Marine Radio Complaint Update

Last year some doosh bags from a local golf course decided to use marine radios for their communications. This got in our way on the Haverstraw Bay because they chose channel 72 to use. This is our channel for all racing communication on the river.

Since I write the blog, I decided to contact some people last year. I called and emailed the FCC and while I got in contact with Laura Smith, it took until the end of the summer until we finally spoke. She said she would refer the issue to the field, but that did not happen. Here is a blog about that.

I had better luck with the Rockland County Sheriff. Adam Feuer, the Chief of Communication, and I were in contact, but it was late in the season and the dooshes were not active the night he monitored 72. I emailed him again this year, but did not hear back.

At some point Kevin from Minisceongo YC successfully got in touch with the FCC and had their field office ready to respond. Unfortunately, the contact information on his complaint left the FCC with no way to get back in touch with him. The FCC claims they called his contact number and emailed the complaint address with no response.

A few weeks ago, I was pissed off and took some additional action. Since I know the FCC emails are in the format firstname.lastname@fcc.gov, I emailed about half a dozen senior FCC officials by getting their names from the FCC site. That brought about a quick response (two weeks).

Last week, while away, I got a call from Dan Noel. He is the FCC director of field operations in the NY metro area. I called him back upon my return to work yesterday (7/5/2011), but did not reach him.

Finally, this morning I got a call from Louis Roman. He works for Dan Noel and was looking to get details on the doosh transmissions. He explained that he received the complaint from Minisceongo, but could not get in touch with Kevin based on the contact information left. We discussed the situation for about 10 minutes and he said he would have an agent look into this early next week.

I am going to be in touch with Louis from here on out. I will give him updates whenever I hear the dooshes on the radio. Since I moved to a new house recently, I have not been out on the weekends much. If anyone has any additional information on when the doosh bags transmit, please leave a comment and let me know the details and I can forward those on to the FCC.

After 15 months, I finally seem to have gained some traction and I would appreciate any help in giving the FCC additional information about the doosh transmissions.