[Ham-News] Amateur Radio Newsline Report 1359 - August 29 2003

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Amateur Radio Newsline™ Report 1359  - August 29 2003

The following is a Q-S-T.  The no-code steamroller continues around the 
world and a popular ham radio satellite develops problems on orbit.  The 
details on this and more Amateur Radio Newsline report number 1359 
coming your way right now.


(Billboard Cart Here) 
 
**

RESTRUCTURING:  NO-CODE CONTINUES TO ROLL WORLD-WIDE

The no-code revolution continues to explode world wide as nation after 
nation tells its hams that they will no longer need to know the ancient 
cipher system.  Jeramy Boot, G4NJH, reports from Nottingam in the U-K

--

More countries have announced that they no longer require a Morse code 
test for operation on the HF bands. In Norway, the three former licence 
classes, with LA, LB and LC callsigns, were combined into one on the 
19th of August. In future, LA and LB callsigns will be heard on the 
bands, while those with LC callsigns will be 
allocated new LA calls.

In the Netherlands, the Dutch licensing authority announced on the 19th 
of August that from the 1st of September a Morse code test would no 
longer be necessary for operation on frequencies below 30MHz. The Dutch 
licence classes A and C, which correspond to CEPT Classes 1 and 2 
respectively, will have the same privileges, although the two licence 
classes are to keep their separate callsign assignments for the time 
being. There are no changes to the Dutch Class N licence, which allows 
operation on 2 metres and 70 centimetres only

Meanwhile in Austria, the qrz.com website reports that the President of 
the Austrian national amateur radio society has said that the 
telecommunications authority will grant HF access for all CEPT Class 2 
licences provisionally, starting "some time in September 2003", pending 
formal changes to the Austrian amateur radio rules.

qrz.com also reported that in New Zealand the Ministry there intends to 
remove Morse operating competency from the syllabus for the general 
licence class. The change will be implemented as part of the next round 
of updates to the New Zealand Radiocommunications Regulations, which is 
expected to occur later this year. Until then, holders of the ZL 
'Limited' licence class are still not entitled to operate on bands below 
30MHz.

Jeramy Boot, G4NJH.

--

And this late word from down-under.  Q-News reports that the Australian 
Communications Authority has issued its discussion paper entitled "A 
Review of The Amateur Service Regulations".  This as a probable 
forerunner of eliminating the Morse requirement there.  The deadline for 
Australian hams and other interested parties to submit comments is 
October 31st.  (GB2RS)

**

RESTRUCTURING:  NCI ASKS THE FCC FOR NO-CODE

Meantime, back here in the USA word that No Code International has filed 
a Petition for Rulemaking aimed at abolishing Morse testing.  The N-C-I 
petiton says in part that with the International Telecommunications 
Union' Radio Regulations have been modified effective July 5th, and that 
there is really is no reason for the FCC to continue to require the 
element. 

N-C-I notes that the changes in international radio regulations to 
eliminate Morse testing had the full support of the U.S. administration 
at W-R-C Zero 3. The full text of the petition can be found as a pdf 
file at www.nocode.org/articles/NCI_Pet_RM.pdf  (NCI)

**

RESTRUCTURING:  FCC TO ISUE NO-CODE PUBLIC NOTICE

And this just in.  As we go to air Newsline has learned that FCC 
officials expect a Public Notice to come out almost momentarily 
combining six petitions to drop the CW testing requirement in the wake 
of actions taken at the World Radio Conference.  The Electronic Comment 
Filing System has all of them by Rule Making Number.  They are R-M's 
10781 through 10787.  

The public notice will start the formal comment process.  There will be 
30 days for comments, another 15 days for reply comments.  

An FCC official said that since this takes the proceeding through mid-
October, no action is expected until next year, and possibly not until 
early 2005.  This, based on the general time a rulemaking takes.  
(ARNewsline(tm))

**

RESCUE RADIO:  ARES AT THE MONTANA WILDFIRES

Amateur Radio is there as firefighters attempt to get the upper hand on 
a raging wildfire near Helena Montana.  According to Montana Section 
Manager Doug Dunn, K7YD, ARES is fully activated for the Lincoln fire 
and providing communications between several cities.  

Many of the messages are being generated by Shawn Horne, KD7OQU.  The 
Helena Independent Record says that Horne is operating from a 24-foot 
trailer parked at Lincoln's Blackfoot Valley Bible Church.  The church 
is also serving as the town's evacuation center while Horne passes 
communications with other ARES operators in Helena, Missoula and Butte 
including K7WES and K7HLN.  (Helena Independent Record and Internet 
posts)

**

HAM RADIO IN SPACE: UO-14 DOWN AND MAY BE OUT

The UOSAT OSCAR 14  ham satellite has mysteriously left the air. Some 
satellie experts say that it's recoverable while others say that it  may 
be gone for keeps.

According to AMSAT, the bird failed to appear over the western Americas 
on August 5th UTC time.  A controller in the UK was able to bering it 
back up but mid-month it failed again.  So far all efforts to revive it 
have failed.

UO-14 is one of the so called Easy-Sats. A ham radio bird designed with 
the F-M operator in mind.  It operated Mode J with an uplink frequency 
on 145.975 MHz and 435.070 MHz as its downlink to users on mother Earth.

Chris Jackson, G7UPN, is one of the U-O-Sat 14 control stations in the 
United Kingdom.  He thinks the problem may be a battery problem on board 
the ageing spacecraft.  This causes the spacecraft to shut down during a 
loss of sunlight hitting its 14 year old solar array.  (AMSAT)

**

BREAKING NEWS:  TWO HAMS HURT IN BAGDHAD BOMBING 

Dateline the Middle East where two ham radio operators were injured as a 
result of ongoing hostilities.  This, in a June 19th terrorist attack on 
U-N neadquarters in Baghdad Iraq.  

The GB2RS News Service reports that Ghis Penny, ON5NT; Michael Dirksen, 
PA5M, and Robert Kasca, S53R, were at the United Nations building when 
the building was bombed.  Both Penny and Dirksen were airlifted abroad 
for medical attention.  Fortunately Kasca was unhurt in the attack.  

Penny is now back home in Belgium recouperating.  He says that his 
wounds are healing well and that he expects to go on to Dubai in about 
three weeks.

The RSGB News Services notes that many radio amateurs are using their 
communications skills for humanitarian relief work.  This, for the 
United Nations, the Red Cross and other non-governmental organisations 
in Iraq and other of the worlds danger zones.  (GB2RS)

**


ENFORCEMENT:  FCC DESIGNATES HEARING ON FORMER AMATEUR'S GMRS 
APPLICATION

The FCC has designated the General Mobile Radio Service application 
of Richard Alan Burton, the former WB6JAC, of Harbor City, California, 
for hearing.  Amateur Radio Newsline's Bruce Tennant, K6PZW, has the 
rest of the story:

--

The ARRL Letter says it this way.  For more than two decades, Richard 
Allan Burton has had a troubled relationship with the FCC.  The agency 
revoked his General-class Amateur Radio station license and suspended 
his operator license in 1981 for "willful and 
repeated violation" of the Amateur Service rules.  Since then, the FCC 
and the Los Angeles area ham community have resisted his every effort to 
return to Amateur radio.  

Now, Burton has applied for a license to operate in the General Mobile 
Radio Service.  The FCC says that everyone needs to have a say in the 
matter and has designated his application for a hearing based on his 
past record.  

In addition to his 1981 Amateur service license revocation, the Hearing 
Designation Order cites his four separate convictions for alleged 
unlicensed operation of radio transmitting equipment.  As a result of 
his most recent conviction in 2000, Burton spent three months in a 
federal prison in Texas, received a year's probation and was ordered to 
undergo psychological counseling.

In 1996, Burton was briefly successful in becoming relicensed when the 
FCC issued him the call sign KF6GKS after he'd passed the Technician 
examination. The FCC promptly set aside the grant as soon as it realized 
the error.

Burton recently got a Warning Notice from FCC Special Counsel Riley 
Hollingsworth citing monitoring information alleging that the formr ham 
had operated on 2 meters on numerous occasions in the Los Angeles area 
since January.  Last year, the FCC warned a Los Angeles-area repeater 
owner not to allow Burton to use his repeater.  

The FCC believes Burton's history of repeated violations of the 
Communications Act raises a substantial and material question as to 
whether or not Richard Burton possesses the requisite character 
qualifications to be a Commission licensee.  Thats what this haring is 
al about. 

For the Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Bruce Tennant, K6PZW, reporting.


--

Burton filed his GMRS application in June 2002.  The hearing will take 
into account Burton's prior record as well as the more recent 
allegations.  Based on the evidence presented, the FCC will determine 
whether or not to grant his GMRS license request.  (ARRL, FCC)

**

RADIO LAW:  GPS DATA IN THE GMRS BAND PROPOSED

Garmin International has asked the FCC to allow GPS data to be 
transmitted in the G-M-R-S band.  Accordng to the C-G-C Communicator, 
Garmin argues that allowing G-M-R-S users to transmit their locations 
will afford the public increased safety and peace of mind.  Comments are 
being sought on this proposal.  Its on line at 
http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DA-03-2666A1.doc  
(CGC)

**

RADIO LAW:  ANOTHER RF APPROACH TO ALERT MOTORISTS OF LOCAL EMERGENCIES 
SIDELINED

The FCC's Office of Engineering and Technology took only three days to 
dismiss the latest attempt to gain experimental access to broadcast 
frequencies for alerting motorists of nearby emergency situations.  This 
time, TV Channel 7's spectrum was in the cross hairs.  The proponent was 
"EVA," short for Emergency Vehicle Alert.  While you won't find this 
case mentioned in the FCC's Daily Digest but the full scoop is available 
in cyberspace at www.earthsignals.com/add_CGC/EVA.htm  (CGC)

**

ENFORCEMENT:  GEOGRAPHIC COORDINATE ERROR COSTS BROADCASTER $3,000

An update to an earlier story.  The FCC has discovered that the actual 
location of the WUFF AM and FM tower in Georgia differed from the 
authorized coordinates by over 1/3 mile.  The tower owner was initially 
fined $4,000 for the oversight, but the forfeiture has been reduced to 
$3,000 on reconsideration, based on the stations' otherwise excellent 
record of rule compliance.  (CGC)


**

RADIO LAW:  FCC TELLS CABLE SUPPLIER TO ROLL BACK RATES

The FCC has ordered bankrupt cable giant Adelphia Communications to roll 
back cable rates and refund about five million dollars to more than 250-
thousand Los Angeles customers.  It happened on July 30th when the FCC 
denied Adelphia's request to delay a city ordinance ordering the cable 
company to cut rates and refund customers who had been overcharged.  A 
spokesman for Adelphia says the company is disappointed that the FCC 
denied its request.  It may appeal.  (Published reports)

**

NAMES IN THE NEWS: W4VM NEW FREQUENCY COORDINATOR FOR ALABAMA

Some names in the news.  First is Ron Shaffer, W4VM, who has been 
elected as the new Frequency Coordinator for the Alabama Repeater 
Council.  

Shaffer is President of the North Alabama Repeater Association, holds an 
Extra Class ticket, a bachelors degree in Electrical Engineering and a 
Masters degree specializing in Radar Engineering. He works for Dynetics 
on a variety of defense contracts focusing on Radar and Communications 
simulation analysis.   The Alabama Repeater Council coordinates 
repeaters on all bands in Alabama.  (Via E-Mail)
   
**

NAMES IN THE NEWS:  VE7IO RE-ELECTED AS BC - SM

And Fred Orsetti, VE7IO has been re-elected British Columbia Section 
Manager for Radio Amateurs of Canada.  Orsetti ran unopposed eliminating 
the need for a balloted election.  He begins his next term on November 
1st.  (RAC)

**

REMEMBERED: JANE BARBE, THE "QUEEN" OF TELEPHONE RECORDINGS

A familiar voice and unfamiliar name passed into telephone history 
earlier this month.  This, with the death of Jane Barbe at the age of 
74.  

Dubbed the "AT&T Lady" during her 40-year career, Barbe's recordings 
included such lines as "I'm sorry,the number you have dialed is no 
longer in service," "At the tone, the time will be..." and many others. 

Jane  Barbe was a telecommunications industry legend much sought after 
for autographs at industry trade shows.  (Los Angeles Times via CGC 
Communicator)

**


HAM RADIO IN SPACE:  ISS PACKET BACK BUT GONE AGAIN

The long silent packet station on board the International Space Station 
has finally been brought back on by the crew, but it has gone silent 
again.  An extra few words in a message may be the cause.

An e-mail sent to the ISS instructed the crew to reconnect the 2 meter 
equipment and configuring the system for packet operation on the 
standard packet channel.  Obviously this happened with WA1KAT report 
hearing the first packers at 1145 UTC on Sunday the 24th.  W2KQ then 
copied I-S-S Packets in New Jersey on 145.80 MHz a few hours later.  

But at 21:22 UTC Dave Larsen, N6CO, says that it appeared the packet 
system was shut off half way through the pass. Bob Bruninga, WB4APR, 
checked the ISS APRS downlink webpage at 12:30 UTC Monday morning the 
25th.  He says 16 stations were heard by ISS ground stations but, by the 
time he checked most of them were 15 to 16 hours old.  The last packet 
was at 2118 UTC on the 24th.

Now comes the interesting part.  A member of the NASA team obtained a 
copy of the Radiogram that was uplinked to the crew and forwarded this 
radiogram to ARISS.  The last line in the radiogram, after a report of 
the results to Mission Control Center reads:  "NOTE: system shutdown 
will be performed on MCC  GO"

It is not clear how or why this line was added.  It was not part of the 
procedures ARISS  provided.  They believe it to mean that the packet 
system was to be turned off minutes after it is reconfigured. The ARISS 
folks are now trying to ascertain who added the line and why.  (AMSAT 
BB)

**

SPACE AND SCIENCE:  CHINA ON HUMAN LAUNCH BRINK

Meantime China is on schedule to launch its first manned spacecraft in 
October.  According to Space Daily, when this happens China will become 
only the third nation to launch a human into orbit.  Up untl now only 
the United States and Russia have orbited manned spacecraft, carrying 
astronauts and cosmonauts frm a number of nations.  (ANS)

** 


INTERNATIONAL - UK:  YET ANOTHER REION 1 TROPO RECORD

The IARU Region One 70-centimetre tropo distance record has been broken 
again.  This, some two weeks after the latest one was set.

As recently reported, Reg Woolley, G8VHI, claimed a new record after he 
worked EB8AYA at a distance of 2966 kilometres.  Now, Ian McCabe, G0FYD, 
reports that on Friday the 8th of August he worked EA8BPX on 70-
centimetres at a distance of 3021 kilometres. 

Gordon Curry, GI6ATZ, says that GI4SNA also worked EA8BPX but this 
distance was just over a kilometre less.  Unless there were any QSOs 
between GM and EA8 during the opening, the contact between G0FYD and 
EA8BPX would appear to be a new Region 1 record.   (GB2RS)

**

INTERNATIONAL - IRELAND:  TROPHY CLAIM DISALLOWED

Meantime the Irish Radio Transmitting Society has turned away a claim on 
a  famous international award.  Again to Nottingham England and Jeramy 
Boot, G4NJH:

--

The Irish Radio Transmitters' Society's Brendan Trophies, named after 
Brendan the Navigator, will be awarded to the first two stations to 
establish two-way communications across the Atlantic on the two-metre 
band.  An application was made for the trophies in June 2002 by 
Alexander Dutkewych, N2PIG, and Debra Dutkewych, VA3PIG. The applicants 
indicated that the claimed contact had taken place on the 19th of March 
2002. Alex's station was located in Newfoundland, Canada, and Debra's 
was in County Kerry, Ireland. Both were running linear amplifiers to 
nine-element Yagi antennas and the mode used was FSK441 - WSJT.

The Awards Panel, having now fully considered the matter, has decided 
that the application did not comply with the provisions of its Rule 6, 
even as exceptionally applied in this case, and accordingly it could not 
be accepted as a valid application. Even if this were not the case, the 
level of proof provided for the contact was insufficient. The trophies 
therefore remain to be awarded.

Members of the IRTS Awards Panel are aware of a number of attempts by 
other experimenters and they say, "Many of these efforts are ongoing and 
we feel sure that before long the Brendan Trophies will find a home." 
The full rules for the Brendan Trophies are available on the Internet.

--

No word yet if N2PIG and VA3PIG plan any appeal of the Awards Panel 
decision.  (RSGB News)


**

RADIO LAW:  VK MAY BAN SATELLITE JAMMERS

Still with international news word that the Australian Communications 
Authority is looking at banning a device that could play havoc with 
space to ground communications.  Q-News Graham Kemp, VK4BB, has more:

--

The Australian Communications Authority is to investigate the need for a 
ban on radionavigation satellite service jammers,  including global 
positioning system jammers.  The investigation is being conducted 
because of the potential for  these jammers to interfere with a wide 
range of services including  aviation, transport and communications.

--

A draft of the proposed new law can be read on the Australian 
Communications Authority website. Its in cyberspace  at www.aca.gov.au 
and clicking on the words "Whats New."  (Q-News)

**

DX

In D-X, word that PA3AWW will be active as 9G1AA from Ghana from the 
30th of August to 12th of September.  Look for him on the usual 
frequencies.  (GB2RS)

Also, ZC4CW, will be active from the British Eastern Sovereign Base on 
Cyprus for the next few years.  If you work any of these stations, QSL 
as directed on the air.  (GB2RS)

**

RADIO ORIENTEERING:  RUN FOR IT

And finally, who says all hams are couch potatoes?  Some of them have no 
trouble running a 7 kilometer course through the forest and finding five 
radio transmitters while they're doing it.  With more, here's Newsline's 
Joe Moell K0OV, who is also ARRL's ARDF Coordinator.

--
The Third Annual ARDF Championships are now complete, with the highest 
participation ever in this country. ARDF stands for Amateur Radio 
Direction Finding, also called foxhunting, foxtailing and radio-
orienteering, all on foot under international rules. This year's 
National Championships were combined with the Second Championships for 
IARU Region 2, and it all took place near Cincinnati under the 
sponsorship of the OH-KY-IN Amateur Radio Society.

Anyone at any foxhunting skill level was welcome to compete, so there 
was a wide range -- ages 11 to 70, representing 14 states plus Hungary. 
Some were past medal winners, while a few had never completed a full 
course before. One had a kidney transplant in the past year, another has 
had heart bypass surgery.

The youngest gold medallist was Emily DeYoung, daughter of Brian DeYoung 
K4BRI. Another teenage gold medal winner was Daniel Nagy, son of Gyuri 
Nagy KF6YKN.  Gyuri himself also took gold with the overall best time of 
the event. 

Newsline's Young Ham of the Year Jay Thompson W6JAY picked up gold on 
the 80-meter hunt and silver on two meters. Other gold medalists in 
alphabetical order were Martha Carr KG4WVM, Bob Cooley KF6VSE, Jennifer 
Harker W5JEN, Jay Hennigan WB6RDV, Nadia Mayeva, Charles Scharlau NZ0I 
and Sam Smith N4MAP.

California was the best-represented state at these championships. The 
nine hunters from the Recall State took home 18 medals, almost one-
fourth of the total medals awarded. The four radio-orienteers from 
Georgia were second among the states, taking back ten medals.

You can see photos and download the complete results for all competitors 
at the official Web site of the 2003 Championships, www.ardfusa.com -- 
that's a-r-d-f-u-s-a dot com. And for more photos, general information 
on the sport of ARDF, plus news about upcoming events, go to www dot 
homingin dot com -- that homingin -- one word -- homingin.com