[FedCom] Re: Unauthorized Fed/Mil Frequency Usage?

[Robert Wyman]

I really must have missed something in this entire thread...and what a long
thread it's been. Here's my equally long response. Skip it if you're already
bored with this subject!

Regarding unauthorized use of FedCom/MilCom channels, this practice has
occurred since the first pallet of old FedCom/MilCom radios were sold by
private firms in the business of being government auction houses. I recall
one incident in the 80's, witnessed by at least two other members of this
Yahoo group, in which a North Miami-based surplus electronics dealer had a
tray of radios...in well-used but still-working order...from the AUTEC
facility on Andros Island (Bahamas). All USN frequency plates and serial
numbers were intact. 

Of course, being highly-motivated twenty-somethings at the time, we
dutifully recorded all the frequencies and went our merry way. Eventually,
though, someone bought the tray and probably pressed those radios into
service on some South Florida loading dock or in some warehouse ... all
without any authorization from the Navy, IRAC or the FCC.

In South Florida, illegal out-of-band transmissions occur almost daily. Our
most famous case is a Miami taxi service that's been operating for over 20
years using an input in the 171's and an output in the 167's. It can be
heard all over Miami-Dade County and includes a telephone interconnect for
direct taxi customer-to-driver comms.

I know factually that the (former) FCC Miami Field Office was notified of
this in the 1980's by more than one individual and agency ... but no action
was ever taken.

Intrigue? Black Ops? Secret Approval? Maybe. Back then we also heard
rumblings of a tacit approval, because the taxi "company" only serves what
was then called "The Cuban Exile Community." Not a bad scenario, right? Your
friendly neighborhood taxi driver is also an agent with an ear toward the
community's pulse.

But, on the other hand, maybe it's just a taxi company with a surplus
government repeater that no one cares about! And why not hide in plain
sight? The feds could have easily established a front company, with a real
FCC license, on a legally-allocated taxi service frequency. 

Many more examples exist down here, all over the FedCom bands. We've seen
high-power, export-only cordless phones that have been "imported" back here
within some of the immigrant neighborhoods. We've also seen private delivery
trucks using a 411-range repeater system. And lots of out-of-band amateur
equipment.

As for the 142.925, I must have missed the significance of this too. My
Google search uncovered EMWIN in Maryland, lots of FEMA lists, and use in
D.C. during a presidential inauguration.

Is there anything else of interest or "intrigue?"

Robert Wyman
Fort Lauderdale FL