Hams have a reputation to uphold. We are, after all, the communication service that works when all else fails. The ARRL fawns all over stories giving the amateur radio service rave reviews.

Then you get a story like this.

Via Long Delayed Echoes comes this story from Everett, Washington. A neighborhood in this Seattle suburb has been suffering from the antics of a certain operator:

Laura Holland says a vulgar rant came through her TV while she was watching a movie.

She says the source is her neighbor, a ham radio operator whose strong signal feeds every word of his transmissions directly to his neighbors every day.

Holland posted a video (with full audio) of the ham’s voice, in flagrante delicto, superimposed over a television movie. (WARNING! CONTAINS EXPLICIT LANGUAGE!) Two Seattle television stations, KOMO and KING, covered the story.

Looking on Switchboard.com and cross-checking it against QRZ.com found that the ham in question may be one Anthony Peluso, AB7OP.  He lives right across the street from Holland.

Hunh?!?  An Extra pulling stuff like this? What struck me as funny was the statement on his QRZ page that says “my family is the most important aspect in my life.” Never mind his family. What about the poor families in the immediate neighborhood?

I mean, one of the first things I read in my “red book” in the section on licensing rules and regs is that obscene and indecent language is prohibited. And further research shows this is true not just on the ham bands (FCC rules 97.113(a)(4)) but also on CB (95.413(a)(2)).

Holland and others in the area have filed formal complaints with the FCC, and maybe we might see this guy’s name show up on the Enforcement Bureau page (otherwise known as the Amateur Radio Hall of Shame) in the near future, named in a strongly worded letter from Riley Hollingsworth.