The FCC Universal Licensing System archive lists amateur license KM4UDZ, radio service HA–Amateur, operator class Technician, licensee Nellie H. Ohr, granted and effective May 23, 2016, FRN 0025607250. Companion application 0007276761 is a new grant on the same date. That is a civilian ham ticket. It is not a covert-communications finding. This file will not treat the license as evidence of clandestine traffic.
On October 19, 2018, House counsel asked if she had a ham radio. “I own a Ham radio.” Purpose: “Emergency communication in case of a storm… If the cell towers go out.” She guessed she bought it after getting the license, “2015, but I don’t remember exactly,” and described community emergency / CERT training. Asked whether the class, exam, and license “had nothing to do with” Fusion GPS, she said, “It was well before.” “Well before?” “Yeah.” Asked if she had communicated with anyone in Russia on the radio, or monitored Russian broadcasts: “No.” And “No.”
The 2019 FBI analysis Grassley released in 2025 treats that timing answer as one possible false statement. The writers cite Fairfax Fire & Rescue CERT records: six ham classes March 31–May 12, 2016, an exam May 14, 2016, and the FCC grant May 23, 2016 — inside her sworn Fusion window (October 2015–September 2016). They note a ham radio can work without a cell signal. They do not document a contact she made on the air with Steele, with Russia, or with Fusion.
Conservative Treehouse (April 2, 2019) compared “well before” to the FCC grant and headlined that she lied. The Federalist (March 2, 2018) asked whether she hoped to hide traffic from NSA. That question is not a finding. The Washington Examiner (May 28, 2025), covering Grassley, added an off-grid motive line that is the paper’s inference, not an FCC order. No contact log and no FCC enforcement record were located for this draft.