The FCC's Enforcement Bureau has charged a ham radio operator in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania with interfering with UHF frequencies used by 9-1-1 emergency services.

The FCC identified the ham as David Knudtson, KD3ASC. According to the agency, the Pittsburgh amateur was transmitting on 470.4375 MHz from a handheld transceiver last July, prompting a complaint from the county's Emergency Services that there was interference on its dispatch channel. Using direction-finding, the bureau's enforcement agents tracked the signal to Knudtson's home where, they said, he showed them a Baofeng BTech UV-Pro HT - which he surrendered to them.

The handheld radio is capable of transmitting on VHF and UHF amateur radio bands as well as private land mobile radio bands. The FCC said that the radio had been programmed to monitor the EMS channel and that the "audio relay” was enabled, permitting traffic from one channel to be retransmitted on another.

The FCC notice is dated March 25th. Knudtson must respond to the Enforcement Bureau within 10 days of that date.