U.S. DEFENDS WARNING ABOUT GRENADA RADIOS
A spokesman for the Federal Communications Commission said today that the crackdown earlier this week on amateur radio operators using unauthorized frequencies in an attempt to reach Grenada was not an effort to restrict the flow of information about fighting on the island.
The spokesman, William Russell, said the commission's Wednesday warning to ham operators to stay off unauthorized frequencies was an effort to keep those frequencies open for Mark Barettella, a ham operator in Grenada who was providing reports on the situation at the St. George's University School of Medicine, where he and some 500 other students from the United States were enrolled.
Mr. Russell said some members of Congress had called the commission today to protest what some saw as another Administration effort to tighten its controls over news coverage of the military operation.
At the request of the State Department, Mr. Russell said, the commission had authorized Mr. Barettella to switch to a frequency on which there was the least interference, so he could provide information on conditions at the school for the families of American students.
Others Use Frequency
Full :
https://www.nytimes.com/1983/10/28/world/us-defends-warning-about-grenada-radios.html
By Robert Hanley
Oct. 28, 1983