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NEWINGTON, CT, Mar 18, 2002--An uncoordinated North Carolina repeater has left the air as a result of a letter from the FCC to the repeater's owner and control operator. The FCC was following up on complaints registered with the Commission last fall that an uncoordinated repeater on 147.030 MHz was interfering with a coordinated repeater, KU4OL, on the same frequency pair.
The FCC on March 1 ordered the NY4X repeater shut down until the owner either obtains coordination or submits "a detailed, specific plan" to the FCC to prevent interference to KU4OL. FCC Special Counsel for Enforcement Riley Hollingsworth on March 1 warned that failure to shut down the NY4X repeater could result in enforcement action, up to and including a fine and license revocation proceedings.
John A. Parker Jr, AG4AZ, of Brevard, North Carolina, owns and operates the repeater which, with permission, had identified using the call sign of Richard E. Howell, NY4X, of Greer, South Carolina. In letters to both Parker and Howell, Hollingsworth recounted allegations that the NY4X repeater "often keys up even if there are no legitimate communications on it" and that some users "deliberately interfere with the KU4OL repeater," run by Randall M. Lowery of Mountain Rest, South Carolina.
In a letter last November, Hollingsworth reminded Parker that §97.205 of the FCC's Amateur Service rules require that, in cases where an uncoordinated repeater is interfering with a coordinated machine, "the licensee of the uncoordinated repeater has primary responsibility to resolve the interference."
Parker conceded in his responses to the FCC that the NY4X repeater was not coordinated but that he had attempting to obtain coordination from the SouthEastern Repeater Association (SERA) on 145.23 MHz. When February rolled around and Parker still did not have coordination, the FCC gave him until the end of the month to remedy the situation or face FCC sanctions. Hollingsworth told ARRL that Parker opted to shut down the machine.
Acting in another recent repeater conflict case, Hollingsworth told a group operating an uncoordinated repeater--KF8HL in Mingo County, West Virginia--that it bore primary responsibility under §97.205 to avoid interference to the KC8FKP repeater, operated by the Portsmouth (Ohio) Radio Club on the same frequency, 145.390 MHz.
The FCC declined to intervene in a third repeater situation involving a complaint last December from an amateur in Midway, Tennessee. Jeffrey Bible, K4MFD, had complained of interference from the nearby W4WC repeater, operated by the Andrew Johnson Amateur Radio Club. The two machines are on different channels but are sited on adjacent towers. Both repeaters are coordinated, according to SERA.
"There is no reason whatsoever why these two systems cannot coexist," Hollingsworth wrote, adding that the two systems share responsibility for preventing harmful interference.
"Your use of 'attention-getting' tones or devices, automated announcements that your repeater was 'the first on the mountain' and so forth and other announcements are permissible only so long as they do not interfere with the use of, or degrade the operation of, the W4WC repeater," Hollingsworth advised in a February 21 letter to Bible. "Otherwise, good amateur practice may dictate that they not be used."
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