From the monthly (?) newsletter of Great Lakes Division Director, Jim Weaver, K8JE:
For many years, FCC did not provide feedback to ARRL on Official Observer (OO) reports it received. This has changed. Because of legal constraints, the feedback isn’t very detailed, but it is being given.
In June there were a total of 692 Official Observers (OOs) in the US. During June, ARRL received 10 recommendations for hams to begin the process to become OOs. OOs are still needed in parts of the Great Lakes Division as well as the country. If you are interested in becoming an OO, please contact your Section Manager, your Official Observer Coordinator or another League official.
A few of the situations OOs reported in June include:
- Complaints about activities on or near 14.275 MHz; especially about
the language used.- Reports from . . . Michigan regarding unlicensed hunters using 2 meter simplex frequencies. Information has been forwarded to the FCC.
- Reports of boot-legged calls.
- A report of “numbers stations” (Spanish speaking stations transmitting numbers) on 30 meters. Another report was of transmissions of 5 letter code groups.
No official actions were added to the FCC listing during June; however, several reports were handled off the record. Summaries of many FCC actions can be found on the FCC website.
The June report concluded, “As always, we thank you all for your time and efforts involved with the Official Observer program and we invite you to let us know of problems you hear on the air and possible resolutions through your regular monthly reports and e-mails.”
I’d like to salute the work that OOs do. One of these days, I’m even going to become one myself.
Leave a Reply