The Enforcement Bureau of the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has proposed a financial penalty of $1000 for a Georgia amateur radio operator for failing to transmit his assigned call sign during radio broadcasts.
According to a Notice of Apparent Liability for Forfeiture issued in July 2015, the operator, David J. Tolassi of Ringgold, GA, was cited for failing to transmit his assigned call sign. Field agents from the FCC Enforcement Bureau’s Atlanta office reportedly used mobile direction finding techniques to locate the source of his broadcasts, and then monitored and recorded them. In a subsequent interview with the field agents, Tolassi denied making the unidentified transmissions.
Tolassi has a history of failing to comply with FCC rules governing the Amateur Radio Service. He was previously issued a written warning in July 2014 for failing to identify his amateur station, and was advised that he could face penalties and fines for failing to identify his station in future transmissions.
Under FCC rules, “each amateur station…must transmit its assigned call sign on its transmitting channel at the end of each communication, and at least every 10 minutes during a communication, for the purpose of clearly making the source of the transmissions from the station known to those receiving the transmissions.” The FCC can assess a forfeiture penalty of up to $16,000 for each day of a continuing violation, up to a maximum of $122,500 for a single act or failure to act.
Read the complete text of the Commission’s Notice of Apparent Liability.
