New York Radio Amateur Ticketed Under Cell Phone Law For Using Amateur Transceiver

From The Southgate Amateur Radio Club: http://www.southgatearc.org/news/june2010/traffic_ticket_anger.htm This story is also hashed out at QRZ and E-Ham. Video can be found at Youtube. A similar incident has happened before, with the New York Judge convicting the accused ham operator. The judge in that case stated that New York does not recognize amateur radio, nor does it recognize exemptions at the state or federal level for licensed amateurs. This past case will likely pose a burden for our fellow ham in this case in the form of New York Case Law and Court Precedent. All the best, we hope you see this ticket dismissed! If this ham loses his case, PR91-36 will likely not mean anything anymore, neither will any state level exemptions. Maybe the Amateur Radio community should petition the ARRL and the FCC to hold formal training for Law Enforcement Officers on the differences between Amateur Radio and other two way radio communications versus cell phones. They truly do not seem to be able to tell the difference, and this can put Federally Licensed Amateurs on the line quite unfairly, and endanger the amateur radio service altogether. Those rare disaster emergencies in which amateur radio plays a part are just one item that should be on the agenda to discuss, but overall, the issue needs to be brought that if it becomes illegal to operate mobile, how long will it be before hand held portable amateur radio operation becomes illegal while walking down the street?