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Author Message   Admin Posted on Sunday, August 18, 2002 - 10:34 am:        The winter blahs set in early this past week and it was Monday morning as I stumbled toward the espresso machine and fumbled for my ritualistic cup of black coffee. "Hey," said the UPS man as he trotted past my office door, "It's cold in here and your fax is blinking in the other room." This surely was not a good sign. It only blinks when it's out of paper or broken, and I distinctly remember refilling the paper eating monster last week. "Good morning to you too, Sam." I managed to mumble, "The furnace repair guy should be here anytime between now and Friday. Thanks, Sam." The fax wasn't just blinking, it was chock full of faxes and jammed. I grabbed the top layer and retreated back to my little corner where I delete, also ritualistically, the bulk of the spam that somehow manages to find it's way into my "inbox" each weekend except the last, which I found extremely strange. I figured the internet spam police finally caught up with all the predatory misfits in cyberspace who prey on email addresses like mine. What actually took place was slightly more realistic than the thought of the spam police finally prevailing against cyber evil spam. For some unknown reason, one of my private email accounts decided it no longer was accepting messages. If I had bothered to check my fax machine Friday before departing, I would have been made aware of this slight inconvenience. Now my fax was jammed, it was below freezing on Monday morning, the furnace was no longer furnacing properly, which made it just as cold inside as it was outside, the coffee tasted recycled, and I learned some valuable life lessons, like always check your fax before leaving at the end of the day and always be nice to the UPS man, no matter what message or package he brings. This guy handles our stuff and we don't want him angry at us. An annual checkup on the heating system may be in the cards, also. Many of the email and faxes turned out to be of the same nature, and my thanks goes out to several keen observers for bringing what follows to my frozen attention. This month, I believe there is another life lesson to be learned from the recent happenings that took place in Bell, California, near Los Angeles. If the FCC contacts you directly, it's a pretty safe bet that you should heed what they have to say. What is the FCC going to do? A good question, but without doubt they will continue to offer up plenty of violation notices to ham radio operators. Among the hundreds upon hundreds of violations the FCC handles each month, the occasional enforcement action takes place that stops us dead in our tracks and leaves us shaking our heads wondering if the human race has really evolved all that far since the days of dinosaurs. Back in 1999, a gentleman was causing such a ruckus with his radio antics that he somehow managed to bleed through to the Los Angeles Police Department communications equipment from his fixed transmitting location in Bell, California. It was found that the offender was, at the time of said infraction, a licensed amateur radio operator with a valid call sign. He was warned. The interference continued. Multiple violations were recorded and documented. Multiple warnings were delivered. Failing all attempts by the FCC to correct the problem, the offender was arrested. In 2000, he was found guilty and placed on probation with a condition of his parole no ownership of radios capable of transmissions of any kind. Ok. Now this isn't a bad scenario, right? I mean, the guy could have received plenty worse, right? Time passes and a certain familiar voice to some is not only jamming certain frequencies again, but has now levelled a death threat against the coordinator of a two meter repeater that reported him to the FCC for violating the condition of his parole that forbids him from owning radios capable of transmissions. This same fellow that narrowly avoided a prison sentence in the past, has now threatened to kill someone. The threat was made over the air on two meters. Same guy. Same location. A warrant was served in the wee hours for the self styled two meter despot and he was lead away in handcuffs for what may amount to a lengthy incarceration. During his apprehension, the authorities found approximately two dozen radios on the property, including several found in a closet that were frequency converted and modified, one of which had it's own independent power pack. If you were the judge, what would you do? Send me your thoughts. ---- Down in Sparta, Georgia, an electric fence was found to be the source of interference to an amateur band, which got me to thinking about some old cb rumors I remember hearing over the years, such as the chaps who were of the experimenting type and would load a fence (among many other metal objects) and transmit with it. Anyone have any personal experience of loading an electric fence before? ---- The constant talk on channel nineteen around Omaha, Nebraska continues to be of Cornhusker Motor Lines who were among the throngs of victims concerning the Enron debacle. The family-owned business based in Omaha for three decades had a contract to deliver freight for Enron's new foray into the shipping business. Upper level management decisions at Enron made no fiscal sense at all. The contract agreed to pay Cornhusker a preset amount regardless of how many loads were hauled. Cornhusker maintains the arrangement wasn't a huge money maker but guaranteed solid, dependable runs for it's business. Enron, in it's hurried race for the quick, big bucks, bit off more than it could chew. The contract with Cornhusker was made before Enron managed to secure clients to provide actual goods that Cornhusker would be hauling. This resulted in Cornhusker being paid for trucks that were leased but never actually hauled anything. Several trucks never left the company property. In a last ditch attempt at filling the empty trucks, Enron gambled and focused on a poorly organized, long term plan: entice companies now with lower shipping rates. The problem was the shipping rates were too low. The rates Enron charged it's clients were lower than what it cost the company to pay Cornhusker. Enron's bankruptcy was filed barely a month after signing the contract with Cornhusker. The family owned business estimated it's losses somewhere between a quarter and half million dollars.