Operators fear violence

Press, 13 June 1979, Page 6

Operators fear violence

If Post Office radio inspectors do not move soon to stop the activities of Citizen Band radio saboteurs, violence will erupt, according to a C.B.' bperatpr yesterday. The man, who said he would not be named for fear of reprisals, said there had already been" fights, and .stones thrown through windows as angry” operators retaliated against deliberate interference on C.B. channels. He said that C.B. users were about to take the law into their own hands because Post Office radio inspectors would “not get off their backsides.” 7

"They know these people, but they are doing little about it,” he said. “The KZs (the

name given the saboteurs) say one of the reasons they obstruct us is to dare the inspectors.” Post Office radio inspectors would not be quoted officially, but privately they said the “stirrer” problem was social.

“We cannot prosecute any more than we do, simply because we cannot prove it,”

■ said an inspector. "1 know i who most of the offenders i are. I can hear them, but I ■ would have to catch them i with their hands on the mt

icro phone ,to have a waterj tight case. “We can get out there and Isay, ‘Naughty boy, you should not use that language,’ and fine them the maximum $2O. But it is like water off a duck’s back, “One of the men causing most of the trouble is an laffable fellow. I have talked Ito him, I told him that what he is doing is illegal, but it Imeans nothing.

“The fines are pathetic — $lOO for foul language, and $2O .'for interference. There should be stiffer penalties,’’ said the inspector.

Another inspector said C.B. users had 11 channels. If there was an uproar on one, everyone gravitated to it, overloading it. Most other channels were free at that time.

There was a lot of “wild talk” by C.B. operators from time to time, die inspectors said. There was only a “hand-

ful” ol stirrers, and inspectors knew who they were.

Five prosecutions were' pending for over-powered sets, and for “working Australia.” Australian C.B. was “out of control” and the Post Office had sent information back to Australian authorities naming the pirate operators.

The inspectors said that C.B. operations were only a small part of their work.' The Citizens Band operator. who earlier spoke of possible violence to the “stirrers,” has worked C.B. radios for about five years. He would not name the KZs, or the licensed “stirrers” for fear of being “ripped'apart.” “I am not kidding. Some of

them would wreck my house and smash my car,”, he said. There were 10 or 12 KZs, and about 300 “stirrers.” The KZs jammed legal sets with nonsense noises, and their own music. They wiped out the network programme on Sunday night, and interfered on week

nights. Their sets were over, powered. The police had been approached by operators in the last few months, he said, but they had had only “a bit ol a yarn to one or two." A petition bearing hundreds of C.B. callers* names was to be sent to the Ombudsman, asking him to get radio inspectors to “do something.” The KZs were licensed operators. They were foulmouthed, talked over other users, and wiped out channels. They illegally increased the range of their sets by transmitting from the Port Hills.

They talked to Australian “pirates," blocking the four new channels granted recently. It was illegal for a licensed C.B. operator to talk outside the 12-mile limit.

C.B. operators are now working through their national organisation to remove the hire-purchase pro. vision from C.B. sets, to eliminate nuisance-users.