ad: TinyPaddle-1

San Jacinto Radio Ham arrested

Discussion in 'Amateur Radio News' started by G4TUT/SK2022, May 3, 2010.

Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.
ad: L-HROutlet
ad: l-rl
ad: L-MFJ
ad: abrind-2
ad: Left-2
ad: Left-3
ad: Radclub22-2
  1. W6EM

    W6EM Ham Member QRZ Page

    Like someone already said, in a population just short of 700,000, you are going to have some odd ones. Yes, amateur radio, as I've said before, IS an attractant to whackers. Like mothballs to moths.

    What you said was a quote from Riley Holllingsworth of the FCC at Dayton a few years back and at a Florida hamfest prior to that.

    Over the years, amateur radio has been an avocation to an infamous hacker, child molesters, a master spy, and at least one murderer.

    On the other hand, I don't believe that people attracted to licensure by the technical side of the hobby or by DX did so to get close to public safety.....one way or the other. Notoriety as of late seems to come to those first having a fixation on law enforcement activity, and then becoming amateur operators. One toted a gun. This one picked up a microphone.

    Perhaps psychological profiling of applicants is not far off.
     
  2. N1DVJ

    N1DVJ Ham Member QRZ Page

    Probably as evidence to build a profile for prosecution. In legality, probably not much different that seizing the scanners.

    in reality, the license means nothing. She can go online and print another. What matters is in the FCC database, right?
     
  3. N1DVJ

    N1DVJ Ham Member QRZ Page

    In a lot of cases, the laws are not written to be radio specific, and I think that's how they get away with it, and it's pretty logical. If a local community were to write a law about RF interference, even with police or public safety, I think that could easily be beat in court. However, when the law is written such that it refers to the operation of police or public saftey, then the method of that interference is seconday, and would probably stand up to appeal.
     
  4. KI4OZG

    KI4OZG Ham Member QRZ Page

    One more gone, many more out there though...
     
  5. KD4AC

    KD4AC QRZ Member

    Give me a break. This kind of thing was taking place long before they dropped the code requirement. I recall someone in San Diego getting popped for playing music over SDPD frequencies and this was in the very early 90s.
     
  6. AE6JM

    AE6JM Ham Member QRZ Page

    I'm still on VHF analog...

    With some agencies of the US government that still have't gone to 800 interoperable systems. I'm waiting for the grants to come in for the Harris 130-900 mhz all mode, all system interoperable HT. By the way, its part of my job.
     
  7. AA1MN

    AA1MN Ham Member QRZ Page

    Actually that is a very good idea, however it looks as though her profile was modified yesterday so I'm willing to bet whatever was on there was pretty darned interesting. Care to fill me - us - in on what was on it?

    Just being nosy actually.

    AA1MN
     
  8. NN3W

    NN3W Ham Member QRZ Page

    And the mugshot...

    [​IMG]
     
  9. WB2WIK

    WB2WIK Platinum Subscriber Platinum Subscriber QRZ Page

    Like mothballs to moths?
     
  10. KJ4NOO

    KJ4NOO Ham Member QRZ Page

    I'm a fairly new ham , less than a year and this stuff just amazes me. Common sense is in short supply these days it seems. Hopefully both these people will get the help that they need, whether it is education , medication , incarceration or a combination of all of these.
     
  11. NN3W

    NN3W Ham Member QRZ Page

    Mothballs in the south are mean critters...
     
  12. WA2WMR

    WA2WMR Ham Member QRZ Page

    [tongue-in-cheek]See what happens when you drop the code requirement[/tongue-in-cheek]

    Is that better?
     
  13. W5HTW

    W5HTW Ham Member QRZ Page

    Lee, first of all, only about half of that 700,000 is in any way active. A good many of them joined amateur radio during the "keep in touch with wifey-FRS" days, and, though they may have renewed their licenses, they don't own a radio and have no interest in it at all. Many others were 'fooled' by ARRL recruitment pamphlets showing the Icom 756 and the tower and beam, about working DX, and when they got the HT and found they were still doing CB just on two meters, they got bored and dropped out. No DX there. Many got the license only because hubby pushed them. One guy on here bragged (??) his wife had held a ticket 12 years and had never transmitted.

    Those are what about 300,000 "hams" are today. Totally inactive, probably don't remember their call signs.

    Of course a few thousand got recruited into the "you can save the world" picture. But they have strapped on the HT and badge and walked around for years, and there just aren't enough emergencies to keep them excited. So they, too, put the HT in the drawer and forgot about it.

    The result is there may be about 350,000 hams to actually, at some point during the year, turn on a radio. Some very rarely, and some very actively, chasing DX, ragchewing, hunting certificates, and the like.

    Nearly half of those 700,000, though, are just license holders. They aren't hams.

    Looking back, concerning criminals with ham licenses. I've been in this a very long time. For many, many years, the FCC license form required one to state whether he or she had ever been arrested for a felony. Civil rights issues caused that to be removed. But there were many years where a felon could not obtain a ham license. It is true, though, a person could get a ham license and then commit a felony. If the FCC found out about it, the license would go to an ALJ and would probably be revoked.

    Another point. Most of the deliberate interference by the very few, percentage wise, hams, was against other hams, even in the 50s and 60s, and well into the 70s. There were virtually no cases of hams interfering with police, aviation, military, fire, etc. And actually there were very few cases of deliberate interference to other hams as well, for the FCC had teeth back then and would indeed pursue the matter. A case in point was W2OY, who was often the subject of FCC action, though I don't believe his license was ever suspended. The simple matter, though, that everyone remembers from that era him, shows how few there were to remember! He was one of perhaps five notorious hams in the 60s. Nationwide.

    Finally, there were some major changes in amateur radio in the 1980s. First, the VE program, which initially was a buddy system. Every dreamy CBer in the country, who had a ham pal, was saying "Hey, gimme a license and I'll fix the carb on your car." And it worked. A lot of money passed under the table. And those hams who got their tickets that way are today's Old Timers, the role models we hear.

    The FCC cracked down on the VE buddy system after just a couple of years, and it became far more honest. Even today the FCC does occasional recalls from suspect sessions. The system still occasionally has problems, and this gal from California may be the result of such. I doubt she has the smarts to really pass any kind of test, other than being able to stand up. But maybe. California and Puerto Rico have continued to have their share of dishonest VE sessions, though the rest of the country seems to be much better.

    The other major change was the move to recruit hams solely for EMCOM purposes, not seeking any interest whatsoever in amateur radio. This has so badly corrupted the hobby it will never recover, and now we are moving toward making it far, far worse, with the AHA and other drills.

    Beginning in the late 1990s, we began the "save your city" promotion. But prior to that time, Lee, in my then 45 years in the hobby, I never met even ONE ham, not ONE, that had joined ham radio just to do emergency communications. They got into amateur radio because it was an interesting hobby, semi-technical, a chance to play with radios. It was fun. Not ONE of them got into the hobby to be a hero.

    Yet they helped. As did I. It was part OF the hobby, not the FOCUS of the hobby. We pitched in and supplied support communications during floods and other disasters. No one joined amateur radio to participate in the emergency communications following the 1964 Alaska earthquake. Hams, already licensed, did that work, when all other communications was down.

    I helped in floods, in tornado spotting, and in other severe weather. I also participated in walkathons, such as the March of Dimes, the Heart Foundation, and the Kidney Foundation. But those were a part of amateur radio, not the reason FOR amateur radio.

    When EMCOM became the reason for a ham license, we lost the real amateur radio. It is gone. It has become a quasi-Part 90 system, and will get worse as the House Bill forces congress to review amateur radio as a support function of "DHS Initiatives." What the hell is a DHS initiative?? It has nothing at all to do with amateur radio. It might be border patrol, or drug interdiction, or airport security. None of those fall under Part 97 radio.

    Yet that is where we are headed with this hobby, to be an extension of the federal goverment communications system.

    I don't think our course can be changed. We are steaming toward the rocks of the reef that will today end amateur radio, and DHS/ARRL is at the helm.



    Ed
     
    Last edited: May 4, 2010
  14. K5CO

    K5CO Ham Member QRZ Page

    legislature

    She sure looks like today's all-American girl. Her current activities are enough for us to know she is qualified for the California legislature; perhaps even higher office.
    And, I don't sell the no-code remark short; a person willing to work hard enough to get it would place some value on the license and privileges. There are a lot more carrier throwers and whistlers trying to interfere with nets this year. It's easy to drift into a Tech ticket now from CB.

    OK, go ahead and jump on that with some California wisdom.
     
  15. K7JEM

    K7JEM Ham Member QRZ Page

    You could get a tech ticket without code starting in 1991. That's almost 20 years ago.

    Joe
     
Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.

Share This Page

ad: Flexradio-1