Hollingsworth to Retire In January 2008

[Sonwatcher]

FCC's Riley Hollingsworth to Retire in January 2008

Riley Hollingsworth, Special Counsel in the FCC's Enforcement Bureau, announced his retirement this week, effective Friday, January 3, 2008. While his successor has not been named, Hollingsworth was quick to point out that the FCC's Amateur Radio enforcement program will continue.
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Riley Hollingsworth's Ten Personal Suggestions for Amateur Radio Operators

1. Be proud of what you have and let your feelings be known. Let the public know what you are, what Amateur Radio is, and why it's valuable. Let your feelings be known to Congress, to the FCC, to the media, to your states and to emergency agencies. Sprint does. AT&T does. Motorola does.

2. Operate as if the whole world is listening. It is!

3. Take nothing for granted. Bill Gates can't, and you can't either.

4. You're at a crossroads now. An old Chinese philosopher (or my grandmother--I can never remember which!) said, "Be careful what you wish for. You may get it." Seize the moment, and make this your finest hour. Ham radio has been at a crossroads before and has thrived. Continue that tradition.

5. Make sure that, on your watch, Amateur Radio never becomes obsolete.

6. Teach the new licensees all you know. We've needed numbers for a long time.. Respect this wonderful legacy known as Amateur Radio that our mentors and Elmers gave us. Every time you key the mike or hit the key, think about what a legacy you were given and your duty to pass it on.

7. Enjoy ham radio. Celebrate it. But realize it comes with responsibility. Every gift of lasting value always does.

8. Stay away from arrogant, negative operators who know all the answers. They just haven't thought of all the questions. Encourage them to take their anger and hate to the Internet. Every minute they are on the Internet is a minute they aren't on Amateur Radio.

9. Never allow Amateur Radio to become the audio version of The Jerry Springer Show.

10. You may not always agree with the League, and that's fine. But I'm standing here before you tonight talking about enforcement because they never gave up. Take care of the one voice you have. You must never doubt that a small group of dedicated people can change the world. They just did.

http://www.arrl.org/arrlletter/00/0901/rileys10.html

 

[cyclops1970]

Wow, I thought Riley would get a more civil response than this:

http://www.eham.net/articles/17849

That thread turned into a Rileybash.

 

[seedkey]

Damn, This stuff cracks me up.
quote..Riley's screw-ups were legion! Here are only a few:

1. Trying to call in for re-testing hams who had taken their exams from the FCC Engineer-In-Charge.

2. Claiming that hams aren't supposed to use phonetics.

3. Telling hams they weren't supposed to rag chew on 146.52 because it is a "calling frequency".

4. Pretending that Part 97, sec. 97.101(b) (the requirement that hams must share their frequencies) didn't exist.

5. Misinterpreting Part 97, sec. 97.205(3) by claiming it permits repeater owners to order repeaters users off their repeater.

 

[C W Morse]

Damn, This stuff cracks me up.
quote..Riley's screw-ups were legion! Here are only a few:

1. Trying to call in for re-testing hams who had taken their exams from the FCC Engineer-In-Charge.

2. Claiming that hams aren't supposed to use phonetics.

3. Telling hams they weren't supposed to rag chew on 146.52 because it is a "calling frequency".

4. Pretending that Part 97, sec. 97.101(b) (the requirement that hams must share their frequencies) didn't exist.

5. Misinterpreting Part 97, sec. 97.205(3) by claiming it permits repeater owners to order repeaters users off their repeater.

Item # 5:

They are STILL making miscreant operators refrain from operating on such repeaters. I would point out that repeater operators CAN prevent others from operating on THEIR machines if they want to.
a. tone encode by giving the tones only to the ones the owner
wishes to allow to operate.

b. Simply asking operators verbally or by letter to refrain from
operating.

If *I* asked someone not to use a repeater of mine and he defies me, I would drop the machine right out from under him in MID-sentence! :evil: This likely would be due to interference to ongoing QSOs, arguing, fighting, using language contrary to the rules, or harassing other operators. Repeater owners CAN and DO take this action on a regular basis, and it is perfectly legal. After all, the rules do NOT require an owner to keep a machine ON the air at all.

CWM

 

[Captain Kilowatt]

Since Riley is FCC and the FCC means squat to me I do not really care however on the following points:

1.- If I remember correctly there were some allegations of bribery or such and there were some amateurs that were recalled for testing as it was alledged that they had obtained their tickets by some other means than simply passing a test.

2.-Technically simply saying "Kilo Bravo One Xray Xray Xray" is in fact NOT stating your callsign. The proper callsign is KB1XXX. It is nitpicking but it is in fact the law.

3.-No differant than you're not supposed to operate SSB on 14.230 which is for SSTV or have a domestic ragchew on 3795 in the middle of the 80m DX window. Not supposed too and can't are two differant things.

5.- It has happened before and the decision was held up. There are various ways to do as CW Morse has said.

Personally I think Riley did a poor job in enforcement but if he is to be criticized at least make it for the right reasons.