California Amateur Turns in License; FCC Still Wants Explanation

From the ARRL...



NEWINGTON, CT, May 10, 2001--A California ham has turned in his Technician license in the wake of an FCC inquiry into his involvement in alleged rules violations on a Los Angeles-area repeater. But the FCC has told Gregory S. Cook, ex-KC6USO, of Chico that he must still address the allegations of broadcasting, playing music, and one-way phone patching before he'll be allowed to get another license.





FCC Special Counsel for Amateur Radio Enforcement Riley Hollingsworth wrote Cook earlier this year, citing information that Cook had been party to the transmission of "a lengthy broadcast" in the late evening and early morning hours of February 1 and 2 over the W6NUT repeater in the Los Angeles area.



Hollingsworth also wrote Technician licensee Ted R. Sorensen III, KC6PQW, of Agoura Hills, citing information alleging that Sorenson had acted in concert with Cook, who was hooked in via phone patch while Sorenson facilitated the actual transmission. A similar transmission February 4-5 was said to have featured only Cook, again via phone patch to Sorenson's transmitter, Hollingsworth said.



Cook said he learned of the FCC's February 21 inquiry via the ARRL Web site, which posted a news account on March 2. Responding on March 10, Cook sent the FCC his ham ticket, which was due to expire May 7. Cook said he would agree to not renew his ticket and to stay off the air for a year if the FCC would consider the case closed. Cook said he wanted the option of getting a ham ticket again after the year was up.



Hollingsworth obliged him, but only to a point. In an April 18 letter, He told Cook that the FCC had accepted his license for cancellation and that he could apply for an amateur license after April 18, 2002. But before he reapplied, Hollingsworth said, Cook still would have to "respond satisfactorily" to the allegations outlined in the FCC's February 21 letter. If he failed to do so, Hollingsworth said, "any application you file in the future may be designated for hearing before an Administrative Law Judge to determine if you are qualified to become a licensed amateur."



Hollingsworth said the FCC expects Cook to stay off amateur frequencies "whether by phone patch or at the station of any other amateur licensee."



In a separate reply, Sorenson told Hollingsworth that he intends "to cooperate with you fully and adhere to FCC rules from now on." He suggested that suspension from the W6NUT repeater for a year would be "fair punishment." Sorenson also offered to provide information on other rulebreakers on the W6NUT repeater.



On February 20, Hollingsworth initiated a separate inquiry with the repeater's trustee, Kathryn Tucker, AA6TK. The machine, which has attracted a following of what some observers call "nontraditional" amateur users, also was the radio home of Richard Burton, ex-WB6JAC, now in prison for unlicensed operation, much of it conducted in recent years on the W6NUT repeater.



Hollingsworth told Tucker that the FCC had received complaints that control operators and the repeater licensee "fail to address long periods of jamming by users, broadcasting, music playing as well as a plethora of other violations."



In a lengthy reply, Tucker, who also professed to have learned about the FCC's letter via the news media before receiving the actual copy, said the repeater's owners has not monitored the alleged February episodes involving Cook and Sorenson.



"The policy of the W6NUT repeater is not to attempt to remove unruly operators from its use," Tucker told the FCC. "Indeed there is no authority the owners have to do this, but an extensive educational campaign has been continually conducted since AA6TK and N6TK assumed ownership of W6NUT." Tucker identified her husband, Roy Tucker, N6TK, as the primary control operator of the machine.



Tucker said the W6NUT owners have received "numerous complaints" about the repeater's operation. "The policy is to let them 'go in one ear and out the other'," she told the Commission.