C W Morse:
wow, thanks for the LENGTHY explanation with ALL the emphasis pointed out with CAPS!
so lets say....
i own a house, and a fridge, and a steak. someone comes into MY house, into MY fridge and takes a steak from ME.
youre saying thats the same as someone using a freq. they shouldnt be using??
sorry man, but as much as youd like to think, but you dont OWN that freq.
bad analogy my friend.
No its NOT a "bad" analogy! It illustrates the REASON for all laws and regulations. Whether they are perfect or not, the reason for them is to protect citizens from harm, damage, or loss whether it be a piece of tangible property or an IN-tangible one like a "frequency". I never SAID frequencies are "owned", but they are REGULATED by governments, AND necessarily so! The simple fact is, if they weren't you might as well abandon the use of radio and go back to 1850 or so. Why? Because radio would become UNususable as an effective tool. Just listen to CB and what it became after it was mostly deregulated in the 80's. Did it become better as a result? No. I remember a time when CB was regulated, there was voluntary organization (the users themselves "policed" it; iow, if you were a malcontent, a troublemaker, PEER pressure kept most users down to a dull roar! And they would "shun" them and ignore their calls) If you just threw the doors wide open, removed all regulation, chaos would ensue and nobody would be able to use it.
While most of us are not trained in communications, we also do not understand one of the main reasons for regulations in radio that makes it the SAME as theft from one's home. It is the potential loss of life and property! While YOU, for example, may pout and chafe under these regulations that people can see no reason not to violate, your indiscriminate use of a radio could be causing someone in dire need of help not to receive that help. Your signal (like in the unbridled atmosphere of CB carried over into other radio services) could be covering up the legimate communications of another station. If you KNEW that you were causing someone to die, would you continue to jabber away? It matters not if it is once, twice, three times, regulations are in place in an
attempt to prevent such a thing from happening-----even once! So unlicensed stations---yes, even on the ham bands-----are not welcomed nor tolerated. And in such case, WHO is really the "anal" one; the ham that protects his allocations by reporting interlopers, or the guy who thinks he has some "right" to 'them channels'? (And some outlaws with questionable or NO upbringing DO think that). Who is the 'anal' one if someone is trapped in a car & upside down in a creek, and radio was blocked from obtaining help? For grins and giggles, google "Jack Gerritsen" for an example of this very thing where hams were involved with the Coast Guard and trying to help with a sinking boat. Gerritsen did this very thing. He *(rightfully)* went to prison for it.
Was he a "big man" for doing this, or were the hams "anal" for tracking him and turning him in?
The point is still that stealing from a home is an example of a direct, physical act that is regulated. Radio is an unseen commodity that we can't see or touch but is also regulated for the same reason: to prevent harm, loss or injury to the citizens of a nation or the POTENTIAL for same. IOW, if you steal a guy's groceries, you'll get pinched! If you "steal" the
ability to use that which is assigned, given by authority, or license, you are commiting a crime. You should (and will) get nailed. Except for the
percieved moral equivilency, or lack thereof in ones own mind, they ARE the same.
CWM
