[FADCA] It's not about WL2K - It's about the future of Ham Radio
David Calder
n4zkf at n4zkf.com
Sat Feb 4 18:25:02 EST 2006
O, it gets funnier. Even got your name in it!!!
:)
Dave
RE: The Email Robots Are Coming! Reply
by KH6TY on January 30, 2006 Mail this to a friend!
Peter, AG4RC,
Your beloved Florida Winlink PMBO, Bud, N0IA, is also actively promoting the
violation of 97.113 by Winlink users.
Here are links, taken off the Winlink website, but subsequently removed, to
images promoted in Winlink presentations by N0IA:
http://mywebpages.comcast.net/hteller/secure.jpg
http://mywebpages.comcast.net/hteller/secure2.jpg
Note the suggestion to use the BBS protocol (F6FBB) in order to "make them
secure from casual monitoring".
The FCC regulations expressly prohibit using codes or ciphers to obscure the
meaning of the message:
§97.113 Prohibited transmissions.
(a) No amateur station shall transmit:
(1) Communications specifically prohibited elsewhere in this Part;
(2) Communications for hire or for material compensation, direct or
indirect, paid or promised, except as otherwise provided in these rules;
(3) Communications in which the station licensee or control operator has a
pecuniary interest, including communications on behalf of an employer.
Amateur operators may, however, notify other amateur operators of the
availability for sale or trade of apparatus normally used in an amateur
station, provided that such activity is not conducted on a regular basis;
(4) Music using a phone emission except as specifically provided elsewhere
in this Section; communications intended to facilitate a criminal act;
messages in codes or ciphers intended to obscure the meaning thereof, except
as otherwise provided herein; obscene or indecent words or language; or
false or deceptive messages, signals or identification;
(5) Communications, on a regular basis, which could reasonably be furnished
alternatively through other radio services.
The arrogance of Winlink to think they are above the law and can routinely
transmit on top of others in order to download Email at their convenience,
operate outside the ARRL bandplans, ignore the IARU Region 1 bandplan, and
use the F6FBB protocol to intentionally disguise the meaning of the message
(so they can send commercial messages undetected) is appalling!
History shows us that Winlink CANNOT BE TRUSTED to follow any "voluntary"
bandplan, so RULES to contain them are ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY!
Gentlemen, amateur radio has a very serious problem here. Please be sure to
file comments to the FCC and tell them that ALL automatic stations must be
confined BY REGULATIONS to the 97.221(b) subbands, as the FCC has already
decided in 1995.
For the survival of HF ham radio as COMMUNICATIONS intstead of raio Email,
PLEASE take the time to file comments and encourage everyone you meet on the
air to do so likewise.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
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Aww, Dave - you've been bamboozled by Skip Teller!
Or did you forward this to FADCA as a joke?
The shame of it is that Skip knows better - but he has let his personal
agenda get in the way of what could be a good thing for ham radio. He has
been on this anti-WL2K vendetta for almost two years- heavily for a year -
and has convinced a lot otherwise uninformed folks that WL2K is bad. This
is the real bad part - Skip - nearly single handedly has made the ARRL band
plan by bandwidth proposal about WL2K - when it should be about the future
of ham radio.
I'm really surprised you didn't check out more on details before forwarding
that inflammatory e-mail Skip has been sending around... Also hacks me off I
must take time to respond here! But . . .
I can't assume it is a joke - pardon me if it was - and you owe me!
But here goes -
> ARRL wants to let Email Robots cover the phone bands.
Right - wouldn't that be a mess! Who would believe that statement, much
less take action on it? Well, some uninformed folks who would not know
better. It's politics - need I say more?
> The current practice of Winlink 2000 is to scan two channels by each
> fully automatic Pactor-II station when they are allowed to operate
> anywhere in the RTTY/Data/CW areas of the bands.
> If a single Pactor-III Email robot requires a 2.5 KHz channel, then a
> fully automatic Email robot scanning two channels will use 5 kHz.
There is no correlation to the number of scanned frequencies and the
bandwidth a Pactor station uses - it is only 2.4 KHz for Pactor III and
under 500 Hz for Pactor 1 or 2 - one frequency at a time. Skip knows that!
Actually my WL2K PMBO scans seven HF frequencies total (on 80, 40, 30, 25,
17, and 15M), but only six on four bands at a time - dropping 80 m in
daytime and dropping 15 at night. Pactor stations can only operate on one
frequency at a time. I know Skip knows that. However, his terminology
would have the inexperienced masses think that a single Pactor station
occupies 5Khz - that's not legal - viz- WL2K is doing something bad - let's
all get on board and call the FCC!
'Fully automatic' conjures two stations under computer control contacting
each other w/o a control operator on either end. I'm not sure there is
anything in the FCC Part 97 Rules that cover 'fully' automatic - perhaps
there is but I believe 'Automatically controlled digital station' what is
covered. Again, Skip knows that, but this is just more of his
misrepresenting terminology to conjure up bad stuff, eh?
WL2K PMBOs do not operate 'fully automatic' - So far as I know the only
"fully automatic" operation is packet BBS to BBS forwarding which is allowed
above 50Mhz. I'm not sure if there is an HF packet network autoforwarding
on HF still - but you would know.
The WL2K PMBOs NEVER call each other - there is no BBS-to-BBS forwarding by
WL2K PMBOs - The WL2K operation is classified under 'local or remote
control' in Part 97.211.(c) (1) (below) and it is the calling station
(Skip's "MOBILE STATIONS") that must be under local or remote control. Here
is how the pertinent section reads as clarified/modified by the FCC in 1995:
97.221 Automatically controlled digital station.
(a) This rule section does not apply to an auxiliary station, a beacon
station, a repeater station, an earth station, a space station, or a space
telecommand station.
(b) A station may be automatically controlled while transmitting a RTTY
or data emission on the 6 m or shorter wavelength bands, and on the
a.. 28.120 - 28.189 MHz
b.. 24.925 - 24.930 MHz
c.. 21.090 - 21.100 MHz
d.. 18.105 - 18.110 MHz
e.. 14.0950 - 14.0995 MHz
f.. 14.1005 - 14.112 MHz
g.. 10.140 - 10.150 MHz
h.. 7.100 - 7.105 MHz or
i.. 3.620 - 3.635 MHz segments.
(c) A station may be automatically controlled while transmitting a RTTY
or data emission on any other frequency authorized for such emission types
provided that:
(1) The station is responding to interrogation by a station under
local or remote control; and
(2) No transmission from the automatically controlled station
occupies a bandwidth of more than 500 Hz.
Hence, my original question: What is a Robot?
There are none. Sorry, Skip.
The rest of Skip's note is just as inflammatory as the garbage he's been
promulgating on QRZ blog for two years. The real bad news is he has other
folks worked up who have not taken time to really check all this stuff out -
Skip knows better - he really does understand how WL2K works - but he has a
personal agenda (from his position on an ARRL committee several years ago
that did not go well for him) that transcends getting anything accomplished
to advance the state of the art. And this from the co-inventor of DigiPan-
one of the marvels of our day!
> It is as easy as 1-2-3-4 to file a comment!
Now that is about the only factual statement he made!
Do it - everyone - Take a break before the Super Bowl!
I will be taking Skip's advice and submitting my comments late today or
tomorrow before the Feb 6th. deadline. I hope everyone does - but that they
do so as an informed decision, not passing on some BS from someone else.
It's really too bad that this has come to a head on Super Bowl weekend- sure
glad I'm not a football fan.
73,
bud N0IA
386 574 4124
386 956 0386 Sprint Cell
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