[Lowfer] Re: Group Part-5 license for LF???

[Mike Staines]

> A naive comment from a non-US citizen . Consider the following scenario :

Good question, Alberto.

Let me answer it this way:

In this country we pride ourselves on freedom and openness. But yet the
Government prohibits us from listening to certain frequencies. And, in some
admittedly unique cases, people have been tried in court for listening to
Cell phone conversations. Portable phones we can listen to all night. Cell
phone monitoring gets you jail time.

I know Ham stations that were issued "Cease and Desist" orders from the FCC
for "rebroadcasting" the national weather service radio forecasts during
tornado (cyclone) watches.

A simpler case? Our county sheriff (the local police) needs two licenses:
one for the police band and one for the fire band. The police band license
won't permit him to chat on the fire band service even he is responding to a
fire.

And in the "Post 9/11" weirdness that we are currently enduring it is not
difficult to envision a much more authoritarian nation in the near future.
We have these new laws called "Patriot Acts" that (IMHO) are quietly
stripping away my privacy and liberties.


George Orwell was off by only 20 years. Go figure...

Mike
wa1ptc