Eleven months and counting ...
I hope that all readers and viewers in V4 land had a very quiet and enjoyable Independence 37 celebration and holiday last week. I did not miss the celebratory parade picture session that I usually make from the public area of the Cricket Stadium. I cannot say that we are looking forward to next year Independence 38, because all indications are that the covid protocols will still be in place, but maybe by then it may be a virtual ceremonial parade, you never know, because the technology is available.
This news item showed up on YouTube a few days ago, but it seems that many people have not heard of it or seen it, and I am not asking why. Maybe it is a technical matter, and maybe it is not, but just in case, you have difficulties viewing, here is another YouTube link to the news item
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ehFoVCOW1Dw
This is a simple matter as far as the amateur radio fraternity is concerned. It is a legal matter, and if the protocols had been followed, we would not be here today. We are here today, and the whole world is in the spectator gallery watching, watching how the authorities in Saint Kitts-Nevis, try to wriggle out of this illegal mess, apparently without loosing face. But this is not a problem, because no matter how great you are, in life you make mistakes, and all you need to do is to FIX IT, and move on. And everybody will forgive and forget. Unfortunately, in Saint Kitts-Nevis, people do not wish to admit that they made a mistake, but want to be wrong, strong and right, at the same time, which will just lead to more unnecessary National and International embarrassment.
We do not wish our beautiful nation just celebrating Independence 37 to be caught up in any illegal matter like causing RF interference to established radio services that have been using the spectrum practically forever.
We expect that the Government of the day will resolve this matter before the end of 2020. Unfortunately October 7th, 2020 will make exactly one whole year [12 months] since the NTRC who is mandated to ensure that all legal radio frequency generating operations/equipment, stay on their assigned frequency, keep within their licensed radiated power limit, do not interfere in any way whatsoever with any other radio frequency service within the territory or outside, the boundaries and region. It is the responsibility of the NTRC to track down and ensure that any and all illegal transmissions do not violate the rights of any service and user in the territory.
So the NTRC appear to be functioning properly, when they issued a stop transmitting order to the offending business entity downtown, but they just laughed in the face of the NTRC and kept on breaking the law. It is almost one year later and everybody is watching to see what will happen next. Amateur radio operators the world over are watching to see what happens next, and that can have an effect on amateur radio tourism when we return to normal after covid. Yes, we have amateur radio groups in many countries who visit V4 annually to operate in amateur radio contests, etc., from many exotic locations and beach houses. I venture to disclose that some hams have even invested/bought their own beach houses. There are many thing that you do not know about amateur radio operators.
We are hoping for a quick resolution to this illegal matter. Amateur radio operators need to get back to using the frequencies that are affected as they are vital for local and regional communications. I also suspect that commercial communications that use the affected radio frequencies for inter island communications is also affected. Anyway, the bottom line is that we expect a speedy 2020 resolution to this matter. Now let us begin to plan our comeback to the frequencies that we have been deprived of for the last few years. I do not expect to come back to this topic again, except to say THANK YOU to all who were involved in solving this matter expeditiously. Now, let us continue with our development of amateur radio in Saint Kitts-Nevis, V4.
Comments