Has anyone heard about a plan by Cal Fire to no longer consider amateur radio repeaters a "public benefit?"
The long and short of it is that some repeater owners are apparently getting notices that Cal Fire and/or other agencies want them to either vacate or pay large fees, similar to what a cell site or telecom contractor would pay, for their repeaters on mountaintop sites. See this:
http://www.shastadefense.com/FAX-CalFir ... 190923.pdf
https://forums.radioreference.com/threa ... it.395288/
This is of course the sort of thing our broke-ass state would try, especially with some lobbying from Verizon or some commercial EMCOMM provider. Would like to hear if this is an isolated incident or a new statewide thing we need to fight.
I have my SAR folks checking with CAL-OES as well.
Arclight