FCC bans cellfone service in San Francisco

fuck yeah!! break the law and broadcast!! call the fcc on your cell phone from the front of moscone center and tell them to go to hell

While 50 million Americans tune in to watch televised garbage like Survivor, the FCC issues edicts from on high to protect us from the truth broadcast by microradio activists fighting the concerted privatization of OUR public airwaves.

What's next?

Will the jack-booted Janet Reno and her NATO/WACO Supreme Commander Wesley Clark lead an invasion of the financial distict with orders to shoot anyone holding a cell phone who looks like they might be thinking about dialing a number?!? Maybe Willie and Grey will get a chance to join in an amphibious assault/landing at the Embarcadero. :)

Whose Streets? OUR STREETS! Whose Air Waves? OUR AIR WAVES!

It's Car-Free Day! See you at Moscone Center!!

Call me a doubting Thomas, but I am not convinced that this "notice" is authentic. I think it is a hoax.

A quick jump to the FCC website shows nothing about this on the Headlines section of their front page, http://www.fcc.gov. Also, I saw nothing about this "notice" in today's or yesterday's Daily Digests, at http://www.fcc.gov/Daily_Releases/Daily_Digest/2000/. The post above has no link to the "original" PDF file, presumably because its fake.

Furthermore, the content itself is unconvincing. The "notice" lacks the appropriate details, such as media contact information. The headline is not properly aligned, and there is at least one significant spelling error. The map is ripped off of MapQuest and the black line is probably drawn in MSPaint. There are other problems, but I'm not going to describe them.

If the person who created this "notice" is a SUPPORTER of the micro-radio movement, I have to say "Shame on you." Go back and read the story of the boy who cried wolf, and think hard about that story's lesson. The NAB and its friends in the government have enough going against them already, you don't need to make up "incriminating evidence." And it could easily backfire.

If the person who created this "notice" is AGAINST the micro-radio movement, or the other movements active today, I have to say "You are pathetic." You have to stoop to making us look bad since you can't win against our rational arguments.

People, pay attention to stuff like this. Look and think critically, and demand proof. Especially when verification could be so easily provided.

Yup. Just called the FCC and they know nothing about it.

Something doesn't look right for an official FCC order. These can come from field offices and not show up in Daily Digests, but certain things like font changes, the obviously web-generated map, and just the general lack of bureaucratese looks a little bogus.

Plus like the other guy said, the authority looks a little vague. No enforcement officer or field engineer's name appears anywhere, and I'm not sure FCC would use terms like "Short Wave or CB Radio." They'd be more likely to say something like, "Emissions from intentional RF transmitting devices licensed by the Commission in the Amateur, Citizen's, Cellular Telecommunication, Wireless Telecommunication, Family, Low Power Broadcast, and any other Services not specifically exempted in Appendix 1 are not authorized for the duration of this period in the geographic area shown in Appendix 2."

Were this order to be real, Morse code works wonders. One can send it on air horns if all else fails. Get a Boy Scout manual and look up one's favorite f-word and NAB. Enough radio geeks are left in the NAB that they'll hear it.

Radio is stronger than money. In solidarity,

-- .- .-. -.-. --- -. ..

The FCC definitely CAN impose a ban like this anytime they want. A time of extreme social unrest could be one of those times, and they probably wouldn't be hard pressed to justify it (remember the"no protest zone" in Seattle?). Personally, I think this was a really creative way to remind people how quickly the powers-that-be can institute martial law edicts. Are we so serious about the revolution that people are losing their sense of humor?