$1500 fine for jamming a school bus

The FCC has affirmed a $1500 Forfeiture to Dale Lloyd Allred of Tunnel Hill, Georgia. This, for willful and repeated operation of an unlicensed transmitter and interference with licensed radio communications in nearby Dalton, Georgia.

Amateur Radio Newsline's Bruce Tennant, K6PZW, says it
all revolves around a business contract that was lost:

In response to several complaints over last summer of interference to school bus radio operations coming from Dalton Communications, Inc., agents from the Commission’s Atlanta Office of the Enforcement Bureau monitored the frequency 157.5675 MHz in Dalton.

They observed repeated radio transmissions directly on top of school bus communications, often disrupting the school bus radio transmissions. Using a mobile direction finding vehicle, identified the location of the interfering radio
transmissions as the office and radio shop of a company called Tri-County Communications.

The agents conducted an inspection of radio equipment at Tri-County Communications and interviewed Dale Lloyd Allred who they identified as its chief executive officer.

Allred admitted that he had intentionally operated a radio transmitter on 157.5675 MHz to cause the interference that
day and on other days as well as at other times.
Allred told the agents that he was interfering with Dalton Communications’ transmissions, because Dalton Communications had taken the school bus communications contract away from his company.

On October 16, 2008, the Atlanta City Office issued a Notice of Apparent Liability for Forfeiture to Allred in the amount of seventeen thousand dollars. Allred submitted a response to the requesting cancellation or reduction of the proposed forfeiture and at that time changed his story. He denied that his operation was intentional or that he maliciously caused interference to the school bus communications. Instead he claimed that his equipment was mounted incorrectly in his service vehicle which caused the Push to Talk button to activate when it hit another radio.

He also stated that he was intimidated by the police officer who accompanied the agents during the interview and that he would have admitted to anything at the time. He also claimed that a $17,000 fine would produce a financial
hardship and provided documentation to back up his claim.

The FCC did not buy his explanation as to how the repeated jamming took place. It noted that Allred does not dispute that transmissions on 157.5675 MHz were sent from his handheld transceiver and sent on more than one day.
It says that even assuming that the transmissions were not
willful, that he admitted that his operation was repeated. The FCC noted that it need not find his violation of Section 301 of the Act to be willful to assess a forfeiture.

As to the hardship claim? That the FCC did accept. After reviewing the financial documentation that Allred provided, it conclude that a reduction of the forfeiture to $1,500 would be appropriate. It then notified him that he was being assessed that amount.

Bruce Tennant, K6PZW
Amateur Radio Newsline

Allred was given the usual 30 days to pay the fine or to file a further appeal.

Source: ARNewsline, FCC