FREE RADIO FORUM

By John Cruzan
Originally printed in The A*C*E, September 1995.

  Since I began this column a few months ago I have received many requests to write about my visit from the FCC last winter. I hadn't written about it before because I really thought everyone knew what had happened, and it really wasn't a very interesting story since there were no bloody gloves and nobody named Cato. However since many of you have requested it, Ill tell you what I remember.

  It was Wednesday, January 17th, about 11:30 in the morning. I was not usually home at this time but I was recovering from the flu and had decided to spend the day strung out on cold medications. I had just taken a hefty dose of the Nyquil and was beginning to get drowsy, when I heard car doors slamming outside my house, however I was too sleepy to look outside. It seemed like several minutes passed and I then heard my doorbell. It rang twice rapidly. I pulled myself out of my chair and staggered to the door, when I looked out the window, I could see two cars in the driveway, both were blue Chevy Caprices with no antennas. on the porch were two men wearing ties, and a third older heavy set man wearing a jacket and the type of a hat that the dad in My Three Sons wears.

  I opened the door and immediately one of the younger men wearing a tie started to ask me my name and flashed some sort of an ID at me. While he was doing this the older guy with the hat held a US Marshals badge in my face and interrupted the younger one. He proceeded to tell me he had a search warrant for my property , I stopped him and asked to see the warrant. He produced an official looking search warrant that said they were there to search for radio equipment capable of operating in the H.F. bands. Past experiences left me with the knowledge that this was a valid warrant, and I knew I had to let them in. I opened the door wider and the Marshall asked if I was going to cooperate and show them where the stuff was. I said something to the effect of yes.

  I led them to my basement where I had several pieces of radio and electronic equipment in a small room. The Marshall then advised me that the warrant allowed them to confiscate any H.F. equipment found, I again asked to see the warrant, he showed it to me again, it did in fact say that. The two FCC agents began to inspect the equipment, One of the agents who was very tall seemed to be in charge of the other one who was short. the taller guy was telling the other one to disconnect certain equipment, I offered to disconnect it for them since they seemed to be unconcerned that they may damage the surrounding equipment. They agreed.

  As they carefully inspected every scanner, SW radio, AM/FM radio, tape deck, and CD player ,to see if they operated on the H.F. bands, the taller FCC agent told me that he had DFed a signal coming from my house 17 days earlier.

  The shorter FCC agent then produced a camera and started taking snap shots of my collection of tapes on the wall and of my QSL collections that were on display, he also took photos of my tape decks, mixing console, etc. In my condition of being Ill and with the time that has passed, I now have trouble remembering everything that was said or done, the whole event seems fuzzy now. I do remember the conversation being turned to accusations of me operating a pirate radio station, they said things like "We know who you are!"

  They asked me if my computer had a modem in it. I said it did. They then said they had monitored my computer postings on the ANARC BBS, and they said they knew I was heavily involved in pirate radio. I agreed with him. After asking a few questions they seemed unhappy with my answers. They threatened to go to my place of employment and try to get me in trouble if I didn't answer their questions. (this was to scare me into giving them the information they wanted) They asked for the address of my job and the name of my supervisor, I gave it to them.

  They then started repeating the questions, I didn't answer them, or at least I didn't give them the answers they were looking for. I denied allegations that I was a pirate station operator. The taller FCC agent then raised his voice and shouted about all of the pirate memorabilia on my walls and said that certain items were evidence that I was the person they had been trying to catch . I said "I have a lot of stuff from a lot of stations laying around here! I like to listen to pirates, last time I checked that isn't illegal!" he said they have records of pirate signals coming from my area for the past two years.

  They began asking questions about guests that were in my house the night they allegedly DFed me. They then said they could prove that another person they suspected as being a pirate operator was in the house that night.

  They continued with questions like " have you ever transmitted from anywhere other than here?" a question with no good answer, to say either yes or no would appear to be an admission of guilt. they asked a lot of questions that were phrased to trick me into admitting guilt, Stuff you see on late night cop shows .

After I had responded to most of their questions the FCC agent handed me a card that was laminated and had some printing on it. He told me to read it, "out loud?" I asked. "No, just read it" he said. I was feeling sleepy and Ill and didn't feel like reading so I starred at the card and handed it back to him without reading it. "Do you have any questions?" he asked. "nope" I replied. A lawyer later said the card was probably something telling me that it was illegal to lie to a federal employee.

  After all of the equipment was collected, serial numbers recorded and photos taken, the marshal asked me for identification, I showed him my drivers license. he then gave me copies of all the paperwork, and a list of what they were confiscating. I asked them how I could claim my equipment, they said to contact the US attorneys office listed on the warrant.

  They then proceeded to leave.One of the agents said "Thanks for cooperating, well, at least for letting us in." I watched them as they took the equipment to their car and loaded it into the trunk, all three men were talking and laughing to each other. they then drove away.

  I will present a few facts that will help put to rest some of the rumors I've heard.

  I was not charged with any crime, I was not charged with operating an illegal radio station. The Warrant was for "One lot of radio equipment" So in essence, my radio equipment was charged with emitting illegal R.F. energy.

  No letters, tapes, records, papers,recording equipment,QSLs, books, or anything else other than radio equipment was taken. Affidavits stated no relationship of this visit to any pirate radio event or organizations, it was not the result of "Pirate radio insanity". It was the result of what they said was a two year investigation. A posting from the Internet was faxed to the FCC by an unnamed source, as an attempt to tip off agents to upcoming pirate radio activity. The pirate station listed on that Internet post was not identified as coming from my location. The Affidavit listed only "Music" as what was heard, no station ID was listed.

  Now for the important part: What I learned from this whole experience.

  This is not intended to advise you in any situation, the following is merely my personal observations of what happened to me.

1. When they produce a search warrant, don't try to resist them, it will only cause you more problems.

2. Just because they have a search warrant it doesn't mean you have to talk to them, you only have to let them search for whatever the warrant specifies. If you are uneasy about the questions they ask, or the way they ask them, don't lie to them, just don't talk, you have a right to silence. their type of questioning was aimed at tricking me into saying things that they wanted me to say, even if you are innocent, their questions can trick you into sounding guilty.

3. Don't be scared into doing something you don't have to do, they try to be intimidating by threatening to go to your employer, or telling you that you are lucky they haven't charged you with anything yet, or implying that they will go easy on you if you talk.

4. Soon after they leave, write down everything you can think of, what was said, who said it, what was done and who did it. In fact if you have the foresight to video tape it while it is happening or to tape record the whole thing, you will find it very valuable to you later when you try to sort out all the facts. I have heard so many rumors about my visit, I sometimes have trouble remembering what really happened and what didn't!

5. Everyone will have advise for you, they will know exactly what you should have said, should do about it, and they will think what ever you did was wrong. Think for yourself, use common sense and get advise from a competent source, such as your lawyer. Your buddy the DXer who "knows all there is to know about radios" is not a competent source for the kind of advise you need. Let those guys follow their own advise if they are ever in that situation but for yourself you need to remember that opinions are free, and you usually get what you pay for.

6. Most important of all..... you will live through it. And if your lucky to have the kind of friends that I do, you will get through it quite easily. In fact the whole situation reminded me of the value of the friendships I have formed in this hobby, my telephone rang off the hook with friends offering their support, before my DXing table got cold, I had a radio loaned to me so that my hobby of DXing could continue. I even had people offering to donate money to rebuild my shack. I hope all of those people know how much I appreciated their support.

7. I would like to say that when I take into account all of the friends I have made in this hobby, all of the fun times I have had, and all of the great stories I can tell the grandkids someday, IT WAS WORTH IT! That's right even though I lost $2000 worth of equipment when you consider everything, it was a very inexpensive lesson. However I would not like to do it all over again!

  The final outcome of all this is pretty simple, the cost of fighting this in court was too high, The cheapest lawyer wanted $3500, I didn't need another ulcer and my wife was not particularly happy with me. Instead I decided to invested the money into a new receiver, and put it all behind me. I recently received a letter from the US District Attorneys office that included court transcripts basically finding me in default for not appearing in court and granting a forfeiture of my equipment to the FCC.

  And to all of those who feel that I didn't fight hard enough or that I should have taken it to the highest court in the land.You are entitled to your opinion I don't owe anyone an explanation of the way I handle my life, I can make my own decisions quite well and I am prepared and able to accept responsibility for whatever I get myself into. That is the reward I get for being a consenting adult

  And lastly, if you are ever unfortunate enough to be in a similar situation, feel free to give me a call, sometimes it helps to know you aren't alone.

  Thats all for now,

  73FR John

[ Click here to view the legal document "US Vs. One lot of Radio Equipment". Adobe Acrobat Reader is required.]

Much time passes.....

  Here it is July of 1998, I thought I would add my 2 cents to this story. The story is getting fuzzy with the passage of time, so I'm gonna commit it to HTML before I forget it all-together!

  After getting a phone call from John that he had been visited I fully expected the FCC agents to pay me a visit as well. Especially since my truck was parked at John's house on the night in question. Perhaps they did but I was working 2nd shift and was already at work when John called. The next morning at 8:00 AM sharp, there it was, THE KNOCK! I dragged my butt out of bed to be greeted by two gentlemen who identified themselves as FCC agents and that they were there to perform an Amateur Radio Station Inspection. At the time, I held a General Class Ticket and a Restricted Operators Permit, needless to say, I let them in and we proceeded back into the spare bedroom that was my radio/computer room. They asked to see my license and asked me why I had not changed the primary station location from Illinois to Missouri. I told them that I had never done any transmitting since moving and didn't see the need. One might note, there were NO transmitters of any kind to be found. All the equipment that was there was a Collins R-390 boatanchor, some tuners, some misc. parts and my computer setup. The one agent asked if there was any other equipment in the house. I said no and asked them if they would like to look, they declined. At this point, I'm pretty sure that's when the Station Inspection ended and the next phase had begun, their real purpose for paying me a visit.

  Agent Ramage, handed me a laminated card and asked me to read it. I did, and my sphincter tightened WAY UP. It basically said that if I lied to a Federal Agent, I was gonna go to prison for longer than I cared to! The Agent, being disappointed that I wasn't going to get caught for anything, began to accuse me of operating a pirate station. I replied that I was flattered. He also mentioned that they had never DFed me to my house. Also was mentioned my membership in The A*C*E and various pirate radio QSLs that I had plastered all over the walls, I merely responded that neither of these proved anything other than an interest in the subject. I offered to do an interview of Agent Ramage for The A*C*E, he declined. I went on to ask why they (The FCC) could license SW stations to operate on frequencies that they had busted pirates for operating on, citing interference issues or the sanctioning of stations to broadcast outside of international WARC agreements, Agent Ramage responded that these were not the issues at hand. After this, the Agents decided that the whole thing was a lost cause. They left, and in parting, let me know that this wasn't over. I said "Have a nice day!" and got on with my life.

  Time passes....

  April 1, 1995, guess Agent Ramage wasn't kidding when he said this isn't over. Due to sheer dumb luck, I happen upon two FCC agents parked one block from my house, while driving home from work! I'm amazed and amused! I stop in the road across from them and roll down my window to ask them if they're lost or something. They kept looking straight ahead. I sat there for a couple of minutes, said Whatever and went home. I kept waiting for them to show up, but they never did.

  Anyway, there you go!

  - Kirk -