I was tuning across 20 meters this weekend and ran across Glenn Baxter, K1MAN's automatic broadcasts on both 14.275 and 14.272 MHz soliciting health and welfare traffic related to Hurricane Dean.
Wasn't Baxter off the air, I asked? No, it turns out he's been fined for a variety of violations, and his license, which was up for renewal last October, is still not yet renewed.
According to what I read online, hams whose licences is being held up by the FCC for review can continue to operate. Baxter's web site is still about the same as it was, though closer inspection reveals that many of Baxter's claims on the site are totally bogus.
He's operating live at the moment on 14.275. He's taking check-ins and comments. Currently he's talking about the FCC's fine he's not yet paid.
During his broadcast and on his web site, Baxter suggests that hams form their own IARN jump teams and head for the hurricane area. Once the jump team arrives in the area, you should park along the side of the road, put up a tent, and begin soliciting outgoing message from the area. I'm not an expert in emergency communications, but I think this is probably one of the worst EmComm ideas I've ever heard.
When Baxter was first starting the IARN and his bulletin service, he had a great deal of interest among hams. He had a good many supporters, too, including 73 Magazine founder Wayne Green and many others. Baxter was able to get Walter Cronkite to do a voice ID for him, and Baxter used even after Cronkite asked him to stop.
I'll admit that I was interested in Baxter's service in its early days. It was an interesting adjunct to the ARRL's services, or seemed so. Baxter was eventually revealed to be something of a crank, and his supporters eventually dropped him.
Since those days, Baxter has become increasingly paranoid and even more anti-ARRL in his statements. At last look on his web sie, Baxter had written a screed blasting a teacher whose class was on the air during the School Roundup. His hatred for all things ARRL taints everything he writes on his web site.
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