[CQ-Contest] truckers

[David Robbins]

Due to the volume of mail this morning thanks to upset users who
thought I had lost my mind last night with 'trucker' dx spots,
I am writing just one response for all of you.  I will also
send it to the CQ-Contest reflector and maybe some others so the
subscribers on there get the same information.  I will also post
it at http://www.berkshire.net/~robbins/truckers.html for reference.

First, thanks for your interest in keeping intruders off our
bands.

The following should answer most of your questions:

1. Yes, I have been in touch with Riley Hollingsworth(FCC) and
Brennen Price(ARRL).  Without license numbers or at least
company names neither one has volunteered to do anything.

2. Because of the Washington Mailbox column in the March QST
I have finally given up any hope of the ARRL coordinating any
effort in stopping this rather blatent invasion of our bands.
I was holding out some hope after their initiative last October,
but it appears that nothing useful will come out of that.

3. Why Truckers?  10m Truckers are relatively easy to identify
as being in the U.S. and operating illegally.  I don't speak
Spanish and many of those intruders are apparently outside our
borders anyway.  The truckers I have been listening to often
give clues about their location or employment, if enough
details can be collected to identify them the FCC can take action.

4. I use the spotting network because it has nation wide coverage
in real time.  It does no good for me to send in a single report
of a trucker heard at 240 degrees at a given time.  But if
others hear them at the same time maybe we can narrow them down
to a small area and then get someone on the ground in that
area to spot them.  This can not be coordinated by mail, it takes
real time contact over large areas to do it.

5. NOTE:  I DO NOT USE DX SPOTS TO ANNOUNCE TRUCKERS! (I will
spot real stations that I hear under cb QRM but I will not spot
truckers with DX spots)The 'p5' and 'trucker' DX spots last
night that polluted the network were most likely due to the
same person that has created logjams of similar spots over
several weekends.  Note the pattern of 1kc steps to avoid dupe
filters and the use of the P5 prefix to get the most attention.
Sysops can inspect the details of the backbone protocol to
see that the spots are forged and not from my node.

What else can we do:

The ARRL so far has ignored a suggestion I sent them about
creating a reward fund for information leading to the 'arrest'
of intruders.  Therefor I will make an open offer of a $100
reward for information sent to the FCC that leads to the
'arrest' of any illegal intruder into our 10m band.  In this
context 'arrest' means the confiscation of equipment, an
issuance of an NAL to an individual or company, or even the
issuance of an official letter from the FCC warning a company
to stop illegal use of the 10m band by it's employees.  To
claim this reward you must copy me with your communications
sent to the FCC and send me proof in the form of a letter from
the FCC or publication in QST from official enforcement
reports.

To get you started here are a few repetitive offenders I have
heard:

1. Furniture company trucks.  Left Sunday from somewhere in
Alabama and followed RT-20 west to Abilene Tx.  They had loads
to drop in Abilene, Dallas/FortWorth, maybe Houston.  They
discussed other recent deliveries to NM, Oklahoma City,
Memphis, Ks, Mo, and Bangor Maine.  They were on 28235 for
many hours.

2. 'Sand and Dirt' trucks (maybe the company name).  In the
Florida panhandle area.  Discussed deliveries to Mobile, Milton,
Pensacola, Couch(?), and WestSide (company or town??).  They
were on 28085 Wednesday.

3. Cattle trucks.  Vague references place them along the
Omaha to Oklahoma City area.  Probably several different
groups on various frequencies.  Running 3-4 short trips per
day from feedlots.

4. Misc other areas identified include the 410 loop around
Houston, the loop around Dallas/Fort Worth, Deming, Tulsa,
Bixby, New Orleans, Pine Bluff (probably Ark), Little Rock,
Oklahoma City, and Alamogordo.  These are of course all in
the mid west because that is the area where I have the best
propagation to on 10m from here in New England.


-- 
David Robbins K1TTT
e-mail: mailto://k1ttt@berkshire.net
web: http://www.berkshire.net/~robbins/k1ttt.html or http://www.k1ttt.net
AR-Cluster node: 145.69MHz or telnet://k1ttt.net


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