[CQ-Contest] Why should we care?

Mike Gilmer n2mg1 at yahoo.com
Fri Feb 6 09:42:30 EST 2004


It would be wrong to think that eBay has no interest 
in this issue.  Their published policy (which is 
likely nothing more than a "Cover Your Ass") addresses

the issue of CB amplifiers fairly well.  They wouldn't

publish that if they weren't aware of the issue.  So 
at some level, they DO care.

However, their sellers are smart enough to know how to

break down eBay's resolve (not that they probably had 
much).  Sellers place amplifiers in the HamRadio 
category, say things like "not for CB", etc.

If eBay starts squashing ads based on keywords (like 
Palomar or Galaxy) the sellers would do like the 
spammers and use spaces and asterisks to spoof the 
filters.  So without a human staff of CB-amplifier-
sniffers, they aren't going to stop this.  Experienced

website guys realize that this cat-and-mouse game can 
take lots of time so my guess is that this (a
published policy) about all we are ever going to see
from eBay without our involvement.

But we can use their own policy "against" them. By
being that "human staff", and sending eBay a list of 
violations and letting them know the FCC will be 
informed (and actually doing so) perhaps we will see
some results.

To be sure, nothing will happen without hams taking 
some action.  Although some might find it distasteful 
to "play cop", we have little choice.  There's no way 
to know if we can make a difference without trying.

Mike N2MG


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