Florida Utility Cited

ARRL - FCC Cites Florida Utility for Interference to Amateur (http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2006/06/08/1/?nc=1)

FCC Cites Lakeland Electric (http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DOC-265672A1.pdf)

The Citation dated May 16 formally notified the offending utility that it was causing harmful interference, and stated that devices causing harmful interference must cease operating, and gave the utility 14 days to reply.

It's been over a month now. What happened?

Did the utility shut off the power in Lakeland Florida, because of this ham complaint?? Or did the interference get resolved? Or did the utility company wiggle out of it somehow?

No follow-up news on the ARRL site as far as I can tell, since the original story.

[ka0gkt]

I did a quick search on the FCC web site and sorted the results by date. #Nothing new there yet. #Here's a link to the citation: #-LINK- (http://www.fcc.gov/eb/FieldNotices/2003/DOC-265672A1.html)

IIRC, the utility has 14 days from the receipt of the citation; usually sent via certified mail, return receipt, there can be a few days lag from the date printed upon the citation and the day the letter recipient signed for the certified letter. The 14-days, ibeliece, begin on the date the receipt was signed.

Nevertheless, you are correct, the commission should have received Lakeland Electric's reply by this time. If they haven't, it does take a little while to put together a NAL (Notice of Apparant Liability) and fine the utility, so this probably means we must tune in tomorrow for the latest.

73 DE KAØGKT/7

--Steve

[KA4DPO]

Florida Plunder and Loot is notorius for interference. Salt and crud build up on high voltage insulators causing arcing has been a problem in Fl for years and FPL has only recently begun cleaning them. They don't do this to reduce interference, they do it to save money form lost power bleeding out on the insulators.