A ham radio operator in Idaho must pay a record $34,000 penalty for causing interference with communications during a fire suppression effort.
A ham radio operator in Idaho must pay a record $34,000 penalty for causing interference with communications during a fire suppression effort.
Toothless against corporations; armed to teeth against good samaritans
You’re not really a good samaritan when you’re using emergency frequencies without authorization. Sounds like he deserves the punishment.
He wasn’t told not to, either!
First and most importantly Mr Frawley holds an “Amateur Extra” license from the FCC. That license class VERY CLEARLY doesn’t allow the license holder to transmit on 151.145 MHz. A person literally has to pass a proctored exam proving that they know this. Since this guy upgraded to Amateur Extra from Tech No-Code that means he passed a second proctored exam proving that he knew what frequencies he was legally allowed to operate on.
Second and equally critical to your comment the fire operations section chief left the scene of the fire, drove to the airstrip and told Frawley to cease operations on the frequency. He got personally and directly told to STFU and obey the law, taking a section chief away from an active firezone.
The guy isn’t some n00b; he’s been licensed for a long time and well knew that what he was doing wasn’t allowed.
Looking at the guys profile page and the article it seems clear that he did this because there were two radio repeaters under threat from the fire, one Amateur VHF and the other his own business band repeater. He had a personal financial interest in trying to get firefighting efforts redirected to protect his property.
Everyone in the Amateur community knows that the FCC will rain breaks on you for doing stuff like this so as an Amateur myself I have very limited sympathy for the predicament that this idiot put himself in.
Licensed operator for 30+ years here. You speak the truth.
Just wondering, what kind of business’s use a radio repeater like that? I had thought most radios were used for airlines, or public services
Do they require you to also take the General class license as a prerequisite for the Extra? When I passed the test for General, they offered to let me take the Extra test but I hadn’t studied for it.
You do still have to pass the General Exam but on his personal page he said that he did both the General and Amateur Extra at the same testing session so I counted them as one…but he did in fact have to pass two.
Yes, you must pass the general exam before taking the amateur extra exam.
Validation downvotes are strong in this community I see.
Fair enough, but financially ruining the guy is a bit much. Do we even know what fate he’s sentenced to? Is it homelessness and death?
By Jove, I think you’re right!