How to deal with malicious and criminal interference

[FrancisHaws]

So after years of putting it off I finally got a repeater capable radio a few weeks ago so I could access the many repeaters I hear pinging locally. I started requesting access to repeaters listed here and every one responded nicely but mentioned there where some buttheads in the area causing problems. Sure enough when messing with a base antenna on my hill two weeks ago I hear a young man screaming, cursing, and talking nonsense non stop. Later that day my brother reported that he heard the same guy jamming a conversation over a repeater on his way home from helping me. Then this Friday he was on and I was picking him up loud and clear screaming nonsense for hours on a bubble pack radio in my living room that I had on scan. First off this makes me believe he is close by because I live in a bowl with my house at 375 surrounded on all sides by 450 elevation and I can't get a signal into those bubble packs on my mobile throwing 50 watts more than a half mile away. Second I recognized the voice as the same one that was interrupting my 7 year old daughter and some of her friends talking in the neighborhood on bubble packs. I figured at the time it was just one of the girls teenage brothers being a jerk but I recalled him trying to get personal info out of the girls and asking what kind of underwear they had on which makes me believe this falls into criminal activity, possibly child luring, and maybe something local law enforcement should be looking into. I know that several of the repeater owners have fcc complaints against him and we all know that is basically useless but I wanted to know if anyone here has dealt with something similar, especially the creeping on the kids part of what he is doing. I was considering buying a HT with a good meter and a yagi and trying to track down his location and reporting it to the police. I am also considering having my daughter pretend to talk to one of her friends and see if I can record him making sexual comments as evidence. I am not interested in any form of vigilante justice I just want to hear suggestions on the best way to get law enforcement involved and take actual action against him.

[ULTRA2]

What location are you in and what frequency that the interference is on? And you are correct in saying that this incident has criminal intent. Just let your daughter know if that person comes on the air again and ask her personal question that she do not talk to that person.

Recording is a good idea but whoever the person is may not be in one location and may be moving around so that he cannot be traced exactly where he's at. I would just notified the local authorities and let them know what has been going on. And inform the FCC of your current situation. Other than that I cannot give you any suggestions on what to do I wish I can do more

[FrancisHaws]

Mid atlantic region. GMRS/FRS 462.575. My daughter knows not to give out info, she is a smart cookie. I am filing a FCC complaint today. And I am going to call the local police and report the stuff he said to the kids. One of the repeater owners says he shut down a ham repeater as well so he has drawn alot of attention to himself.

[Lscott]

Mid atlantic region. GMRS/FRS 462.575. My daughter knows not to give out info, she is a smart cookie. I am filing a FCC complaint today. And I am going to call the local police and report the stuff he said to the kids. One of the repeater owners says he shut down a ham repeater as well so he has drawn alot of attention to himself.

I posted a link to this in another thread about the same exact topic.

 

http://www.repeater-builder.com/k7pp/art005.html

 

I think the best advise given is to stay away from the guy, do not confront him. You have no idea to what length he will go to if confronted. If he is asking for personal info from kids this would likely be of interest to the local police. The guy is maybe a known offender so the matter is better left to the local PD. They do keep close watch on these people.

[WRAK968]

I'll echo everyones comments here about tracking the guy down. First even professionals have difficulty with good equipment pinpointing problem radios even when they are mounted on towers with fair signals. You don't want to accuse the wrong person of this and cause their life to be hell. Second, people these days are screwed up and would not care if they have to hurt or kill someone to get what they want, or to get away from being caught.

Your best bet is as everyone said, report to the police and if you wish, provide assistance (do not go out of your way to to get recordings and such unless the PD askes, which I doubt they would.)

Last, I am glad you are monitoring your daughter and her friends on the radio, so many parents try to be the friend and not the parent. If you hear this subject talking to the kids again, do attempt to record it, regardless if the police have asked or not. once you have the recording notify the police ASAP and give it to them as with physical evidence like that it will be easier for them to take action. Again, DO NOT PUT YOURSELF, YOUR FAMILY, OR YOUR DAUGHTERS FRIENDS AT RISK BY TRYING TO BAIT THIS GUY FOR A RECORDING. Its not work the risk to life.

[FrancisHaws]

I posted a link to this in another thread about the same exact topic.

 

http://www.repeater-builder.com/k7pp/art005.html

 

I think the best advise given is to stay away from the guy, do not confront him. You have no idea to what length he will go to if confronted. If he is asking for personal info from kids this would likely be of interest to the local police. The guy is maybe a known offender so the matter is better left to the local PD. They do keep close watch on these people.

Let me be clear, I have no interest in confrontation or any form of vigilante justice, I am just looking for advice on how to get the local police involved because I think the perverted stuff with the kids on a communication device is their jurisdiction

[BoxCar]

Let me be clear, I have no interest in confrontation or any form of vigilante justice, I am just looking for advice on how to get the local police involved because I think the perverted stuff with the kids on a communication device is their jurisdiction

If you, or one of your children, can state you heard the conversation then call the local PD and talk to someone in their vice section. They will probably come ot and interview the people that heard the conversation and then take action. They will bring in Federal assistance from the FCC and possibly the FBI. The FCC involvement is unique in that they do not require a warrant to inspect a building looking for radio equipment.

[mbrun]

If I may make a suggestion. Consider taking one or two FRS/GRMS radios and hooking it up to your computer and use the computer as a recorder. Set the computer to record on low quality so you can record for a long time with minimal memory consumption then let the computer record continuously. The headphone out of the radios can easily adapt to the sound card input of a typical PC. This would certainly be easiest if the offender is predictable in terms of frequency. Even better if they are predicable in terms of time.

 

If you are technically inclined, you could rig up two radios to record at a time, one to the left channel of recorder, one to the right channel of the recorder.

 

The basic gist of the idea is to be configured and actively recording before you actually need it, just like a video surveillance system.

 

Michael

WRHS965

KE8PLM

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[smalpierre]

If you're lucky he's really really stupid and parked at one location (like his house). Directional antenna, attenuator, s meter - drive around and take some compass bearings. Depending on how dense the population is, you could probaly get pretty close. You say you can't get a signal a half mile to a bubble pack from a 50w half a mile away - shoudln't be too hard to figure out where the offender is at.

[OldRadioGuy]

I would contact one of the local ham radio clubs and see if they can help.

Some of them are pretty good at using direction finding antennas.

 

Here's an idea but it's a bit involved.

Get an Arrow "hand held" portable beam antenna made for 70cm or 440MHz ham band.

These run about $75 and are VERY directional.

 

You need a radio tunable to RX the repeater INPUT frequency so probably NOT your GMRS radio.

Lots of ham radio HT's and scanners can be tuned receive on the input. 

If you have software and the cable you may be able to program your GMRS to receive on the repeater input.

The frequency will be 467.xxx where xxx is the last three digits of the repeater output freq.

 

The antenna will point you the direction of the jerk.

Use a compass and draw lines on a map.

Just keep triangulating and getting closer each time.

It may take weeks or months but it can be done.

 

Vince

[wqxq281]

If you, or one of your children, can state you heard the conversation then call the local PD and talk to someone in their vice section. They will probably come ot and interview the people that heard the conversation and then take action. They will bring in Federal assistance from the FCC and possibly the FBI. The FCC involvement is unique in that they do not require a warrant to inspect a building looking for radio equipment.

 

Retired LEO here.  That is not a likely scenario.  Your local PD/SO might take a report, but they're probably not taking any action other than forwarding it to the FCC.  Your local law enforcement agency probably lacks the resources and knowledge to address it.  The FBI has bigger fish to fry.  The FCC is not searching any residences without a warrant.  There is a history of long operating pirate radio stations and obnoxious interference from both licensed and non-licensed  operators that have taken years to be addressed by the FCC.  Google "FCC Enforcement Action" and you will see that the process involved to stop illegal/unlawful transmission is long and cumbersome.

 

Tuning around the amateur bands will reveal the same operators, night after night, interfering, cursing, and being a general nuisance.  If the FCC had no-warrant search ability, these high power offenders would be the first to go, since they are heard nationwide, and in some cases, worldwide.  Some obnoxious dude on FRS/GMRS is way down the list for enforcement.

[wrku937]

Retired LEO here.  That is not a likely scenario.  Your local PD/SO might take a report, but they're probably not taking any action other than forwarding it to the FCC.  Your local law enforcement agency probably lacks the resources and knowledge to address it.  The FBI has bigger fish to fry.  The FCC is not searching any residences without a warrant.  There is a history of long operating pirate radio stations and obnoxious interference from both licensed and non-licensed  operators that have taken years to be addressed by the FCC.  Google "FCC Enforcement Action" and you will see that the process involved to stop illegal/unlawful transmission is long and cumbersome.

 

Tuning around the amateur bands will reveal the same operators, night after night, interfering, cursing, and being a general nuisance.  If the FCC had no-warrant search ability, these high power offenders would be the first to go, since they are heard nationwide, and in some cases, worldwide.  Some obnoxious dude on FRS/GMRS is way down the list for enforcement.

 

Apparently the FCC does not need a warrant to perform a search of a radio users equipment. This youtube video I came across explains how it works. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4AeX7fsd6E

[n4gix]

There is software available that will allow your computer to record only when active using VOX to trigger it. This saves a lot of disk space.

 

I used this when range testing a potential repeater site's coverage. Every time I sent a test transmission, I reported my location and time so when later reviewing the recording I could accurately plot the boundaries and signal clarity.

[wqxq281]

Apparently the FCC does not need a warrant to perform a search of a radio users equipment. This youtube video I came across explains how it works. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4AeX7fsd6E

 

Well, if the FCC has that authority, I can't find an example of them using it.  Here's a quote from a story about recent action against a pirate station on the broadcast FM band:

 

"The seizure of transmitter equipment from the St. Nicholas Avenue building occurred April 10 but was only made public by the FCC on Tuesday. The name of the alleged operator of “Rumba FM” and other details of the radio station have not yet been released. But the FCC said it had in the past sent “multiple warnings” to the station’s operators. After those letters failed to convince the pirate to power down, the FCC worked with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York to secure a federal court order allowing them to seize the station’s equipment."

 

So, I think it's reasonable to assume, right or wrong, that the FCC is not going to waste their time with the typical violations found on low power FRS or GMRS transmissions.  Like I said earlier, there are amateur kilowatt power stations on the ham band, cursing, broadcasting music, and purposefully interfering...Nightly...For years...with no action.

[SUPERG900]

Well, if the FCC has that authority, I can't find an example of them using it.  Here's a quote from a story about recent action against a pirate station on the broadcast FM band:

 

"The seizure of transmitter equipment from the St. Nicholas Avenue building occurred April 10 but was only made public by the FCC on Tuesday. The name of the alleged operator of “Rumba FM” and other details of the radio station have not yet been released. But the FCC said it had in the past sent “multiple warnings” to the station’s operators. After those letters failed to convince the pirate to power down, the FCC worked with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York to secure a federal court order allowing them to seize the station’s equipment."

 

So, I think it's reasonable to assume, right or wrong, that the FCC is not going to waste their time with the typical violations found on low power FRS or GMRS transmissions.  Like I said earlier, there are amateur kilowatt power stations on the ham band, cursing, broadcasting music, and purposefully interfering...Nightly...For years...with no action.

 

They don't. They can only ask, and you can tell them to get bent.

 

Of course, they'd probably summarily terminate any licenses you have for non-cooperation in an FCC investigation, maybe fine you as well. Plus, if they thought criminal activity was involved they could refer the matter to law enforcement.

 

Best to let them in - they are probably only looking to identify interference issues.  (If it's *intentional* interference - well that's on you and you deserve whatever comes your way.)

[BoxCar]

The FCC has the right as part of your license grant to inspect your station but they don't have the right to seize the equipment. That's what the court order was for, to seize the equipment.

[SUPERG900]

The FCC has the right as part of your license grant to inspect your station but they don't have the right to seize the equipment. That's what the court order was for, to seize the equipment.

 

They do have a right to inspect your station - but the "castle" doctrine of law means that they need your permission to enter your premises. Now a court order - well that's an imperative legal directive no matter what agency applies for it. What ever the court order says you let happen, lest you run afoul of the courts.