Back when the only way to get into ham radio was build your own and know Morse code, my wife's uncle built a radio. He and his wife began working and studying for their license. When they tested, the uncle barely passed and got his license. His wife, on the other hand, ended up with a radio tech or some such license that was the next step up from her husband! Made him mad and he never used his radio! Big dumba$$!
First "big-boy" job, knowing Morse Code had just been dropped as a job requirement. Lot's of the oldtimers still used it. I found it fascinating, but not fascinated enough to learn it. Youthful and didn't care! 😖
I got a question.... if a guy was to buy a radio and just start keyin up and blabbing.... who is gonna show up at his door to arrest or fine him?
This has been 25 years ago so I don’t know about today. But we were all into CB’s and used them while coyote hunting and had home bases. There were getting to be so much skip from Mexico and California we all got radios that went down to 26.000 MHz and we were all running amplifiers. One night a ham radio operator got on there and ask us if we had a license and let us know we were not in compliance. We wasn’t hateful to him but we didn’t quit so in about a month here come the letters in the mail from the FCC saying what channels we were supposed to be on and how many watts we were supposed to be running which I think was 5 watts and some of us were running 2000 watt transitor amplifiers and were bleeding across all frequencies if they were close enough. They said we had 30 days to comply, non of us returned the letter saying we got rid of everything but it did scare us enough we went back to CB channels and got rid of the amplifiers. I still have a Uniden base up and don’t turn it all much but there isn’t much skip coming in anymore. Most of the CBers are dead and most of the Ham operators are dying off also.
I got a question.... if a guy was to buy a radio and just start keyin up and blabbing.... who is gonna show up at his door to arrest or fine him?
Nobody. All the talk from hams saying that you'll get prosecuted is BS. There's never been a private individual using ham frequencies without a license fined or jailed, except for a few individuals that pirated channels and broadcast for profit.
Nonsense.
Any actions taken by the fcc is public record subject to foia request. There are no records of fines or prosecution ever being handed out.
I got a question.... if a guy was to buy a radio and just start keyin up and blabbing.... who is gonna show up at his door to arrest or fine him?
Nobody. All the talk from hams saying that you'll get prosecuted is BS. There's never been a private individual using ham frequencies without a license fined or jailed, except for a few individuals that pirated channels and broadcast for profit.
Nonsense.
Any actions taken by the fcc is public record subject to foia request. There are no records of fines or prosecution ever being handed out.
You apparently haven't searched very far. About three minutes on the internet produced these examples....
Normally these issues are not criminally prosecuted. Rather, they are handled as a civil case. Fines can and do happen.
Besides that, hams worked hard to get their licenses and are very intolerant of intruders operating without meeting the standard. No ham will talk to an unlicensed operator, and, in fact, will diligently seek out unlicensed operators and report them to the FCC.
Hams bitching about truckers radios is my first thought when the topic arises. Not my outlaw setup either, just guys running barefoot with a good radio is enough to rub "Special" guys raw.
There are some of so old that we remember when 11 meters was taken away from the hams, and given to CB. That kind of got the relationship off to a bad start for some.
Gotcha. Bet there were a lot more back in the 90s.
And I get it, They spent money and time to get set up, and some big mouth trucker comes along stepping on them.
Parents who say they have good kids..Usually don't!
Back when the only way to get into ham radio was build your own and know Morse code, my wife's uncle built a radio. He and his wife began working and studying for their license. When they tested, the uncle barely passed and got his license. His wife, on the other hand, ended up with a radio tech or some such license that was the next step up from her husband! Made him mad and he never used his radio! Big dumba$$!
First "big-boy" job, knowing Morse Code had just been dropped as a job requirement. Lot's of the oldtimers still used it. I found it fascinating, but not fascinated enough to learn it. Youthful and didn't care! 😖
My father was 12 years old in 1932. He built a ham radio out of AM radios. The FCC model A ford with directional antenna showed up in his driveway. My father must have been bleeding morse code into the wrong frequencies.
By the time I was 12, all I could morse code was SOS: --- _ _ _ ---
And I was not building any radios.
There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man; true nobility is being superior to your former self. -Ernest Hemingway The man who makes no mistakes does not usually make anything.-- Edward John Phelps
We had a local sand and gravel company that got seriously pinged for running their truck communications unlicensed on the bottom end of the 10 meter amateur band, i.e., CB radios tweaked to operate outside the 11 meter band.
Technically, it's not a fine, but civil liability. Adjust your Google search accordingly, using Notice of Apparent Liability. There are many examples of people being fined for unlicensed transmissions.
If you think the illegal transmissions are never tracked and that the offenders never pay a price, you are living in a fantasy world.
You keep listing instances of people interfering with governmental operations or people that kept on continually abusing and blocking repeaters. Not a single person has been fined or jailed for just transmitting on ham frequencies. Besides, all ham call signs are public info. It's easy to pick a random one and use it.
Here, this dude explains it better. He pisses off all the ham guys. How dare someone enjoy radio without paying the extortion fee and passing a test like you had to.
You keep listing instances of people interfering with governmental operations or people that kept on continually abusing and blocking repeaters. Not a single person has been fined or jailed for just transmitting on ham frequencies. Besides, all ham call signs are public info. It's easy to pick a random one and use it.
Apparently, you are not willing to read and understand what is put before you.
Of course, you can just pick a callsign off QRZ.com, but if you imagine that your deception will work for long, you are living in a fantasy world.
Besides that, hams worked hard to get their licenses and are very intolerant of intruders operating without meeting the standard. No ham will talk to an unlicensed operator, and, in fact, will diligently seek out unlicensed operators and report them to the FCC.
