News
FCC Proposes Fining Georgia Ham $1000 for Failing to Identify
TAGS: agents, amateur radio service, Apparent Liability, commission, Counsel Riley Hollingsworth, deliberate disregard, direction-finding techniques, evening, fcc, FCC Enforcement Bureau, fine, forfeiture, General class ticket, license renewal, NAL, renewal application, sign
07/23/2015
The FCC has proposed fining a Georgia ham $1000 for alleged failure to properly identify. David J. Tolassi, W4BHV, had been warned last August about not following the Commission’s Part 97 ID rules. The FCC said his “deliberate disregard” of that warning warranted the proposed penalty.
“Mr Tolassi…has a history of failing to comply with the rules governing the Amateur Radio Service,” the FCC said in a Notice of Apparent Liability for Forfeiture (NAL), released on July 22. As the NAL recounted, agents from the FCC’s Atlanta Office used direction-finding techniques to locate the source of a signal on 14.313 MHz to Tolassi’s residence in Ringold, Georgia.
“The agents monitored and recorded transmissions during which Mr Tolassi failed to transmit his assigned call sign,” the FCC said. “The agents interviewed Mr Tolassi later that evening, and, while he admitted operating that evening, he denied making the unidentified transmissions.”
Nonetheless, the FCC determined that Tolassi “apparently repeatedly violated Section 97.119(a)” of the rules. The Commission pointed that it could have assessed a forfeiture of $16,000 a day for a continuing violation, but it settled on a $1000 fine.
Tolassi is no stranger to the FCC Enforcement Bureau. In 2005, the Commission warned Tolassi, then WA1BHV and living in Vermont, that he was risking a substantial fine if he continued to violate the conditions of his 2004 license renewal. After a series of “enforcement issues” relating to the operation of KB1EVE, his call sign at the time, the FCC renewed Tolassi's General class ticket on the condition that he refrain from 20 meter voice operation for 3 years. The FCC had referred Tolassi's renewal application to the Enforcement Bureau for review the previous year, after then-FCC Special Counsel Riley Hollingsworth alleged that Tolassi had engaged in inappropriate on-the-air behavior.
Tolassi has 30 days to pay or seek a reduction or cancellation of the fine.
