[RFI] Who is the "neighbor from hell?"

[Hare, Ed, W1RFI]

Hearing about the grower's shooting incident is a good point to pause to remind hams that they really need to use good judgment in opening discussions with neighbors.  You are the best judge of a local, neighborhood situation, so only you can know whether it is even safe to approach a particular neighbor.  Although we, and the FCC, very much hope that most interference problems can be resolved directly by the parties involved, allowing the rules to work out as intended, there are exceptions to that expectation and some hams have asked ARRL to contact a neighbor on their behalf, even anonomously (the ham with the tower really won't be anonymous, though!)

What I like to say is that what happens when that first conversation takes place sets the tone for all that follows.  Remember, this person doesn't understand RF, or the FCC rules, but only sees that you are coming to them telling him that the device he just bought legally at Walgetzon is being operated in violation of some federal law he doesn't even understand.  Hams HAVE been known to initiate that conversation astride a very high horse, immediately creating a perceived threat.  We do have to be firm, but can be very neighborly in the process.

It gets worse.  By the time a case gets to ARRL, attempts at personal diplomacy have failed.  In many cases, the ham and neighbor have had some real knock-down arguments.  We are almost never told the truth that is behind all that, and we have cases where hams have told the electric-utility people to just get off their land and go find and fix the problem, and another where the ham was caught in a neighbor's back yard with test equipment, recorded on a home-security system.  In that latter case, the neighbor told the FCC that she was afraid for her safety, and did not feel she should be asked to work with the guy.  The list of cases like this goes on.

In other cases, amateurs have not given circumstances time to work out. They contact the neighbor and when noise isn't fixed in a few days, they contact the FCC.  By the time the case wends it way to us, the ham has filed a complaint with a Senator, or threatened the FCC and the neighbor with litigation.  Others go on a letter-writing campaign, sending weekly letters to everyone, or bombarding a utility or FCC with almost daily missives. One ham called the utility service center every morning and timed out the answering machine with a long recording of noise.  In every case, by thrashing about trying this and then that and then getting people working at cross purposes, the effect the ham thinks will happen if he can use anger to create outrage about how unfair this all is has the effect of monkey wrenching all that is in progress, and in a few cases, it has taken our staff using "personal diplomacy" to convince a utility, or the FCC, not to drop a case.

So, the morals of these stories is that hams to need to be careful, use good diplomacy skills and give processes a chance to work.  Did I tell you that we've got stories? Some would give you goosebumps! LOL!

Ed, W1RFI