Hey, before we get started, be sure to head over to ham radio two dot com forward slash email dash sign up to join my email list of over nineteen thousand subscribers, where I like to send emails about upcoming events, upcoming shopping deals, keep you updated with all the stuff going on with my videos. Once that list reaches twenty thousand, I will be doing a giveaway
of another HF radio sign up today and thank you for the support. The FCC has issued, this time an eighteen thousand dollars fine to an amateur radio operator for willfully interfering with a repeater, so we're going to look at that
right now. The point of this video is because I received a comment on my three thousand dollars fine video for a CB operator refusing inspection, and it said, hey, they rarely mess with ham radio operators, so if you're a CB guide, then go get your hand radio license and they'll never mess with you. I'm like, I don't really think that's true. So I did some digging and it actually did not take long to find two different stories,
and I'm gonna share one of them with you today. This is from twenty nineteen, so it was a couple of years ago, but it's fairly recent, Okay. A New York radio amateur, Harold gerretzki K six DPZ of Richmond Hill, is facing a seventeen thousand dollars fine imposed by the FCC. He was issued a notice of apparent liability for forfeiture and NL on October third, causing intentional interference on a local proper and preventing other amateurs from using
it. Quite frankly, I think that more people should should get fined for this. Okay. If you are a Ham with a license and you interfere on a Ham radio repeater, I think this sh would happen more often. That type of interference happens much more often than the FCC actually does something about it. If you have a Ham radio license, then you should know better.
So I'm talking to Ham radio operators right now. If you're interfering with something, I think the FCC should come after you and find you grow up. How old was this guy? I have no idea, no idea how old this dude was. Presumably he was not fifteen years old, and he was probably some old crotchety dude sitting in his apartment with nothing else to do.
So he decided to interfere with the repeater because he didn't like the repeater owner, or maybe somebody said something on the repeater that offended him some point in time. Who knows why? Who knows why people do these stupid things. The FCC is quoted here saying, given his history as a repeat offender, this violation warrants a significant penalty. Naal recounted numerous complaints alleging that Gretzky
was deliberately interfering with a repeater in Glen Oaks, New York. In June of twenty seventeen, the FCC issued a warning letter to him, advising him of the nature of the allegations against him and directing him to stop using the repeater going forward completely. Nonetheless, additional complaints were filed, and I would be filing a complaint. Why not this guy's a Ham interfering with a Ham
radio repeater, Okay? And yes, yes, you can say, well, people getting on the Ham radio repeaters without a license and interfering and maybe making no is there something you're just just being jackwagons? Yeah you should complain about that as well. Okay, And some of you are probably gonna comment,
well, that's just a sad hymn who cares? Okay, if I bought the repeater and put it up, and spend the money on the repeater itself, on the duplexers, on the hardline, on the antenna, on the internet connection, if it has one on the tower space, if I have to rent it and I want Ham radio operators to use it for the benefit of expanding communications in this area, then I care. I care as the person who spent all the money. I care that somebody's coming on there
and using it the way that it shouldn't be used. So and quite frankly, if you are that person who spent your money on a repeater, you should care. Also. I don't understand why some people are like, well, it's just a sad heymn. That does why? I mean, what's wrong with you where you have to spend your days causing interference to something you don't own because you have nothing better to do with your time. Get a freaking hobby, Get a job. Maybe maybe go get a job. Maybe
you're bored because you have no job. In April of twenty eighteen, agents from the FCC New York Enforcement Bureau drove to Richmond Hill to investigate following an inspection of Gretzky's station, so presumably he let him in the door and let him in expect a station. The agents advised him in writing that he was prohibited from using the local repeater. Now, they didn't prohibit him from getting on the air or revoke his license. They just told him to stop using
this one repeater. After the FCC received further complaints regarding Gresky's continue operation on the local repeater, the NFORT Bureau again drove to Richmond Hill to investigate. The agent monitor the VHF repeter's input and output frequencies and after observing deliberate interference to other stations, using direction finding techniques to identify the source to transmission as Greski's station quote. The agent monitored and recorded transmissions emanating from Gressey's station for
several hours that afternoon and heard him interfering with the local repeater. The NAL said again quote later, the agent heard Gretzki making threatening comments towards other amateur radio operators. These transmissions were deliberate to control the frequency and prevent other amateur radio operators from conducting legitimate communications. So what do you think about okay. So some people will come along and they'll be like, well, FCC's stomping
on his rights for fill in the blank, make up something. Okay, He's not stomping on his rights. He is the one interfering with other people. He is the one interfering with equipment that he does not own. He is the one interfering with regular transmissions on amateur radio frequencies and an amateur radio
repeater and other amateur radio operators. So if you're the guy who's listening to all this and trying to communicate on this repeater and some other guy is causing interference, then your rights are being infringed at that person at that point in time. If you're trying to talk to me, then your rights and my rights are both being infringed at that point in time by this guy down the road who apparently has much of the maturity level of a junior high school student.
If you want to learn how not to get fined by the FCC, I recommend that you head over to ham radioprep dot com. Today's video is sponsored by ham Radio Prep dot com, where you can always say a twenty percent discount off of all of their courses with the coupon code of Jason twenty. Now you can take your smartphone today and download their app on Android or
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be sure to thank them for sponsoring this video. The following month, the FCC Regional Director David Dombrowski spoke with Gretzky via telephone, noting that the commission will was still receiving complaints about his continued to use to the repeater and
cautioning him against using the repeater. The FCC said Gretzky apparently wilfully violated Section three three three of the Communications Act, Section ninety seven dot one oh one delta of the FCC's Amateur Service Rules, demonstrating a deliberate disregard for the Commission's authority and very spirit of amateur radio serve by continuing to interfere with the local
repeater despite having been warned. And that's where the article ends. I wish some of these ARTI this is on the ABRL website and I will link it below if you want to read this for yourself. I wish some of these articles would link to follow ups. I mean, this was five years ago, almost four and a half years ago, so I wish some of these would link to a follow up and say, well, what happened to this guy? Did someone go over to his house and beat the crap out of
him? I mean, did the FCC actually collect any money? Did they confiscate his equipment? What happened? I don't really know. I did a video about someone else a while back, that story for that person. I'm trying to remember which one it was, because I've done a few of these, that story for that person that was a CB guy, and I had people coming along in the comment say that they knew the guy and he had
since passed away. I'm like, okay, so if anyone knows this guy, if anyone in New York has heard this guy or knows him or heard this interference back in twenty nineteen, put a comment below and let me know if you know what happened, what happened next. I would like to know, would like to know what happened next. The real issue is is this Okay, this guy was willfully interfering with a HAM radio repeater on Ham radio frequencies, and he was keeping other people from using it. So you can
come along once again. You can come along and say, well, the FCC just needs to they have too much overreach, or they have too much authority, or they can't, they shouldn't be able to do this. Well why not? What about everybody else that was trying to use the repeater or listen to the repeater in a legitimate type of way. What about their rights? What about the repeater owner's rights, who's paid all this money for or
it's if it's a club repeater. If it's a club repeater, then even worse because people pay money to the club to use the club repeater and now there's a multitude of people who can't use the repeater because of this interference. Okay, So while I don't necessarily I don't like to defend the FCC, I think they have their place in moderation, okay, And I think it's important to understand that we the people are the government is supposed to be,
and the FCC is part of that government. So the FCC actually works for us, not the other way around. We shouldn't be beholden or liable to the FCC. We shouldn't have to answer the FCC. The FCC should have to answer to us, but their job is to do stuff like what exactly what they did right here. They gave him a warning letter. Over the course of like a year and a half, maybe longer than that, they gave him a warning letter, they issued a fine, They drove to his
location and proved that it was him that was doing this. So there's no ambiguity. There's no question that it was this guy interfering. In this article. It doesn't talk about anything about him getting this equipment confiscated or taken away, which at that point in time, if you get your HAMM radio license and you memorize the test questions and you realize that you have to provide an inspection. If they come knock on your door, you have to it.
Let him inspect your equipment, not let him in your house, not let him confiscate anything, but let him inspect your equipment. And if you continue acting like a jackass, then maybe you should get your equipment taken away. I would like to know what you guys think about that looking at it from an ho outside perspective. Don't look at it like this guy is getting trampled
on by the FCC. Look at it like everybody else surrounding this guy, and how this guy is interfering with people who just want to be amateur radio operators and use the repeater the way it should be used. If you enjoyed this story, you want to see other like it. Check out these videos over here, because I've got a bunch of these CB operators, HAM radio operators, gmrs, a lot of stuff over here. Check that out. Seventy three Thanks for watching today,