Two commercial operations evicted from amateur bands
/Following an investigation into several member complaints, the Radio Amateurs of Canada has announced that two cases of frequency incursion have been resolved.
In the first, a transportation company based in Reinfeld, Manitoba was observed to be operating illegally on 144.100 Mhz. In addition to operating inside the amateur radio two meter band, this operation posed a threat to low signal operations across a wide portion of North America. The company in question had purchased VHF radios from a US based supplier who failed to indicate correct licensing procedures.
Upon contact from RAC, the company agreed to immediately cease operating in the two meter band and shifted their operation to a business band frequency. Industry Canada was notified of the incursion and continues to work with the company to secure a licensed channel.
In the second matter, a home moving company was observed to be operating on 144.940 Mhz. The company is based in Winkler, MB but the operation was observed in Alberta during the moving of a house. In this case, the company had already licensed frequencies with Industry Canada. They had requested 144.940 Mhz as a channel. Their request was denied by Industry Canada and a business band channel was issued. However, the company failed to check their license paperwork and assumed they had been approved for their requested channel.
The moving company was also contacted by RAC and agreed to move their operations to their correctly licensed frequencies. Given their wide geographic operations Industry Canada has licensed their operation on four separate channels including 140.730, 154.325, 158.940 and 151.730.
In both cases, it appears that channels in the two meter band were chosen by these businesses because their new vhf radios defaulted to that frequency range. As well, both businesses indicated they could simply dial a new frequency into the radio to move out of our band.
This is strong cause for concern that the actual radios being used are modified Amateur Radio equipment. The use of equipment intended for Amateur Radio operation outside of the Amateur Bands or by persons who do not hold an Amateur Radio Certificate is illegal.
Action on these and other incursions has been made possible by quality reports from monitoring stations. RAC has thanked those Amateurs who have provided assistance in these specific files.
