Please notify ITU of SWATCH violations
Pete was first licensed in 1970, although his love for radio goes back to 1950, whe he first heard short wave radio at the age of 5. Pete studied morse code in the boy scouts and earned his merit badge. Pete also was a Radioman in the US Navy during the Cuban Crisis. Pete is a sorter at the 3rd Call Bureau and handles the 3X and 3Y calls. Pete sends a QSL to every DX contact he makes on the first QSO on every band. Pete has logged over 5,000 QSO's in just the last 5 months, and averages 12,000 QSO's a year. He has just printed 15,000 new cards of which over 5,000 have already been sent! Pete's station consists of a Yaesu FT-1000MP with the MD-100 microphone (uses the heil boom mike for contests only), a Henry 3K-A Amplifier (usually running 1000 watts output), a Force 12, 8 element C4 yagi at 65' on Rohn 25G tower for the 10-40 meter and WARC bands, and a 45' Gap Voyager Vertical for 80 & 160 Meters. He says the TL in his call stands for "TOO LOUD!". Pete says "LOUD is GOOD!".
The first paragraph needs to be forwarded to the International Telecommunication Union Radio Communications Bureau in Geneva Switzerland. EMAIL: bredh@itu.int also CC to info@swatch.com
I believe that the use of RS-19 Satellite by SWATCH constitutes a violation of the International Radio Regulations Article 1 - Terms and Definitions Section 3.34 Amateur Service: A radiocommunication service for the purpose of self-training, intercommunication and technical investigations carried out by amateurs, that is, by duly authorized persons interested in radio technique solely with a personal aim and without pecuniary interest. The above section prohibits the use of Amateur communications for commercial purposes. Article 32: Amateur Service and Amateur-Satellite Service Section I. Amateur Service (2) It is absolutely forbidden for amateur stations to be used for transmitting international communications on behalf of thrid parties. (3) The preceding provisions may be modified by special arrangements between the adminstrations of the countries involved. The above section prohibits the use of Amateur communications for handling messages on behalf of third parties, except between countries that have established separate agreements to permit such operation. The SWATCH satellite operation will likely transmit third party messages between countries that have not authorized such communications.
Please take whatever action necessary to prevent SWATCH from violating the above rules.