My technical qualifications with respect to radio-related counsel and litigation

I am a FCC licensed commercial and amateur radio operator. I have been a principal in the Auxiliary Communications System (ACS) of the San Francisco Department of Emergency Management (Liaison Officer) and I have served as the ARES Emergency Coordinator for San Francisco, receiving an ARRL Commendation. I have also enjoyed commendations and awards from the Quarter Century Wireless Association, Pacificon, the Perham Foundation, San Francisco’s Neighborhood Emergency Response Team (SFFD), ACS, the Antique Wireless Association and the California Historical Radio Society.

I have counseled in a variety of antenna and operations disputes.

The handle here at K6VK is Bart ( x kv6lee) … Fifty years ago, Popular Electronics bestowed on me the “Cinderella” callsign WPE2DLT, and short wave radio has been my main hobby since those days. I made my first radio more than 50 years ago, using a razor blade and pencil lead detector, graduating to a three tube kit regenerative Allied Radio Ocean Hopper, then a Lafayette HE-10, then a war surplus NC-156, all great radios, especially for the great sunspot cycle 19. Radio remains for me a challenging, sometimes surprising, always interesting and pleasantly social avocation.

I operate AM when I can, and in October, 2010 Alex, KB6IDO and Tim, N6CC (both atop Mt Diablo) and I made maybe the first two meter AM contacts in California in many years, maybe decades. I often check into local VHF nets, mostly from Walnut Creek, sometimes from San Francisco.

My transceiver is an ICOM 7000, and for AM HF reception a 1936 Hallicrafters S-14 Sky Chief (with a green Magic Eye (!) for tuning) and a newly acquired Hallicrafters SX-73, in uniform as the R274D/URR, circa 1951. Most of the rest of my gear is ICOM (e.g., R-70 and R-7000), except for Yaesu HTs and a HAL Telereader for ‘reading the mail’ on RTTY (and some CW). I enjoy a Grundig Satellit 800 and a Phillips D2999 ($3 at an estate sale) for short wave easy listening. My main antenna is an all-too-low but 95 foot long B&W broadband folded dipole (inverted-Vee), although my 2010 – ’11 summer project was the erection of an elevated Hustler 6BTV with a ground screen and many radials. Best DX (with the T2FD and 100 watts) is Russia (European and Siberian), Eastern Europe, Japan, New Zealand and Christmas Island (T32C). I have collected old radios of various sorts from circa 1915 through the 1920s and 30s and WW II military gear (especially ARC-5s), and some later transistor SW sets.

Recently, in hopes of logging the Swedish Alexanderson Alternator transmitter at SAQ from Sweden on 17.2 KHz, I ponied up for a WinRadio Excalibur Pro. Now I see radio as well as hear it and it’s pretty amazing. ELF/VLF is my main use for this wonderful radio, and so far I have logged BPM in China on 68.7 KHz, JJY in Japan on 40 KHz, WWVB from Colorado on 60 Khz and an UnID at 20 KHz and Radio Rossii on 279 KHz; but no SAQ (yet). The vertical antenna works best on these frequencies, just as a vertical stick over a good ground. By running the 10.7 MHZ IF-out from the Icom R-7000 into the WinRadio, I have all-mode panoramic reception from 9 KHz to 2 GHz with recording and “fingerprinting” capability. I’m looking forward to the new VLF amateur allocations.

It was an interest in emergency services after the San Francisco earthquake of 1989 that led me to get my amateur radio license a dozen years ago (presently Extra Class, now K6VK, formerly KV6LEE, and I hold an FCC Commercial license (GROL + Radar)). In September 2001, New York Red Cross put me to work using amateur radio for disaster relief from September 12 to September 20, as the night-shift “trick-chief” acting as the deputy to Jay Ferron, N4GAA (see Popular Communications, Sept. 2002 issue: [Lee] “9-11: Amateur Radio in New York”). I have served as the ARES Emergency Coordinator in the ARRL San Francisco Section for the City of San Francisco, and as Liaison Officer for the Auxiliary Communications Service of the City of San Francisco Office of Emergency Services and Homeland Security (now Emergency Management). ARRL Pacificon has enlisted me in several presentations about amateur radio best practices in actual disaster recovery operations; and in 2011 for “EmComm for the Apocalypse: ElectroMagnetic Pulse,” also I have presented a history of amateur radio emergency communications and the history of the San Francisco Amateur Radio Club (since 1909!). Emergency services associations have permitted me to train as a First Responder Medic, as a member of my neighborhood Emergency Response Team, and in the Incident Command System to Level 200, and ARECC to Level III. Early service in the Civil Air Patrol showed me the value of such training; my 1963 Certificate of Proficiency is signed by General Curtis LeMay.

I am a member of the San Francisco, the Mt Diablo and the Cathay amateur radio clubs, the ARRL and an honorary Life Member of the California Historical Radio Society, for which I often operate its club station, W6CF, from the radio station KRE building in Berkeley.

My academic interests include the use of radio for intelligence work – see [Lee] “Radio Spies — Episodes in the Ether Wars,” 15 Antique Wireless Association Review 7 (2002 – available along with other radio history articles of mine at www.californiahistoricalradio.com). I am a Fellow of the California Historical Radio Society in History and work as the archivist at the CHRS KRE radio station Museum. My work in the preservation and history of radio with the California Historical Radio Society led to its Herrold Award in 1991 and the Antique Wireless Association’s Houck Award for Documentation in 2003. The AWA Review (vol. 23) published an article of mine about Swan Island (KS4 land) and its wireless and radio history including CIA operations, 1954 through 1988; the Review in 2011 published my article: “Wireless Comes of Age on the West Coast, 1899 — 1920″ and in 2012: “Wireless, from Mysterious Wonder to Weapon of War, 1902 – 1905.” I have also taught law and economics at Golden Gate University, including the economic history of telecommunications.

The 160 meter Marconi Beacon Experiment (winter, 2006) that I proposed to the Poldhu (Cornwall, UK) Amateur Radio Club and the Marconi Amateur Radio Club of Newfoundland has been a focus of much of my recent interest in radio history. See [Lee, et al.] “The Marconi Beacon Experiment of 2006-07,” 21 Antique Wireless Association Review 1 (2008), and “GB3SSS – Marconi’s Transatlantic Leap Revisited,” (by G0KYA) in QST, Dec. 2007. Keith Matthew, G0WYS and Joe Craig, VO1NA deserve the credit for making that experiment work.

A lawyer by trade, I have enjoyed an international practice (and radio around the world), see www.slksf.com, handling “Litigation, Mediation, Appeals & Deals.” (SM) I presently serve as an ARRL Volunteer Counsel and as an ARRL Government Liaison. It has been my privilege to present the 2012 ARRL National Convention Law Forum “Amateur Radio Operators and The Law” (also at earlier ARRL Pacificons), with Chris Emley, ARRL General Counsel. The presentations covered:

1) Federal Communications Commission; Antennas; Administrative Law; PRB-1 Pre-emption of Zoning: “Reasonable Accommodation”; California Law: the 2011Palmdale case.

2) Interference Issues; Primary and Secondary Users of Radio Frequency Spectrum; Part 15 and Broadcast over Power Lines (BPL) Update.

3) Repeater Issues; FCC Action; State Law Nuisance Actions; Interference Issues for Repeaters.

4) Representing the Radio Amateur – Know your Client; Credentialing your Client; Volunteer Counsel and Ethical Issues, and Mediation.