Kevin thanks for the video and the well thought out response. While I admit to prescribing to the capital punishment school of thought most of the time there are occasions like this that call for a measured and firm but friendlier approach. Let's hope the young man chooses to follow the proper pathway and becomes a productive member of the amateur community. Let's also hope his actions are not due to the influence of the CERT leadership. Larry KG4ZAR
It happened to me too. Another ham used my call for about 10 years. I don't want to share details here, so I sent a message to your QRZ e-mail address. Scott
Ive had my call pirated many times in the past on CW and working US and DX stations. It could have just been someone adding or subtracting a dit and coming out as H or deliberate meanness as I was very active in contests and DX chasing. Quite a few QSL's came thru the bureau and were returned as N I L I only heard it once after a phone call and responded to a CQ with one of my old calls......Trolls here get ready to pounce....and then proceeded to lure into a trap while getting the tape recorder set up.....that alone dates it as ancient history. Finally I used my real name and call with an ending blast and resultant silence. Havent heard anything since but Im no longer active in contests and DXing is minimal. Carl
I was a John Banner fan. To bad h I am a John Banner fan. Sad he passed away just two short years after HH was canceled. At least he went from natural causes unlike Bob Crane had his brains beat out of him.
Callsign piracy is a major violation of Part 97 with stiff financial penalties--this is independent (and thus concurrent)from additional felony charges for identity theft that may be state-law related. IOW, do NOT take the law in your own hands. This is serious stuff. The mechanism to use is to file a formal complaint with the FCC. This will turn on targetted monitoring activity, through the VM's and otherwise, which can make the case for Federal charges against the individual. Illegal use of a station license identification is 'actionable' by the FCC. The FCC is heading into major 'zero-tolerance' territory on things that were commonplace for many years-- albeit highly illegal. You know what 'frequencies' I am referring to And the repeaters , for example, are now on the agenda to be scoped by the VM's as follow up to complaints. 73 Chip W1YW
W1YW, Will the FCC start going after those wide, dirty, unfiltered, amplifiers on the HF sections? Especially 40m and 80m? We have done the police our own, but their attitude is "what are you going to do about it" is all we get. N4RRR
While technically you may be correct, the "self-policing" nature of ham radio is really the first line of defense. Self-policing in this case would be to identify the person, and correct his actions. In a case where our efforts are met with resistance, then I would think it should get escalated. The FCC has a miserable track record on this type of thing- but even going back to the 1950's and 60's, people would get a warning (the dreaded "pink slip"), followed by a visit by an FCC field engineer who told someone to "cease and desist" or informed the violator of corrective action they needed to take. It didn't immediately jump to "major violations" - none of which are defined in Part 97. A violation is a violation- there are no degrees of violation in Part 97.
M Marlo, THE FCC's track record is historical. The FCC's present resolve, along with the VM program, is to move forward itdentifying and pursuing intentional violators. We should ABSOLUTELY NOT 'self police' for dealing with criminal activity. This example is criminal activity. Self-policing for minor and unintentional violations is absolutely 'who we are', but you should NEVER track down and confront someone who is using someone else's call. Let the FCC handle it. They will act. 73 Chip W1YW
And you don't know yet if the violation was minor or unintentional. It is BOTH if the kid simply got the callsign wrong, as a result of nerves or whatever. It is very likely at least one, even if the kid purposely just grabbed a random call and got on the air. Myself, I wouldn't report this to the FCC until after I did what KB9RLW is suggesting AND found there to be malicious intent, a resistance to discussion, or repeat activity. While our callsigns are important and their use should be regulated the way it is, a kid doing this just doesn't have enough impact to not try to reach out first. No one's life is at stake, nor is anyone losing money...try to find the kid and talk to him, and report only after that fails.
Don't shoot the messenger Basically the FCC doesnt want us taking things into our own hands. Yiou should check with the FCC, say, the liason Riley, for any clarification. 73 Chip W1YW
People have bootlegged my call sign fairly often. Report it, that's part of your self-policing function, and then ignore it. In 99% of cases, Riley would say "turn the big knob." He also said 99% of 'perceived' enforcement cases are either legal, but possibly annoying, or completely unintentional. At about 4 minutes: 'Read Dave Sumner's article, QST, page 9.... most of the unpleasantness can be avoided if we're willing to be flexible in our frequency selection... turn the big knob, go somewhere else...' At 10 minutes, Riley shows all the rigs with one centrally placed large tuning knob, known as ONE BIG KNOB, and Riley just wants you to turn that knob, most of the time, to avoid 'bad neighborhoods' in ham radio.
