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Comment by xattt | Hacker News Reader

To be fair, HAMs are typically empowered by actual telecommunications agencies with legislative authority to enter premises and what have you to resolve issues, whereas script kiddies just make up their own shit.

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In what country? I'm only familiar with rules in the US, and it isn't the case here.

I parsed that as:

> HAMs are typically empowered [in their rule-following] by actual telecommunications agencies [who have] legislative authority to enter premises and what have you to resolve issues

That is, hams (not "HAMs") feel empowered to advise others to obey the law, because they have to work with government agencies who can make life unpleasant for those who don't. It's not "hams [have] legislative authority".

Maybe I'm wrong, but that's how I read it.

The Radiotelecommunications Act in Canada (1), section 8, describes the powers of ISEC inspectors. They can request warrants to enter private dwellings, and if accompanied by peace officers and if permitted by the warrant, use force.

This was something that was highlighted during my amateur radio course almost 20 years ago.

(1) https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/r-2/page-3.html#doc...

Similar here in the states. I, as a ham, can't enter someone's house. The FCC gang who gave me a license are allowed to get a warrant to do that.

That makes more sense. Although the image of some 70 year old ham battering down a door with his Zimmer frame to give a 6 hour lecture on spurious emissions is amusing.

I’m not saying that wouldn’t happen, just that there isn’t a law allowing it :)

You've already been corrected about "ham" not being an acronym.

> telecommunications agencies with legislative authority to enter premises

This is real garbled. I don't know what "legislative authority" even is. The entering of premises involves an "enforcement authority", really.

Perhaps you meant that legislators have granted them the authority to do enforcement activities. That isn't "legislative authority".

In the Canadian context, legislated authority is the power granted by law to a Minister, who then delegates that power down to specific agency staff to carry out regulatory actions, such as entering premises. Perhaps there is confusion about legislative/legislated.

If the Canadian federal government went apeshit, they could draft legislation granting hams the authority to enter homes. However, that power remains strictly limited to radio inspectors acting under a judicial warrant for some reason.

> To be fair, HAMs are typically empowered by actual telecommunications agencies with legislative authority to enter premises and what have you to resolve issues

Citation, please?

I'd really like to see a documented example of some HAM entering somebody else's premises on, what, a self-appointed search warrant to hunt down a transmitter they deem illegitimate? In the USA that seems like a good way to get shot by a homeowner.

...and arrested for breaking and entering.

The FCC has authority to enter premises and what have you to resolve issues. The HAMs are empowered by their ability to see find transmitters, and call the tip line.

I would say that 99.9% of the time I've ever heard of fcc staff entering a location on their own without the staff around it's a licensed broadcaster. Like to visit an AM array in a field that's gone silent and not filed proper paperwork. Never in my life heard of the FCC on its own serving a warrant to search a premises. Tagging along with other law enforcement, maybe.

The FCC does NOT need a search warrant to inspect radio equipment:

https://www.fcc.gov/reports-research/guides/inspection-fact-...

Yes, I know what the law is. In practical reality they only use this for inspecting commercial broadcast sites and things like large cellular rooftop sector sites.

I'd be very interested in seeing anyone that can provide an real world example of FCC staff on their own, not tagging along with other law enforcement agencies entering onto private residential properties (like a house) to conduct their own search. I work professionally in two way radio systems and have never heard of this happening. The FCC does not execute its own search warrants.

I read this as:

'[the] actual telecommunications agencies [under defined circumstances have] .. legislative authority to enter premises and what have you to resolve issues'

No, OFCOM in the UK or Traficom in Finland (the two I'm familiar with) don't have armed units going door to door but if circumstances & the law deem it so then they can show up with the police and the necessary warrants/orders and do so.

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