[net.auto] NJ exempts hams from mobile scanner law

parnass@ihu1h.UUCP (Bob Parnass, AJ9S) (01/22/85)

from the 12/84 issue of the ARRL Southern NJ Section Report:
===========================================================

			      Assembly No. 2393
			     State of New Jersey
			Introduced September 13, 1984
		  by Assemblymen Zimmer, Haines, and Weidel
	    An Act Concerning Crimes and Amending N.J.S.2A:127-4.

	Be it enacted by the Senate and	General	Assembly of the	 State
	of New Jersey:	N.J.S.2A:127-4 is amended to read as follows:

	2A:127-4.  "Any	 person	 who  installs	or  has	 a  short-wave
	receiver  operative  on	 frequencies  assigned	by the FCC for
	fire, police, municipal	or other governmental uses, is	guilty
	of  a  misdemeanor crime of the	fourth degree, unless a	permit
	therefor has first been	obtained from the chief	of the	county
	police,	 or  from the chief of the police of the municipality,
	wherein	such person resides.

	This section does not apply to	any  fire,  police,  or	 other
	governmental  official of the state, or	of any county or muni-
	cipality thereof, nor shall it apply  to  a  resident  of  New
	Jersy holding a	valid radio amateur license of the Technician,
	General, Advanced, or Amateur Extra Class."


		    This act will take effect immediately.

-- 
===============================================================================
Bob Parnass,  Bell Telephone Laboratories - ihnp4!ihu1h!parnass - (312)979-5414 

ndiamond@watdaisy.UUCP (Norman Diamond) (01/23/85)

> 	This section does not apply to	any  fire,  police,  or	 other
> 	governmental  official of the state, or	of any county or muni-
> 	cipality thereof, nor shall it apply  to  a  resident  of  New
> 	Jersy holding a	valid radio amateur license of the Technician,
> 	General, Advanced, or Amateur Extra Class."

So if you're a resident of some jurisdiction other than New Jersey, and
have a valid ham receiver in your car, you have to remove it when you
enter New Jersey, right?

As another netter suggested, you have the right to receive whatever
signals you wish, but you just can't drive while receiving certain ones
of those signals because driving is not a guaranteed right.  So I guess
you have the right to live outside of New Jersey too, but if you do,
then you might lose the right to drive in New Jersey.  (That isn't the
case yet; it just needs one more step to get there.)

-- Norman Diamond

UUCP:  {decvax|utzoo|ihnp4|allegra|clyde}!watmath!watdaisy!ndiamond
CSNET: ndiamond%watdaisy@waterloo.csnet
ARPA:  ndiamond%watdaisy%waterloo.csnet@csnet-relay.arpa

"Opinions are those of the keyboard, and do not reflect on me or higher-ups."

rpw3@redwood.UUCP (Rob Warnock) (01/25/85)

Bob, thanks for the update, but your "Subject:" says "mobile scanner law",
and I don't see "mobile" anywhere in the excerpt you quote:

+---------------
| 	2A:127-4.  "Any	 person	 who  installs	or  has	 a  short-wave
| 	receiver  operative  on	 frequencies  assigned	by the FCC for
| 	fire, police, municipal	or other governmental uses, is	guilty
| 	of  a  misdemeanor crime of the	fourth degree, unless a	permit
| 	therefor has first been	obtained from the chief	of the	county
| 	police,	 or  from the chief of the police of the municipality,
| 	wherein	such person resides.
+---------------

And I am just a little bit, no, a LOT concerned that this is just the
tip of the iceberg, or the first slice of the salami game. Sure, hams
are now a priviledged class, so that makes everybody in this newsgroup
heave a big sigh of relief, but why should ANY class be so priviledged
over ordinary people. (Note that there is no guarantee that the criminals
this law is intended to deter are not hams... or politicians!)

+---------------
| 	This section does not apply to	any  fire,  police,  or	 other
| 	governmental  official of the state, or	of any county or muni-
| 	cipality thereof, nor shall it apply  to  a  resident  of  New
| 	Jersy holding a	valid radio amateur license of the Technician,
| 	General, Advanced, or Amateur Extra Class."
+---------------

And what about NON-residents of New Jersey who are hams...? or just
people driving through...? And non-ham residents, will they all march up
and register like good little boys and girls? And what are the possible
grounds for denying an applications for such a permit? ("No! You disagreed
with me in town meeting last week!", or, "You haven't lived here 10 years.")
Or will there be surprise raids of suspicious-looking antennas? Or of
anyone who receives out-of-state mail from an electronics store?

Not to carry the extrapolation too far towards paranoia, folks, but I think
once again our general civil liberties are being restricted on the (unproven)
THEORY that such punishments deter criminals. Friends, I am not sure exactly
what a "fourth-degree misdemeanor" is (not being a NJ resident), but it's surely
inconsequential compared to the felonies such radios are being used for. Maybe
more deterrence could be gained by making ANY use of a radio in committing a
crime a "special circumstance" or something (as use of a gun is in California),
that increases the penalties on conviction. Note: This does NOT make such use
itself a crime (which could open up a whole host of other civil liberties
problems), but merely adds "oomph" to a conviction.

IF (and this is a big "if", I'd want to see some documentation first) the use
of scanners (receivers) IS a MAJOR crime problem in New Jersey, the much better
solution would be encryption of critical services' transmissions, or conversion
to digital transmission (possibly with voice compression and coding redundancy
to actually improve S/N in marginal areas). (Plus such a "special circ." law.)

---

Not normally politically inclined, but suddenly worried by this new bit of
legislative not-so-trivia, I remain (not a ham),

Rob Warnock
Systems Architecture Consultant

UUCP:	{ihnp4,ucbvax!dual}!fortune!redwood!rpw3
DDD:	(415)572-2607
USPS:	510 Trinidad Lane, Foster City, CA  94404

ron@brl-tgr.ARPA (Ron Natalie <ron>) (01/28/85)

> 
> from the 12/84 issue of the ARRL Southern NJ Section Report:
> ===========================================================
> 
> 			      Assembly No. 2393
> 			     State of New Jersey
> 			Introduced September 13, 1984
> 		  by Assemblymen Zimmer, Haines, and Weidel
> 	    An Act Concerning Crimes and Amending N.J.S.2A:127-4.
> 
> 	Be it enacted by the Senate and	General	Assembly of the	 State
> 	of New Jersey:	N.J.S.2A:127-4 is amended to read as follows:
> 
> 	2A:127-4.  "Any	 person	 who  installs	or  has	 a  short-wave
> 	receiver  operative  on	 frequencies  assigned	by the FCC for
> 	fire, police, municipal	or other governmental uses, is	guilty
> 	of  a  misdemeanor crime of the	fourth degree, unless a	permit
> 	therefor has first been	obtained from the chief	of the	county
> 	police,	 or  from the chief of the police of the municipality,
> 	wherein	such person resides.
> 
> 	This section does not apply to	any  fire,  police,  or	 other
> 	governmental  official of the state, or	of any county or muni-
> 	cipality thereof, nor shall it apply  to  a  resident  of  New
> 	Jersy holding a	valid radio amateur license of the Technician,
> 	General, Advanced, or Amateur Extra Class."
> 
> 
> 		    This act will take effect immediately.
> 
Nice try, as both a ham and a member of the volunteer fire deptartment
I am more than covered, but I'm still pissed off.  Never before in
Americas history has radio reception been banned.  Now in the wars
my grandfather modified shorwave sets to disconnect the transmitters
for people, but they weren't required to turn in the receivers.  I feel
that the inanity law is even more cut and dried than Gun control.  I find
out a good deal about what is happening in my town by listening to the
the police and fire frequencies.

If scanners are outlawed, only outlaws will have scanners.

parnass@ihu1h.UUCP (Bob Parnass, AJ9S) (01/28/85)

New Jersey overregulates everything.  It has laws prohibiting:

	-self service gas stations
	-BB guns/BB rifles
	-sparklers
	-slingshots
	-mobile scanners

I fled NJ in 1976, seeking refuge in the Midwest, and am now being harbored
in Illinois, which prohibits none of the above (and requires no auto 
inspection!)
===============================================================================
Bob Parnass,  Bell Telephone Laboratories - ihnp4!ihu1h!parnass - (312)979-5414 
-- 
===============================================================================
Bob Parnass,  Bell Telephone Laboratories - ihnp4!ihu1h!parnass - (312)979-5414