FCC Fines Restaurant for Long-Range Telephone Use:

A New Jersey restaurant is facing a $10,000 fine from the FCC for operating transmitting equipment on 2 meters without a license. The case involves Best Wok in Westville, which apparently had been using a so-called "long-range cordless telephone" to communicate with its delivery vehicle. The FCC says the telephone in question--said to have been obtained outside the US and not FCC certificated--operated within the 2-meter satellite subband at 145.8376 MHz. Acting on a tip, the FCC conducted an investigation that resulted in the February 26 issuance of a Notice of Apparent Liability for Forfeiture (NAL) to Best Wok. While the case dates back to 2001, the FCC asserted in its NAL that the restaurant had violated the Communications Act as recently as early last year.

"On February 28, 2003, Best Wok operated radio transmitting equipment on the Two-Meter Amateur Radio Service frequency 145.8376 MHz," the FCC said. "Neither Best Wok nor any of its employees held a license to operate a station in the Amateur Radio Service Band." In 2001, following numerous complaints from the amateur community, the ARRL asked the FCC to investigate and "take appropriate action" against several companies it alleged were marketing similar telephone devices via the Internet.

After issuing a couple of warning notices, an FCC agent from the Commission's Philadelphia office visited Westville in February 2003 "to determine if Best Wok was operating radio transmitting equipment" on 2 meters. Using direction-finding techniques, the agent pinned down the source of the transmissions to Best Wok.

According to the FCC, the agent visited the establishment and inspected the radio transmitting equipment in the presence of restaurant manager Sae C. Hauwo. "The agent found that Best Wok was operating a long-distance cordless telephone system," the FCC said. The Commission says Hauwo told the agent he installed the long-range cordless telephone system so that his employees could answer customers' telephone calls while making deliveries.

Hauwo said that after the restaurant got the second written warning, it stopped using the long-range telephone and purchased a set of Multi-Use Radio Service (MURS) radios that operated on 154.600 MHz. But the MURS units failed to provide sufficient coverage, the FCC says Hauwo told the agent, so Best Wok resumed using the long-distance cordless telephone system.

In its NAL, the FCC said that based on the evidence it had, it determined that Best Wok "willfully violated" Section 301 of the Communications Act. Applying its forfeiture policies and the statutory factors, the FCC said the $10,000 fine was warranted. Best Wok was given 30 days to pay the fine or to seek a reduction or cancellation.

In unrelated enforcement actions, the FCC has downgraded one licensee and canceled four license grants in California pursuant to an audit of a W5YI-VEC examination session on September 1, 2001, in Yucaipa and an ARRL-VEC examination session on March 30, 2002, in Los Angeles. All participating volunteer examiners have been removed from VE service by the VECs.

Source:

The ARRL Letter Vol. 23, No. 14 April 9, 2004

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