Key government agencies will not come together to create a national wireless network.
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Facing opposition from top officials, civil rights groups, and wireless companies, the FCC has canceled upcoming vote on controversial free Internet plan….
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GMRS licensees that benefited from Riley’s activity in GMRS over the last three or so years ought to take a moment to thank him for his work before he retires. Just a suggestion.
We do not know if the FCC is going to continue assist GMRS with complaints. The only activity the PRA currently involves itself in is the occasional enforcement complaint from members and non-members throughout the USA.
Regardless of how you feel about the FCC Riley has done his best for us. Please let him know. I’d be happy to forward your emails to him. Send them to my email address at editor@popularwireless.com subject line: THANK YOU RILEY! and I will send it on.
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a new report yesterday that says that while the FCC processes about 95% of the complaints that come in, it takes some sort of enforcement action in only about 9% of them.
(PopWireless: This is consistent with GMRS licensees and Amateurs. In 2006 the open relationship we were getting used to ended. The FCC is far more secretive about what they will act on and when. GMRS licensees have been grateful to be sure that serious complaints eventually get handled but on some complaints no action has been seen in years and no status reports are shared with licensees. This article is not about GMRS but about everyone else the FCC serves. It appears the rest of the country is in the same boat. Oh that reminds me, FSI. Foreign shipping Interference on GMRS remains a serious problem and whatever steps were taken in November 2006 by the FCC seem to have worn off. A US military vessel went by Plum Point on Saturday March 15, 2008 using a GMRS input frequency! Click read more below to read the original article.)
On January 14, 2008 the Federal Communications Commission Enforcement Bureau, Northeast Region, Philadelphia Office issued a Notice of Unlicensed Operation (NOUO) to the Harrison Township Water Authority for operating an unlicensed GMRS repeater, mobile units and control station on 462.650/467.650 MHz. The Field Office acted on a complaint received on November 21, 2007. Case number EB-07-PA-396.
(See the complete text of the complaint here.)
The FCC Field Office also issued an official Citation to the township’s radio vendor in this case. See the article below this one.
On January 14, 2008, the Philadelphia Pennsylvania FCC Enforcement Bureau Field Office cited WestCom Wireless, Inc., (westpenncomm.com) located in
The FCC made a departure from past practice in this citation. In the past the FCC had not taken action against the radio shops programming GMRS channels into customer radios but rather cited or fined the shop’s customers for operation on frequencies on which the customer had no license. The FCC said in the citation:
“Section 90.427(b) states “[e]xcept for frequencies used in accordance with S: 90.417, no person shall program into a transmitter frequencies for which the licensee using the transmitter is not authorized.” WestCom Wireless, Inc. programmed eight Kenwood TK-8160K mobile radios with a frequency for which Harrison Township Water Authority is not authorized.”
Full text of the FCC action is available at the FCC website at: http://www.fcc.gov/eb/FieldNotices/2003/DOC-279730A1.html
It just does not make sense but GMRS continues to cope with unlicensed use of GMRS by public safety agencies. In the last week the PRA reported to the FCC a new unlicensed operation in the north-east USA. “We’re not sure what drives a public safety agency e.g. fire, police, emergency management, public works, or utility to violate FCC Rules but it seems to happen with unfortunate regularity,” said Doug Smith, PRA Board of Trustees.
In some cases the PRA has determined the radio shop doing the work mislead the customer deliberately and the customer in turn did not ask questions one might expect from a professional radio system user. “There is an assumption made that public safety agencies should know better,” said Smith. “These same agencies protect us day-to-day and have sophisticated and coordinated radio systems to do their work. Why then do jurisdictions feel compelled to occupy a repeater pair or simplex frequency in the General Mobile Radio Service when the agency is ineligible to license in GMRS?,” Smith conjectured.
Licensee’s might be inclined to think that public safety pirates believe that no one is watching or really cares. That perception is wrong. Licensees across the United States are fed up after years of assault by professional rule breakers. GMRS licensees are indeed watching. Within minutes of activation one unlicensed public safety system was identified and reported. It does not take long to locate and identify the brazen violator. That said, it should behoove all public safety radio system licensees to do the right thing and avoid unlicensed operation especially in radio services that these entities are not entitled to use in the first place. When such systems are identified and reported to the FCC the agency earns a bad reputation. Playing dumb is not likely to get the agency out of a serious enforcement issue. A public-safety FCC Rules violator believes the FCC Rules are for someone else.
In the last year, the Personal Radio Association has noticed an increase in illegal radio repeaters constructed using Family Radio Service frequencies as input or output channels.
Unscrupulous radio shops fraudulently place customer radio systems on unlicensed radio repeaters to avoid licensing and coordination costs. There is an apparent assumption that the illegal radio system will never be noticed. GMRS frequencies had been used for years for pirate systems. As interest in GMRS grew the radio shops have started to use the Family Radio Service.
Because there is also a growing national awareness of GMRS and FRS abuses these systems are noticed, located, and then reported to the FCC. “We will report every FRS repeater brought to our attention,” said Doug Smith, President PRA Board of Trustees. “These FRS repeaters cause harmful interference to licensed GMRS repeaters,” said Smith.
In the northeast US a Long Island hospital maintenance staff was found on an FRS repeater as was an assembly line located in an Edison, New jersey business park. Another abuse found in the north east was a commercial Part 90 business repeater using an input on an FRS channel. Readers of this magazine also remember the FRS repeater in use by Rockaway Township, NJ snow plows during December 2007.
Too many of these systems are turning up. GMRS licensees and users of the Family Radio Service are requested to alert the Personal Radio Association to any FRS abuses in their communities or to report those systems to the FCC directly using the Gettysburg address listed in the Part 95 GMRS Rules.
On Sunday December 9, 2007 the PRA filed a complaint with the Federal Communications Commission against Rockaway Township, New Jersey. Multiple GMRS licensees with repeaters using 462.700/467.700 MHz have been experiencing severe interference on their repeater input frequency making use of their repeaters almost impossible. A PRA Enforcement Team member used radio direction finding techniques to identify the culprits as the snow removal crews of the Rockaway Township Department of Public Works. The suspect radio system was operating with a high-power and most-likely wide band (25 KHz) repeater output on Family Radio Service channel 13, DCS 071, 467.6875 MHz. Repeaters with inputs on 467.700 are receiving interference.
The PRA contacted the Rockaway Township Mayor’s office by telephone on Friday December 14 at 2:00 PM after there was no apparent resolution to the interference all week long. The day before, one of the victim licensees contacted the Director of Public Works and spoke to him by telephone but to no avail. On Friday the City Administrator agreed to review the matter and requested through the PRA’s telephone contact a copy of the complaint. Copies were FAX’ed to Rockaway Township and the FCC. The City administrator had not gotten back to the PRA by 5:00 o’clock PM . There was no response from the Township which means GMRS licensees will have to endure a weekend of municipal interference to their systems because a clever unscrupulous radio shop in Rockaway decided to abuse the Family Radio Service with an illegal install.
The PRA’s complainant was interviewed on Friday December 14 and said, “Just prior to noon (a few hours), one of the users (snow plow drivers) played a rock song on the radio for short (02-:05) duration–At least 3 times. It seems they have little knowledge or regard to proper radio use. I also heard, over the last few days, the guys saying “10-4 Good Buddy” and other CB’isms. It sounded like this radio system was somewhat of a novelty to them.”
GMRS licensees and their families are now facing major winter weather over the weekend and may not have emergency use of their own radio repeaters – that they have a right to use as General Mobile Radio Service licensees. An unlicensed municipality has built an unconventional pirate-radio system to respond to Winter weather and in so doing has rendered licensed systems unusable. There may be other radio systems in New Jersey or New York that use 467.675 also experiencing interference.
GMRS licensees in Rockaway Township, NJ and any licensee impacted by the township’s unlicensed system are encouraged to contact the Mayor’s office by telephone to express their opinion on the matter. Please be polite, but ask that the operation on FRS 13 be immediately terminated. Lack of planning on their part does not constitute an emergency on our part.
UPDATE Sunday December 16, 2007
As the snow storm went through New Jersey this weekend the Township’s activity on Family Radio Service channel 13 continued. The Township continues to operate regardless of the interference they are causing innocent victims. You know that if the situation were reversed and citizens were interfering with a licensed city frequency the City Administrator would be on the phone immediately to the FCC demanding action. We can only wait and wonder while the snow plow crews play rock and roll on the radio and shout 10-4 good buddy!
The PRA has written an email to the Mayor, Louis S Sceusi, in hopes an elected official will take a greater interest in the interference the township is causing.
Read this Wired article from 2006 about the proliferation of pirate FM stations in the United States. This activity and the wasted FCC resources assigned to cite or fine retailers of analog television sets is stopping the FCC from dealing with REAL radio fraud on GMRS. FM pirates you are wasting government resources!
Martha S. and Miguel G. Campos, owners and operators of a Citizens Band (“CB”) radio station in San Jose, California apparently willfully violated Section 301 of the Communications Act of 1934 as amended, by operating a modified CB radio station on a frequency not authorized for CB use.
(PopWireless: $10,000 fine 10/31/07. Read the entire FCC item at the FCC website by clicking read more below. This couple had plenty of opportunities to avoid the fine! It is a terribly sad way to discover that YES the FCC does care about enforcing communications law and even the CB radio rules.)
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He’s changed his mind. Not sure for how long but we are sure happy to see him stay for Amateur radio and for GMRS! Riley Hollingsworth rocks! (Click read more to read the latest.
(PopWireless: SouthGate ARC. Click read more!)
Riley Hollingsworth, Special Counsel in the FCC’s Enforcement Bureau, announced his retirement this week, effective Friday, January 3, 2008. While his successor has not been named, Hollingsworth was quick to point out that the FCC’s Amateur Radio enforcement program will continue.
(PopWireless: Riley Hollingsworth plans to retire in January 2008. The PRA does not know yet how that affects GMRS enforcement. Stay tuned. Read about it at the ARRL site by clicking read more below. Please do take a minute to let Riley know how much he has meant to Amateur Radio and to GMRS these last few years.)
The following is a list of behaviors that are likely to attract enforcement attention in the General Mobile Radio Service. Nation wide, licensees that want and need to use the GMRS are fed up with the abusers of the service that make sharing almost impossible. Licensees are fighting back.
Some individuals and groups use GMRS like it’s a free band with no rules and no limits. Just like any radio service, the GMRS has FCC Rules (Part 95) to observe. On more than a few occasions, Amateur Radio enthusiasts have installed repeaters in the GMRS and operate on those repeaters in a manner they would never attempt to try in the Amateur service! Following the rules allows sharing of this tiny spectrum allocation among thousands of American GMRS licensees. There are only eight GMRS repeater pairs in the GMRS compared to hundreds in the Amateur service and Business Radio Services.
Review this list to see if you recognize your own behaviors. Do some introspection.
There are behaviors that are rude or that annoy others.
GMRS licensees are encouraged to take responsibility for the GMRS in their areas and just like any good neighborhood watch group report illegal behaviors that make using their radios for the intended purpose difficult.
For the past two years, Sprint Nextel has been trying to reroute its cellphone signals to avoid causing static on emergency radios used at Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport. The wireless carrier and Maryland officials dispute who should pay for some of the costs.
The FCC wants YOU to become a DTV Deputy! Visit dtv.gov for the latest on the national conversion to digital television. Get your certification as a DTV Deputy! I took the test and got the cool certificate. Retailers should make it a point to have their staff take the test until they pass it. I’m going to use it in the retail store I manage.
(Huntingtown, MD -) I just renewed my FCC GMRS license for another five years and thought I would share with GMRS applicants and those renewing the current certifications required by ALL applicants including grandfathered licensees that are renewing their licenses. Granfathered licensees in particular need to make sure they have NOT modified their radio system in ANY WAY since their license was first obtained (before 1989.) You are specifically asked to certify that you have MADE NO CHANGES. You are subject to federal penalties if you certify you have not when in fact you have.
In the FCC’s own words:
Certification
General Certification Statements
1 The applicant/licensee waives any claim to the use of any particular frequency or of the electromagnetic spectrum as against the regulatory power of the United States because of the previous use of the same, whether by license or otherwise, and requests an authorization in accordance with this application.
2 The applicant/licensee certifies that all statements made in this application and in the exhibits, attachments, or documents incorporated by reference are material, are part of this application, and are true, complete, correct, and made in good faith.
3 Neither the applicant/licensee nor any member thereof is a foreign government or a representative thereof.
4 The applicant/licensee certifies that neither the applicant/licensee nor any other party to the application is subject to a denial of Federal benefits pursuant to Section 5301 of the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1988, 21 U.S.C. § 862, because of a conviction for possession or distribution of a controlled substance. This certification does not apply to applications filed in services exempted under Section 1.2002(c) of the rules, 47 CFR § 1.2002(c). See Section 1.2002(b) of the rules, 47 CFR § 1.2002(b), for the definition of “party to the application” as used in this certification.
5 Amateur or GMRS applicant/licensee certifies that the construction of the station would NOT be an action which is likely to have a significant environmental effect (see the Commission’s rules 47 CFR Sections 1.1301-1.1319 and Section 97.13(a) rules (available at web site http://wireless.fcc.gov/rules.html).
6 Amateur applicant/licensee certifies that they have READ and WILL COMPLY WITH Section 97.13(c) of the Commission’s rules (available at web site http://wireless.fcc.gov/rules.html) regarding RADIOFREQUENCY (RF) RADIATION SAFETY and the amateur service section of OST/OET Bulletin Number 65 (available at web site http://www.fcc.gov/oet/info/documents/bulletins/).
Certification Statements for GMRS Applicants/Licensees
1 Applicant/Licensee certifies that he or she is claiming eligibility under Rule Section 95.5 of the Commission’s rules.
2 Applicant/Licensee certifies that he or she is at least 18 years of age.
3 Applicant/Licensee certifies that he or she will comply with the requirement that use of frequencies 462.650, 467.650, 462.700 and 467.700 MHz is not permitted near the Canadian border North of Line A and East of Line C. These frequencies are used throughout Canada and harmful interference is anticipated.
4 Non-Individual applicants/licensees certify that they have NOT changed frequency or channel pairs, type of emission, antenna height, location of fixed transmitters, number of mobile units, area of mobile operation, or increase in power.
Signature
Name of Party Authorized to Sign.
Name First MI Last Suffix
Title
Failure To Sign This Application May Result In Dismissal Of The Application And Forfeiture Of Any Fees Paid.
WILLFUL FALSE STATEMENTS MADE ON THIS FORM OR ANY ATTACHMENTS ARE PUNISHABLE BY FINE AND/OR IMPRISONMENT (U.S. Code, Title 18, §1001) AND/OR REVOCATION OF ANY STATION LICENSE OR CONSTRUCTION PERMIT (U.S. Code, Title 47, §312(a)(1)), AND/OR FORFEITURE (U.S. Code, Title 47, §503).
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Grandfathered licensees that need additional reference should also read:
FCC Rules and Regulations Part 95.5b and 95.5(c)(3) Prohibition against major modifications by non-individual licensees.
Also FCC Rules Section 1.929 Classifications of filings as major or minor. (The FCC’s definition of a major modification.)
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