Dave,
IMHO I think you post waaaaaaay too much!!!!!!
Remember when all is said and done, more is said than is done.
Larry
On 7/26/2014 5:08 PM, David Cole wrote:
Hi Don,
I don't think I am being slightly paranoid at all. I think I am making
a set of informed decisions, and seeking legal advice in making those
decisions.
I asked the lawyer a smiler question to your's, but with a very
different emphases.
You asked me "How are at risk of being sued for informing someone,
especially a law-violator, that they are attracting attention by
generating a nuisance in the community?" This question sets up a very
restrictive set of conditions, and does not cover near enough area to be
useful.
I asked the lawyer a different question, one more designed to cover as
much area as possible, and one the lawyer helped me ask-- I asked "How
can I minimize my and the clubs risk in dealing with RFI issues, using
this handout, and following what it says we will do. That sets up a set
of conditions, which more accurately reflect reality, covering
everything from home entry, to initial contact...
By the way, as an aside, a lawbreaker can sue you too... The fact
someone broke the law has nothing to do with anything... You can be
sued because someone does not like the color of your hair...
His answers were actually a bit of a surprise to me... Here is an
example-- If you tell a person that they have now gotten rid of the
RFI, and if at a later time, that person causes RFI on a different
frequency, (because you only listened on 40 for instance, but he was
also wiping out fire and ambulance), and the RFI is still wiping out
Fire and Ambulance frequencies, (even if you did not know), and it costs
them money, or worse yet, the ambulance fails to save someone, and RFI
was involved, or they get sued, any number of people could then sue you
for the costs involved in correcting the problem, or because someone
died, and it will be because you advised them that they had no issue,
and you were wrong. Now this is a rather extreme case, but there are
lots of little ways to get in trouble when advising people...
So... We inform of the problem, and that is really all we can do to
minimize risk. The whole thing is much like the waving another driver
forward in traffic law-- if you wave someone around you in traffic, and
they hit a kid, or bike, or other object, you have very much increased
your risk of becoming part of any lawsuit which may arise from that
incident, and given you initiated the movement, (you waved them on), of
the auto that struck and killed a child... Well... You get the
picture...
Please don't get the idea that I think all of this is good, it is not,
but I must live in a world where this is possible, and so I deal with it
by involving people that are trained in the craziness... Lawyers!
I vehemently disagree with you in your presentation methods... You are
suggesting I begin a process, which could turn litigious, by outright
lying to the parties involved at the onset, by suggesting an AM
broadcast radio is involved when one is not... Not for me... I am
totally comfortable telling them I am an Amateur Operator, and that we
need to correct a problem, using the least intrusive methods possible,
but that we will get the problem corrected, even if it involves
including the FCC.
There are of course hundreds of ways to present this to the people
involved, you should always present it in the most friendly, least
obtrusive, kindest way possible. However sometimes that simply won't
work. The goal is to make the RFI that is affecting me, or the ham that
has asked me to help, go away. No one cares if they are grow lights, or
if it touch lamps... The RFI though, must go away...
Your thoughts about the power company not liking Hams is not what I have
experienced here. Our power company is enlightened, I guess, I know I
like them...
A few months ago, they asked us to find a source for them... But that
did not happen by accident, and we got lucky that the people at our
power company are decent, and know their jobs. We took a very business
like, but friendly, non contentious attitude to our power company, and
asked them how we could deal with an ever increasing RFI issue in which
the Power Company is getting blamed in error, and costing them money...
We pointed out that by having an intercourse of ideas, we could save
them money by reducing their truck rolls... It worked... And it saves
them money, and it gets us faster service when we report something. I
can think of at least three and maybe four truck rolls we have stopped
this year simply by having the ham ask us first. We found the problem
in the hams home...
Three days ago, a fellow ham was about ready to call the power company,
he called us first. We got his in-home RFI noise level down from 10
over S9, to S5, to S6, with the addition of maybe 15 ferrite's, and four
hours of messing around in his house. That saved the power company a
few hundred bucks. In turn, if we call them and ask that something be
looked at, they respond almost instantly... Last call I made to them,
there was a street lamp fluttering and making a ton of RFI... I reported
it to them, and it was fixed two days later, and I got a call back from
them, and email as well... We get along very well with our power
company here... On the other hand we NEVER call them until we are SURE
that the issue is theirs...
Thank you for the tip on High-Times... I may look at that avenue.
Anyway, thank you for the input, I will go off an dread the High-Times
now... Never heard of them, but it will be interesting!
_______________________________________________
RFI mailing list
RFI@contesting.com
http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/rfi
|