Free Republic

he sheriff's office says it was determined that the wires holding up the Coos Mountain Repeater site were cut. The sheriff’s office says that tower is used for emergency communication for loggers, fire personnel and ham radio operators and is an integral piece of infrastructure in the region especially now as fire season begins. The sheriff's office says when the tower fell, it was completely destroyed.

When first responder communications networks failed after 9/11, the government decided to build a nationwide wireless emergency communications network that would actually work. It took a decade of general histrionics and dysfunction by Congress, but in 2012 the Middle Class Tax Relief and Job Creation Act formally created the First Responder Network Authority (FirstNet). FirstNet is an entirely new federal agency tasked with coordinating the build of a 700 MHz LTE-based coast-to-coast emergency broadband network. But since its creation the effort (tell us if you've heard this one before) has been plagued with dysfunction, allegations of incumbent carrier cronyism, and...

A federal law passed in February 2012 to help middle class families by creating jobs and cutting payroll taxes included a section mandating the creation of a nationwide interoperable broadband communications system for law enforcement and first responders. The system, which is being created under the direction of the First Responder Network Authority (FirstNet), seeks to create a nationwide broadband network capable of being used for a variety of law enforcement purposes including remote surveillance, mobile biometric applications like field fingerprint scanning and facial recognition, as well as automated license plate reading. The system is currently in a pilot phase...

Video at link. Here's the text that Mr. Casler provided to describe his video: The FCC has issued a Public Notice called an "FCC Enforcement Advisory," Number DA 18-980, dated 24 Sept 2018. It essentially makes worthless nearly all Chinese-made UHF/VHF ham radio handhelds imported into the country over nearly a decade that can also transmit outside the ham bands (which is nearly all of them). Watch this video for details and an interim update.

The People’s Republic of California is at it again; through unelected state officials, California is severing ties to ham radio repeater owners throughout the state, jeopardizing the lives of millions of Californians who depend on these repeaters to operate during emergencies. Last month, repeater operators were sent emails telling them the State would no longer allow them to operate repeaters on public land without paying substantial rental fees. In the letter sent by CAL FIRE, the state claims Ham operators no longer provide a benefit to the state or public safety. They claimed that “constantly changing technological advances” has made...