Dealing with intruders on the amateur radio bands

The South African Radio League (SARL) receives many complaints about people not authorised to use the amateur radio bands, pirates at sea, truckers and broadcasting stations.

To deal with this effectively the following information is required: times operating, frequency and possible identification.

If it is a broadcasting station the name of the station, location etc plus a sound recording on MP3. In other words as much information is needed as possible and a recording is essential.

The IARU has a world wide monitoring systems called IARUMS. The SARL inputs information to the system and where possible several members of IARUMS report these incidences to their national monitoring service which takes it up on a Government to Government level.

If the instrusion is from a local source the SARL will take it up with ICASA, for example a trucking company operates illegally on the 20 metre amateur band. By listening and recording the conversation we need to learn which company owns the truck to enable action to be taken. We have been successful in the past. It requires lots of monitoring to collect all the information needed.

Report any intrusion to secretary@sarl.org.za but ensure that the required details are included as well as a MP3 recording.

Let us keep our bands free from intruders. With your help we can go a long way.

The South African Radio League