Saturday, April 28, 2012
In an attempt is delibrately hurt Firefighters and EMT's,
a mutt in Maine is intentionally affecting transmissions of certain individuals
in fire, rescue crews. Someone has been intermittently jamming radio
transmissions of fire and rescue departments in southern Maine for the past few
months, but on Sunday, Jason Cole said, the problem escalated sharply. Cole,
the assistant chief of Lebanon's rescue department, said he went on a medical
call shortly before 10 a.m. Sunday. When he arrived at the house, it was clear
the person was in worse shape that he had thought, so he got on the radio to
call for another ambulance with advanced life support equipment and more
emergency medical technicians.
"Every time I'd key the mic, they'd cover us,"
Cole said. Someone else was using a microphone on the same frequency, blocking
Cole's transmissions.
Cole had to leave the house and walk to the end of the
driveway where he could get reception for his cellphone and call in his request
for help.
"They're getting more dangerous," Cole said,
noting that the patient is still in the hospital. "This is far more
serious than the prank that this person apparently thinks it is."
Federal law treats jamming public safety communications
as more than a prank.
Jamming those transmissions — as well as buying, selling
or operating a jamming device — violates federal law and can lead to fines up
to
$112,500 per act and prison, according to the Federal
Communications Commission, which polices the airwaves.
The FCC has a zero tolerance policy in this area, said
Michele Ellison, chief of the agency's enforcement bureau.
Cole said an FCC official told him that if someone dies
when someone is intentionally jamming the department's radios, it could lead to
manslaughter charges.
Cole said the problem is affecting the town's fire and
rescue crews, as well as crews in North Berwick, Acton, Shapleigh and Limerick.
In most cases, only the transmissions of certain individuals in those
departments are being jammed.
Cole said the same departments had jammed transmissions
in 2004 and he was also among those who seemed to be targeted then. In that
case, he said, the transmissions being blocked weren't essential -- an EMT or
firefighter reporting for work or a crew clearing the scene of an accident or
fire.
That case was investigated by the FCC, which was
preparing to set up monitoring equipment to pinpoint the source of the jamming
when the problem stopped.
Cole said the FCC has been contacted again and it's
reviewing the case file from 2004 as it begins to investigate the latest
incidents. The FCC on Tuesday told dispatchers to read a statement saying that
interfering with the transmissions is illegal whenever more jamming occurs.
Cole said another federal agency, which he declined to
identify, is also investigating the jamming and working on a profile of the
person interfering with the transmissions. He said most of the transmissions
are being jammed at night or on weekends, suggesting the person or people
involved have day jobs.
It's not that difficult to jam radio communications, said
Jeff Kostis, a radio technician with Southern Maine Communications, which
supplies and maintains the radio equipment used by many fire and rescue crews
in York County.
He said people can buy radios that can be programmed to
tune in particular frequencies and the frequencies of public service agencies
can be found in online databases. Simply keying a microphone can override
another transmission on that frequency, he said.
In 2004, the person jamming the transmissions sometimes
whistled into the microphone, he said. This time there's silence.
Cole also noted that, unlike 2004, radios mounted in
ambulances and fire trucks are being jammed and they are far more powerful than
the handheld radios that fire and rescue personnel carry.
In the current case in York County, he said, someone
appears to key the microphone as soon as a firefighter or EMT provides their
radio identification code. The microphone is sometimes released and re-keyed
repeatedly — probably to see if the fire and rescue crew is still trying to
transmit. The jamming is repeated until the crews stop trying to transmit.
"It's definitely deliberate," he said.
"It's not a game. One of these days, it's going to cost someone's
life."
Cole said he expects the FCC to act quickly in the case,
noting that mobile monitoring devices can be deployed more quickly now than in
2004 and satellite technology can also play a role in
locating the jammer.
He said he's most concerned about people who need medical
help, like the man he assisted on Sunday, and firefighters who sometimes have
to use their radios to communicate from inside burning buildings.
BY Edward D. Murphy
The Portland Press Herald
"The radio, that's their lifeline," he said.
