FCC Affirms Fine for Former California Amateur Licensee
NEWINGTON, CT, Oct 15, 2004--In an October 5 Forfeiture Order (FO),
the FCC has affirmed a $10,000 fine it proposed earlier this year to
levy on Jack Gerritsen, ex-KG6IRO, of Bell, California. The FCC
asserts that Gerritsen doesn't have an Amateur Radio license but
continues to operate. The FCC's Wireless Telecommunications Bureau
(WTB) promptly rescinded its 2001 Amateur Radio license grant to
Gerritsen after learning of his California court conviction for
interfering with police communications. Imposing a fine on Gerritsen
is the next step in a case that eventually could lead to criminal
prosecution.

Responding to the earlier FCC Notice of Apparent Liability (NAL) in
July, Gerritsen maintained that he still has a ham ticket. He asserted
that the NAL does not show that his interference conviction is under
appeal, that the set-aside of his amateur license was unfounded and is
only a claim made by Commission personnel; that the set-aside does not
prohibit him from transmitting on the amateur bands because he holds a
valid license, and that any possible suspension of his license is
pending a hearing, making the NAL moot until a suspension actually
occurs.

The FCC is not buying his arguments, however, and it cited chapter and
verse to back up its Forfeiture Order. Section 1.113(a) of its rules
gives the WTB 30 days from publication to modify or set aside an
action, such as a license grant, on its own motion, the Commission
pointed out. As a result, Gerritsen's amateur license application has
reverted to "pending status."

"Consequently, no license exists authorizing Gerritsen to use the
amateur frequencies he was found to be using in the NAL," the FCC said
in the FO.

Gerritsen also has tried to argue that he has preserved his license by
seeking a hearing under §1.85 of the FCC's rules and, further, that
he's been told by FCC personnel that he will get a hearing.

"We find that Gerritsen has misinterpreted both §1.85 and the
correspondence he has received from the Commission," the FCC
concluded. The Commission pointed out that §1.85 spells out when the
FCC may suspend an operator license, but since Gerritsen has no
license, just a pending application, there is no license for the
Commission to suspend, and §1.85 doesn't apply. The WTB did tell
Gerritsen, however, that his amateur application would be designated
for a hearing to determine if he's qualified to be a Commission
license.

"Neither §1.85 nor the correspondence Gerritsen received from the
Commission granted him an amateur license or any authorization to use
the amateur frequencies," the FCC said. In affirming the forfeiture,
the Commission determined that Gerritsen's violation of the
Communication was "willful and repeated," and that based on the
entirety of the record, "we find that neither cancellation nor
reduction of the proposed $10,000 forfeiture is warranted."

Amateurs and law officers--some of them also amateur licensees--have
expressed extreme displeasure at the slow pace of progress in the
Gerritsen case. Reports from Los Angeles area hams indicate that
Gerritsen continues to use KG6IRO, although the call sign appears in
the FCC's Universal Licensing System as "terminated." Recent letters
have implored the ARRL to somehow intervene in the situation.

"Imagine BPL--a million times worse," one radio amateur recently wrote
the League. For some time now, repeater owners have been shutting down
their machines rather than let an unlicensed user transmit through
them.

"When we turn them on," the amateur claimed, "we are continually
jammed and harassed--forced to listen to his messages of propaganda."
He described switching to various repeaters on his drive home only to
hear the station identifying as KG6IRO come on.

"One by one repeaters were turned off, and communications came to a
halt," he said. Another amateur asserted that Gerritsen "continues to
plague all of the Amateur Radio repeaters in the Southern California."

Before the FCC issued the NAL, agents tracked transmissions to
Gerritsen's residence, but he refused a station inspection. "Agents
interviewed Gerritsen and he admitted to transmitting on various
Amateur radio frequencies as well as various business radio
frequencies," the FCC said in its Forfeiture Order.

ARRL has obtained a copy of a handwritten letter Gerritsen wrote while
in jail last March on a federal trespassing conviction to the
president of one repeater association. In it, Gerritsen suggested that
repeater owners should tolerate his commentaries "a few times a day."
Gerritsen also claimed he could reach "about 90 repeaters from my home
in Bell on a rubber duck and VX-5."

Gerritsen's pending Amateur Radio application is back in the hands of
the WTB, which also will decide the fate of his General Mobile Radio
Service (GMRS) license. The FCC set aside that grant last fall because
of Gerritsen's alleged continued unlicensed operation and deliberate
interference. A Hearing Designation Order for Gerritsen is said to be
working its way through the FCC bureaucracy.

--
Dan, KD8AGU
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