FCC Proposes to Fine Ohio Radio Amateur for Malicious Interference, Failure to Identify

Wonder if he's into a little HF QRM too?

http://qrznow.com/fcc-proposes-to-f...r-malicious-interference-failure-to-identify/

08/20/2015

The FCC has proposed levying an $8000 fine on a Cincinnati, Ohio, radio amateur, Daniel R. Hicks, KB8UYZ, who, at one point, had volunteered to track down the interference he was causing on a number of primarily VHF repeaters. In a Notice of Apparent Liability for Forfeiture (NAL) released on August 20, the FCC Enforcement Bureau asserted that Hicks intentionally interfered with other Amateur Radio operators’ communications and failed to identify properly. According to the NAL, an agent from the Bureau’s Detroit office first responded to multiple complaints of interference on various repeaters in April 2014.



“The agent, working with a local amateur group which included Mr Hicks, was unable to locate the source of the transmission,” recounted the NAL, signed by FCC District Director James Bridgewater. Nearly a year later, in response to continued interference complaints, an agent from the Bureau’s Detroit office returned to the Cincinnati area to take another crack at finding the source of the transmissions.

“This time, the agent did not advise the local Amateur Radio group that he was in the area,” the NAL stated. “The agent used mobile direction-finding techniques to locate the source of the transmissions to…the address of record for Mr Hicks’ amateur station, KB8UYZ.”

ARRL Great Lakes Division Vice Director Tom Delaney, W8WTD, in his role as a spokesperson for the Greater Cincinnati Local Interference Committee, said at first the interference, which began in early 2014, was a nuisance, but later turned obscene and racist. He said his group was able to track the signals to a particular neighborhood, but group members were surprised to learn who was behind the interference.

“We did not know, until the FCC actually caught him, who it was,” Delaney told ARRL. “We had our suspicions. We were very close to finding the source but were not quite there, but that helped the FCC.” He said Hicks employed a “sophisticated” synthesized voice and very short transmissions across several repeaters to make him difficult to pin down.

According to the NAL, the agent monitored transmissions emanating from Hicks’ station for about an hour and heard the station transmit several recorded messages. “These transmissions prevented other amateur licensees from communicating over the frequency,” the NAL said. “During the monitoring period, the agent did not hear Mr Hicks transmit his assigned call sign. The transmissions used the call sign of another licensee.” Delaney said the holder of that call sign had no idea why Hicks used it.

The FCC said it has determined that the evidence in the case was sufficient to establish that Hicks caused willful and malicious interference and failed to identify using his assigned call sign.

The Commission proposed a base forfeiture of $7000 for causing malicious interference and $1000 for failing to identify properly. Hicks has 30 days to pay the fine or to seek a reduction or cancellation of the proposed fine.

 

Great to see a continuing effort by the FCC to crack down on these rogue operators! Much appreciated.

 

Agreed

 

This appears to have been a very smooth operation. I would love to see the offender pay a fine large enough to cover the cost of his detection - that would be justice, IMHO.

 

Too bad it took over a year to take care of this guy. What's weird is the article says, "the group was able to track the signals to a particular neighborhood". QRZ would show how many hams were in that neighborhood. There couldn't have been more than one or two.

 

They need to get their asses to NYC...can't even use most repeaters without some type of idiot out there doing something.

 

I have a bad mouth never on the air but what he was putting out I was afraid to turn my radio on in the car with my kids I took the radio out of the car for awhile so I wouldn't turn it on the fine should be alot more and take his call away my son was upset becouse he was working on getting his ticket and was not aloud to listen

 

Hopefully they come to Los Angeles, CA as well. A lot of revenue could be picked up here as well.

 

It's good to see them working on catching these jack-holes and getting them off the air. Not only does it tick me off that the guy had the nerve to do what he did, it also ticks me off because this sort of thing makes the rest of us look worse in the public eye when stuff like this hits the media.

It really doesn't make sense when you think about it. This moron spent time and effort acquiring an amateur radio license, then spent hundreds or even thousands of dollars on radio gear, just so he could go on the air and act like a toddler having a tantrum? It makes no sense at all.

 

I personally was involved in a situation within the last 10 months where the op that was creating the problem was also a member of the DF team. Talk about leading you down the primrose path. A small, tight knit team is the what's needed to root them out. The less involved, oftentimes the better. And tell no one of the work in progress. Otherwise, it will leak out.

 

Um. they have numerous times over the years... Seen little change in improvement. Don't think it will for the foreseeable future either.

 

Why would they first assume it was someone with a licence?

 

Probably because he obviously did know amateur procedures well enough to activate so many repeaters, many of which I would assume used CTCSS tones, DCS codes or such. Unlicensed rogue operators usually manage to interfere with only one or two untoned machines, assuming they can even get the offsets right to get into them at all. Many of the more expensive radios automatically set the offsets, but inexpensive Chinese radios do not. It would be a rare bird who spent a lot of money to just fool around.

Also, he must have been using more power than a handheld radio puts out- otherwise he'd simply have been overridden unless he was really close to the repeater, thanks to the FM capture effect. It would be impossible to be that close to many machines at a time. It all pointed to a base station with a good antenna, not some yahoo with an HT.

 

Good.

What more is there to say after all?

 

According to his QRZ lookup, he's been licensed since 1993. The page has a photo of him at Arecibo, the famous radio telescope, in Puerto Rico. But apparently the interference only started in the winter of 14. So, you have a guy who has been a good boy for 20 years and then he suddenly starts jamming repeaters with obscene and racist content. Some switch flipped in his head. The guy likely needs psychiatric help. I hope he gets it.