Speaking of regulators - a question.

[Robert Stratton]

They were really flustered about the whole concept of both the demo  
and the talk.  There were veiled expressions of grumpiness, but my  
sense (second hand) was that they couldn't really figure out what to  
do about it. It was also clear that the speaker was taking great pains  
to warn people (notices were posted all over the conference center  
about the use of GSM phones in that area), and was aware of his rights.

--Bob S.

On Aug 10, 2010, at 12:42 AM, Alex Fraser wrote:

> Did the FCC and DHS want to stop the speaker from speaking?
>
> Robert Stratton wrote:
>>
>>
>> On Aug 9, 2010, at 9:09 PM, Robert E. Seastrom wrote:
>>
>>>
>>> Personally I was in favor of "anything goes".  There is ample hate  
>>> to
>>> go around for domestic RF policy.  Bush and the BPL fiasco vs. Obama
>>> and LORAN - which do we hate more?  Rant about Republicans,  
>>> Democrats,
>>> Independents...  sadly, I think we have the government we deserve...
>>
>> Speaking of the regulators... I'm waiting to see the fallout from  
>> the DEFCON presentation about GSM spoofing. It turns out that the  
>> FCC and DHS called before the talk was due to go on. I spoke with  
>> an attorney who was looking into it on the speaker's behalf. I  
>> think the speaker found a fascinating grey area in the regs. Chris  
>> Paget, a ham, had a transmitter at 900 MHz where amateur radio has  
>> an allocation. It was low power (something like 25 mW) and didn't  
>> reach outside the room, but was in a band where a quad-band GSM  
>> handset in the room would see a European GSM cell and attempt to  
>> register itself. He ID'ed his transmissions, so it seems he was  
>> within the letter of Part 97 for at least his transmitter.
>>
>> So here's the question that came up for me: If your licensed  
>> amateur transmitter triggers someone else's type-accepted (in this  
>> country, but not for use on that band) transmitter to send a  
>> signal, is that "interference?" If it were, who would be liable?  
>> The base station operator, the handset owner, or the carrier who  
>> sold the handset for use on other bands in the U.S.? What part  
>> would even apply? Is there a carve out for mobile handsets that  
>> inadvertently transmit on "world bands" when they're over here?
>>
>> --Bob S.
>>
>>
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>
>
>
>
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