[AMPS] Commander 2500E

Richard Ehrhorn Richard Ehrhorn" <w4eto@earthlink.net
Wed, 14 Jun 2000 18:36:47 -0600


Hi Rich & all...

Rich wrote earlier today...

> According to a retiree of the FCC's legal department, for a while, FCC
> type acceptance could be hastened by making a cash donation to an FCC
> attorney whose initials are R. K. .  When the scam was uncovered by the
> FCC's legal dept., the guilty party was asked to retire early.  The
> laugher is that wiring around the type-approved CB filter and moving the
> 15m tank tap takes very little time.
>

I hadn't heard about the rumors you mention here, Rich, don't know who
"R.K." is/was, and never sent a dollar to expedite any FCC issue. But I do
remember the vanity call sign scandal of twenty-plus years ago. "The Ohio
four" got nailed for sending "gratuities" to Gettysburg and as I recall one
FCC functionary got "retired" for accepting them, but we all knew that
influential people had been getting personalized calls for many years before
they were available legally.

[Ehrhorn had previously written...]

> >In addition, the
> >virtual absence of enforcement over the past decade or so has given a
> >competitive advantage of sorts to manufacturers willing to flaunt the
rules.
> >
> >I very strongly dislike government control of and interference in our
lives.
>
[To which Measures replied...]

> €  So does Dollar Bill Gates.  So did John D. Rockefeller.  So does VISA
> and Mastercard.
>

All of whom also, incidentally, produced things which the public voluntarily
chose to use and found highly useful, eh?

But don't you kind of wonder, Rich, whether suitable "contributions" to the
right people might not have spared Gates & Co. a lot of hassle (as they
apparently did Loral, for instance)? In any case, even though Al Gore
invented the internet do you really believe that Judge William Penfield
Jackson (?) will give us better and cheaper operating systems and browsers?

Personally, I tend to agree with Phil on the benefits of government
micro-regulation. I'd rather be at the mercy of a super geek than... well,
you know. But I digress... sorry, all!

   73,       Dick  W0ID



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