[RFI] ARRL to FCC...

[Larry Benko]

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!
>
>