Quite honestly, I
don't seen a need in having Riley address the board again......I can give his
speech, its the same one he has given to us each and every time he has been
there.
I do, however,
wholeheartedly agree with your comment that this has very little to do with
bandwidth regulation but is a separate and much broader issue we will have to
address in the near future. We need to start planning in that area and that is
where we need to involve Riley, rather than another ARRL paid vacation to
HQ.
73 Joel
W5ZN
In a message dated 4/25/2005 10:40:29 PM Eastern Standard Time,
K8JE@arrl.org writes:
All this suggests that any new band planning we expect FCC to
adopt will need to be rather simple to enforce using only minimal
staffing.
Jim, your summary of Riley's
remarks is of great concern. It would appear that he has concluded that upon
his retirement, there will not be anyone as dedicated to the cause as he is.
As to "minimal staffing", clearly we are there. The FCC does do "split jobs"
in some cases, and Riley is not spending all his time on Amateur Radio
enforcement. He does land mobile enforcement also. So it is hard to imagine
FCC devoting "less" resources to Amateur Radio enforcement than it does now,
and there is, almost by definition, no method to make band plans
self-enforcing; hence my stated concern of yesterday.
This has very
little to do with the bandwidth regulation issue, I think. I view the
enforcement situation as distinct, separate and much broader an issue, and
something to which we should turn our attention in the very near term. Perhaps
we should have Riley address the Board again, as he has done on several
occasions, and strategize with him.
As Rod Stafford will attest, having
been the ARRL's point person in the FCC's return to enforcement in the Amateur
Service, we rely on deterrence almost exclusively. Riley has not been as
"active" in doing actual enforcement as he has been visible and omnipresent.
FCC in-your-face works wonders with very little resources expended. That was
Richard Lee's strategy and Riley adopted it. Somehow, that concept has to
continue going forward post-Riley-retirement. Otherwise, we will slump back
into the dark times.
As Joel Harrison has said correctly many times,
the real Godfather of Amateur Radio enforcement was Richard Lee, who is still
at FCC and in need of a job. That option needs exploring.
73, Chris
W3KD