[aprssig] Radio Pirates

[Glenn Little WB4UIV]

In the mid 1970s we started receiving interference on a 164.10/146.70 
MHz amateur repeater.
This occurred about daybreak and the voices had a British accent.
This occurred a few times a week.
After listening for a while it was determined that these were ship 
board radios used for line handling while maneuvering a ship, with 
tugs, in the port.
A call to port operations got an identity of the ships moving at that time.
There was one common owner.
All for their ship were registered in Great Britain.
A call to the FCC yielded the answer that this way a ham frequency, I 
was a ham, the ship was an intruder, to contact the ship master on my 
amateur frequency and inform them that this was an amateur radio 
frequency in this country.
The FCC stated that they would have to get the State Department 
involved for legal action if needed.
It turns out that the radios in use were licensed for ITU Region 1, 
not Region 2.
It was not long after this that I received a somewhat threatening 
call from the US representative for the ship line that I had cost 
them a substantial amount of money with my complaint.
They had to change the radios and get new licenses.
I told them that it was not my problem that they were not in 
compliance with international treaty.
That was the last that I heard of them or the interference.

I guess that wrong frequency operation can happen to even the big boys.

73
Glenn
WB4UIV



At 03:26 AM 1/15/2012, you wrote:
>An undesired effect of seemingly "licensed" equipment is use in other
>countries where people don't understand about licensing and band usage.
>
>I'm in the UK and, as the US FRS system became popular, people started
>bringing handhelds into the UK on holiday. The EU have and equivalent system
>on different frequencies around 446MHz - Google "PMR446", 462/467MHz are in
>the general pool of site-specific licensed allocations.
>
>Problem was, one of the FRS frequencies was used by Heathrow (London)
>airport for their fire service repeater and they often got interference from
>passengers using the radios around the terminal buildings. The repeater had
>to move frequency.
>
>I'm sure the same happens the other way around, so there are likely to be EU
>visitors operating in the US 70cm band!
>
>
>
>Jim, G1HUL
>
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: aprssig-bounces at tapr.org [mailto:aprssig-bounces at tapr.org] On Behalf
>Of Glenn Little WB4UIV
>Sent: 15 January 2012 01:07
>To: TAPR APRS Mailing List
>Subject: Re: [aprssig] Radio Pirates
>
>On the flip side.. I had an Extra class ham wanting me to help him get rid
>of some interference on a "secret frequency" that he and his wife used.
>The secret frequency was a military frequency used by a local military
>installation.
>His interference was from the authorized users of the frequency.
>He came from another state where that frequency was not used.
>When I asked him why they were using that frequency, the reply was that the
>radio would go there so it must be ok.
>This was from an Extra class operator!!!
>
>What would you expect from a non technical person using a programmable
>radio, just keep changing frequencies until you find a clear one.
>
>I work for a TV station where we recently went through rebanding of our
>remote video transmitters as part of the remediation of the Nextel
>interference problem.
>Nextel had to move all the TV stations as well as some other users to get a
>clear area for their digital radios.
>Wonder why your Nextel bill is so high?
>The replacement radios that we got were agile radios made by BMS.
>By agile, I do not mean channel agile, I mean frequency agile.
>These radios will tune into the 2.4 GHz ham band.
>It will be just a matter of time before the seven BAS frequencies will not
>be enough and a TV station Chief Engineer will have one of these on a ham
>frequency.
>The Chief Engineer does not hold any type of a license.
>
>
>73
>Glenn
>WB4UIV
>
>
>
>At 03:03 PM 1/14/2012, you wrote:
> >Amateur Radio is largely self-policed. Anyone can buy an automobile,
> >but it is illegal to operate on the highway without a license. This is
> >fairly well policed in most jurisdictions. The FCC doesn't have lots of
> >folks driving around in cars checking out folks with HTs. We let each
> >other know about these situations because most folks who have buttons
> >to push will push them, PTT included. I doubt the flea market vendor
> >instructed each customer as to the restrictions imposed on the various
> >frequencies the device could access, if the vendor was even aware
> >themself.
> >
> >Mike Galgano
> >KB7PUX
> >
> >Joshua Shriver wrote:
> >
> >>Curious but what is exactly wrong with this? Anyone (non-hams) can buy
> >>a ham radio. It's just illegal to broadcast without a license.
> >>
> >>-Josh
> >>
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