Old linear amplifier question.

[lemonmade]

I am NOT looking for advice on how to do something illegal. If I was looking to do something illegal, I'd just go out there and do it.

At a yard sale, I picked up a load of cb stuff, 2 old Hygain mobiles, a ton of various coax, a handful of mobile antennas and other misc. stuff. Before the the older (older than me ) gentleman handed me the boxes, he snatched a plain looking circuit box out of the tangle of stuff and mumbled something to the effect of "this shouldn't be in there", and set the circuit box aside.

With all the stuff he gave me, there were all of the receipts and documentation for all of the items I had bought (dated 1976), including mail in warranty cards and spec sheet for a linear amplifier, from some outfit named V-J Products, out of Texas. I'm guessing the object he removed from the other stuff was in fact the "Boomer" brand name amplifier. I tried Google, and didn't really come up with anything.

Also, I read the FCC rule 11, and my understanding is that as long as I don't use it, it might not be illegal to own. I've also read forum posts that say you will be jailed and fined for even having pictures of a linear, and CB in the same house.

The idea of owning a old commercially made amplifier appeals to me, it doesn't appeal to me enough to go to jail, or pay a stiff fine.

Does anyone have a definitive opinion, preferably with a link to an authoritative source? Is it worth going back to the old guy, and see if he does want to part with "Boomer"?

 

[Dawn]

That's news to me. Ownership of a linear amplifier or radio for that matter without a license or even the equipment not type accepted has never been illegal. Operating it unlicensed and/or a piece of equipment that doesn't have type acceptance or violates the power authorization of the FCC Part governing that service or station license authorizion power is another matter. The only FCC regulation that I know of that in any way restricts ownership isn't ownership, but a matter of co-location of an amateur station with that of a ship's radio station without a waiver. In other words, they would have a problem if they came aboard and found a Kenwood amateur radio mounted right next to the HF marine radiotelephone. Only other restrictions that I've ever known is on a military base or aboard an aircraft or ship where independent radio equipment is subject to the pilot/master's approval by law. Here we're talking about FCC rules and regs. FCC supposably reigns surpreme in matters of radio regulation, inspection of stations and seizing equipment and is supposed to be out of the jurisdiction of other agencies. That's been blurred over the years with possession equivelent to intent that shouldn't hold up in court unless it's something like a state law that prohibits a scanner in a vehicle or possession of descrambling devices for cable/sat which I believe now comes under the auspicies of the secret service. There have been other things over the years like cell phone ESN readers held by non-technical personel. You can legally walk into a ham radio store and plunk down a couple of grand and walk out with the biggest amp they have. They cannot insist on you proving that you are licensed and must sell you the amp or radio even if you're not legally allowed to use it. The hams tried that during the early CB boom and almost wound up sued and charged in federal court for restraint of free trade and discrimination. Same law that prevents a shop keeper from barring any race or persons from entering or buying something if open to the general public. The FCC has at times passed rules that barred the sale or transfer of obsolete technology to prevent it from being used again. When the FCC allowed the sale of 40 channel CBs, they also forbade the sale or transfer of older 23 channel and crystal channel sets for example. OTOH, when they enacted the type acceptance law that forbade a manufactuerer from selling an amp capable of operating at 10 meters, they did not make any prohibitions on older units from being sold or traded nor did they prohibit the amateur themselves from modifying it. Unless there's new laws I'm unaware of, there's never been laws forbiding posession of an illegal amp...just not using it.

 

[lemonmade]

That's news to me. Ownership of a linear amplifier or radio for that matter without a license or even the equipment not type accepted has never been illegal. Operating it unlicensed and/or a piece of equipment that doesn't have type acceptance or violates the power authorization of the FCC Part governing that service or station license authorizion power is another matter. The only FCC regulation that I know of that in any way restricts ownership isn't ownership, but a matter of co-location of an amateur station with that of a ship's radio station without a waiver. In other words, they would have a problem if they came aboard and found a Kenwood amateur radio mounted right next to the HF marine radiotelephone. Only other restrictions that I've ever known is on a military base or aboard an aircraft or ship where independent radio equipment is subject to the pilot/master's approval by law. Here we're talking about FCC rules and regs. FCC supposably reigns surpreme in matters of radio regulation, inspection of stations and seizing equipment and is supposed to be out of the jurisdiction of other agencies. That's been blurred over the years with possession equivelent to intent that shouldn't hold up in court unless it's something like a state law that prohibits a scanner in a vehicle or possession of descrambling devices for cable/sat which I believe now comes under the auspicies of the secret service. There have been other things over the years like cell phone ESN readers held by non-technical personel. You can legally walk into a ham radio store and plunk down a couple of grand and walk out with the biggest amp they have. They cannot insist on you proving that you are licensed and must sell you the amp or radio even if you're not legally allowed to use it. The hams tried that during the early CB boom and almost wound up sued and charged in federal court for restraint of free trade and discrimination. Same law that prevents a shop keeper from barring any race or persons from entering or buying something if open to the general public. The FCC has at times passed rules that barred the sale or transfer of obsolete technology to prevent it from being used again. When the FCC allowed the sale of 40 channel CBs, they also forbade the sale or transfer of older 23 channel and crystal channel sets for example. OTOH, when they enacted the type acceptance law that forbade a manufactuerer from selling an amp capable of operating at 10 meters, they did not make any prohibitions on older units from being sold or traded nor did they prohibit the amateur themselves from modifying it. Unless there's new laws I'm unaware of, there's never been laws forbiding posession of an illegal amp...just not using it.

Thank you, that was exactly what I was looking for!

Any ideas on what a fair price to offer him might be?