[RFI] Portable DFing at HF (long)

[KD7JYK DM09]

: > and leaving a contact number... Guess I didn't think that through AT
: > ALL!
:
: I believe you are being sarcastic here, and using that sarcasm to
: support your original point-- that of using an anonymous tip line as a
: way of getting additional leverage on a grow operation in order to get

Actually, I was being quite serious.  It was mentioned the grow could
violate the law, at which point, cut your time, effort, losses and risks and
get the job done, elimination of the noise regardless of the cause or
method.  It's
not the radio hobbyists job to get involved in the illegal drug trade or
expose themselves to it, noise or not.

It has also been pointed out here many times the liability of being involved
in such things, even something as simple as changing the line cord on your
neighbors TV puts you at risk for anything that may derive from it later.
Even if
not, if/when the house burns down at worst or equipment fails at best, try
proving your presence and messing with that electrical stuff had nothing to
do with it.  Many of us don't have multi-million dollar liability insurance
for such things nor the interest in attempting to point out to the average
idiot that the same noisy junk they owned also caused the problems they are
now experiencing.  Doesn't matter, they don't know or care and you "messed"
with it.

Should that go well, there's always the potential liability of being an
accomplice in the illegal drug trade by getting involved with a noisy lamp.
That's already been pointed out with supporting laws quoted in this forum
many times over the years.  Even if a state allows such things, such as
here, it may still be illegal at the federal level.  The locals let you go,
but you still earned that free trip to Club Fed.

I can hear it now...

"How'd they get away with that illegal grow in the basement of the church
next to that school for so long?"  "That nice HAM over there helped them
hide it so he could play with his CB!  He was just being neighborly, but NOW
look what we're dealing with in this community!!!  F-ing stoners.  They
never would have gotten away with it if that HAM didn't help them hide for
all those years.  F-ing HAMS!"

Not all hams of course, it only takes one with social media, nowadays.  Who
will be the first?!

If the site is in violation, time to walk away and let others do their job
first, it's not our job to figure it out.

Someone attempted to infer using an anonymous tip line would put the caller
at risk, which by design and with even the slightest forethought wouldn't
even exist.

You could always write a letter.  One could always try to point out the
risks, I can always counter it.

Aside from the "good neighbor" policy, which I fully understand can work in
many
instances and I am NOT against it in some cases, I've been monitoring the
issues, comments, suggestions and procedures mentioned here for years.

I've noticed a couple of major issues.  First, procedures for taking care of
such things are in place and have been for up to several decades.  They are
intended for us to use, anonymous or not.  It is the job of others to deal
with the issue, not us.

Second major issue, which I came to realize moments after my post last night
while contemplating the situation in the "library" where similar things were
being contemplated...

At what point did we become the enforcement agency?  The representatives?
The Gurus of such things and related?  The "heavies" in place of, and
probably without the knowledge of, those who actually take care of these
things?  All things being equal and relatively speaking, the average one of
us here has little no knowledge of anything involved, that's why
you/me/we/they are here.  We don't make the rules, the FCC did.  We don't
make, nor can we enforce them, the FCC uses the US Marshals for that, when
needed.  We have no right, no matter how "right" we think we are to approach
anyone, anywhere about anything- noise wise and when it comes down to it,
almost anything else.  We have no more right to this than approaching
strangers and commenting on their poor taste in shoes.  We CAN do it, we
might get popped in the mouth, too, and they'll still wear their shoes no
matter what we think.

You may be a Ham, a CB'er, an SWL'er, a scanner enthusiast, or not.  You may
have a license, or not.  You may be educated at varying levels, or not.  You
may be one of the most brilliant persons in the field, or not.  Perhaps you
are homeless, perhaps not, maybe drive fancy SUV or take the bus, maybe make
$3 an hour cash or $46 an hour.  No matter who you are, think you are,
purport to be, have aspirations of becoming, nobody, at any point of time,
under any
conditions has any right or privilege to approach or contact anyone and in
today's world, possibly foolishly attempt to resolve something so irrelevant
to everyone except the recipient of, the interference.  Bear in mind, almost
everything you do that would cause you to even know it exists is based on a
hobby, a chosen privilege, not a right and certainly nothing you can impose
upon others no matter what you think you have the right or privilege to
do...  Worst of all, nobody cares but the guy with the radio.

So, how is it some have become the Cap'n Heroes of the spectrum?

What could possibly give someone, anyone the slightest notion that any of it
is their "job"?

At no point is it our job.

We may choose to get involved to whatever effort that may entail, but if it
doesn't go perfectly at word one, walk away, it's still not our job and it's
an uphill fight for the guy with the radio.  The other guy neither knows nor
cares, no matter how much we try to win him over with scary stories of
arcing and potential fires, which even I have suggested here.  True, it may
exist, but it still has nothing to do with us or them when it comes down to
it and it's not our job to mitigate every arc we may hear no matter the
risk.  Heaven forbid that upon the mention of arcing and fire potential the
house is torn into and inspected.  Guess who gets the bill?

For those that aren't cops, law enforcement isn't your job.

For those that aren't mechanics, repairing every automobile you see isn't
your job.

When you go to Burger King, unless you are the sole employee, nothing at all
about that place and any potential activities that may be derived from it,
is for you.

Maybe you're a bus driver in Los Angles.  It's NOT your job to gaze at
photos of
bicycle chains in Belgium when you're supposed to be driving down the 10, no
matter what kind of peculiar fetish you have for them.

When it comes to RFI outside our own homes, nothing about it, looking for
it, identifying it, resolving it, unless authorized from the top down, the
FCC, those that must meet their requirements directly and those of us
brought in on their behalf to resolve it based on that only- is anything we
are
supposed to be involved in aside from filling out the forms provided by
those who take care of such things.

We choose to, solely upon ourselves at whatever risk, socially, financially
or legally.  It's still not our job and many times those who are obligated
to doing the task as mandated by various regulation have been pointed out in
this forum.  See my previous comments of almost violent opposition to such
things in favor of doing it ourselves when it's not our job despite what we
think.

So, WHY...

Thinking back over the decades, the hundreds of forums, hundreds of
thousands of posts, possibly millions, CFRs and related regulations and
their evolution for the better part of a century, magazines, handbooks,
flyers, notions going back some 125 years...

Then it struck me.  For the somewhat few that believe it is what they are
supposed to do no matter what the cost, those same few that are unaware of
decades worth of agencies, systems and procedures put in place that have
been streamlined to the point that a half-page or so of online form can be
filled out to start the ball of resolution rolling by those who are actually
obligated by the same Gov't that created the rules for them to enforce (much
of that info posted here a couple of weeks ago, at no point do those forms
say identify or resolve), the very notion that makes us think we matter, it
boiled down to one oft repeated and completely misunderstood and erroneously
applied concept:

"Hams police their own bands".

It goes no farther and applies to no more than just that, and what it could
entail within the bands and only involving Hams.  It still isn't our job and
thinking back over a quarter century of direct involvement with various
services, I don't recall a CFR about being a "band cop", but we agree to do
our best when it comes to ourselves.  Somehow we've applied it to everyone
else.

I find it a stretch, how other than the three people I can think of here 
that report to enforcement agencies directly or are acting almost directly 
as representatives of those agencies by being just once removed, can apply 
that to being electromagnetic spectrum cops.  I don't see anything about 
that on my amateur radio license.

Kurt