QSL card campaign to rid airwaves of Gerritsen

A Southern California ham is tired of waiting for the United States Attorney to take the operator of an unlicensed ham radio station off the air.

Tim Thompson, W6DCE, of Oceanside has started an Internet based campaign to force the government to prosecute Jack Gerritsen, the ex-KG6IRO. Amateur Radio Newsline's Bruce Tennat has the details:

Jack Gerritsen had his license grant set aside in soon after it was issued in 2001. This, after the FCC learned of a previous conviction for interfering with police communications. But that has not stopped Gerritsen, or at least a person with his voice and using the K-G-6-I-R-O callsign from harassing repeaters and their users with his personal political rhetoric. This has already lead to $21,000 in fines from the FCC, which, to date, have been ignored.

And the voice claiming to be KG6IRO has gotten more brazen in its attacks on local communications. This includes the alleged jamming of Coast Guard emergency communications as we reported here on Newsline.

Why is this station permitted to keep operating? Thompson lays it all out in a new topic posted to the Talk and Opinions forum on QRZ.dot com titled "A Call To Action." There W6DCE asserts that the FCC has now referred the matter to the United States Attorneys Office in Los Angeles for criminal prosecution. Unfortunately, thats where it has stalled. Months have now gone by with no action. And says Thompson, valuable emergency service assets are forced to sit idle because the activity of the person alleged to be Gerritsen' gets them turned off daily.

So Thompson is taking a cue from the late Joseph Merdler, N6AHU. W6DCE is asking hams nationwide to send a Q-S-L card to United States Attorney Debra W. Yang in Los Angeles with a message that demands she act quickly in the Gerritsen case.

The idea is the same today as in the late 1970's when Merdler began a campaign to rid ham radio of jammers of that era. This, by getting the attention of Congress with a Q-S-L card campaign.

Back then it lead to dozens of license revocations and a handful of people going to jail. Thompson hopes by overwhelming the U-S Attorney with tens of thousands of Q-S-L cards that he can achieve the same in this case. We will let you know if it works.

Bruce Tennant K6PZW, Amateur Radio Newsline

You can read more about W6DCE's campaign and why he needs your help.

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