake…” Hams: “Good, serves him right. Jerk knew exactly what he was doing.” (and anyone with a US 1x3 callsign is hardly a newb who just got their Technician license) 73, KI5UKQ / DL4AD

1827163 3y ago
Absolutely ridiculous. That makes me want nothing to do with the hobby, period. These hams are behaving like animals with a dominance hierarchy. With "newbs" and status in that hierarchy based on license class / callsign. And reacting aggressively, completely out of proportion, to outsiders who intrude on their territory. Akin to a dog with behavioral issues. This attitude in amateur radio is so common, we are supposed to be better than that. Many years ago I built a high voltage power supply to drive a metal halide or sodium lamp from batteries, and one of my coworkers who was a radio ham, was threatening me that I could get fined thousands for interfering with amateur radio. That was my direct experience, and I have heard this kind of thing happening so many times to others. It's always the hams making the bulk of complaints to the authorities, as well. And if I remember correctly it's actually tying up FCC resources...
- rolph 3y ago
  i was a member of a ham club for a brief span. you are describing many of the reasons i walked away and went solo.
  - 1827163 3y ago
    Makes you want to use powerline Ethernet for everything, which happens to stomp on the HF radio bands. Perfectly legal to install and use, a nice replacement for all those trailing cables. Yes, civil disobedience is how these draconian rules get changed, assuming everyone does it. Notice ham antennas down the road? Then get some powerline Ethernet adapters, ensure they are fully regulatory approved for the country you are in. And that is perfectly legal civil disobedience too, which is likely to cause utter hell for that amateur operator, who likely supports this draconian punishment for such a trivial matter.
    - 1827163 3y ago
      Even better if some product came onto the market, that used wideband powerline communications for its functioning, and practically everyone's got one. I think some electric car chargers might do so in the future. That would not go down well with amateurs, at all! When everyone down the street would have, in effect, legal jammers. MaxLinear have some nice ones, complete with datasheet, it also works in MIMO mode, not for just powerline but pretty much anywhere. https://www.maxlinear.com/document/index?id=23257&languageid=1033&type=Datasheet&partnumber=88LX5152&filename=88LX5152_88LX5153.pdf&part=88LX5152 https://www.maxlinear.com/document/index?id=23257&languageid... Update: I think solar inverters are causing big problems here already, so it's only a matter of time now as they become increasingly popular. So we can kiss those amateur radio enthusiasts and their utterly draconian punishments goodbye in the long term. https://hfdxarc.com/technical-pages/how-to-reduce-electromagnetic-interference-in-solar-power-systems/ https://hfdxarc.com/technical-pages/how-to-reduce-electromag... https://www.pa9x.com/how-the-replacement-of-solar-panel-micro-inverters-lead-to-50-db-less-qrm/ https://www.pa9x.com/how-the-replacement-of-solar-panel-micr...
      - 1827163 3y ago
        It's been like this already, for quite some time (!), at lest here in the UK, VDSL2 to thank for that: https://rsgb.org/main/technical/emc/vdsl-interference-reporting/ https://rsgb.org/main/technical/emc/vdsl-interference-report... So it's already being jammed, with the noise floor going up, although not to the point of being unusable.
    - 3y ago

curiousfab 3y ago

There were many such cases in the past. https://www.arrl.org/news/glenn-baxter-ex-k1man-sk-engaged-in-protracted-enforcement-battle-with-fcc https://www.arrl.org/news/glenn-baxter-ex-k1man-sk-engaged-i... https://www.arrl.org/news/radio-amateur-to-pay-7-000-face-restricted-privileges-to-settle-fcc-interference-case https://www.arrl.org/news/radio-amateur-to-pay-7-000-face-re... https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/DA-15-1375A1.pdf https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/DA-15-1375A1.pdf