[GreenKeys] The Homeland Public Press Petition

Mon, 25 Aug 2003 21:08:08 -0700

GreenKeyers - - -

I guess I have been silent too long, but I have many irons in the fire,
and it is time I spoke up.

Many of you will recall the radioteletype broadcasts that I did from
WA9XHN and WC2XPF.  Those broadcasts continued for about 21 months.

As the WC2XPF license approached expiration I solicited input from all
who cared to comment  whether or not there was any public interest in
the broadcasts, with the intent to have enough material to persuade the
OET to renew WC2XPF and keep them going while other licensing was
pursued. We received 150 or so responses.

The OET said no, we will not renew WC2XPF. You've done enough and have
proven your point, now it's time to get the concept transformed from an
experimental activity into a viable reality.

After about a year and many starts, trashings, and restarts, the final
product became a Petition for Rulemaking to Establish, Administer, and
Regulate the Homeland Public Press and Information Widecast Service.

The FCC accepted the petition on June 30th of this year. It apparently
went from the FCC's Secretary to the Spectrum Policy Branch of the OET.
I can only assume that they read it, went through it with a fine-toothed
comb, and finally said something to the effect of "OK, Let's see what
happens!".  It was returned to the Secretary's office last week, and on
21 August a Public Notice was published in the FCC's Daily Digest.

This Public  Notice indicates it has been assigned the FCC File/Docket/
number of RM-10765.  It states that the parts of the FCC Rules which it
affects are Part 2, which is Frequency Allocations, and Part 73, which
is Broadcast Rules.

The notice states that there are 30 days from the 21st of August for
people to file comments in support of or in opposition to the proposed
rulemaking.

Gentlemen, the petition was a complete package including the rules and
regulations for running Widecast stations, the Forms necessary to apply
for a license, including a heretofore non-existent Form 601 Schedule W,
The Widecast Service particulars, qualifications, frequencies, etc.

I watched people on GreenKeys complain for a long time that there were
no RTTY Signals on the air anymore, other than weather and hams, and
some foreign government stuff that seems to be encrypted for the most
part.

I did my best to supply all those who wanted them with genuine clear
text news transmissions for almost two years.  The transmissions were on
the air five to seven days a week. It took a big chunk out of my life to
do it all.

The time has come for YOU GREENKEYERS, friends, acquaintances, etc., to
step up to the plate render a little support to the project.

If you are happy with "deployed technologies", so be it.

However, if you want your machines to run once again without the benefit
of a test tape or a message generator, please consider submitting to the
FCC something in support of the  Widecast petition.

I will know more in the next few days, and will prepare some mechanism
whereby it will be relatively easy and painless to send them your
comments. I am well aware of the awkwardness of the FCC filing paths,
and don't blame anyone for saying "OMIGAWD - Not the FCC hassle".

I will add the following:

Currently there are four members of the Senate interested in this
project. They are:

Senator Richard Shelby, R AL
Senator Tom Harkin, D - IA
Senator Lindsey Graham, R - SC
Senator John Cronyn, R - TX

I encourage everyone to write or e-mail your Senator and/or
Congressman/Congresswoman and request their support for this effort.

The material as written and submitted to the FCC can be read at
www.nasdaw.org.  There is a link  where you can join NASDAW,  which is
the National ASsociation of DAta Widecasters. NASDAW is intended to be
for the Widecast  effort what the ARRL is to Amateur Radio.

A few thought we'd never get as far as the initial experimental
broadcasts. It is now reasonable to say we are within reaching the goal
of getting RTTY Widecasting to be a reality.

Please join in this effort.  Soon there will be Dovetrons flowing your
way. Why not help make it possible to give them something to do???