More often than not, it is done by one or two hams instead of this huge group of people mobilizing to go "hunt' a bootlegger station. With the truckers (who have been one of the worst about straying up into 10 Meters), sometimes they get caught because the hams simply listen or scan 28 MHZ while going to work or running errands. The drivers then give themselves away by talking about this "car with a buncha antennas" on it coming up behind. That way, the ham who is listening has just identified the trucker who sometimes will also try to call the ham about "all them antennas". He is now busted as the amateur op simply records the truck's info off the door and turns it in to FCC. There were quite a few truckers turned in this way----including UPS and FedEx drivers.
While it can be a bit more difficult to locate mobile stations, it is not THAT hard. If it is, for example, someone who is local and operates in a specific geographic area, even some relatively primitive equipment can give up an illegal's position.
I'll try to explain. If someone starts operating----say..........on 10 Meters with his export radio, a few of the hams would simply meet for coffee. Their tools are a beam antenna and a map of the area. They may also designate an HF frequency that is WAY outside 10, 11, or 12 Meters---something the interfering station is not likely to have access to. When the illegal station is heard they may also call each other on the phone and have each station swing their beams across the signal. Then they plot a line from their location that CROSSES the signal that is coming into them. Each station does the same. Then they bring their maps for coffee and "connect" the lines. With just TWO plots, + the offending station, it will form a rough triangle. Where
THOSE LINES CROSS IS WHERE THE OFFENDER
IS The triangle doesn't have to be perfect; it can be all sorts of shapes, but it will show where the station is: it is called TRIANGULATION, btw, for obvious reasons! What if the station is moving and showing up at various places at different times? Well, you take as many plots as you can, and look at them to see where this signal appears the most, the most used direction of travel, times of day the signal is most frequent, and, of course, the general vicinity of the signal. All this data can be saved in a computer file until a "profile" begins to form. And, yes, it can take weeks to gather this data, but it DOES work. Even if the tracking stations can't track at the same time or EVERYTIME the signal appears, each station can gather enough data to form a "picture" of the interfering signal. FCC, tho, has some AWESOME equipment, and suffice it to say, it is like OnStar on STEROIDS using satellites and remote "stealth" antennas they can even sit in Columbia, MD and monitor!! It IS costly, so one has to really get someone MAD to stir the Feds to action. Still, there are plenty of actions against CB operators of late along with some misbehaving hams, too!
But WHY would this even be an issue (or a question) unless you were being "tempted" to operate ON the ham bands illegally? It is something I would certainly caution you about, and I do not agree that hams are being "anal" because they attempt to seek out those who ignore laws and rules that THEY had to learn (and follow). I'm sure there are some who will jump me immediately about this position.......................BUT!!!!!!! There are good reasons why hams have a more strict view of unlicensed operators on their bands. Part of the problem is
FCC ITSELF that removed licensing from CB in the 80's. This helped to bring on an "appliance" mentality and a situation where NOBODY even bothered to read the rules for CB anymore! It fostered a free-for-all, law-breaking, let's-throw-all-rules-out-the-window mentality, a
SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST atmosphere, and a genre of people who had never HAD to abide to rules before. THEY just went out and bought a CB radio and had at it.
To THEM, WHY should THEY have to obey any rules, and they saw no reason why they couldn't just invite themselves onto the ham bands, too!
HUH???? A
LICENSE??? I don't NEED no 'license', I've got this BIG radio with all them 'channels' and I've got a "right". It just so happens the incumbent licensees on "them channels" happen to OBJECT. Try to see it this way: If you buy a house, you expect the LAW to protect you from intrusion, right. If somebody just walked into your house, brushed past you, then got a STEAK out of the fridge, then what????? You'll stop him at gunpoint (or other means of force), call the LAW to come and STOP this thief. or a combination of BOTH!!!!! Does THAT make YOU "anal" because you STOPPED this guy from taking something that belongs to YOU? It is what
LAWS, RULES, and REGULATIONS are FOR: to protect innocent citizens from loss, damage or injury. Same with radio. A ham starts out just like everybody else. He EARNS his privileges by doing what the law requires. So, one day he attempts to USE one or more of the frequencies his license permits, only to find some dolt happily yapping away on AM in the digital portion of 10 Meters. Maybe the perp is local, maybe not. But this inteference is NOT welcome, so the ham(s) seek out the interloper and turn him in to the "cops"---which, in this case, happens to be FCC. WHY does that make HIM "anal" and not the guy who called the cops for STEALING from him?
The usual argument I get is, "Well, its "different": we ain't hurting anything by using them channels" It is NOT different!!!!! By operating on the bands assigned to other users, you are depriving the rightful users of the abilility or the potential for use, of that privilege. "Well, it's different because there's no 'danger' from using a radio". It is STILL preventing the rightful user from having access to those frequencies at the TIME they may want it!!! So, the ham(s) will then seek out interlopers and turn them IN. It is how the bands are prevented from becoming a cesspool of noise, arguments, and just plain trouble.
CWM
