Well, sounds like Amateur Radio Newsline had a story this week about REC. I seriously question if they did any research on the issue and on REC Networks. Even though I have a ham license, REC Networks is not an amateur radio organization. REC Networks cares about issues that assures private citizens access to the airwaves. Even though most of our focus is on broadcast radio (mostly LPFM) but we do comment on other spectrum issues, such as amateur radio.
First of all, this is an EXTREMELY OLD story. REC filed our amicus filing and did a news release and a podcast to report this filing back in June (remember, this is currently late September).
As we mentioned in our news release, our petition was driven out of concern over a possible presidence that could impact how we communicate on the ham bands. At the end of their story, Newsline makes the comment "REC is concerned that the FCC could use this finding in other cases at some later date. So far, it appears REC Networks is the only one that is.".. This statement was completely uncalled for and does not reflect what we thought was an organization that provided objective journalism in the amateur radio community. Our filing is using a little known loophole in the law which was recently used in a broadcast license revocation hearing. The Newsline story failed to mention that the filing was amicus since REC was not a party to the proceeding. In addition, we made our filing public. We did not have to do that. We feel that these comments are due to the hatred that many have towards K1MAN. I am not a fan of K1MAN's operations myself but our filing would have been the same regardless of who it was who got fined. Don't think of REC as a "K1MAN supporter" because we are not.
Interesting enough, Newsline's "I Do Island" story that appeared after the story on REC was first released by REC Networks on the same REC Report that we broke the story of our amicus K1MAN filing from back in June.
These faux pahs of Amateur Radio Newsline have significantly tarnished my impression of this organization that I have trusted for many years (back to the Westlink days). It sounds like This Week In Amateur Radio is now our first choice for amateur radio news. (Now if they can only get rid of the Leo Laporte segment since it has nothing to do with ham radio)
