[SOC] Good grief...

[f5pbl]

Hi Rob,

Saturday, February 1, 2003, 10:02:06 PM, you wrote:

==>>FCC INVITES COMMENTS ON AMATEUR-RELATED PETITION
Rob> Reich has petitioned the FCC to require sellers of two-way voice or data
Rob> equipment to keep on file a buyer's name, address, telephone number and
Rob> "any future information when selling a radio that required licensing under
Rob> the current FCC rules." Information collected would remain private,

We, YES, _we_ ham ops, have asked for that years ago. This has been
denied by the French "FCC" 'coz of the lobbying of major gear shops
here.
Primary goal was of course to prevent (or try to limit) non-licensed
people to get and use radios on ham bands: CBers, truckers, crane
drivers, "bodyguards", a.s.o. a.s.o.
Secondary goal was to sell equipment to people who, _in_theory_, are
said to know how to correctly use it.

But of course that would have been a _possible_ lost of money for pro
sellers. Money is money, n'est-il-pas ?

Just wondering why is it shaming to show your ham licence when buying
equipment ? If you are ashamed of it, just give it back. IMHO.
Personnaly, every time I buy ham related gear, I say who I am and this
always leads to pleasant chat with the seller (who 95% of the time is
also an ham).

FCC would then be able to trace you and/or would get private info ?
Are you naive enough to think that they do not _yet_ know what they want
to know ? Or that they do not have other ways to get the info ? Tss,tss ...

French law says : "You can buy everything you want - freedom of market
- but you can use only if you have the right to do so (by licence or
whatever it can be)". Do you see what I mean ?

E.g. : Power limit in France on HF bands is 500W PEP.
Do you really think you will not find 1+++ KW Power Amplifiers in our
shops ??

My K1 is running 5W CW and I feel much better and lighter (!) and
"prouder" (read "happy of the established QSOs") than when I was
running 100W out of my TS450S.

Rob> Radio registration?  Gheesh!  Get a life dude!

If you had to get a F ham test when I did (1989), then you would have
had to be "checked" (some kind of interview - great memory BTW) by our
"Renseignements G�n�raux" (I think you call yours something like
"Internal Security Agency"). This is no more required since 1998. But you
still have to declare to the Telecom Admin which equipement you have
at home. But this being made on a voluntary basis ... do it if you
want, of course.

FWIW.

72!
Claude, F5PBL

Vi Minore, Plus Gaudium

http://www.qsl.net/f5pbl  http://www.qsl.net/soc

DIG #4451 - FISTS #7722 - SOC #503 - 10-X #71724