KANNAPOLIS — Howard Troutman says he and many of his Rose Avenue neighbors can sit down and listen to citizens band radio conversations most any time of the day or night.
Trouble is, he says, most of them don’t have CB radios. They’re often forced to listen to those conversations over their televisions, their AM/FM radios and their telephones.
“My neighbors and myself have been having one terrible time with a CB operator who I know for a fact is operating above his range,” Troutman said Monday.
Troutman and his neighbors are not alone. Maggie Adams, who lives on Chrysler Avenue, said she’s had run-ins with a neighbor whose CB is so souped-up it has rendered her telephone useless in emergencies.
City Council members say they’ve heard similar complaints for years from residents around Kannapolis. Until now, though, there was nothing the city could do about CB scofflaws.
But new federal legislation, signed into law last year by former President Bill Clinton, empowers local governments to enact and enforce regulations aimed at getting a handle on illegal operators.
Council members have asked city staff to draft an ordinance for Kannapolis.
“I do not want to let one individual disturb four or five hundred in an area,” Councilman Richard Anderson said. “We have such a wide range of problems ... we need to take some action to address it.”
Federal regulations require CB operators to stay within certain power and range limitations. It’s illegal to modify a CB or add anything to a radio to increase its power or extend its range beyond those limits.
But some operators do anyway, and their signals can become so powerful they seep into the TV, radio and telephone transmissions of their neighbors.
The Federal Communications Commission has authority over CB radios and all other telecommunications but is usually too busy to look into the complaints of folks like Troutman or Adams.
“So far, senators and congressmen haven’t been able to get the FCC to address these problems in our community,” City Manager David Hales said.
With the new law, local governments don’t have to wait. All they have to do is pass an ordinance and figure out a way to enforce it. But enforcement isn’t easy, because it requires special equipment and expertise.
Because the law wouldn’t be easily enforced, and because it was passed with little fanfare and still is fairly unknown, few municipalities have taken advantage of it.
“I’m quite sure we’ll be the first in North Carolina to address the issue,” said Wally Safrit, the city’s attorney.
The council will discuss the new law and its potential locally at its regular workshop meeting in May. For residents like Adams and Troutman, it couldn’t come soon enough.
“We have had problems with CBs for 20 years ... and I think the next 20 years is mine,” Adams said. “I’m an American, and I have a right to use my phone.”
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