Riley Recants Phonetics Warning
from
The ARRL Letter / ARRL
on
May 18, 2000
Website:
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Riley Hollingsworth: Is my face red?
FCC Special Counsel for Amateur Radio Enforcement Riley Hollingsworth says he
was just trying to see if the amateur community was paying attention when he
suggested on his recent Radio Amateur Information Network enforcement news
report (http://www.rainreport.com) that
the use of phonetics during station identification was contrary to the amateur
rules.
As Hollingsworth has since conceded, after being challenged from several
quarters, the applicable FCC station ID rule--§97.119(b)(2)--specifically
encourages "use of a standard phonetic alphabet as an aid for correct
station identification" [emphasis added].
"I plead temporary insanity," Hollingsworth told the ARRL. "I
was working too close to my antennas the evening before."
This article has expired. No more comments may be added.
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Wrongway Riley
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by W2IOJ on May 18, 2000
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Well it is reasuring that Mr. Hollingsworth is subject to the same human frailities as the rest of us. Riley allowed a distaste of excessive phonetics use by some hams to imagine a rule violation.....
I would guess that many of us have done so as well....Little or no harm done...to err is human...Our thanks to Riley for all the many good enforcement contributions he has made.....Jim, W2IOJ
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I knew he was a good guy.
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by W4AN on May 18, 2000
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Nice to see someone take responsibility for their actions rather than finding someone or something else to blame.
73
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RE: I knew he was a good guy.
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by W2OO on May 18, 2000
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I will have to say that this reinforces my support for Riley Hollingsworth. I, and many others, stand behind him and appreciate his achievements.
Don
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Riley bites the bullit
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by W5EJ on May 18, 2000
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This has to be a first! A Bureaucrat who can admit being wrong. I KNEW he was a good guy! Thanks, Riley, for your wonderful work... L O N G overdue and much appreciated. I'd say you should run for President, but we need you overhauling ham radio.
Ed, W5EJ
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RE: I knew he was a good guy.
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by KG4EMM on May 19, 2000
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Good for him (us). An honest mistake. But lets bear in mind that he said "standard phonetics".....
73 de Kilo Golf 4 Echo Mike Mike
not Kiss Generals 4 Erotic Measures Mama !!!! (hi hi)
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RE: I knew he was a good guy.
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by N6JSX on May 19, 2000
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Sorry guys, It is nice to see a government type saying "opps"! But he is the BIG wheel and he should know the Part 97 Rules - if he is going to comment upon them in relation to HAM conduct. This is scary that he doesn't know his subject matter or the ramifications to his mouth. I've seen/read little significant FCC enforcement efforts. I hear about the CB'ers getting busted and some HF jamming but very little on VHF. He's starting to remind me of Slick Willy and his omnipotence to the facts or law.
As I reiterate - until I read that Hollingsworth has made a commitment to cleaning up the 2m FM repeater world (where the vast majority of HAM activity takes place) I see Hollingswoth as ineffective. Go to the large metropolitan areas ( LA, NY, Chicago, etc.) and monitor the most wide ranging high profile 2m repeaters and you will hear the problem(s). HAM radio has outstanding "T" hunters (in these large metropolitan areas) but due to ARRL HQ restrictions on the OO program the "T" hunters efforts typically ONLY go to contest hunting.
So FCC get off your butt and nail the jammers and severe violators of 2m repeaters! Do some REAL constructive enforcement. HAM radio and the local EMERGENCY government users will thank you! Who knows cleaning up 2m might even save a life?
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RE: I knew he was a good guy.
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by AA4RL on May 21, 2000
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Ye who have not sinned cast the first stone....
Come on, who do you think he is....
Everyone makes a mistake and compare what Riley is doing now to what was happening just a few months ago....no enforcement hardly at all....Keep up the good work Riley!
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Enforcement
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by N0TRK on May 23, 2000
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I heard the comment on the Rain Report and was sure I just misheard, or that he mis-spoke.
At least he admitted. Quit beating up on Riley (or any one) for a slip of the tongue or a misunderstood
comment. As for cleaning up 2 meters, you have to be on the air! You have to be setting examples for
the new hams to follow. We don't have much problems in this area, but what we do have we take
care of. We DF, we let the offender(s) know they have been identified and we give them the benefit of the doubt
it was unintentional or it was ignorance of the rules (at least the first time we find them). Before you
scream for Riley to ride into town and do his Matt Dillion impression, have you done everything you can to
clean it up? Riley is not the Pied Piper, he isn't going to lead the rats away, we have to round them up
first!
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N6JSX can do better?
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by N7LT on May 24, 2000
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N6JSX....can u do better? I doubt it! Your words prove yourself a fool! I personally met Mr. Hollingsworth at Dayton. I ask him questions one on one. (Specifically, what was the procedure he wanted us to use to report bootleg CB'ers on 10 meters) I also sat in on the FCC forum. His presentation of the FCC and himself make me proud of what they are doing on behalf of our government for the improvement of Amateur Radio. Do you want to help fix the problem N6JSX? Then get busy documenting the troublemakers in your area and forward the info to Mr. Hollingsworth. He said he'd take it from there. Long live Riley the Enforcer!
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To err is human
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by WA0QMP on May 24, 2000
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How does the old joke go? "I thought I made a mistake once, but I was wrong" ? I think we hams should be delighted that the FCC (through one of our own (a ham, no less), is actively enforcing the rules and doing what he can to clean up the few bad eggs in amateur radio. Riley has my support. People who "come clean" with an honest mistake as soon as they are made aware of it are quick to receive forgiveness from most people. After decades of non-FCC involvement, let's encourage their new "enforcement" tactics; not discourage it.
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RE: I knew he was a good guy.
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by AA4PB on May 28, 2000
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It's great to see a government official admit when he has made a mistake - doesn't happen very often. Must be because he's a ham. Maybe he'd make a good president.
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RE: I knew he was a good guy.
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by K3FT on December 27, 2000
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I heard about Riley about 2 weeks after his appointment. Having had many 'yeah, so what else is new?' responses from the FCC when I contacted them about interference. I was cynical, skeptical, and down right negative about any chance of them getting back to enforcing the rules. Then I met Riley at a PVRC meeting and heard him talk. Got a chance to talk with him one-on-one. He said, point-blank, publicly 'The FCC has let enforcement languish for too long. I can't fix it all at once, but I'm going to make sure it doesn't continue. We will do our best to change things.' He admitted, publicly, that the FCC had let the amateur service down and he apologized for it. There was note of finality in his voice and you could tell he meant it. Well, he started doing things. Went after easy cases and also worked the 'long standing hardcases too'. Got some convictions, yet myself and others took a 'wait-and-see-if-it-lasts' effort. Well, it has lasted.. he has cracked some of the long-term idiots shells and forced them to pay the piper (literally!). It HAS proven to a lot of us that he's making a difference and doing what he said he'd do.
People KNOW he's serious and that the FCC is back in the field - trained, ready, and armed to fight and win. Even the hardcore folks are learning. One thing he also said was that he is taking the problems based on the areas of most needed attention. 2M, lower end of 10M, long standing repeater disputes, interference to 80M/20M.. Each section took time, but he's made a difference in those areas.
That he made a mistake.. OK.. yes.. he did. BUT.. unlike most bureaucrats.. he admitted he screwed up, took responsibility for it, APOLOGIZED in PUBLIC (when's the last time you saw a Washington type do THAT?), and announced the results. I'll settle for that anytime. One minor mess up in a field of many sterling successess. WE NEED MORE RILEY'S!
Better to light a small candle in the middle of dark room than to curse the fact that the holder may have spilled a little wax on the rug.
Another thing to look at is that he's using the 'intent and purpose' of the rule as a means of getting to the violations. Used to be (when I worked as an FCC Field office watch officer back in the mid-80's at Laurel) that unless it was a CLEAR TECHNICAL violation you couldn't write it up. No 'spirit and purpose of the Amateur Rules' violations allowed because that opened the door to 'having to make a judgement based on interpretation which MIGHT just offend someone and force a bureaucrat to have to make a decision'. Nope. we couldn't do that. NOW.. the intent, spirit,and purpose of the regulations is being enforced and that's good!
Again!
Thanks Riley! MORE POWER TO YA!
73
Chuck K3FT
k3ft@amsat.org
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Riley Recants Phonetics Warning
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by W3DCG on November 9, 2002
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Thanks for the clarification...
I for one can take a joke, and certainly have been there before, and sure am glad there's a real live person up there at FCC HQ, a HUMAN not some governmentalized drone.
73,
Whiskey Three Delta Charlie Golf, clear.
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Riley Recants Phonetics Warning
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by RADIOWEENIE on March 15, 2003
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Well I am glad to see that Riley Hollingsworth has finally found the inner fortitude to say that he was wrong (which he certainly was). I have often thought him to be shamelessly self-serving, capriciously cavalier, and unilaterally selective in his "enforcement episodes". It is truly encouraging to see hard evidence that he has finally listened to someone who has something other than his own bureaucratic agenda of self-aggrandizement on his mind.
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RE: Riley Recants Phonetics Warning
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by KA0MR on August 28, 2003
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It's amazing Riley will set his sights on a phonetics issue and won't enforce a blatant and dangerous violation in regards to 4 hams in the Wichita, Kansas running high powered radar sets that a type accepted for Part 80 a licensed required device to be used only on shipboard and expressly prohibited in a motor vehicle,1500 watts of pulsed modulation blasting away at unsuspecting motorists risking blindness.
But yet Riley will grandstand a phonetics issue and refuse to persue such a dangerous to the public activity. I finally figured out why he isn't going after these tornado chasers. He operates a hurricane watch website so he must feel that using dangerous levels of RF energy at microwave frequencies is ok as long as they have the publics welfare in thier forethoughts in using these devices to forewarn the public despite the fact simple radar at 9.5 won't really see a tornado in such advance development to be a any real use.
More of a conflict of interest is my guess.
Bob KAØMR
ARRL Auxillary
Official Observer Program
Midwest Division
Go figure
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RE: Riley Recants Phonetics Warning
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by K4JF on September 17, 2003
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My (already high) opinion of Riley just went up another notch. We all make mistakes, it takes guts to admit them publicly.
So THAT's why someone on the local repeater was saying use of phonetics was illegal, when it clearly is not.
Now if we can just get the "make up your own rules" crowd to stop saying "calling CQ on VHF is illegal". Amateur radio is the only place where "CQ" IS legal... there is no reason to exclude certain bands.
73 DE K4JF
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