Post by Renae/k9do on Jul 12, 2007 16:30:11 GMT
I know this is long but an interesting read .
FCC FORUM - Remarks by RILEY HOLLINGSWORTH, K4ZDH
Special Counsel, Spectrum Enforcement Division, FCC Enforcement
Bureau Dayton Hamvention 2007
"Well you could have gone to the Flea Market, but you came to CHURCH instead! I've got you now. Thank you for coming to Dayton. Just by your sheer numbers you make the DARA Hamvention one of the most powerful forces in Amateur radio, and it shows that you are serious about it ...and that you care about its future.
By participating in an event such as this you help ensure its future ...you show your numbers and your determination.
I'm not going to go over enforcement updates - there's no need to take up your time on that. You can follow Amateur radio enforcement in the publications- --QST, CQ Magazine, and on the websites of ARRL, RAIN Report, Newsline and now our own FCC webpage by going to FCC.gov and going to the Enforcement Bureau pages. The ARRL web page has a link to that as well.
I want to talk to you about what bothers me most about Amateur Radio ...and I want to give you a homework assignment.
The blatant rule violators ...I think you can see that we are taking care of them - or most of them - on a gradual basis. Current violations are about what we would expect from a service your size.
But what concerns me most is this: You still need to "lighten up." I said that last year but you need to take it to heart more. All of you can learn from each other. And you need to work together more and show a little more respect for your diverse interests and for the service as a whole. It isn't about you. It isn't about enforcement. It's about Amateur radio.
Every time you get on the air, you need to decide what's most important to you ...the best interests of Amateur radio as a whole, or your own pride or ego or "rights". I realize I may be preaching to the choir here, but on the air you need to be more cooperative and less argumentative. And I need you to take this message with you when you go home.
Your homework assignment is to read Dave Sumner's article in May 2007 QST, page 9. I have a couple hundred copies for you and if you can't get one, contact me and I'll scan one to you.
In a nutshell, I have good news and bad news. The good news: nothing is wrong with Amateur radio. It is a good service that is showing its value to the public on a daily basis. Bad news is that there is an element of Amateur radio that too often reflects present society generally. Whatever the phenomenon behind Road Rage - whatever that is - that's what I am talking about. All of you need to work together and depend upon the FCC less to solve your operating problems. We live in a rude, discourteous, profane, hotheaded society that loves its rights, prefers not to hear about its responsibilities, and that spills over in to the Ham bands.
I can't really say it any better than Dave Sumner did in May 2007 QST-Page 9, and your homework assignment is to read it: "Most of the unpleasantness that erupts from time to time on the most popular HF bands can be avoided if we're willing to be flexible in our frequency selection."
I have some messages to all the groups along these lines. But before I get to that, I want to say that a little more kindness would go a long way in your service. Lots of you are like people in a parking lot arguing over a parking space when there are hundreds available. We are all ordinary people, and even on the best days, probably work and think at around 60% efficiency. We are not the greatest nation on earth. We think we are but we aren't and we aren't the greatest people. Look at the evening news for about a week if you don't realize that. And think about what the rest of the world sees going on in America.
What we ARE is this: "We are rude, self important, cell phone yapping, road raging, and stressed out monsters behind the wheel." And all too often behind the microphone. You are increasingly calling upon the FCC too much to solve your problems. Remember: "Most of the unpleasantness that erupts from time to time on the most popular HF bands can be avoided if we're willing to be flexible in our frequency selection."
To all Amateur Radio operators in general: I was looking at a 1968 QST the other day and noticed inside the back cover an ad for Swan transceivers. Some of you might remember the 350 and the 250. These were really state of the art at the time. The 350 has 17 little controls and one big one. The VFO, presumably to make it easy to change frequencies. Now let's go to a 2007 QST magazine and look on the back cover at the Kenwood TS570. It has 46 little controls and knobs, and one big one, the VFO. Look near the back at the ICOM 7800. It has about 75 little controls and buttons, but the real big knob is still the VFO ...presumably to make changes in frequency the easiest function of all!
That's why you are the only service that has thousands of frequencies and hundreds usable at any given time of day or year. It was designed that way to give you alternatives, to have fail safe back up plans and to experiment and lead technology. Even the public safety services don't have thousands of frequencies.
Now some frequencies are like bad neighborhoods. They are being cleaned up but it will take more time and it's just not something that happens overnight. We will get there. Take 14.275 for example. Probably in the future it will be determined that RF radiation does indeed cause brain damage, but ONLY at 14.275. It is a bad neighborhood. Stay away. I get calls every week from the same group of people who went to 14.275 and got abused.
Now if you had 3 alternative streets you could take to work every day but when you used one, you always got a rock thrown at your windshield, wouldn't you decide to take one of the other streets after, say, 5 or 6 windshields? After several windshields the logical question would arise as to who is the biggest fool - you or the person throwing the rocks! Why don't you take the same approach to Amateur Radio?
There are good operators and poor operators, just like everything else in life. There is a Canadian there that Canada considers mainly a fruitcake and doesn't take him seriously. Their Amateur rules are more lax than ours and so are some of their laws. It's an international problem and we can do very little about it. But when you go there and take the bait (And you ALWAYS seem to take the bait!) ...you get into arguments, you make the problem WORSE and you make it an American problem as well and Amateur Radio gets a black eye. There is a bad operator in Italy. too. But these are not problems we can correct.
The other day I was talking to one of the complainants about 14.275 and I asked why he insisted on going there. He said "Well, old (name deleted) likes to talk there and he doesn't have any other antennas". Well, that must be a hell of a precisely cut antenna to only operate on the 20 Meter frequency of 14.275! I heard an argument there the other afternoon and one operator was saying "I'm not going to be driven off the frequency. I got rights!"
The Orientals have a saying about Americans; they say an American will lose butt to save face. Just go somewhere else. The world is ugly enough ...don't add to it. People make mistakes and 90% of interference perceived as deliberate is accidental or at least unintentional. Listen to this complaint we got:
"I've listened all day to a drift net beacon on 75. It's S9 here at home so its probably up or down the Bay. Please make a DF and find it." Now that message came in at 4:57 PM. At 6:29 PM THIS message came in: "You're going to laugh. It was a Linksys five port Ethernet switch in the next room. When I tried to DF it with a selective AM radio I noticed the signal went silent when I left home."
Why do you always assume an offense? Again, "Most of the unpleasantness that erupts from time to time on the most popular HF bands can be avoided if we're willing to be flexible in our frequency selection." Again, in a problem like 14.275, just leave. Report it to us if it is a violation. But just use one of the hundreds of other useable frequencies you have and enjoy radio!
I know of one net that when they get interference they say "OK everyone, go to frequency B." They just remain silent for half hour. It drives the interferer crazy because he can't find them!
As Dave Sumner said in his May article: "It is unfair to your fellow Amateurs to assume every instance of interference you may encounter is a hostile act." Even if it is, the best contribution you can make is to leave and not make it worse. Remember that saying from the 60's: "What if they gave a war and nobody came?" Well, what if they gave an argument on 75 Meters and nobody came? You can help us and help Amateur radio by making this contribution: Don't respond. Don't become the problem. Report it to us, then use the big knob. It is possible that with current society being rude and hotheaded, this is as good as your service can get for a while anyway. That remains to be seen, but defuse problems, don't add heat to them.
We can enforce our rules but we can't enforce kindness and courtesy or common sense. And a very wise person, who happens to be standing to my left (Bill Cross), once told me: "You just can't regulate stupid." If we could, we'd be working for the United Nations instead of the FCC. Now I have specific messages for more of you.
To the Nets: Just because you have been on the same frequency for 75 years, that doesn't mean you own it. All frequencies are shared. If you vary your frequency, or even if you don't have a net one night, the radio world isn't going to end.
To repeater owners: Just because you are coordinated doesn't mean you own the frequency. Coordination is a recommendation, not a frequency assignment. It's your call sign on the repeater and it's your station and your responsibility ...just as if you had left the door open to your station at home. If there is abuse, lock the door. Don't ask us to be baby-sitters or hall monitors of your repeater. That's what control operators are for. Nobody asked you to start a repeater. If you shut it down tomorrow, what would happen? People would use OTHER repeaters!
To the contesters: be more courteous. You are responsible for the frequency you are operating on and realize that's true even when you operate split. All frequencies are shared.
To those who don't like contesters: lighten UP!! Contests are short lived. Use the WARC bands. Wash the car. Cut the grass. Learn from the contesters - and this applies to you Traffic net folks too - learn from the contesters. They pass information a lot faster and more efficiently than you do. Contesters are some of the best radio operators on planet Earth. If the contesters operated at the same pace as some of the emergency traffic nets, the contest would be over after the first few dozen signal strengths were exchanged!
To the widebanders: If you want to be a Broadcaster, apply for a broadcast license. Using extraordinarily wide bandwidth on crowded frequencies at peak operating time is rude, selfish and inconsiderate.
To the QRP'ers: Thank you thank you, thank you for your vitality, inspiration, enthusiasm and for being BUILDERS again! I wish I could take your enthusiasm and spread it over all segments of Amateur radio. When I watch you folks, I see the excitement and magic of my first contact. To those who don't like QRP'ers: Lighten UP. ANYONE can use a linear amplifier as a crutch.
To the rag chew nets: 4 or 5 people meeting on the same frequency every night for 50 years using 1200 watts to talk a few hundred miles when 100 watts would do just fine is not a net. It's an informal roundtable. It ain't going to hurt you either to vary your frequency or skip a night. And the so-called "net" on 75 that bills itself as an "Oasis of Amateur Radio": Give us all a break. You are an ordinary roundtable. And no net is an "Oasis of Amateur radio."
To those of you who don't like DXpeditions: Lighten UP! If a group of people want to spend a lot of money to go to a rock or sandbar in the ocean, live in a tent and swat flies and scorpions for a week and talk over Ham radio 24 hours a day, SO WHAT: LET'EM DO IT!!. DXpeditions, too, are short lived, and such operation must be important to SOMEONE. Scarborough Reef drew over 50,000 contacts didn't it. And weren't over half of them CW, by the way? Nobody would have even known about it had it not been published in popular radio magazines.
And to those of you who have been continual problems and we just haven't gotten to you yet: you now have a problem yourselves. Your renewals are coming up. YOU have the burden of proof in showing that you should have a license and YOU have to come to Washington to make your case. And we are going to have a LOT of questions for you.
And finally, to all of you who will no doubt moan about the code being eliminated, I say this:
----IF it was such an earthshaking issue, why did less than 1% of you even file comments during the decision making process?? WHY is it important NOW but it wasn't important THEN??
----HOW can it be a "filter", when the worst enforcement problems we have all passed a 13 or 20 WPM code test?
----It wasn't eliminated; it just isn't required anymore. For a drivers test, did you have to know how to drive a 5 or 6 speed transmission? Well, those are some of the coolest cars on the road!
----The idea of eliminating the code requirement has been kicking around for years, yet there is more code equipment today than ever before: keyers, keys, straight and bug and readers ...you name it.
We won't know the effect of eliminating that requirement for ten years. I personally won't be here ...years of Hamfest hotdogs will have taken their toll. But I HONESTLY don't see it as an enforcement problem.
I'm loyal to the code. I wish we could have kept it at 13. But my bet is that dropping the requirement will turn out to be a stroke of genius.
Only Time will tell, but if we don't so something to draw in more people, and appeal to greater numbers, in a few years at Dayton we'll ALL be bumping into each other with our WALKERS! Let's face it folks - look around - we're getting' OLD!!
We all need to try NEW things and always work towards keeping Amateur radio dynamic. Know the issues: participate in it. But most of all ENJOY it!!!
And thank you again for all the incredible support you give our enforcement program. The self-regulating aspect of your service never ceases to amaze me!
And in closing, I have yet another message for all of you, in and out of the choir: I have been working for you for 8 years, 7 months, 16 days and about 2 hours now. I can't imagine a BETTER group of licensees to work with. I have always had interesting jobs with the Commission and I am one of the few people on earth who like their job. I have always liked working at FCC, but you folks are the BEST and I am so thankful that I have gotten to work FOR you and WITH you and I sincerely thank you for that opportunity, and I sincerely admire you and respect you for all your passion and dedication. Now don't forget to come up and get your reading assignment!"
__._,_.___
.
FCC FORUM - Remarks by RILEY HOLLINGSWORTH, K4ZDH
Special Counsel, Spectrum Enforcement Division, FCC Enforcement
Bureau Dayton Hamvention 2007
"Well you could have gone to the Flea Market, but you came to CHURCH instead! I've got you now. Thank you for coming to Dayton. Just by your sheer numbers you make the DARA Hamvention one of the most powerful forces in Amateur radio, and it shows that you are serious about it ...and that you care about its future.
By participating in an event such as this you help ensure its future ...you show your numbers and your determination.
I'm not going to go over enforcement updates - there's no need to take up your time on that. You can follow Amateur radio enforcement in the publications- --QST, CQ Magazine, and on the websites of ARRL, RAIN Report, Newsline and now our own FCC webpage by going to FCC.gov and going to the Enforcement Bureau pages. The ARRL web page has a link to that as well.
I want to talk to you about what bothers me most about Amateur Radio ...and I want to give you a homework assignment.
The blatant rule violators ...I think you can see that we are taking care of them - or most of them - on a gradual basis. Current violations are about what we would expect from a service your size.
But what concerns me most is this: You still need to "lighten up." I said that last year but you need to take it to heart more. All of you can learn from each other. And you need to work together more and show a little more respect for your diverse interests and for the service as a whole. It isn't about you. It isn't about enforcement. It's about Amateur radio.
Every time you get on the air, you need to decide what's most important to you ...the best interests of Amateur radio as a whole, or your own pride or ego or "rights". I realize I may be preaching to the choir here, but on the air you need to be more cooperative and less argumentative. And I need you to take this message with you when you go home.
Your homework assignment is to read Dave Sumner's article in May 2007 QST, page 9. I have a couple hundred copies for you and if you can't get one, contact me and I'll scan one to you.
In a nutshell, I have good news and bad news. The good news: nothing is wrong with Amateur radio. It is a good service that is showing its value to the public on a daily basis. Bad news is that there is an element of Amateur radio that too often reflects present society generally. Whatever the phenomenon behind Road Rage - whatever that is - that's what I am talking about. All of you need to work together and depend upon the FCC less to solve your operating problems. We live in a rude, discourteous, profane, hotheaded society that loves its rights, prefers not to hear about its responsibilities, and that spills over in to the Ham bands.
I can't really say it any better than Dave Sumner did in May 2007 QST-Page 9, and your homework assignment is to read it: "Most of the unpleasantness that erupts from time to time on the most popular HF bands can be avoided if we're willing to be flexible in our frequency selection."
I have some messages to all the groups along these lines. But before I get to that, I want to say that a little more kindness would go a long way in your service. Lots of you are like people in a parking lot arguing over a parking space when there are hundreds available. We are all ordinary people, and even on the best days, probably work and think at around 60% efficiency. We are not the greatest nation on earth. We think we are but we aren't and we aren't the greatest people. Look at the evening news for about a week if you don't realize that. And think about what the rest of the world sees going on in America.
What we ARE is this: "We are rude, self important, cell phone yapping, road raging, and stressed out monsters behind the wheel." And all too often behind the microphone. You are increasingly calling upon the FCC too much to solve your problems. Remember: "Most of the unpleasantness that erupts from time to time on the most popular HF bands can be avoided if we're willing to be flexible in our frequency selection."
To all Amateur Radio operators in general: I was looking at a 1968 QST the other day and noticed inside the back cover an ad for Swan transceivers. Some of you might remember the 350 and the 250. These were really state of the art at the time. The 350 has 17 little controls and one big one. The VFO, presumably to make it easy to change frequencies. Now let's go to a 2007 QST magazine and look on the back cover at the Kenwood TS570. It has 46 little controls and knobs, and one big one, the VFO. Look near the back at the ICOM 7800. It has about 75 little controls and buttons, but the real big knob is still the VFO ...presumably to make changes in frequency the easiest function of all!
That's why you are the only service that has thousands of frequencies and hundreds usable at any given time of day or year. It was designed that way to give you alternatives, to have fail safe back up plans and to experiment and lead technology. Even the public safety services don't have thousands of frequencies.
Now some frequencies are like bad neighborhoods. They are being cleaned up but it will take more time and it's just not something that happens overnight. We will get there. Take 14.275 for example. Probably in the future it will be determined that RF radiation does indeed cause brain damage, but ONLY at 14.275. It is a bad neighborhood. Stay away. I get calls every week from the same group of people who went to 14.275 and got abused.
Now if you had 3 alternative streets you could take to work every day but when you used one, you always got a rock thrown at your windshield, wouldn't you decide to take one of the other streets after, say, 5 or 6 windshields? After several windshields the logical question would arise as to who is the biggest fool - you or the person throwing the rocks! Why don't you take the same approach to Amateur Radio?
There are good operators and poor operators, just like everything else in life. There is a Canadian there that Canada considers mainly a fruitcake and doesn't take him seriously. Their Amateur rules are more lax than ours and so are some of their laws. It's an international problem and we can do very little about it. But when you go there and take the bait (And you ALWAYS seem to take the bait!) ...you get into arguments, you make the problem WORSE and you make it an American problem as well and Amateur Radio gets a black eye. There is a bad operator in Italy. too. But these are not problems we can correct.
The other day I was talking to one of the complainants about 14.275 and I asked why he insisted on going there. He said "Well, old (name deleted) likes to talk there and he doesn't have any other antennas". Well, that must be a hell of a precisely cut antenna to only operate on the 20 Meter frequency of 14.275! I heard an argument there the other afternoon and one operator was saying "I'm not going to be driven off the frequency. I got rights!"
The Orientals have a saying about Americans; they say an American will lose butt to save face. Just go somewhere else. The world is ugly enough ...don't add to it. People make mistakes and 90% of interference perceived as deliberate is accidental or at least unintentional. Listen to this complaint we got:
"I've listened all day to a drift net beacon on 75. It's S9 here at home so its probably up or down the Bay. Please make a DF and find it." Now that message came in at 4:57 PM. At 6:29 PM THIS message came in: "You're going to laugh. It was a Linksys five port Ethernet switch in the next room. When I tried to DF it with a selective AM radio I noticed the signal went silent when I left home."
Why do you always assume an offense? Again, "Most of the unpleasantness that erupts from time to time on the most popular HF bands can be avoided if we're willing to be flexible in our frequency selection." Again, in a problem like 14.275, just leave. Report it to us if it is a violation. But just use one of the hundreds of other useable frequencies you have and enjoy radio!
I know of one net that when they get interference they say "OK everyone, go to frequency B." They just remain silent for half hour. It drives the interferer crazy because he can't find them!
As Dave Sumner said in his May article: "It is unfair to your fellow Amateurs to assume every instance of interference you may encounter is a hostile act." Even if it is, the best contribution you can make is to leave and not make it worse. Remember that saying from the 60's: "What if they gave a war and nobody came?" Well, what if they gave an argument on 75 Meters and nobody came? You can help us and help Amateur radio by making this contribution: Don't respond. Don't become the problem. Report it to us, then use the big knob. It is possible that with current society being rude and hotheaded, this is as good as your service can get for a while anyway. That remains to be seen, but defuse problems, don't add heat to them.
We can enforce our rules but we can't enforce kindness and courtesy or common sense. And a very wise person, who happens to be standing to my left (Bill Cross), once told me: "You just can't regulate stupid." If we could, we'd be working for the United Nations instead of the FCC. Now I have specific messages for more of you.
To the Nets: Just because you have been on the same frequency for 75 years, that doesn't mean you own it. All frequencies are shared. If you vary your frequency, or even if you don't have a net one night, the radio world isn't going to end.
To repeater owners: Just because you are coordinated doesn't mean you own the frequency. Coordination is a recommendation, not a frequency assignment. It's your call sign on the repeater and it's your station and your responsibility ...just as if you had left the door open to your station at home. If there is abuse, lock the door. Don't ask us to be baby-sitters or hall monitors of your repeater. That's what control operators are for. Nobody asked you to start a repeater. If you shut it down tomorrow, what would happen? People would use OTHER repeaters!
To the contesters: be more courteous. You are responsible for the frequency you are operating on and realize that's true even when you operate split. All frequencies are shared.
To those who don't like contesters: lighten UP!! Contests are short lived. Use the WARC bands. Wash the car. Cut the grass. Learn from the contesters - and this applies to you Traffic net folks too - learn from the contesters. They pass information a lot faster and more efficiently than you do. Contesters are some of the best radio operators on planet Earth. If the contesters operated at the same pace as some of the emergency traffic nets, the contest would be over after the first few dozen signal strengths were exchanged!
To the widebanders: If you want to be a Broadcaster, apply for a broadcast license. Using extraordinarily wide bandwidth on crowded frequencies at peak operating time is rude, selfish and inconsiderate.
To the QRP'ers: Thank you thank you, thank you for your vitality, inspiration, enthusiasm and for being BUILDERS again! I wish I could take your enthusiasm and spread it over all segments of Amateur radio. When I watch you folks, I see the excitement and magic of my first contact. To those who don't like QRP'ers: Lighten UP. ANYONE can use a linear amplifier as a crutch.
To the rag chew nets: 4 or 5 people meeting on the same frequency every night for 50 years using 1200 watts to talk a few hundred miles when 100 watts would do just fine is not a net. It's an informal roundtable. It ain't going to hurt you either to vary your frequency or skip a night. And the so-called "net" on 75 that bills itself as an "Oasis of Amateur Radio": Give us all a break. You are an ordinary roundtable. And no net is an "Oasis of Amateur radio."
To those of you who don't like DXpeditions: Lighten UP! If a group of people want to spend a lot of money to go to a rock or sandbar in the ocean, live in a tent and swat flies and scorpions for a week and talk over Ham radio 24 hours a day, SO WHAT: LET'EM DO IT!!. DXpeditions, too, are short lived, and such operation must be important to SOMEONE. Scarborough Reef drew over 50,000 contacts didn't it. And weren't over half of them CW, by the way? Nobody would have even known about it had it not been published in popular radio magazines.
And to those of you who have been continual problems and we just haven't gotten to you yet: you now have a problem yourselves. Your renewals are coming up. YOU have the burden of proof in showing that you should have a license and YOU have to come to Washington to make your case. And we are going to have a LOT of questions for you.
And finally, to all of you who will no doubt moan about the code being eliminated, I say this:
----IF it was such an earthshaking issue, why did less than 1% of you even file comments during the decision making process?? WHY is it important NOW but it wasn't important THEN??
----HOW can it be a "filter", when the worst enforcement problems we have all passed a 13 or 20 WPM code test?
----It wasn't eliminated; it just isn't required anymore. For a drivers test, did you have to know how to drive a 5 or 6 speed transmission? Well, those are some of the coolest cars on the road!
----The idea of eliminating the code requirement has been kicking around for years, yet there is more code equipment today than ever before: keyers, keys, straight and bug and readers ...you name it.
We won't know the effect of eliminating that requirement for ten years. I personally won't be here ...years of Hamfest hotdogs will have taken their toll. But I HONESTLY don't see it as an enforcement problem.
I'm loyal to the code. I wish we could have kept it at 13. But my bet is that dropping the requirement will turn out to be a stroke of genius.
Only Time will tell, but if we don't so something to draw in more people, and appeal to greater numbers, in a few years at Dayton we'll ALL be bumping into each other with our WALKERS! Let's face it folks - look around - we're getting' OLD!!
We all need to try NEW things and always work towards keeping Amateur radio dynamic. Know the issues: participate in it. But most of all ENJOY it!!!
And thank you again for all the incredible support you give our enforcement program. The self-regulating aspect of your service never ceases to amaze me!
And in closing, I have yet another message for all of you, in and out of the choir: I have been working for you for 8 years, 7 months, 16 days and about 2 hours now. I can't imagine a BETTER group of licensees to work with. I have always had interesting jobs with the Commission and I am one of the few people on earth who like their job. I have always liked working at FCC, but you folks are the BEST and I am so thankful that I have gotten to work FOR you and WITH you and I sincerely thank you for that opportunity, and I sincerely admire you and respect you for all your passion and dedication. Now don't forget to come up and get your reading assignment!"
__._,_.___
.