No subject

when tropical cyclone Heta ripped through the tiny island republic of 
Niue two weeks ago.  The storm left the tropical paradise with no 
regular means of communicating with the outside world and summoning much 
needed relief aid.   Enter ham radio.

According to news reports, a radio operator on the island put out a a 
call for help which was answered by Steve McCully, W7TZ/ZF2CQ, in the 
California community of Oak Hills.  In fact, it was McCully who phoned 
the New Zealand Consul General in Los Angeles and provided that 
government with its first notification that Niue had been ravaged by 186 
mile per hour winds.  

More is on-line at http://www.vvdailypress.com/cgi-
bin/newspro/viewnews.cgi?newsid1073499379,43275, 
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/SYD184348.htm and 
http://www.lonelyplanet.com/destinations/pacific/niue/  (CGC, WA6MCL)

**

RADIO ALLOCATIONS:  RULES FOR 5.9 GHZ INTELLIGENT TRANSPORTATION ADOPTED

The FCC has adopted service and licensing rules for the 5.9 GHz Band for 
Dedicated Short Range Communications or D-S-R-C.  This, from 5.850 to 
5.925 Ghz in the Intelligent Transportation Systems Radio Service. 

According to the Commission,  DSRC systems will provide a limited-range,  
wireless link to transfer information between vehicles traveling at high 
speeds and roadside units or other vehicles.  Some examples include 
intersection collision avoidance, work zone warnings, road condition 
warnings, electronic toll collections, and electronic payment for gas, 
fast food, or parking.

More is on the web at  
http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DOC-242309A1.doc  
(CGC)

**

ENFORCEMENT:  10 METERS NON-HAMS IN THE SOUTH PACIFIC

Three new non ham radio intruders to the 10 meter band have been 
monitored down-under by Wayne Featherstone VK4ZRT.  All appear to be 
Asian in location and all operate the A3E mode at around 0700 U-T-C.  
Listen for them on 28.215,  28.225 decimal 25 and on 28.285 Mhz.  (Q-
News)

**

ENFORCEMENT:  $5.4 MILLION DOLLAR FAX FINE

Some good news for anyone who is sick and tired of getting unsolicited 
junk faxes.  Federal regulators approved a record $5.4 million fine 
against a company for faxing unsolicited 
advertisements to consumers. 

The five-member commission unanimously approved the penalty on 
Wednesday, December 31st  but did not announce its decision until 
Monday, January 5th.   The FCC said Fax.com accrued the penalty because 
it violated the rules 489 separate times incurring an $11,000 fine for 
each instance.  In affirming the fine the commission rejected arguments 
from Fax.com that the ban on unsolicited faxes was unconstitutional and 
that the fine was excessive. 

The Federal Communications Commission said the fine given to Fax.com, 
Inc. was the largest ever for violating do-not-fax rules that went into 
effect in 1992. Fax.com sends faxes on behalf of clients that pay a fee.  
Its website claims that the company offers the industry's largest fax 
number database of more than 30 million numbers.  Company officials did 
not immediately respond to a requests from the media for comment.  (FCC)

**

COMMUNICATIONS LAW:  BLAME THE COMPUTER

Prosecutors looking to throw the book at accused computer hackers have 
come across a legal defense.  In four words, "the computer did it."  And 
in this era of hijacked PCs and laptops, jury's are believing it.

In one case in the U-K, nineteen year old Aaron Caffrey was recently 
acquitted on charges of hacking into the computer system of the Houston 
Pilots back in 2001.  Houston Pilots is an independent contractor for 
the Port of Houston.   

Caffrey had been charged with breaking into the system and crippling the 
server that provides scheduling information for all ships entering the 
world's sixth-largest port.  Although authorities traced the hack back 
to Caffrey's computer, he claimed that someone must have remotely 
planted a "trojan program" onto it.  That it was the trojan and not him 
that did the hacking.  (Published reports)

**

HAMFESTS AND CONVENTIONS:  THE 44TH MIAMI TROPICAL HAMBOREE

Turning to the hamfest and convention scene, the 2004 season really 
kicks off the weekend of February 7th and 8th.  This, when the doors of 
the Miami Dade County Fair Expo Center in Florida swing open to welcome 
the 44th Tropical Hamboree.

This years Hamboree has a long list of great programs with speakers that 
include such notables as ARRL President Haynie W5JPB, FCC chief rules 
enforcer Riley Hollingsworth K4ZDH, IARU President Larry Price W4RA, CQ 
Communications' Rich Moseson W2VU and Radio School's Gordon West WB6NOA.  
They will take part in a free form round-table discussion of the future 
of the Amateur Radio service.  Moseson and West will later join 
Florida's own Sherri Bower, W4STB, in the conventions Public Relations 
Forum.  

Attendees will also get to hear the latest DXpedition Adventures 
presented by South Florida DX Association and learn about  Amateur Radio 
at the National Hurricane Center.  There will be lots of vendors and all 
the other niceties that make the Miami Tropical Hamboree a must attend 
on the convention circuit.  The event is sponsored by the Dade Radio 
Club of Miami, Inc.  More information is on-line at www.hamboree.org  
(Tropical Hamboree)

**

HAMFESTS AND CONVENTIONS:  CHARLOTTE COUNTY HAMFEST

Meantime, March 6th is the date for the Charlotte County Hamfest in 
Englewood, Minnesota.  Sponsored by the Englewood Amateur Radio Society, 
the event will feature swap tables, tailgating and overnight hookups for 
those bringing a recreational vehicle.  The venue is the Charlotte 
County Fairgrounds and you can find out more in cyberspace at 
www.earsradioclub.org  (Worldradio)

**

HAM RADIO IN SPACE:  AIR LEAK ON ISS LEADS TO CONTACT CANCELLATION

A small air leak on board the International Space Station forced 
cancellation of the Monday, January 12th scheduled contact with the 
Armstrong Middle School in Flint, Michigan. The I-S-S recently began 
experiencing the slight loss of air pressure, which the crew had to 
locate and repair.  This meant that they had to devote all their time to 
resolving this issue using special ultrasonic monitoring.  The leak was 
located and repaired late the same day.  Contacts missed are in the 
process of being rescheduled.  (ARISS) 

**

HAM RADIO IN SPACE:  UPDATE ON OPERATIONS FROM ARISS

We also have an update on what's happening with the new radio gear on 
board the International Space Station and why hams on the ground heard 
un proto packets for a while.  Amateur Radio Newsline's David Black, 
KB4KCH, is here with the details:

--
Frank Bauer, KA3HDO, is the Chairman of ARISS.  Amateur Radio on the 
International Space Station.  And Bauer says that he has been sifting 
through the many e-mails he has received over the past few days 
regarding ham radio operations from the orbiting outpost.

Bauer says that the new Kenwood D 700 radio recently delivered to the 
ISS is still in what he terms as its "raw" form.  In other words, the 
ARISS team has not yet run a formal engineering checkout of the new 
hardware and the ISS crew has not gotten the operations procedures 
uplinked to them. 

According to Bauer, at this point in time the Kenwood radio system is 
not properly configured for digital operations.  A reconfiguration 
change occurred after it was brought on line which has led to this 
issue.  So, what hams see in the way of packets coming from the station 
right now will probably not be what they will see in the future.

As to the signal fading problem Bauer says that its probably due to the 
antenna that's currently in use.  The astro-hams are now using the new 
antenna system located on the Service Module and is a single, bottom 
mounted unit.  Since the structure of ISS is very large, it is quite 
possible that the ham radio signals are getting some blockage.   

Bauer says that ARISS will continue to evaluate the antenna system 
performance.  He notes that there are now 4 antenna systems that can 
support 2 meter and 70 cm operation.  This says Bauer gives a lot of 
possibilities with the antennas, including signal splitting, if need be.

As to the packet signals heard during a recent school contact?  Those 
who heard it heard history being made.  The first ever multiple radio 
operations from the International Space Station.  While the older 
Ericsson radio system was doing the school contact, the new Kenwood 
radio system was active doing packet.  It was also -- perhaps -- the 
first man made Q-R-M from space.

For the Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm David Black, KB4KCH

--

Bauer says that the astro-hams kind of surprised everyone on the ground 
by getting the radio system installed much earlier than they had 
anticipated.  As a result, the Amateur Radio on the International Spasce 
Station team has been working feverishly with the space agencies to get 
the procedures uplinked and engineering checkouts scheduled.  (ARISS)

**

INTERNATIONAL - INDIA:  HAM RADIO AT THE CHILDREN'S SCIENCE CONGRESS

On the international scene, ham radio was a part of India's 11th 
National Children Science Congress.  Organized by the an educational 
group in the city of  Lucknow the event ran from the 27th to the 31st 
December with more than 2000 students,  teachers and science promoters 
from various parts of that nation taking part.  

According to VU2DCT,  Lucknow hams were also called by program 
organizers to give the  demonstration on Amateur Radio for the benefit 
of participants.  Most of attendees were astonished to listen a live QSO 
between VU2WAP and  a ham in Columbia, South America.  During their 
presentation the hams emphasized the role of Amateur Radio in disaster 
situations.  (Q-News)

**

INTERNATIONAL - SOUTH KOREA:  HOMEGROWN SOFTWARE IS BEST

South Korea is considering requiring mobile phone operators to use 
locally developed software for downloading music and games.  According 
to news reports, that nations  Information and Communication Ministry is 
pushing for the compulsory use of in-country developed software for 
downloading on new mobile phones in order to standardize the wireless 
Internet platform.  

South Korea is Asia's third largest mobile market and one of the 
fastest-growing wireless Internet markets.  As of the beginning of 2004 
there are 33.44 million mobile phone subscribers, or about 70 percent of 
the country's 48 million population.  (Science Today)

**

DX

In D-X, word that the Five Star DX'ers Association has announced plans 
for a very large-scale DXpedition to Rodrigues Island in March and April 
next year.  The callsign will be 3B9C.  An international team of nearly 
30 will operate no fewer than 15 separate stations will take to the air 
on virtually every band and mode possible.  The Five Star DX'ers 
Association is the same group that organized the very successful 
operation from the Spratly Islands in 1998 and the subsequent record 
breaking D68C DXpedition to the Comoros in February 2001.  (IRTS)

Also, word that DJ4KW and D-K-9-G-G will be active from Belize until the 
end of February.  Callsigns being used are V31YN on CW and V31GW on 
RTTY.  Activity is on 160 through 10 meters.  Please QSL as directed on 
the air.  (OPDX)

And for those of you who perfer your D-X and D-X awards a bit higher in 
frequency, Peter Heins, N6ZE says that he will be able to conduct VUCC 
field checking in Springfield, Massachusettes several times during the 
next few weeks. You must be a current ARRL member to avail yourself of 
this service.  Those wanting to take advantage of Pete's offer should e-
mail him as soon as possible to n6ze at aol.com  (N6ZE)

**

THAT FINAL ITEM:  THE POTTY MOUTH AND THE VURGER

And finally this weeek, customers at a Troy, Michigan  Burger King are 
getting something extra with their orders that's a little harder to 
swallow than a hamburger and fries.  And its coming by radio.  Rick 
Johnson, KA9VZD, is here with a complete menu on this one:

--
The Detroit News is reporting that police in nearby Troy are looking for 
the person who has found a way to broadcast on the same frequency as a 
local Burger King drive-through radio system. The jammer has interrupted 
business transactions with obscene remarks on several occasions that 
have startled customers. 

The most recent incident took place on January 8th.  It happened when 
the manager went outside to apologize to customers and look for the 
source of the salty talk.  Suddenly a voice boomed from the speaker and 
said -- quote:  "There's nothing you or the police can do about this, so 
get your fat -- err -- lets say posterior -- take your fat posterior 
back inside and take your goons with you."  
 
Police suspect the calls are being made by a mobile radio transmitter or 
walkie-talkie in the vacinity of the restaurant.  Illegal use of any 
telecommunications device is a misdemeanor in the city of Troy.  And as 
we all know, its also a serious violation of Federal law.  

Heading out the door for some fast food, I'm Rick Johnson, KA9VZD, 
reporting for the Amateur Radio Newsline.  

Hey -- can you make that a double cheeseburger and a double order of 
rings.  Yeah and hold the mayo....

--

Sounds as if the story made Rick a bit hungry.  And oh yes.  Troy police 
say that they have the FCC for assistance to track down this all beef 
potty-mouth with a mustard laced tongue.  (ARNewsline(tm)  from vasrious 
sources)

**

NEWSCAST CLOSE

With thanks to Alan Labs, 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. 

For now, with Bill Pasternak, WA6ITF, at the editors desk, I'm Norm 
Seeley, KI7UP, in Scottsdale Arizona saying 73 and we thank you for 
listening.  Amateur Radio Newsline(tm) is Copyright  2004.  All rights 
reserved.