ARRL urges action in Gerritsen case

In a strongly worded letter to FCC Enforcement Bureau Chief David Solomon, the ARRL has called on the FCC to intervene with the US Attorney's office in the case of former amateur licensee Jack Gerritsen, ex-KG6IRO, of Bell, California.

The FCC already has affirmed a $10,000 fine against Gerritsen for interfering with Amateur Radio communications and recently proposed imposing another $21,000 fine for additional, similar violations.

Gerritsen, who erroneously claims he's still licensed, allegedly has been bombarding numerous Los Angeles-area repeaters with verbal tirades for many months, often identifying with his now-deleted amateur call sign.

"It is urgent that the United States Attorney's office be brought into this matter without delay, and that procedures other than monetary forfeitures be brought to bear," ARRL General Counsel Chris Imlay, W3KD, wrote on the League's behalf in a December 13 letter to Solomon. Imlay asked Solomon to intervene "in this one instance, so that this matter is resolved without further delay." He suggested the time for gathering additional evidence was past, since the malicious interference continues.

Things were comparatively quiet on LA-area repeaters while Gerritsen was said to have been out of the US for about three weeks. When he returned to California on or about December 9, the transmissions resumed "with a vengeance," Imlay said. Repeater owners shut down their machines "to avoid the constant barrage of malicious interference," he added.

In his letter, which also was e-mailed to Solomon's office, Imlay recounted some of the history of the Gerritsen case. In 2001, the FCC's Wireless Telecommunications Bureau (WTB) rescinded Gerritsen's Amateur Radio license grant after it learned of his earlier state conviction for interfering with police communications. As a result of the conviction,
which he's appealed, Gerritsen ultimately spent some time in jail. He continues to maintain that the FCC can't take away his operating privileges without a hearing.

Gerritsen's now-pending Amateur Radio application remains in the hands of the WTB, which also will decide the fate of his General Mobile Radio Service (GMRS) license. The FCC set aside that grant last fall because of the allegations of continued unlicensed operation and deliberate interference. A Hearing Designation Order for Gerritsen is said to be
working its way through the FCC. But, Imlay noted, the slow pace of the case has angered and frustrated the Amateur Radio community, which has begun to view the FCC as powerless to halt the interference.

"Deterrence is critical to this effort," Imlay said, adding that the Commission's perceived inability to stop violations of Sections 301 and 333 of the Communications Act of 1934 and numerous Part 97 regulations "stands to quickly evaporate the years-long effort that has been so successful." Suggesting that the FCC will have a tough time collecting the fines it's imposed or proposed to levy on Gerritsen, Imlay said further delay will totally erode the Commission's excellent track record--in particular the work of FCC Special Counsel Riley Hollingsworth.

"Time is very much of the essence in preserving the sense of deterrence that exists generally in the Amateur Service," Imlay concluded.

The FCC's Los Angeles District Office, under District Director Catherine Deaton - not Hollingsworth - has primary enforcement responsibility over the Gerritsen case.
Agents from that office already have tracked interfering transmissions to Gerritsen's residence and issued oral warnings that by all evidence have been ignored. The FCC has said that Gerritsen refused to let Commission agents inspect his radio transmitting equipment.

Deaton's office issued the FCC's recent Notice of Apparent Liability, proposing the $21,000 fine for Gerritsen's "unauthorized willful and malicious interfering radio operations." Imlay said the interference extends beyond California, since the repeaters are linked throughout the
US Southwest, and the interference has disrupted "not only regular ongoing Amateur Radio communications but emergency communications as well."

Imlay said several hundred ARRL members have "repeatedly and with ample justification" complained to the League about Gerritsen's alleged activities. He called on Solomon and the FCC to "arrange for appropriate proceedings to be initiated to cause the incessant and damaging malicious
interference to cease."

FCC Enforcement Bureau Assistant Chief George R. Dillon acknowledged the ARRL's letter December 14. "We are treating the allegations contained in your letter and the complaints we have received regarding his actions very
seriously," Dillon said.

Imlay thanked Dillon for his "very prompt and encouraging response." But, he re-emphasized, "the Amateur Radio interference simply has to be made to stop without further delay."

Source: ARRL Letter - courtesy of The American Radio Relay League

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