T&T: Cell phone amplifiers

[George Hechtman]

Or, more practically, the point is to buy a unit that is FCC and IC  
approved.

Otherwise, it is no different than using any other illegal product.  
These are no special case in that regard.

George

On Jun 1, 2008, at 12:38 PM, Jim Fuller wrote:

> George,
>
> My understanding is they were not home brew units.
>
> Point to the list is, they go after the boat owner/operator, not the
> installer/retailer/manufacturer.
>
> Capt. Jim
> Santa Cruz, CA
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: George Hechtman [mailto:ghechtman at aol.com]
> Sent: Saturday, May 31, 2008 12:12 PM
> To: Trawlers & Trawlering
> Cc: jfuller at svinet.com
> Subject: T&T: Cell phone amplifiers
>
>
> Jim Fuller wrote:
>
> "I am surprised no one on the list has mentioned the liability of
> using a
> repeater.
>
> The FCC has been on a campaign to rid the world of improperly  
> maintained
> repeaters. That means you, the operator. It is not a problem for the
> manufacturer, retailer or installer... they fine the owner/operator."
>
> REPLY: Well, this post surprises me. We sold many thousands of the
> various flavors of these things at my old company. (Disclaimer: I
> still own a lot of stock in it!) About 95% were for land based or non-
> mobile applications, to be sure. Government agencies are big
> customers. All the units we sold, which were preponderantly Digital
> Antenna, but also others, were FCC and IC approved. All had circuitry
> to shut down and not work if oscillation occurred. We never heard the
> slightest whiff of a complaint from the FCC or anyone else.
>
> Perhaps Jim is talking about some wild cat or home made units, non
> FCC approved; there have been problems with those in the past and the
> carriers contracts usually have language prohibiting them. But for
> the brands being discussed here this is simply a non-issue.