===RANT MODE ON===
The power companies say nothing about it, nor should they... Their job
is to supply power, not become the electric police, anti-pot SWAT team.
Nor is it our jobs as hams to do this either!
The problem here is that all one really knows is that RFI is "PROBABLY"
coming from a target home, you do not know why, you do not know what is
causing it, nor do you know how to stop it...
You are only GUESSING in all cases, until you see or are told what it is
by the owner.
Imagine some ham is mad at their neighbor for some stupid yard
violation, who knows, too many leaves on the yard or whatever. This ham
gets mad, tells the power company that the neighbor is growing pot...
If the power company killed power, and there were someone inside on a
cold winter evening, and they had no heat, who would get sued?
Everyone... The power company is not going to take this risk, nor
should they!
There are HUGE liabilities when you tell anyone you think there is a pot
grow someplace... BE CAREFUL what you say, think it through, and make
sure you really want to say it first.
Stick only to the facts you know for sure, RFI is causing you a problem,
it appears to be coming from location X, nothing else... Keep logs of
on/off times, keep logs of any contact and what happened, keep them in
written form, with dates and times, they may be useful to the FCC.
There was an incident where the police got an address wrong in a raid of
a drug house... They ended up shooting and killing a Marine in error in
front of his family! Why, because he had no idea who was busting in his
home at 2 AM, and he got his gun... Only to be met by the police in his
front room... While this is a worst case scenario, it is possible...
Do you want to be responsible for something along those lines? Think
before you speak!
If we are to do anything about RFI we need to work within the existing
system as set forth now...
Pot growing is legal is several states, get used to it, it is not our
business to enforce those rules, nor is it our business to enforce the
RFI rules. It is our business to report RFI when it is a problem, and
assist if possible and asked. It is not our fault the law has us in the
middle and our enjoyment of the hobby is suffering for it.
In some cases this puts us in contact with illegal operations, at that
time you have to decide what to do. But be sure you think it through
first! Understand what you may be letting yourself in for legally prior
to any actions you take.
You MUST develop a working relationship with you power company which
does not include attitude... The power company is not responsible for
RFI enforcement, they are only responsible for their errors, not some
pot grow, or lamp dimmer, or plasma TV in someone's home.
They have to pay for the man power for these hunts, so you can help
them! That is how we approached this with our power company, you know
what, they liked the idea. We showed them how to save some money, (by
helping our fellow hams locate RFI, and not calling the power company
for every static crash), and they listen, because we are VERY careful to
only involve them when we can not locate and solve an RFI issue on our
own, or we believe it to be a Power Company asset causing the RFI.
If you respect their budgets they will help you, or they should anyway,
ours is a smart company, they took the time to meet with us, and had the
entire electrical shop there for the meeting... We had a frank
discussion about RFI, and we have a process now...
I am about ready to see some folks in the State here, (not sure who yet,
this is only at the idea stage), to see if I can get written into the
laws for the new industry grows coming that lighting has to be RFI
quiet...
Make no mistake about it, the government(s) will be in the pot business
soon, (too many tax dollars available), so make your mark now, PRIOR to
a large state sponsored grow operation moving in next door to you...
Look into your state and see if there is anything you can do now, early
in the game...
===RANT MODE OFF===
Sorry I just finished the RTTY contest and am all wound up! :)
--
Thanks and 73's,
Dave (NK7Z),
Moderator Yahoo's MixW group, Yahoo's Dopplergram group, and Yahoo
MM-SSTV group.
For equipment reviews see: http://www.nk7z.net
On Sun, 2013-09-29 at 21:55 -0700, KD7JYK DM09 wrote:
> : give away was the RFI coming from the grate in the ground in front of
> : the house... It was covering a vault which contained the transformer
> : feeding that home.
>
> What would the power companies say about their service being used to permit
> the function these illegal grow houses AND the interference to licensed
> radio services? Maybe crap an adequate brick and permanently cut the power
> to the property rather than get busted by the Feds for enabling the illegal
> drug trade? Sure, they didn't know, until it was reported, now they are
> responsible for allowing it to continue.
>
> Kurt
>
> _______________________________________________
> RFI mailing list
> RFI@contesting.com
> http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/rfi
_______________________________________________
RFI mailing list
RFI@contesting.com
http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/rfi
|