What would you do?

[loosecannon]

jazzsinger's thread got me wondering, but i didnt want to hijack his thread with my questions, so, here they are.
these are directed at licensed ham ops, but all are welcome to opine.

yes, this is completely hypothetical.

The ARRL has been disbanded, or decommissioned. whatever.

The FCC has sold the entire HF/VHF/UHF spectrum, including the amateur bands, to companies for use in their commercial ventures.

All ham radio transmitting equipment is now illegal to use.

what would you do?
would you still pursue your hobby and become a "pirate"?
would you sell your equipment to others who might want to operate it illegally?

would you just pack it up and find a new hobby?
what would you do?

please do not explain to me why this would never happen.
i am asking what if it did.
op:
LC

 

[Shockwave]

Now wouldn't that be the fastest way to turn the ham bands into a copy of the CB band? Think about it. If every transmission were now illegal, no one would ID, there would be no incentive to observe power limits or any rules. One could argue that the FCC has already lost control of the ham bands. I don't have to look far to find QSO's with foul language, no ID, intentional QRM, and inappropriate conversation.

The only time the FCC has ever stopped all amateur use of the spectrum was during times of war. I seriously doubt the FCC could begin to enforce a wartime ban today. If I thought it could put us at risk in anyway, of course I wouldn't do it. However if they sold the spectrum off I would simply crumple up my license, throw it away, stop IDing and continue with more power then ever before.

I would expect all other amateurs to join in and show the FCC they can't sell what doesn't belong to them. Additional lessons should be thought to those that think they can buy it. Let them spend the money only to find the spectrum in full use. While LC was painting a scenario that some think is impossible, the FCC has being doing this little by little over the years.

The 220 MHz. ham band was cut in half and sold to UPS. The new DTV transition was planed to leave unassigned channels so that the unused spectrum could sold off to the highest bidders. The highest bidder will be telecommunications companies that will then charge us for those high bids to use our spectrum again.

I think nearly everything the FCC does is backwards. Those interested in gaining use of spectrum should not pay the highest amount. They should pay to conduct independent studies on if their proposed use would be in the best interest of the public. Then awarded the use of the spectrum accordingly. It doesn't matter if that use is your local police or cell phone provider.

 

[Shockwave]

I see LPFM as another classic example of FCC failure. Rather then providing an economical way for the FM broadcast band to better sever the local public, we were given lip service as a substitute. The lip service sounded ideal in that it offered local broadcasters the ability to set up 100 watt FM stations that could be used as a new medium to reach the public without a million dollar investment.

One need only to query the FCC database to see how this has turned out over the last 10 years. You'll find about 90% of the approved LPFM stations belong to church groups. While I'm a believer, I find it hard to believe that in less then 10% of situations could a worthy competitor be found. I think there was a 90% chance the FCC quickly wanted to fill the unused spectrum with applicants they figured would require the least supervision. If nothing more, it was an effective way to avoid doing their job.

 

[dudmuck]

please do not explain to me why this would never happen.
i am asking what if it did.
op:
LC

HF vs VHF vs UHF are apples and oranges.

You ask "The FCC has sold the entire HF/VHF/UHF spectrum".
On UHF and microwave there is very real possibility of this since it is sparsely used, and has commercial value. We are losing 33cm now by default due to new IEEE standards.

HF has no commercial value, and since the ITU allocates ham bands, they would still be ham in the rest of the world. Even if they tried to make them a military bands, they cannot do so world wide. So I say in that case: keep on using it because in effect you are an international station.

 

[Se7en]

i choose pirate

 

[Robb]

If the FCC and the US gov't were stupid enough to revoke all Ham license holders/CB freqs too - and allocate all freq for commercial sale; then I would accept $150,000 as a settlement to buy all of my gear and all radio-related gear as well as my labor for education and installation. Quite sure that a class-action suit by all operators - Hams or otherwise - could be brought, fought, and easily won. Could easily be in the hundreds of millions of dollars without breaking a sweat. Perhaps more.

 

[pro151]

Start an "Occupy the FCC" movement?

 

[wavrider]

WHAT??????

No licensed HF frequencies?

No max power limits???

Hell ya pirate

 

[Captain Kilowatt]

If the FCC and the US gov't were stupid enough to revoke all Ham license holders/CB freqs too - and allocate all freq for commercial sale; then I would accept $150,000 as a settlement to buy all of my gear and all radio-related gear as well as my labor for education and installation. Quite sure that a class-action suit by all operators - Hams or otherwise - could be brought, fought, and easily won. Could easily be in the hundreds of millions of dollars without breaking a sweat. Perhaps more.

:laugh: Robb, you're killing me. Be compensated for loosing frequency spectrum, something you never owned in the first place? You only were granted permission to use that spectrum by the same authority that can rescind that permission at any time. Precedence has already been set for not compensating someone for past purchases of equipment that was later deemed unusable on certain frequencies namely analog TV transmitters as well as wide band FM commercial gear that was deemed illegal and useless with the narrow banding of the commercial VHF/UHF bands many years ago. Scream compensation all you want but it will fall on deaf ears I guarantee you.

 

[GLR]

Fight the power Robb!

 

[Se7en]

what about these idiots on eBay selling FM RADIO antennas for bases, and linear amplifiers....for WFM & a few NFM. I thought it was illegal to transmit any music unless your a business or someshit like that?

i could spend $1000.00 jam a local radio station in play my own music. tho of course the men in black will show up, I'm just sayn.

 

[Robb]

:laugh: Robb, you're killing me. Be compensated for loosing frequency spectrum, something you never owned in the first place? You only were granted permission to use that spectrum by the same authority that can rescind that permission at any time. Precedence has already been set for not compensating someone for past purchases of equipment that was later deemed unusable on certain frequencies namely analog TV transmitters as well as wide band FM commercial gear that was deemed illegal and useless with the narrow banding of the commercial VHF/UHF bands many years ago. Scream compensation all you want but it will fall on deaf ears I guarantee you.

No guarantee that there will be deaf ears when lawyers start a massive class-action suit, I can assure you. You are right for every reason except for the reason I posted. Outlawing the use of these freq's means that they have made the equipment useless with the stroke of a pen. Since this is damaging and a damaged party may seek a court to financial restitution, it isn't even a frivolous claim. The use of the freq's are a privilege, but so is the right to seek damages if they can be substantiated. That wouldn't be hard at all to prove. The more they fight those claims; the price to settle will only get raised. That alone starts these legal wheels turning.

Lets just say that we don't want it to come to that. If it happens here; it may well happen in your beloved Canada just as quickly . . .

 

[GLR]

No guarantee that there will be deaf ears when lawyers start a massive class-action suit, I can assure you. You are right for every reason except for the reason I posted. Outlawing the use of these freq's means that they have made the equipment useless with the stroke of a pen. Since this is damaging and a damaged party may seek a court to financial restitution. It isn't even a frivolous claim. The use of the freq's are a privilege, but so is the right to seek damages if they can be substantiated. That wouldn't be hard at all to prove. The more they fight those claims; the price to settle will only get raised. That alone starts these legal wheels turning.

Lets just say that we don't want it to come to that. If it happens here; it may well happen in your beloved Canada just as quickly . . .

comedy gold!

 

[Captain Kilowatt]

No guarantee that there will be deaf ears when lawyers start a massive class-action suit, I can assure you. You are right for every reason except for the reason I posted. Outlawing the use of these freq's means that they have made the equipment useless with the stroke of a pen. Since this is damaging and a damaged party may seek a court to financial restitution. It isn't even a frivolous claim. The use of the freq's are a privilege, but so is the right to seek damages if they can be substantiated. That wouldn't be hard at all to prove. The more they fight those claims; the price to settle will only get raised. That alone starts these legal wheels turning.

Lets just say that we don't want it to come to that. If it happens here; it may well happen in your beloved Canada just as quickly . . .

It has already happened in the USA Robb and it has cost businesses hundreds of thousands if not millions of dollars EACH or don't you understand what a precedence is? I am quite sure that if the commercial broadcasters could have gotten their money back from the government for all the money they spent on analog TV transmitters and antenna systems in the few years prior to the announcement of going digital then they would have. When a big network starts to replace dozens if not hundreds of transmitters at between 50,000 and quarter of a million dollars each it soon adds up. The commercial FM business band users.....same thing.Same thing again years ago when there were multiple formats of AM stereo and the FCC mandated everyone switch to the shitty Motorola C-Quam system. Nobody got their money back then and you won't in the future, shady class action lawyer or not. PRECEDENCE will prevail.

 

[Captain Kilowatt]

comedy gold!

More like comedy lead or maybe even aluminum.