A US District Court jury has found Jack Gerritsen of Bell, California,
guilty on six counts that included transmitting without a license and
willful and malicious interference with radio transmissions. Gerritsen, 69,
who briefly held the amateur call sign KG6IRO, will face sentencing March 6,
according to the office of Debra W. Yang, US Attorney for the Central
District of California. He could receive up to 15 years in federal prison.
In ARRLWeb: FCC Amateur Radio Enforcement Letters, a fascinating chronicle of Jack Gerritsen's reign of terror on California repeaters is detailed. Gerritsen was recently convicted of six counts of malicious interference to emergency communications, which will probably net him some prison time.
Reading the various interference reports, one is struck by the realization that this individual is seriously mentally ill, but refuses to seek help for his problem. I have listened (via the streaming audio feed from the 435 repeater in Los Angeles) to many episodes of Gerritsen's antics, and it was obvious that he was in desparate need of help.
This is truly a sad chapter in amateur radio history. Jack's incarceration will result in less dispruption of communications in the L.A. area, but the whole episode was so needless.
(This is my 3rd iteration with this post. The first one was very apocalyptic, with doom for hf radio. The 2nd, done after I had done some more searching was slightly more optimistic. After further research into the HomePlug system, here is my latest:)
TXU, Current Join to add broadband
Note that BPL is not being installed to bring high speed to ranchers and farmers without the usual means of access, as so often cited by BPL operators and their corrupt cronies, the FCC. Naturally not, there's no money out in the boondocks, and getting the signal out there costs a fortune.
No, they're going to overlay the DFW metropolitan area, going head to head with the cable companies and DSL.
A possible positive note is that Current Communications, the vendor selected by TXU for the BPL service, uses HomePLug technology for their system, and this equipment is not as bad as other systems at causing interference to HF comms.
So a watchful wait seems to be called for, since the rollout is coming regardless.
One possible advantage may be a lower price for my Comcast internet service. Will wait and see what happens. If it turns out that this system runs clean, maybe we should drop TXU a thank you note for choosing them over someone like Main.net, which has caused serious interference problems everywhere it has been deployed.
Coming back to the office from lunch, I heard Norm, VE6KG on 15. 15 has been problematical for the past weeks, although I seriously wonder if the main problem is only that no one is on 15 to begin with.
Had a nice, although short, QSO with Norm, who is in Calgary. My 4 watts into a hamstick got a 579 report, and he was 599+ on my end.
ARRLWeb: Response to Virginia BPL Interference Complaints an "Illusion" of Resolution, ARRL Says
The main question in the Manassas situation is what is it going to take to get the FCC to take action, instead of just blowing it off with suggestions to have further discussions with the BPL operator. Yes, that's really worked. Good luck with that.
FCC, do your damn job.
ARRLWeb: ARRL Cautiously Optimistic about Texas BPL Deployment Announcement
As I mentioned earlier, the north Texas BPL system will be by Current Communications, using the HomePlug system. This system is designed to notch amateur bands, unlike Amperion and Main.Net which are (spectrally) filthy systems.
So if BPL has to come to this area, and apparently it does thanks to Governor Blow-Dry and his toadie Lieutenant Governor Donthurst, at least TXU has selected one that may be a little kinder to hams than the alternatives.