Malicious Interference
Malicious interference to amateur radio communications is nothing new and it is not the “ham way”. As a bad example, back in the 60s, we had a repeater war of sorts here in Utah. Part of this story I lived, and part I’ve reconstructed from other accounts. I think the true story is very close to this:
At the time, 2 meter communication was almost all AM rather than FM. Some of us had a HeathKit Twoer, while others had the Gonset Communicator “goony box” and others had various different setups. Provo-Orem had one preferred frequency, and Salt Lake City had another. Rich folks could afford both crystals.
The first repeater in Utah was put up by a fellow named BB, serving the area south of the point of the mountain. His scheme was that if you wanted to use the repeater, you had to pay a start-up fee, plus an ongoing fee. He would then issue you a little tone generator box that warbled the correct tones to key up the repeater.
This financial arrangement really bothered many hams. It just didn’t seem right. Nevertheless, the BYU Amateur Radio Club (my club at the time) held its collective nose, paid the fee, and was on the repeater.
Not much later, a group put up an open repeater serving Salt Lake City. If I remember correctly, that was on Ensign Peak, possibly 146.76/16.
Whether out of vanity, or potential loss of revenue, or whatever, BB took great offense at this new repeater, and set about to sabotage it.
He built two jammers, one in his car, and another buried at the repeater site. The one at the repeater site was hooked to one of the guy wires of the antenna. It had a 600 KHz oscillator, feeding a mixer, and that had the effect of re-radiating the repeater transmitter on the repeater input frequency so that the repeater howled and was unusable. That jammer was on a clever timer system that made it seem intermittent.
As clever as BB’s system was, it was eventually discovered, and traced back to him. At that point, the FCC revoked his ham license and his commercial ratiotelephone license, as well they should have. At that time, the radiotelephone license was a very valuable and difficult to get credential. In addition, the school where he taught dismissed him.
Not all malicious interference cases end quite that way. It’s sad that a fellow ham would behave that way, and that the FCC had to step in and sanction him, and sad that he lost his licenses and his livelihood. I knew the man. But, as they say, those who make good decisions seem to have an unfair advantage.
The “ham way” is mutual respect, courtesy, and friendship. Well, that plus a good fox hunt now and then, without confronting the culprit. The FCC will take action, particularly if they have multiple complaints and specific information about the culprit, and the fines are often many thousands of dollars. In any event, don’t feed the trolls.
73 for now,
Denton
W7DB