[Ham-News] Amateur Radio Newsline 1329 - January 31, 2003

Mon Feb 3 11:51:41 EST 2003

Amateur Radio Newsline 1329 - January 31, 2003

==========================================

A NOTE TO THOSE WHO ONLY "READ" AMATEUR RADIO NEWSLINE(tm)

For those of you who only know of the Amateur Radio Newsline (tm) as a 
text newsletter we would like to invite you to listen to the audio 
version.  This Amateur Radio Newsline (tm) script is actually written 
for the "spoken word."  It is recorded each by professional broadcasters 
and is available for private listening or rebroadcast over your 
repeater.  Two methods of delivery are available: FTP MP3 or dial-in 
telephone.  Please visit our website at http://www.arnewsline.org for a 
list of telephone numbers (you have to pay your own long distance 
charges) and links to our voice newscast.  On site free FTP Downloads 
are available at our site by clicking on the newscast number at the top 
of the page.

de
The Newsline Production Team

=========================================

The following is a Q-S-T.  Ham radio assiastance continues at the 
Australian wildfires and the ARRL asks the FCC to go slow on spectrum 
reorganization.  Find out the details on Amateur Radio Newsline report 
number 1329 coming your way right now.

**

RESCUE RADIO:  AUSTRALIAN FIRES FOLLOW-UP

Amateur Radio is still supporting firefighting efforts in Australia.  Q-
News Graham Kemp, VK4BB, is in Brisbane with the latest.  

--

 --
 vk1zpl audio
 --

That's the voice of Phil Longdon VK1ZPL WICEN - ACT Coordinator speaking  
from Canberra.

As these Wildfires, or as we "downunder" call them "Bushfires" raced 
through South Eastern Australia they came dreadfully close to the Deep 
Space Network antennas at the  NASA's site at Tidbinbilla. Here four 
giant antennas including Deep Space  Station 43 - a 230-foot steerable 
antenna -  the largest in the Southern Hemisphere are located. 

The world famous Mount Stromlo Observatory west of Canberra was totally 
incinerated by the fires -  a nearly $12 million loss.

Luckily for the Amateur Population, their main repeater was spared.

--

"The VK1 Black Hill repeater: Well if the hill wasn't black before it is 
now.  It will be two to three weeks before they can gain access to the 
site,  all the coaxial cables on the mast have been melted or damaged in 
some way. 

A contractor for the tracking station will be removing and replacing 
them.  Unfortunately these VK1 cables are not part of the contractors 
work, VK1 hams intend to try and get a price from the contractor to 
install their cables as they do the work for the tracking station.  The 
equipment in the hut appears to be undamaged however will need to be 
checked out".

 --

 And the current scene in VK1 Phil?

--
Audio Here
--

Further South from Phil in VK3, The number of radio amateurs involved in  
providing communications assistance during the three week long fire 
disaster  in north-east  Victoria is growing DAILY, with two separate 
and distinct activities taking place.

WICEN Victoria has radio operators at three Incident Control Centres and 
two airbases in the north-east, while Red Cross is using its RECOM data 
communications system.

WICEN Victoria State Coordinator, John Kerr VK3BAF expects the provision  
of radio operators to the Department of Sustainability and Environment 
in the north-east could continue for at least another two weeks. 

Additionally, John Kerr VK3BAF said, "WICEN has now been requested by 
the  Victoria Police to be on a much higher level of standby to provide 
point to point communications should other radio or telephone networks 
fail".

--

"WICEN Victoria has now set up a statewide HF-radio network using the 40 
and 80 meter bands.  3.6 and 7.075 MHz +/- QRM with 'W'    abbreviated 
callsigns. Operators at Corryong will use callsigns 'WIC',    Mt Beauty 
'WIB,' etc. and net control AWI to the designated listening post on each 
band.

Schedule times are 0700 and 2000 hrs for 80 meters, 0900 and 1800 hrs 
for 40 meters with a continuous listening watch at all other times, 
especially on the hour up to three minutes past".

--

In other activity, the Australian Red Cross National Registration and 
Inquiry System is using three teams of radio amateurs at three entres - 
Eskdale, Bright and Omeo registering thousands of people who have been 
displaced.

A Red Cross WICEN communications system known as RECOM relies on radio 
amateurs in the field to transmit to a State Inquiry Centre the 
registration details of emergency evacuees.

This information is transmitted by radio amateurs at the Red Cross
registration centres using laptop computers linked to amateur radio 
transceivers using PACTOR II.

WICEN Victoria's Division 4 Region 4 Coordinator, Peter Weeks VK3YZP 
reported late 29 January that currently there are 12 radio amateurs in 
the field - ten at Incident Control Centres, and two at airbases for 
fire bombing radio traffic.  WICEN has been sourcing radio amateurs for 
the airbases who have aircraft experience.

Peter VK3YZP stresses that no radio amateur should enter the Alpine 
region without being assigned by WICEN Victoria, authorised by the other 
authorities, have been properly equipped with clothing, and provided an 
entry escort.

Reporting from Brisbane Australia, Im Graham Kemp, VK4BB, of Q-News for 
the Amateur Radio Newsline.

--

Meantime, Phil Longdon, VK1ZPL reports that Australia's Wireless 
Institute Civic Emergency Network or is providing operators  at the 
Yarralumla Shire Fire Control Center.  Longworth says that WICEN is 
supplying a total of ten operators with others on standby if needed. 
(VK1 WICEN, WIA Victoria and QNEWS)

**

REGULATORY:  ARRL ASKS FCC TO GO SLOW

The ARRL has registered mixed feelings about the FCC's Spectrum
Policy Task Force Report issued last November.  In comments filed
this week, the League called the report a positive first step in
developing a comprehensive spectrum management approach but stopped 
short of endorsing it as presented. 

In a bulletin to its members the ARRL says that the report fails to 
address the needs and goals of the Amateur Service.  It also says that 
the report's orientation toward commercial services makes it not
wholly applicable to the Amateur Radio which cannot pay for
spectrum access. 

And says the ARRL there's not been enough time to study the report's 
recommendations thoroughly, much less deploy them
immediately.  The League urged the FCC to not abandon longstanding 
allocation policies that are based on engineering.

But the ARRL reaction is not entirely negative.  It says that it was 
encouraged that the FCC had worked to involve all portions of the 
telecommunications industry in developing a spectrum policy.  And the 
ARRL has asked the FCC to consider greater use of "negotiated 
rulemaking" to expedite allocation decisions.  (ARRL)

**

RADIO LAW:  GOVERNMENT TOLD IT CANNOT RECLAIM FREQUENCIES

The United States Supreme Court has ordered the Federal government to 
return billions of dollars worth of unused wireless licenses to NextWave 
Telecom Inc.. This, as the court tells the government that it cannot 
take back what has been bought, even if it was not paid for.

Nextwave had defaulted on payment for the licenees it purchased at 
auction and the FCC had moved to reclain the bandspace.  Nextwave went 
to litigation to stop the government seizure.

It all ended on Monday January 27th.  At that time Justice Anthony  
Scalia, writing for the court, said the Commission could not justify 
intervening in the bankruptcy proceeding to take the licenses by 
claiming a regulatory motive. 

The spectrum has been hanging limbo during the protracted court battle.  
(Published reports)

**

ENFORCEMENT:  COORDINATED REPEATER VS. COORDINATED REPEATER

Two coordinated repeaters in the North-East have squared off over the 
use of a repeater pair.  And if the FCC does decide to try to solve  
this one, it may need the wisdom of a King Solomon.  Bill Pasternak, 
WA6ITF, has more:

--

Connecticuts Northville Amateur Radio Association's NA1RA machine is 
coordinated by the Connecticut Spectrum Management Association.   This 
is a relatively new repeater coordinator that was formed a few years 
after the failure of the Tri-State Amateur Repeater Council.  Tri-State 
was the group used to serve parts of New York, New Jersey and 
Connecticut.  

And now Northville has complained to the FCC about interference to its 
NA1RA operation coming from the W2KGY repeater.  This is a system 
operated by the West Point Military Academy Amateur Radio Club at West 
Point New York.  But unlike most cases where one repeater is coordinated 
and the other is not, W2KGY holds coordination from UNYREPCO -- The 
Upper New York Repeater Council.  

When one repeater is coordinated and the other is not, the answer is 
simple.  The uncoordinated repeater bears the majority of responsibility 
to clear up interference to the coordinated machine.  But in this case, 
both machines appear to hold legitimate coordination but from different 
adjoining coordinators.  In other words, at least at this writing, both 
repeaters appear to be on the same channel pair becasuse a coordinator 
says thats where each  respective systems should be.

So far, the only action by the FCC has been to send out an information 
gathering letter to UNYREPCO.  UNYREPCO has responded and a copy of that 
response has been forwarded to the Northville group for its reply along 
with a recommendation that
a response from the Connecticut Spectrum Management Association be 
included as well.  Only after digesting that response is the FCC likely 
to render a decision as to whether or not it will get involved.  Well 
let you know what the agency decides.

For the Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Bill Pasternak, WA6ITF.

--

In the past, on verification that all systems in a dispute held bona 
fide assignments from a recognized frequency coordinator the FCC has 
opted to stand aside and permit the coordinators solve any disagreements 
that might arise.  (FCC)

**

ENFORCEMENT:  HAM WHO OPERATED UNLICENSED STATION TURNS IN LICENSE

A Berkely Michigan ham has submitted his license to the FCC for 
cancellation after being accused of operating an unlicensed transmitter 
in the FM broadcast band.  According to the W5YI Report, Thomas 
Brothers, may not reapply for another Amateur Radio license for the next 
five years.  He was also fined $10,000 after direction finding and an 
inspection of his premisis found the transmitter on 88.3 Mhz in the F-M 
band.  (W5YI)

**

ENFORCEMENT:  OPERATION BEFORE LICENSE ARIVES BRINGS SET ASIDE

The FCC has set aside of General Class license of John Gregory, W3ATE, 
of Lake Placid, Florida.  This, for operation outside of his Technician 
class license privileges prior to recieving his General class license 
grant.

According to the regulatory agency at various times in 2002 Gregory 
apparently checked into a net on 14.300 MHz while still licensed as a 
Technician.  He was issued Warning Notices regarding this matter on May 
6 and June 6, 2002 but letters were returned to the FCC marked 
unclaimed.  

Now the FCC has issued another notice to Gregory that gave him 20 days 
to explain his actions.  If he fails to respond the FCC says that his 
General class application will be dismissed.  (FCC)

**

ENFORCEMENT:  UNLICENSED OUT OF BAND WARNING

Ten radio operators, eight of whom are hams have been sent warning 
notices by the FCC.  This, regarding their alleged operation on 26.555 
and 25.540 MHz.  

In each case the warning letter recipient was told that operation of 
radio transmitting equipment on these frequencies without a license is a 
violation of Section 301 of the Communications Act .  As such he could 
be subject to a fine or imprisonment if he continues on the air.  Fines 
normally range from $7,500 to $10,000.  (FCC)

**

NAMES IN THE NEWS:  AA6JR NAMED TO HEAD ARRL PR COMMITTEE

On a much more positive note, word that Jeff Reinhardt, AA6JR, of Agoura 
Hills, California, has appointed by ARRL President Jim Haynie, W5JBP, as 
2003 chairman of the League's Public Relations Committee.  Reinhardt, 
who was recently elercted Mayor of Agoura Hills is also Public 
Information Coordinator for the ARRL Santa Barbara Section and Public 
Information Officer for his local club.  (ARRL)

**

PROMOTING THE HOBBY:  "AMATEUR RADIO TODAY" - THE VIDEO - FOLLOW-UP

This word to those who are wanting to obtain a copy of the new ARRL ham 
video "Amateur Radio Today."  Please remember that the American Radio 
Relay League holds the legal and intellectual copyright to this program 
and that it is the one and only official, legitimate source for the new 
show.  No other individual or group has been authorized to distribute it 
-- be it free or for a charge.  

The ARRL plans to make Ham Radio Today available on both Video C-D and 
VHS tape.  To get on the list for a copy please take your web browser to 
www.arrl.org/catalog and follow the instructions to order item number 
8861.  (ARRL)

**

HAM RADIO TRAINING:  OMARC IN NEW JERSEY

OMARC - New Jersey's Oceam Monmouth Amateur Radio Club is sponsoring ham 
radio training classes again this winter.  The sessions begin Tuesday, 
March 18th 2003 and run through the end of May. Classes will be held at 
the InfoAge Center OMARC Diana site, building 9116 on Marconi Road, in 
Wall Township.  All classes will be begin promptly at 6:30p.m., each 
Tuesday night. For information on the clsees, ham radio testing and 
directions visit www.qsl.net/n2mo  (OMARC)

**

CONVENTIONS AND HAMFESTS:  NAB HAM RADIO RECEPTION IN LAS VEGAS

The annual National Association of Broadcasters Ham Radio Reception will 
take place during the NAB Convention on Wednesday April 9.  The 
reception venue is  the Hilton Hotel adjacent to the Las Vegas 
Convention Center.  

Again this year the reception is co-hosted by CQ Magazine and Kenwood 
Communications and runs from 6 to 8 PM.  This gives anyone planning to 
attend ample time to see one another yet ending early enough so that 
people can enjoy a night on the town or grab a flight nome.

More information on the Ham Radio Reception will be posted at www.cq-
amateur-radio.com. Information about the convention and on-line 
registration is at www.nab.org/conventions  (CQ)

**

THE WEB:  NEW BUG SLOWS DOWN THE WWW

If you had problems surfing the World-Wide-Web last weekend you were not 
alone.   A fast-spreading worm-like infection called Slamm SQL is being 
blamed for dramatically slowing down Internet traffic, interfering with 
Web browsing and delaying e-mail delivery.  Bruce Tennant, K6PZW takes a 
look at what happened:

--
Agencies assigned to monitor the Internet say that the latest bug hit on 
Saturday, January 25th.  That's when at least 40,000 infected computers 
were found to be transmitting a flood of data that was disrupting 
hundreds of thousands of other servers worldwide. 

The virus-like attack, which began about 12:30 a.m. EST, sought out 
vulnerable computers on the Internet to infect using a known flaw in 
popular database software from Microsoft Corp.  According to the 
Computer Associates Virus Information Center, the SQL Slamme worm 
exploits a buffer overrun security vulnerability in Microsoft SQL Server 
2000 and the Microsoft Desktop Engine 2000.  The worm scans randomly 
generated I P addresses for vulnerable systems and sends out numerous 
packets, which may effectively cause a denial of service attack on the 
infected network.  That translates into a lot of useless data clogging 
the Internet and causing it to bog down.

The only good thing about this worm -- if there can be anything good -- 
is that it does not go after home computers unless they happen to be 
running Microsoft SQL Server as an operating system.  Also, this worm 
does not infect files and does not send any e-mail out. It exists only 
in the memory of the successfully exploited system. The downside is that 
there is no file based anti-virus signature available to detect this 
worm.

Monitors reported significant slowdowns, although recovery efforts 
appeared to be succeeding.  A spokesman for Microsoft Corp. confirmed 
that Internet congestion was interfering with administrators trying to 
download the crucial software patch that Microsoft made available to 
protect vulnerable computers.  The spokesman said that the congestion 
was also preventing consumers from contacting Microsoft over the 
Internet to unlock the anti-piracy features of its latest products.

According to a statement from Bill Murray of the Federal Bureau of 
Investigations National Infrastructure Protection Center, the overall 
Internet began to normalize by early Monday the 27th.  And while 
everyone from on-line publishers in the United States to a telephone 
company in Finland seemed to be hit by the latest worm the world's 
largest Internet provider, America Online, reported no problems with any 
aspect of its service.

For the Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Bruce Ternnant, K6PZW, in Los 
Angeles.

--

A check of our own statistics shows that Amateur Radio Newsline was not 
badly affected by the worm.  Comparing downloads to the previous weekend 
we saw no significant change.  (ARNewsline™ from published reports)

**

EMERGING TECHNOLOGY:  PORTABLE PEOPLE METERS ARE WATCHING YOU

Media ratings company Arbitron has released some initial ratings results 
for its new television, cable and radio audience measurement system that 
it calls the Portable People Meter or P-P-M.  The Portable People Meter 
has been undergoing U.S. market trials within  the Philadelphia market 
since December of 2000.  The PPM is pager-sized and is carried by 
consumers.  It automatically detects inaudible codes that TV and radio 
broadcasters as well as cable networks embed in  the audio portion of 
their programming using encoders provided by Arbitron.  (TV Technology)

**

HAM RADIO IN SPACE:  AMSAT PRESENTS THE FUTURE

Slow Scan TV and a possible plasma cloud experiment were among possible 
future projects discussed at a recent meeting of the Amateur Radio on 
the International Space Station or ARISS International Team. According 
to the ARRL Letter, the group included representatives from ARISS 
partner countries, their national ham radio societies and several 
national AMSAT groups.

Among other experiments discussed was a slow-scan television system 
camera that  could be launched later this year.  It would allow school 
groups to see as well as hear the astronauts during ARISS contacts. 

Also discussed were a number of other future possibilities.  These 
ranged from crossband operation from VHF to 10 meters using PSK-31 and a 
full-duplex voice repeater to comparing the performance of various solar 
arrays and even conducting a plasma cloud experiment. No details were 
available on what that might entail but plans are well under way to 
activate a 70-centimeter station from the I-S-S. (ARRL, ARISS, CQ)

**

RADIO IN SPACE:  EDUCATOR ASTRONAUT RECRUITMENT PROGRAM

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration says that recruitment 
is currently underway for the Educator Astronaut Program.  Applicants 
must be teachers who are U.S. citizens, certified to instruct 
Kindergarden through 12th grade with a minimum three years in-classroom 
teaching experience within the past four years.  They must also hold at 
least a bachelor's degree in physical science, biological science, 
engineering or mathematics, or an education degree with a concentration 
in physical science, biological science, engineering or mathematics.  An 
Amateur Radio license is not required. Applications are being accepted 
through April 30th.   More information and the application package is 
available at http://edspace.nasa.gov.  (NASA)

**

INTERNATIONAL - ISRAEL:  TREES REMEMBER 911

Hagal International reports that the Israel Amateur Radio Club will 
plant one hundred and nineteen trees in that nations Silent Keys' 
Forest.  These trees are in memory of the ham radio operators who lost 
their lives in the September 11th 2001 terrorist atacks in New York 
City, Washington D-C and Pennsylvania.  

Hagal International is the English language on-line edition of the 
Israel Amateur Radio Club's monthly magazine.  It can be found in 
cyberspace at www.iarc.org. The planting of trees in rememberence  is a 
tradition among people of the Jewish faith.  (Hagal International)

**

INTERNATIONAL - UK:  CLUB GETS LOTTERY FUNDING

Now how's this for getting money for club projects. The Telford and 
District Amateur Radio Society in Great Britain has received 
confirmation of receiving U-K National Lottery funding to the tune of 
2,908 Pounds.  This, for its Foundation and Intermediate class Amateur 
Radio licence training programes.  

The monies will cover the purchase of training materials, room rental 
expensse, equipment, tools and everything else needed to do the job 
properly.  Currently, 16 beginners are undergoing training at the home 
of G3JKX on weekends. The club is also a certified examination center 
and offers all levels of Morse and written testing.  (RSGB)

**

DX

In D-X, word that Marti Laine, OH2BH, and several of his friends will be 
active from Johnston Island through February 5th.  Laine made the 
destination of his latest D-X adventure public on a stop over for lunch 
with some friends in Los Angeles on Friday January 24th.  The multi-
member team will operate the High Frequency bands plus 6 meters on SSB, 
CW and RTTY.  Q-S-L direct to OH2BH. (Various)

And the second DX'pedition to Ducie Island is scheduled to begin on 
March 8th and last about a week. According to the C-Q website, the new 
operation will include nine operators from five countries, with stations 
on all bands from 160 through6 meters plus the AO-40 satellite, on CW, 
SSB and RTTY. The callsign will be VP6DI2.  Yes, that's a number two at 
the end, not a zee or zed.  Very apropos don't you think.  (CQ)

Lastly, word that IV3NCC is active portable A 4 from Oman for a the next 
several months.  Look for him on the usual frequencies on the High 
Frequency bands and QSL as directed on the air.  (GB2RS)

**

THAT FINAL ITEM: BE PREPARED

And finally this week, as the world grows more tense with each passing 
day, it is important for ham radio communicators to be prepared for any 
eventuality.  Lloyd Colston, KC5FM, is with the Mayes County Emergency 
Management in Pryor Oklahoma.  He says that the first step is to form a 
Community Emergency Response Team:

--
Audio only report.  Hear it at http://www.arnewsline.org
--

Lloyd will be back next week with some ideas on how you can personally 
be ready to cope with any emergency or disaster in your area.  (KC5FM)

**

NEWSCAST CLOSE

With thanks to Alan Labs, Amateur News Weekly, AMSAT, the ARRL, the CGC 
Communicator, CQ Magazine, the FCC, the Ohio Penn DX Bulletin, Radio 
Netherlands, Rain, the RSGB and Australia's Q-News, that's all from the 
Amateur Radio Newsline(tm).  Our e-mail address is newsline 
@arnewsline.org.  More information is available at Amateur Radio 
Newsline's(tm) only official website located at www.arnewsline.org.  You 
can also write to us or support us at Amateur Radio Newsline(tm), P.O. 
Box 660937, Arcadia, California 91066. 