This weekend I had the dubious experience of stumbling across a broadcast (and I do mean broadcast, as I'll explain below) from a ham (KC0EBM) in the mid-West who was spewing his anti-Catholic diatribe on 75 meters. This was in the form of an illegal one-way broadcast (under FCC Part 97 rules, radio amateurs need to be engaged in two-way communications only - if you want to broadcast to your vast unseen audience, you need a commercial license). This garbage is an example of some of the things one seems to find on the 75 meter band lately. Apparently this A-hole has been under investigation by the FCC for rules violations (and I don't seem to be the only ham who's noticed this guy in recent years). Anyway, one of the things that caught my ear was his reading of the "bogus oath" - a supposed oath taken by the Fourth Degree of the Knights of Columbus which originally surfaced in the early 20th century as a means of discrediting Catholics in general and the Knights of Columbus in particular. (Google "bogus oath" for more information on this.) What's sad is that there seem to be a number of people out there who really believe this crap. Anyway, the next time I hear this guy, I plan on sending an mp3 recording of the transmission to the FCC and throw it into their complaint pile. Come to think of it, it wouldn't be a bad idea to copy Bill Donohue of the Catholic League while I'm at it... In the meantime, check out "Anatomy of KC0EBM" in the Recommended Blog List.
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