Unlicensed KG6IRO havoc

[wi6re]

Southern California has been plagued by Jack Gerritsen of Bell, Ca. (ex KG6IRO) with persistent broadcasts of political diatribes against the government and any ham operator that turns off a repeater to prevent his unlicensed and illegal activities. Jack is a very angry individual who has actually served prison time for jamming the CHP. The FCC impotent response seems to indicate that they do not have the power to reign in someone who spends his entire day from 7 AM to 9 PM switching from repeater to repeater and playing his recorded "messages" and trying to engage in conversations even though he is unlicensed. I am a person of faith, so I am offering a prayer for deliverance not only for Jack Gerritsen but also for the amateur community. Please join me in prayer for this situation. Ed Tipler, WA6KYZ

[ad5td]

Sounds like it's time for a "Blanket Party" on him AND his equipment! http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/mad.gif

[AG3Y]

The story is told of the great Evangelist Dwight L. Moody, who was aboard a ship that was sinking in the middle of the ocean. Several people recognized him and came rushing up to him, asking him to organize a "prayer session" to keep the boat from sinking. His response was a classic. My paraphrase is as close as I can remember the exact quote:

Gentlemen, sometimes it is time to pray, and other times, it is time to grab the buckets. I believe that now it is time for us to grab the buckets!

73 from Jim AG3Y

[kc0ebm]

Ed,

I hope you have filed an official complaint with the FCC. #He is indeed a repeat offender with a history of unlicensed operations that have resulted in FCC sanctions.

Make sure the FCC is fully apprised of his continued unlicensed operations. #Document as many occurrences as possible.

Please discourage your friends if any of them suggests taking matters into their own hands. #Two wrongs don't make a right. #Its illegal, and its dangerous! #Let the FCC do their job. #

Thanks for not overlooking this illegal behavior. #Its up to amateurs to help police the bands. #Thanks for taking your responsible role seriously.

Best of luck

73

KCØEBM

[W3MIV]

I have seen this Gerritsen bozo's name in a few references in FCC sources. I suspect they may be giving him enough rope, so to speak.

And his name's not Author, it's Edward. http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

The way to 'assist' the FCC in reining in this scofflaw is quite simple.

1) The repeater owners MUST send him a letter instructing him to 'cease, desist, and no longer use the repeater under control of (fill in the name of the repeater owner/sponsor) and sign it with the official name/title of that person.

Then send it to him registered, return receipt requested.

Once that is done and you get the receipt back.. IF he appears on the machine, have the control ops notify him that he has been advised NOT to use the repeater. Then write an OFFICIAL complaint to Riley including a copy of the 'cease and desist' letter with a copy of the return receipt note.

Include a summary statement of facts concerning his refusal to NOT abide by the letter AND he has forced you to shut off the machine which deprives those who use it from using it.

Request Riley's help in dealing wtih this problem.

As recent FCC Enforcement actions will so prove, Riley CAN, and WILL, send a letter to him advising him OFFICIALLY that he is to 'cease and desist' from using the machine.

Build up ENOUGH of these (and you can if he's as bad as is represented here) and he will QUICKLY force the FCC to impose stronger sanctions such as modifying his Grant (that's a ham ticket to you and I) which will PRECLUDE him from operating on 2M.

So.. write the letter, send it. build the case.

GO GET 'EM!

73

CHuck K3FT
(and before anyone says something about it.

(Yes, it's LEGAL for a Club to require that folks NOT use THEIR property)

[k7dlx]

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (K3FT @ April 13 2004,10:30)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">Build up ENOUGH of these (and you can if he's as bad as is represented here) and he will QUICKLY force the FCC to impose stronger sanctions such as modifying his Grant (that's a ham ticket to you and I) which will PRECLUDE him from operating on 2M. (bolding by K7DLX)[/QUOTE]<span id='postcolor'>
Chuck:

All well and good - but what you and others not out here in Paradise don't know is that this guy LOST his license many years ago for various and sundry offenses.

He re-applied about a year ago (IIRC), was granted the IRO call, then as quickly as it was granted, it was revoked. He has no valid license!

He has served jail time for his offenses already. As part of his probation he has agreed not to own any transmitting equipment, so this part of his probationary agreement has apparently been smashed against the rocks.

We need help and we need it now. Registered letters are not the answer. Quick and swift FCC response is. We need to record this guy and start sending cassettes to Riley en masse so he can see the extent of the problem.

Richard
K7DLX
ex: W7WWB

[k6pme]

Hmm...Granted, the FCC is the ultimate jurisdictional authority here, but it seems to me that with his prior conviction's that a local agency would be able to do something.

I believe that I read something recently that this indivdual has a charge pending in addition to his prior conviction. Something about transmitting illegally (trespassing and non-licensed) from the roof of the courthouse.

If this is the same person then I'm sure that his days a numbered.

*******Edit******
I found it. Seems he was just released from jail last month.


Jail Term Enforces Temporary Radio Silence on Former Amateur
NEWINGTON, CT, Feb 27, 2004--All's quiet on the Western Front--at least for the time being. Now that former amateur licensee Jack Gerritsen, ex-KG6IRO, of Bell, California, is back behind bars until March 24, Los Angeles-area Amateur Radio repeater owners and law enforcement agencies are breathing a short sigh of relief. Hams and police have long complained to the FCC that Gerritsen has been illegally transmitting on repeaters using the ham radio call sign he'd held for about a week in 2001 and has been jamming public safety transmissions.

Some two dozen amateurs and a handful of law officers were on hand to see Gerritsen get his day in federal court February 23 on a relatively minor charge that he ignored a posted entryway to the courthouse roof--reportedly with a portable transceiver and extra batteries in hand. Federal Judge Carolyn Turchin said the battery pack, wrapped in black electrical tape, looked like a possible bomb to the officers who arrested him.

Gerritsen received the maximum penalty on the trespassing charge--30 days in jail and a $2500 fine plus court costs. If he doesn't pay up by May 15, the government will impose a real estate lien against Gerritsen's house. Many members of the amateur community had written Turchin regarding Gerritsen's alleged on-the-air behavior. Turchin apologized to the amateurs because she could not take their unsolicited letters into consideration for the trespassing case. She did forward them to federal probation officials handling Gerritsen's case, however.

Amateurs and law officers--some of them also amateur licensees--remain unhappy at the slow pace of progress in prosecuting Gerritsen on the radio interference-related allegations, however. Some sheriff's deputies claimed this week that Gerritsen only recently had transmitted on public safety frequencies. Amateur repeater owners already are in the habit of shutting down their machines altogether when transmissions they attribute to Gerritsen start up.

The FCC pulled Gerritsen's Technician ticket only a few days after granting it in 2001 after learning that he'd been convicted the previous year in state court of interfering with Los Angeles Police Department radio transmissions. The FCC also had heard complaints from amateurs that Gerritsen was operating without a license and causing malicious interference on numerous repeaters. Gerritsen has told ARRL that the FCC had no right to take away his ham radio license without affording him a hearing, and he considers himself to still be a licensee. FCC administrative procedures permit the Commission to rescind a license grant within 30 days without a hearing, however.

Last fall, the FCC also set aside Gerritsen's General Mobile Radio Service (GMRS) license, basing the action on what it described as &quot;continuing unlicensed operation and complaints of deliberate interference from transmitters you operate.&quot;

The next steps for the FCC are a forfeiture proceeding and criminal prosecution, although it can take months--even years--before such cases ever go to court. A Hearing Designation Order for Gerritsen already is slowly working its way through the FCC bureaucracy. Gerritsen's Amateur Radio and GMRS applications have reverted to pending status. FCC Special Counsel for Enforcement Riley Hollingsworth has told Gerritsen that the FCC will make the GMRS application part of the record when it holds a hearing on his amateur application to determine if Gerritsen is qualified to be a Commission licensee. In such a hearing, the burden of proof is on Gerritsen.

The FCC alleges that when Gerritsen was paroled after serving one year of a five-year sentence for earlier radio-related violations, he resumed operating and caused deliberate interference to numerous amateur repeaters as well as to public safety radio systems. In May 2002, Gerritsen was sentenced to three years in prison--with credit for good behavior, work time and time already served--but he was released early due to jail overcrowding, Hollingsworth said.

Hollingsworth says the FCC investigation into Gerritsen continues, but patience on the part of the amateur repeater owners and law enforcement agencies is starting to wear very thin. Hollingsworth has expressed his own frustration that Gerritsen was released from prison with no conditions or restrictions on possession or use of radio equipment, &quot;which is what he was in there for in the first place.&quot;

&quot;We are doing what we can, commensurate with the responsibilities of a very small FCC office having to cover a lot of real estate,&quot; Hollingsworth told one frustrated member of the law enforcement community who expressed disappointment in the FCC's lack of action. &quot;We'll all be glad when this is taken care of.&quot;

[W3MIV]

Alas, that's not the way the law works. Step outside the proper procedures and you just give a clever defense attorney the means to get it all thrown out.
Scumbags have an easier row to hoe than do law enforcement officers, at any level.

[n5tjd]

What a complete and total idiot. What is he trying to prove? What does he hope to gain? Why would anyone purposely interfere with anyone's transmissions? Well, I'm glad he seems to only be on VHF and 1000 miles away, though I feel sorry for you guys who have to put up with him.

[k6pme]

Easy on that California stuff there 4ep.......Not EVERYONE here is a violent gang-banger. http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

This guy is nothing more than a common ordinary criminal that happens to know how to use an amateur band transmitter. He definately is not a ham or ever was. More than likely he is suffering from some sort of mental illness as he has done time twice now yet he continues to violate the law.

Look carefully at his past record and now his current antics. These are not the actions of a normal rational person. He's only been out of jail 20 days and the original post doesn't state when he started this time around.

[KG6SOF]

As a SoCal HAM I have had my numbers of runins with IRO. He operates a triband handheld to play his little pre-recorded messages and he goes away if people igrore him. The problem is people dont ignore him, and he loves there comments hand in most cases they are far worse than the trouble IRO causes.
The FCC does know all about the problem but in order to act apon IRO they will have to act on all of the other &quot;HAMS&quot; that provoke him and taunt him when he acts up.
Iro has reclently spent jail time for some of his radio actions, mainly getting on the roof of a fedrial building (Court House) to use his hand held. He was charged with unlawfull access to a restricted area and allso for carring a device that looked like a &quot;Bomb&quot;, the &quot;Bomb&quot; was a homemade rechargable battry pack for the handheld that looked like &quot;Sticks of dynomite&quot;.
IRO's time will come, but to look apon AI4EP's comment, Would you lower yourself to the Tweaker CB'er level and go have a radio linchmob pound on a door of a person that is being watched by many local and fedral agencies hopeing to catch him on someting bigger than a 10day in city Jail charge?
If eveyone would just pretend not to hear him he will go away, or atleast slow down. Just my 2c on the problem

[ka4rkt]

ARRL site has 13 hits on him in the &quot;enforcement&quot; section, including the latest

He had been *previously*jailed for this.


&quot;Jail Term Enforces Temporary Radio Silence on Former Amateur

NEWINGTON, CT, Feb 27, 2004--All's quiet on the Western Front--at least for the time being. Now that former amateur licensee Jack Gerritsen, ex-KG6IRO, of Bell, California, is back behind bars until March 24, Los Angeles-area Amateur Radio repeater owners and law enforcement agencies are breathing a short sigh of relief....&quot;
(http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2004/02/27/101/)

and more of his exploits here-
http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2003/09/02/100/

or the latest FCC action --

&quot;Mr. Jack Gerritson
[address deleted]
Bell, CA 90201


RE: Set Aside of Amateur Radio Technician license KG6IRO

Dear Mr. Gerritson:

The Wireless Telecommunications Bureau has notified the Enforcement Bureau that it has, on its own motion, set aside your license pursuant to Section 1.113 of the Commission's rules, 47 C.F.R. Section 1.113. That action was taken November 14, 2001, and is based upon complaints about the operation of your station and questions regarding your qualifications to be a licensee that are raised by your 1999 arrest and 2000 conviction for radio interference to police communications.

Your application reverts to a pending status and the complaints and conviction information have been referred to the Enforcement Bureau for evaluation. We will contact you after review.

In view of the action by the Wireless Bureau, you have no authority to operate radio transmitting equipment, and such operation would be a violation of Section 301 of the Communications Act of 1934, as amended, 47 U. S.C. Section 301, subjecting you to monetary penalties and imprisonment.


Please feel free to call me at 717-338-2502 if you have any questions about this matter. &quot;


Some of the fcc letters of actions taken against folks like this are scary--some mention multiple prison terms with the folks STILL getting on the ham bands and police freqs when they get back out! Some of the actions have federal officials recommending psychiatric treatment to help curb repeat attempts. Read through the fcc actions some time -- there are *several* bozos like him out there that keep at over and over again.

Most make K1MAN seem like a girl scout in comparison.

Scary!

[kc0ebm]

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (ai4ep @ April 13 2004,19:40)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/wow.gif well...obviously #no one is going to actually DO any thing but gripe , and complain; no change from years ago. #He knows what #no one will do. So he has no worries. He does not have to worry about any one confronting him.It is not YOUR repeater he is on, it belongs to some one else. # He is not forcing the others to transmit, they are doing it on their own. #Blaming them is not the solution, merely an excuse. If as much time was spent solving the problem as is wasted in these posts, you would have eliminated the problem. So get to work. Now............................ ( no, wait for some one else to do something, you just sit by, after all it appears every one else is. ... every one DO nothing. Just sit in front of your computer and gripe. #That is the EASY way out. # http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif[/QUOTE]<span id='postcolor'>
AI4EP

So EP....what have YOU done lately? Violations don't seem to bother YOU much. I've heard you many times on a notorious 75 meter frequency. I've even heard you defend them on the air.

In my humble opinion, you've got absolutely NO justification for jumping down ANYBODY'S throat for doing nothing, especially regarding enforcement issues.

Honestly, my friend, I've read nearly every post that you've written since I've become active on this site, and quite frankly, you are all over the map. Its impossible to pin you down on anything at all, especially when it comes to enforcement issues. Your credibility, at least with me, is thin at best.

Just what ARE your core values with regard to enforcement? What are YOU willing to contribute?

No matter if, or how, you respond to those questions, I think it is totally innapropriate and down right irresponsible to even suggest that ANYBODY should take the law into their own hands against this, or any other violator.

It is of the utmost importance that amateurs act responsibly, especially when engaged in enforcement. Merely suggesting vigilante justice is NOT acting responsibly.

Sorry to have to be so blunt about it.

Tom

[ai4ep]

http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif ...hey...less than 5 watts to talk from Alabama to Illionois...with a g5rv for an antenna...not bad !! Thanks for the signal report!! ...(lol)...---ai4ep--- http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/tounge.gif

[ai4ep]

http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif Hey, if he knows that much about ME, just imagine what he knows about each of the other folks who post here ( even on other threads )....oops ! http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/wow.gif ---ai4ep---

[kc0ebm]

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (ai4ep @ April 14 2004,07:02)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif Hey, if he knows that much about ME, just imagine what he knows about each of the other folks who post here ( even on other threads )....oops ! http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/wow.gif #---ai4ep---[/QUOTE]<span id='postcolor'>
The paranoids are out to GET you, Bob! http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/confused.gif

[ai4ep]

http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif That is okay,I do not mind. Maybe the FCC will be with them. They have already been to Alabama once this year, might be time for a visit to another state...... 73 ---ai4ep---

[kc0ebm]

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (ai4ep @ April 14 2004,17:35)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif # That is okay,I do not mind. Maybe the FCC will be with them. #They have already been to Alabama once this year, might be time for a visit to another state...... 73 ---ai4ep---[/QUOTE]<span id='postcolor'>
I hope they come to Iowa. It would save me a lot of postage. http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/tounge.gif

EBM

[ai4ep]

http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif PRAISE the LORD !! http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif

[kc0ebm]

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (ai4ep @ April 14 2004,22:04)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif PRAISE the LORD !! http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif[/QUOTE]<span id='postcolor'>
Three empty words and a nickel will get you a stick of gum http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/confused.gif

Do not forget to write your anti-BPL letters,
encourage new amateur radio participation and generally be nice
to one another. That is all.

[wb6bcn]

Unless you have heard IRO you have no way to understand the way he gets at people. #Unfortunatly too many people are short fused, #and he feeds on short fuses. #He considers onyone that has the nerve to talk over his transmissions as a jammer. #

I have heard him in action, #and have isssued cautions to others not to talk to or about him. #I wish everyone else would take this course of action. #The more comments you direct to or about him, #the worse things get.

He keeps insisting that &quot;I am a duly licensed Radio Amatuer and my call sign is KG6IRO&quot;. #If anyone points out to someone not knowing the situation that he is not licensed, #he goes into a disertation that isn't very nice, #and then tells that person to &quot;Shutup and get off the frequency&quot;.

Today, #May 26, 2004 he was on one repeater non-stop from 6:AM until after 11:AM when the control operator disabled it.

To add insult to injury, #if anyone suggest calling the FCC, #his response, #as of today, #&quot;Go ahead, #Call Riley. #He won't call back. #Last time I talked to him he said there were over 1,000 complaints lodged against me&quot;

My advise to anyone that hears him &quot;TURN TO ANOTHER FREQUENCY, #OR TURN THE RADIO OFF&quot;!!!!

************************

I was thinking of a way to say it when I made the post, but better late than never.

He does his level best to make other people get on his level.