Nice snark, but... you can fine utilities who don't promptly fix a problem way more than $34k, though.
The problem is, someone would actually have to figure out who's fault it is and who to contact about the problem. Getting the FCC to roll one a very limited number of vans to figure it out is hard. (You'd have been better off writing one of the utilities on the pole and copying the FCC, because they generally take their obligations seriously to avoid RFI to avoid fines, and would tend to figure it out even if it's someone else's problem).
In the case of this dude-- no need to figure it out. It was annoying enough to the Forest Service that they had to find him and tell him in person to stop.
It’s good to know that broken equipment can pollute the airwaves for years unchecked, and even if the broken equipment was found and the responsible party identified, they would still be given opportunity the rectify the situation even though they have been in violation for potentially years. But a guy with a bad judgment call in a natural disaster can get a $34k fine immediately, and the agency will brag about how it is the largest ever.
> they would still be given opportunity the rectify the situation
He was asked on air to stop transmitting, and kept going... necessitating personnel having to take a break from incident command to go out and drive and tell him to stop.
Subsequently, there were further unauthorized transmissions, but this guy denies making those.
The problem is, someone would actually have to figure out who's fault it is and who to contact about the problem. Getting the FCC to roll one a very limited number of vans to figure it out is hard. (You'd have been better off writing one of the utilities on the pole and copying the FCC, because they generally take their obligations seriously to avoid RFI to avoid fines, and would tend to figure it out even if it's someone else's problem).
In the case of this dude-- no need to figure it out. It was annoying enough to the Forest Service that they had to find him and tell him in person to stop.