ARRL Ruins the AM, CW and DIGITAL bands.

[J. Forster]

I forwarded the postings on this issue to an active ham, and got the following reply:

This thread is a particularly idiotic flame war.
These guys are blowing hot air; they are
ignorant; they have no sense; they have gotten
carried away.

The FCC rules/reg's for hams (1) prohibit
interfering with a QSO in progress and,
relatedly, (2) say that no one has any more right
to use a given frequency than anyone else.  In
other words, the rule is "Listen first and don't
transmit unless the frequency is clear."

No one has proposed changing these rules; and the
FCC enforces these rules when someone presents
them with a good case against an interferer.  I
read about such enforcement actions practically
every month.

For every case that reaches the FCC, hundreds or
thousands are dealt with by the community.  No
person/station can interfere with others very
often or very long without others returning the
favor, so to speak.  Such community
self-policing, or frontier or vigilante or mob
justice, or whatever you call it is very swift
and effective.  An offensive "robot" such as
these naïve blowhards imagine would be
immediately and totally overwhelmed.

A "robot" that transmitted on some frequency
without first listening and, if necessary,
waiting for the frequency to be clear would (1)
be operating illegally and would be shut down by
the FCC if anyone bothered to complain giving
date, time, frequency, supporting statements by
witnesses, and preferably also a recording; and
(2) would probably be shut down by its
owner/operator anyway, because it wouldn't work
as its owner/operator intended, because it would
be interfered with.

The modems made and sold by the German company
that these guys are flaming about _do_ listen
first and do _not_ transmit if the channel is not
clear (unless the reason why the channel is not
clear is that someone is _calling_ the station
with the modem in question, in which case the
modem can respond, but only if the calling signal
is not being interfered with).  I know this
independently; and I also know that if it were
not true, this German company would be having
trouble selling these modems, both (1) because
their buyers would be unhappy because the modems
would not work as intended; and (2) because hams
in Germany, elsewhere in the EC, in the USA, in
Japan, and everywhere that mattered would be
petitioning their respective government agencies
that regulate radio to outlaw the modems.  I have
not heard of any such thing happening; and, if it
had, I believe that I would have heard, because I
have been involved in ham digital-radio comm. for
about a year now.  I have heard only good things
about this company's modems.

-C.

Please don't flame me. He works CW and digital, BTW.

-John

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