[Hallicrafters] Wall Street Journal Article Putting Down Hams

[Mike Lopez]

Matt Oja : A mystic oracle with a flat finish. Note the missing i (eye).

N8AZC

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Bruce Sugarberg" <bsugarberg at core.com>
To: <hallicrafters at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Wednesday, March 24, 2004 8:29 PM
Subject: Re: [Hallicrafters] Wall Street Journal Article Putting Down Hams


> Hello All:
>
> Here is why I think that this article is dangerous.
>
> 1st, please read some excerpts from the article:
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> the nation's vocal but shrinking population of ham-radio operators, or
> "hams" as they call themselves, are stirring up a war with the utility
> industry over new power-line communications.
>
> The FCC and the utilities say new technologies have eliminated the
> interference and accuse the hams of exploiting the issue for their own
> gains. "We haven't seen the sun darken and everything electrical turn to
> white noise and haze during a deployment," says Matt Oja, an executive at
> Progress Energy, whose test Mr. Powell visited. "This is a fairly vocal
> group that has been whipped into a frenzy by their organization."  (ARRL).
>
> The controversy comes at a sensitive time for the hams. Not too many
decades
> ago, ham-radio operators were on the cutting edge of communications
> technology. In the age of e-mail, wireless Internet access and cellphones
> that double as walkie-talkies, many operators worry that their hobby will
> fade away.  Aging hams, who built crystal radio sets as kids or were radio
> operators during World War II, are dying. Fewer youngsters are replacing
them.
>
> Hams always have been a quirky bunch. They haunt a series of short-wave
> radio frequencies set aside for them by the federal government in the
1930s.
>
> Ed Thomas, the FCC's chief engineer, says the commission has spent a year
> listening to the hams' concerns about power lines and is getting
frustrated.
> "Why is this thing a major calamity?" he says. "And honestly, I'd love the
> answer to that."
>
> Con Ed says its system in Briarcliff Manor doesn't interfere with the hams
> and maintains that, in two years of testing, it hasn't received one
complaint.
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
>
> If you know nothing about ham radio, what impression do you get of hams in
> general:  That they are a bunch of trouble-making old dinosaurs, standing
> in the way of progress, for no good reason.
>
> Nothing is really said in the article about the public services that hams
> provide.  Or about how hams are considered a vital part of Homeland
Security.
>
> If you know nothing about BPL, what impression do you get of the FCC and
> Utilities:  That the only thing they are guilty of, is trying to make
things
> better for all of us.
>
> Nothing is said about how the government's own Federal Emergency
Management
> Agency (FEMA) has come out against BPL.  Or that BPL has already been
tested
> and banned by several countries around the world, such as Austria.
>
> 73, Bruce Sugarberg WA8TNC
>
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> List Administrator: Duane Fischer, W8DBF **for assistance**
> dfischer at usol.com
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