As we begin a new year let, me thank everyone who is part of the OO program and the ones who have joined us recently for your willingness and efforts to help with maintaining the high standards of our hobby. As you know we have the amateurs who inadvertently commit an infraction and are grateful to be reminded of their shortcoming by a fellow ham and then we have the other type who are persistent in causing interference and problems whenever they can, thankfully they are a very small minority but often get a lot of attention.
We have just completed a year of greatly increased activity on the bands due in a large part by the Centennial year W1AW/# special event stations and the use of the special W100AW callsign here at headquarters. Both certainly caused a lot of hams to get active on the air and make contacts to take part in a once in a life time opportunity. By and large, the activities went smoothly with only occasionally complaints about one issue or another. Thanks to the OOs who helped point out problems before they became more serious.
The FCC has added a new way to send in complaints via e-mail with this link. https://esupport.fcc.gov/
This recent follow up by the FCC was just covered on our web page. FCC Fines Pennsylvania Ham $11,500 for Causing Intentional Interference. http://www.arrl.org/news/fcc-
Complaints continue about a well known amateur often heard calling CQ on 28425.
An Ohio amateur reported and documented unlicensed activity on 10 meters, the information was forwarded to the FCC.
Several complaints were received regarding the WARFA net on 3908, the FCC is continuing to work on this.
A number of reports were received regarding an unidentified signal on the 160 meter band in the northeast, sounding much like CODAR. Later investigation by K1DG revealed it is a high-frequency surface-wave radar (HFSWR) system, developed by Raytheon Canada for the Canadian military. The present system has been detected at 1915, 3250, 4400, and 5300 kHz. It is located near Halifax, Nova Scotia.
The frequency band 1850-2000 is a shared allocation in Canada, among amateur, radionavigation, and radiolocation services. 1915 kHz is not the primary operating frequency for the system, one report indicated it was being tested on 1915. The higher frequencies generally work better for the intended purpose. It was thought it would move off the frequency after testing.
Complaints continue about operation on 7185, documentation has been received demonstrating the activities there.
The Kentucky OOC was alerted to a complaint about operation on 28.385 and it was being checked out.
The Nebraska OOC and OOs continue checking out operation on a 2 meter repeater.
An amateur from Georgia contacted us about an on-going interference problem on 75 meters, as a result of discussing this with the OOC there, he is in the process of becoming an OO!
The infamous 147.4350 MHz Los Angeles Repeater was the subject of several complaints this month.
The Eastern Pennsylvania OOC has been alerted to a complaint from a neighbor of an amateur who evidently has caused a great deal of interference and is not cooperative.
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