Repeater? Remote Base? FCC Orders California System to Shut Down

NEWINGTON, CT, Sep 18, 2002--The FCC has ordered a UHF Amateur Radio system in the Los Angeles area shut down until it either obtains coordination or comes up with an acceptable plan to prevent interfering with a coordinated repeater just 10 kHz away. FCC Special Counsel for Amateur Radio Enforcement Riley Hollingsworth says the owner of the 447.250-MHz system on Mt Disappointment, Steven R. Decho, KE6FX, has complied with the FCC request, which was included in a September 4 Warning Notice.

"For over two years, your Mt Disappointment KE6FX station has been characterized by lack of control and identification problems," Hollingsworth wrote. "The real basis of this matter seems to be that you object to a recent change in spacing standards by the coordinator and do not wish to conform to them." The regional coordinator, the Southern California Repeater and Remote Base Association (SCRRBA), has told the FCC that the coordination for KE6FX was abandoned.

The FCC considers the KE6FX station a repeater, while Decho, who resides in Draper, Utah, calls it "a remote base." As a remote base, he has claimed, KE6FX does not require coordination. But the FCC said Decho did submit outdated coordination documents in his response last year to FCC communications.

In either case, Hollingsworth again pointed out, the KE6FX system is causing interference to the coordinated WA6UZS repeater 10 kHz away. If it's a repeater, Hollingsworth explained, KE6FX is obliged to prevent interference to the WA6UZS repeater under §97.205 of the FC rules. If it's an auxiliary station or a remote base, "the fact remains that it interferes with the WA6UZS repeater," Hollingsworth said.

In previous communications with Decho going back about a year and a half, Hollingsworth among other things cited "reports of dead carriers that last for weeks, a tone that lasted continuously for three weeks, weekends of 2-meter rebroadcasts and a repeating CW identification that lasted for weeks." Over the July 4 holiday this summer, the system re-broadcast other repeater traffic and ignored attempts by WA6UZS repeater personnel to contact Decho, the FCC said.

In August 2001, the FCC said the KE6FX beacon identifier that activated without operational input, the rebroadcasting of other repeater traffic, dead carriers, continuous tones or repetitive CW identifiers "must cease immediately" and normal repeater traffic, if any, must not interfere with WA6UZS.

In his letter, Hollingsworth raised the specter of further enforcement action against KE6FX and any control operators for the system, up to and including fines and license revocation proceedings, if the system were not shut down. A copy of the letter was sent to the FCC Western Regional Director.

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