Sorry Boys,
Doesnt work that way. In using the radio waves, you are giving implied consent to the rules of the FCC and in turn, you are agreeing to let them inspect your station at any time. In no way does this infringe on your rights. That is the same as driving. In accepting the license, you are consenting to being held responsible for, and liable for disobeying anfy traffic regulations, which means that you can be stopped at any time and for any reason if you are the operator of a vehicle.
You might need to reread the regs.
There's a lot of information here in this thread, both good and bad. In some respects, packrat is correct. But not all.
First, the FCC in fact does have the authority to inspect your station. They got it from you when you filled out your license application. Basically you agreed to let them in and inspect your station or pay a fine. Ham, commercial broadcast, GMRS, aircraft, whatever. The 4th Amendment doesn't enter into it because you've already signed away the right.
If a law enforcement agency has the legal right to search your house, they're going to search it. They're not going to make a request and ask pretty please with sugar on top. They're not going to beg you for the keys or ask you take down the barricade behind the door. They're going to get a battering ram and go through it! But the FCC doesn't have this authority. The only authority they have is the authority that you voluntarily agreed to when you signed your license application. And that is merely to charge you a fine for not letting them inspect your station in accordance with that licensing agreement.
To use the drunk driving analogy, a cop cannot walk up to you on the street and force you to submit to a breathalyzer test. If he wants one he's going to have to find enough evidence that you're drunk to arrest you, and while you're waiting in jail he has to go before a judge with the evidence and get a court order to take breath, blood, urine, etc. But if you're driving a car then you already agreed to submit to a blood alcohol test at any time or face penalties because that was part of the drivers license agreement you signed. And usually the penalty is you lose your license.
Now this is where it gets interesting:
Back in the 1970s when I was mailing in a check for $4 every five years to be an officially FCC licensed CB radio operator I was also agreeing in advance to let the FCC inspect my station any time they want. By submitting that application I was agreeing to follow all the FCC rules including the ones about radio inspection.
But I haven't given the FCC any license application or money for the last 30 years, and any license I did have has long past expired, and any agreements between me and the FCC along with it.
Of course, when the FCC "de-licensed" CB they created the "license by rule" or a non-license license, and they decided that just the fact you went to Wal-Mart and bought an electrical appliance and then decided to use it constitutes a double-secret licensing agreement between you and the FCC. In the computer industry this is known as a "shrink wrap license." In other words, since you tore the shrink wrap off that common retail package and used the contents that is enough to bind you to the long, complicated EULA notice that they stuffed into the box.
Fortunately for the consumer, shrink wrap licenses have been invalidated time after time in the courts. And this whole "license by rule" bullshit is equally invalid. If it were valid it would mean the FCC could demand to inspect anything you buy that transmits like a cordless phone or the WiFi card in your laptop. Can you imagine the FCC showing up at your door demanding that you let them in to inspect your Linksys router or face a $10,000 fine? Yeah, that'll definitely hold up in court. :thumbdown:
The only reason the FCC sticks by the "license by rule" and tries to use it to levy fines is it hasn't been challenged in court yet, because the first time it is the whole concept will go down in flames.
This doesn't mean you can do anything you want on the air. The Communications Act of 1934 and subsequent amendments still have the force of law, and you can still be prosecuted for breaking them. But they still have to do it the legal way that preserves all your rights.
So yes, if an FCC agent shows up at your door and demands to inspect your station, tell him to pound sand.
