Elliot Lake Radio Amateur Charged On Tuesday March 28, 2000, an Inspector Charles Rochon from the Northern Ontario Spectrum District Office accompanied constables from the Elliot Lake Police Department in serving a search warrant on a person suspected on causing malicious interference to the Elliot Lake Police Department radio system. For several months the Elliot Lake Police Department experienced intermittent interference which obstructed their communications system while in encryption mode. The interference did not occur while in operating in non-encrypted mode. Equipment problems were suspected as the cause and apparently over $7K of technician's time was spent trying to isolate and resolve the matter. The Police Chief apparently received an email from a local amateur radio operator claiming responsibility for the interference. Our inspectors investigated and traced the source of the interfering signal to the suspected amateur radio operator's apartment. During the search Roger Bolwig, a licensed amateur radio operator, was found with modified amateur radio equipment that was capable of operating outside of the amateur radio bands, and specifically, on the frequencies assigned to the Elliot Lake Police Department. He was charged with mischief and arrested immediately. Bolwig was released on bail on the condition that he not possess radio or computer equipment and not to associate with another local amateur whom he implicated as also being involved in the malicious interference. The equipment seized from Roger Bolwig during the search was a modified Kenwood model TH-27A two-metre Amateur hand-held transceiver, a PC and a scanner. Bolwig was also charged under the Radiocommunications Act which was a federal offence. This case went to trial on February 19, 2001. The Attorney General's Office provided the following....
CLICK HERE for Elliot Lake Police Press Release
Industry Canada has just released a policy paper governing the use of Licence-Exempt Family Radio Devices in the Land Mobile Frequency Sub-bands 462 - 467 MHz. This band is used by commercial mobile operators as well as public safety services. The Family Radio Service (which has become very popular in the USA as a new, UHF "Citizens Band") will used unlicensed transmitters operating at low power, on the understanding that they will not cause interference to the licensed services. Since the upper limit of the Canadian 70 cm Amateur band is 450 MHz, it is not likely that the FRS will interfere with Amateur operations. Full details can be found in the policy paper available on the Industry Canada web site at: http://strategis.ic.gc.ca/SSG/sf02120e.html?he=y
On April 6th, Graham Ide VE3BYT the chair of the RAC VHF-UHF band planning committee and RAC Vice President Ken Pulfer VE3PU, met with officials of Industry Canada to discuss the details of the recently concluded Canada/US crossborder agreement on 220 -222 MHz. Following the meeting, two information pages have been prepared for this web site answering a number of frequently asked questions and clarifying the limitations on the use of the band by Canadian amateurs. The new pages can be found at:
Industry Canada has requested that all amateurs check their information and report any errors or omissions to the Industry Canada Amateur Radio Service Centre at the phone numbers or addresses listed below. Clubs should verify the currency of the information for their club station sponsor and report any changes.
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