On Thursday, June 26, 2014 9:30:24 PM UTC-5, Foxs Mercantile wrote:

Make sure that if you insist in getting in a body part waving

contest with an agency, that they don't have said appendage

the size of a California Redwood.


This was no contest of the type you indicate. It was about someone who det
ermined that the rules didn't mean what they plainly say and had the mistak
en idea that armature radio was his "right" and not a privilege. Of course
all that junk going on down where the AM guys play which is sourced in vari
ous other countries didn't help the situation any.

It was interesting when I read the Judge's order that Baxter decided to for
ego the normal legal trappings and just send "profanity laced e-mails" to v
oice his objections. I'm no lawyer, nor do I play one on TV, but it was mi
ldly amusing to read Baxter's ramblings and guess what the ALJ was going to
say about it. I'm going to miss that. I'll give Baxter this, while he obv
iously didn't care about the rules, he did know enough of the obscure heari
ng procedure to tie the process up in knots.

So, if there was any waving being done, it was decidedly one sided. Despit
e all the muddy water created during this process, the FCC actually did wha
t they needed to do. Yes it took two decades, which is way too long, but i
f Baxter insists on staying on the air they will no doubt deal with that in
turn.

I do have one complaint, in that this whole process takes way too long. Th
e FCC needs to make the NAL process faster and they need to make it clear i
n their rules that if you have an affirmed NAL, even if it is not yet out f
or collection by the DOJ, any applications you file are subject to the red
light rule and will be dismissed and any pending application which is under
appeal is also dismissed by default. Allow for an appeal of course, but in
the case of an affirmed NAL which is unpaid, the license does not remain a
ctive during the appeal. This would have removed K1MAN's privileges nearly
10 years ago, which is really the point of all this effort. It certainly
wasn't the money as I'm sure they've spent more than the fine paying the la
wyers and the judge to deal with this.

In any case, I believe K1MAN's license will be added to the available call
list and become available as a vanity call in October of 2016. Woe to the
ham who gets that call, even if it is pretty short in CW and not a bad leng
th phonetically either. Especially for a ham who is not familiar with the
long history of the call and likes to work AM on 40 Meters...

Those of us who followed this story for the last 10 years realize the massi
ve damage this one man has inflicted on ham radio's reputation. He's not th
e only one acting lawless on 40 meters (or anyplace else they congregate),
but he's been the lightning rod case for the last decade here in the USA.
As a group, if we care about our hobby, we need to do something to make sur
e this mess ends. We must police ourselves in all countries and come up wit
h effective ways and operating practices that strongly discourage such misb
ehavior.

Which, by the way, is why I was involved in the creation of this moderated
news group. It was my attempt to show that there is a better way and that
the normal descent into the cesspool caused by engaging such behavior with
similar tactics is not going to work. It is also why the FCC forbids hams
from knowingly talking to unlicensed people who happen to have radios.

But now we are on another topic...

KC4UAI