No subject

of commercial radio listeners as Art Bell - has called on America to 
stand up and fight what he charges is the greatest threat to the 
nation's security - Broadband Over Powerline. 
 
Bell charges BPL will cripple the nation's emergency communications 
backbone - striking at the heart of homeland security. 
 
Bell picked up the charge against BPL during his radio show broadcast 
Saturday, March 20 in which he introduced ARRL President Jim Haynie, 
W5JBP to his audience. 
 
Haynie and Bell pointed out the BPL interference threat extends far 
beyond the amateur bands. Both Haynie and Bell warned that many police 
and fire companies, federal disaster agencies and the FBI and the 
military would be rendered helpless if BPL is rolled out across the 
nation. 
 
Bell says he's especially worried about the potential of another major 
attack against the United States and what BPL would do to our nation's 
ability to communicate. 
 
"The emergency communications, my God, aircraft, amateur radio, FEMA, 
any other emergency agencies that are going to have to rely on HF 
communications," Bell says. 
 
"We certainly can't depend on satellites. As a matter of fact, if we 
should get into a conflict, some sort of major conflict the satellites 
will be the very first thing that will go. And minus satellites for 
communications, we're dependent on the good old-fashioned shortwave 
bands, VHF, UHF, the whole schmear to keep our nation talking. And in a 
time of national emergency we need to be able to talk to each other." 
 
Bell says he's appalled at the behavior of the Federal Communications 
Commission. He says they're acting like cheerleaders instead of 
regulators. He charges corporate greed is driving BPL and ignoring  the 
studies showing the technology - as proposed on the HF bands - won't 
work without causing massive interference.  
 
"I've always had the deepest respect for the Federal Communications 
Commission," he says. "However, I think in recent years, there've been a 
lot of changes at the FCC that include the fact that there aren't so 
many engineers at the commission any longer, but there are a lot of 
bureaucrats." 
 
Bell says he believed after reading the Federal Emergency Management 
Agency's assessment of BPL that the findings would have been enough to 
shut it down. 
 
"The FEMA filing was very strong," Bell says. "They essentially said, 
'Look, our receivers and transmitters are not going to be able to 
function with BPL in place.' And, they specified the power levels they 
would have to go to continue to communicate and suggested the taxpayers 
can't, wouldn't be able to afford such changes. 
 
"So, with that kind of filing, frankly when it came out I thought BPL 
was dead. Boy was I wrong!" 
 
After doing more research, Bell says he decided to take the case to his 
listeners. And he says the only way to do it is to point out the risk to 
their safety.  
 
"I don't think we're going to combat it by saying, 'Save ham radio." The 
public doesn't care enough and I'm sorry to have to say that, but that's 
what I believe," Bell says.  
 
"I love ham radio. It's been my life. I've been a ham since I was 12. 
But the greater, larger American public just doesn't care enough about 
ham radio. 
 
"And if they think they can plug in their computer to the wall and have 
instant internet, that's a more attractive idea to them than the guy 
down the block with a tower in the air." 
 
Bell says his mission is clear: "I do a radio program on 500 radio 
stations nationwide, including the top 50 markets in the U.S., " Bell 
says. "And I'm going to do everything I can to drive this home as hard 
as I can that communications, and certainly ham radio is part of that 
emergency communications chain, there's no question about that. 
 
"But emergency communications across the board are threatened by BPL." 
 
Bell says all hams need to wake up and heed his call to action. 
 
"We have to get to the larger media in America and, as hams, we have to 
make the general public, underline the word general public, aware that 
our emergency communications are threatened," Bell says. "The American 
public remembers 9-11. The American public knows what the continuing 
threat is. 
 
"We've declared war against terrorism and why would we want to turn 
around and cripple our effective ability to wage war? And that's exactly 
what BPL is going to do." 
 
Bell says if energized with information about BPL's risks to national 
security, millions of Americans can quickly become allies. 
 
"We need to get the word out to the general public and begin to have 
them write to their congressmen, their senator," Bell says. "And that's 
the only approach that I see at this point with the juggernaut that is 
presently underway from the Federal Communications Commission and the 
(BPL) industry, the only way we're going to stop it is to make the 
general public aware of the threat." 
 
Bell says there are other issues, including interference to TV channels 
2 through 6, residual noise to the AM radio bands and virtual loss of CB 
bands used by the many truckers who listen to his show. He says there 
are also privacy issues, especially the potential of the government and 
large companies to track people and their habits and choices on a BPL 
system. 
  
For the Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Mark Abramowicz, NT3V in 
Philadelphia.

--

Bell currently hosts the weekend edition of the Coast to Coast AM.  He 
also indicates that his presentation on Saturday, March 20th was only 
round one.  He is lining up other guests to talk about the BPL issues in 
the near future.  To find out when, keep checking the shows website at 
www.coasttocoastam.com.  (ARNewsline(tm))

**

THE BPL FIGHT:  HAM RADIO VS. THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

Meantime, a story in a recent issue of the Wall Street Journal about 
Amateur Radio's stand against BPL is raising the eyre off many in the 
nations ham radio community.  The item appears to take the position that 
radio amateurs are alone in opposing BPL.  Also, that their doing do is 
holding back the flow of progress in technology.  

You can judge for yourself by taking your web browser to 
http://tinyurl.com/357ye. That is if its still there by the time this 
newscast goes to air.  (ARNewsline(tm))

**

RFI: ELECTRIC BLANKETS - A NEW CHAPTER FOR AN OLD PROBLEM

As if BPL was not enough, now there's another source of RFI to worry 
about.  Its things that keep us warm.

According to Roy Trumbull writing in the CGC Communicator, RF 
interference from electric blankets is another problem that can be added 
to a history of similar events.  The ones caused by heating pad 
thermostats and the class of transformers used for door bells.  Turnbull 
says that RFI from these devices can affect AM reception for quite a 
distance from the source.  

Turnbull also adds this interesting aside concerning electric blanket 
safety.  He says a little noted change in product design took place when 
there was that firestorm some years ago over magnetic fields from power 
lines.  The electric blanket makers got a jump on things by switching to 
twisted pair wiring.  This says Turnbull solved the problem of the 
significant magnetic fields that were produced by the earlier blanket 
design.  (CGC)

**

RESCUE RADIO:  REACT AND THE AMBER ALERT PROGRAM

Ham radio appears to be leaving itself behind in the area of responding 
to notices of kidnapped children called Amber Alerts.  Meantime REACT 
and other citizens radio organizations are taking the point position in 
spreading word of these vital searches.  Amateur Radio Newsline's Bruce 
Tennant, K6PZW, takes a look at how REACT has gotten involved:

--

Nobody seems to know why hams appear to have no interest in the Amber 
Alert program, but other civic minded radio services are not standing 
still.  And the April issue of Popular Communications magazine is 
highliting REACT as being one of those jumping in to providing 
communications for these alerts and searches.

The magazines Info Central column highlights the activities of REACT 
teams across Ontario Canada and the northern United States.  This, as 
they  responded  to an Amber Alert issued by the Ontario police after 
Cecelia Zhang was abducted in Toronto.  

Ron McCracken who is past President of REACT told Pop Comm that they 
were given details of the alert and were asked to broadcast it on C-B 
channel 19 to truckers passing along the highways.  The alert included 
details of the kidnap vehicle and the victim along with the suspects.

The broadcasts began at about 5:30 in the evening and went on through 
midnight.  McCracken says that CB radio was combined with computers and 
e-mail to spread the word far and wide in a very short time.  This 
allowed truck drivers all along the border to keep an eye out for both 
the little Cecilia and her abductor.  

According to McCracken, this was REACT's first response to an Amber 
Alert and in his estimation it went very well. You can read the full 
story starting on page 5 of the April issue of Popular Communications 
magazine.

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

--

The Amber Alert was created in 1997 as a tribute to 9-year-old Amber 
Hagerman.  She was kidnapped and brutally murdered while riding her 
bicycle in her hometown of Arlington, Texas.  

If you want to know more about how you can start an Amber Alert Plan in 
your area and involve your radio hobby, it can be found by taking your 
web browser to www.missingkids.com.  Then click on the words Amber Plan.  
(PopComm, ARNewsline(tm))

**


RESTRUCTURING:  SAN MARINO AND NORWAY EXPAND 40 METERS

Two more nations have gained spectrum at 7 MHz.  Both are in Europe.  
Jeramy Boot, G4NJH, in Nottingham in the UK has more:

-- 

Two more European countries have gained access to the 7100 to 7200 kHz 
segment of the 40-metre band.  San Marino, T7, has authorised amateur 
radio operation in the 7100 - 7200 kHz band on a Secondary non-
interference basis, with effect from the 25th of February. 

The Norwegian Post and Telecommunications Authority has also announced 
that Norwegian radio amateurs can use frequencies in the segment 7100 - 
7200 kHz with secondary status starting from the 1st of April. 

This is in addition to the existing segment 7000 - 7100 kHz where radio 
amateurs have primary status. The maximum transmitter output power in 
the 7100 - 7200 segment will be 100 watts in Norway, and the maximum 
bandwidth 6kHz. 

Jeramy Boot, G4NJH.

--

Croatia was the first European country to expand its 40 meter band.  
That happened last December. (GB2RS)

**

RESTRUCTURING:  ARRL AND NCVEC PETITIONS ASSIGNED RM'S

Here in the U-S, our FCC has assigned rulemaking numbers to separate 
petitions for license restructuring and changes in code requirements 
filed by the ARRL and the National Council of Volunteer Examiner 
Coordinators.  The ARRL petition has been designated RM-10867 while the 
NCVEC petition is now RM-10870.  

Two other petitions were released for comment at the same time - RM-
10868 was filed by the Radio Amateur Foundation, and RM-10869 by Ronald 
Lowrance of Georgia. Both also seek changes in amateur licensing 
requirements, particularly with relation to the code exam.

All petitions are available online via the FCC's Electronic Comment 
Filing System website.  The comment deadline on all four petitions is 
April 24, with reply comments due 15 days later.  (CQ, W2VU)

**

ENFORCEMENT:  WARNINGS TO TWO TRUCKING FIRMS ABOUT 10 METER OPS

The FCC has warned the owners of a Bristol Pennsylvania trucking company 
to get their personnel off of the 10 meter Amateur band or face some 
expensive consequences.  In a letter to Cassidy's Express the FCC says 
that it has information that one of the company's tractors pulling a 
"CAI" trailer on Interstates 476 N and 76W in Pennsylvania, was the 
source of unlicensed radio transmissions on the 10 meters.  

The incident took place last October 9th  between 8 AM and 8:30 AM local 
time.  The Commission has informed Cassidy's Express that operation of 
radio transmitting equipment without a license is a violation of Section 
301 of the Communications Act.  That it could and will subject the 
operator to fine or imprisonment, as well as seizure of any non-
certified radio transmitting equipment.  

For those not aware, unlicensed operation carries a fine of $7,500 to 
$10,000 for each instance charged.  A similar letter was sent to CLR 
Transport of Saluda, North Carolina  warning of unlicensed 10 meter 
operation from one of their trucks on Interstate 85 between Gastonia and 
Kings Mountain, North Carolina on July 14, 2003.   (FCC)

**

THE CLUB SCENE:  USS HORNET ARC NOT DISBANDED

Contrary to rumors, the Amateur Radio club that supports museum ship U-
S-S Hornet has not been disbanded.  This, according to Tom McGlinn, 
KO6HA who is the trustee for the NB6GC callsign and the new president of 
the USS Hornet Amateur Radio Club. 

Writing on the QRZ.com websire, McGlin says the original story of the 
club being dissolved is untrue.  He says that the group is still active 
and aboard the USS Hornet and that all QSL requests will be handled as 
in the past. Please direct any inquiries concerning the USS Hornet ARC 
QSL program to  ko6ha at earthlink.net  (QRZ.com)

**

ON THE WEB:  BIG UPGRADE AT QRZ.COM

The servers that provide you the QRZ.com website have been relocated to 
the company's hosting facility in Phoenix, Arizona. The new location 
affords QRZ.com with 24 hour a day, 7 days a week backup power and a 
very fast 10 Megabit connection directly to the Internet backbone. 

QRZ.com owner and administrator Fred Lloyd, AA7BQ, gave special thanks 
to Chris Radicke, N7TWW and Mark Krotz, N7MK, who assisted him in 
transporting the computers, building the cabinet shelves, pulling 
cables, and in generally making the transition go as smooth as silk.  
Lloyd says that thanks to some great prepatory work QRZ.com was out for 
no more than 2 hours during the location changeover.  (QRZ.com)

**

ON THE WEB: WWW.SCOTHAM.NET

WWW.SCOTHAM.NET is a new Internet portal concerning ham radio in 
Scotland. The aim of the site is to further the interests of Scottish 
hams in all aspects of Amateur Radio. The portal also presents an 
interesting view of life in Scotland as it pertains to ham radio.  Again 
that U-R-L is WWW.SCOTHAM.NET and you will find it on the World-Wide-
Web.  (MM0DFV)

**

WITH THE HANDI-HAMS:  3905 QSL BUREAU

The Board of Directors of the 3905 Century Club has unanimously approved 
the establishment of a QSL Bureau and Manager.  This, to support any 
Handi-Ham members that wish to participate in the club's nets.  

Handi-Ham members can use the bureau a number of ways.  This includes 
the actual completion of cards for the contacts they make on 3905 
Century Club nets. 

The 3905 Century Club has nets on four bands and all modes including 
SSB, CW and Digital.  More information, including net schedules can be 
found at www.3905.com.  (Handi-Hams)

**

CONVENTIONS AND HAMFESTS:  ARRL AT NAB IN APRIL

Turning to the ham radio social circuit, the ARRL will be visible at the 
upcoming National Association of Broadcasters convention.  Amateurs 
visiting the exhibits at the Las Vegas Convention Center are invited to 
stop by Lobby Booth 9 where the ARRL will be exhibiting its latest  
publications and other materials related to the hobby. 

The booth will be staffed by ARRL national officers and volunteers from 
the Las Vegas area headed up by Bill and Carolyn Cornelius.  They are 
K8XC and K9XC respectively.  The booth will also be able to provide 
information on the April 21st  NAB Ham Radio Reception sponsored by Heil 
Sound.

Bill Cornelius does have a limited number of complimentary VIP Exhibits 
Passes.  Requests for them go by e-mail to k8xc at aol.com.  (K8XC)

**

HAMFESTS AND CONVENTIONS:  EMCOMMWEST IN MAY

And word that the combined  EMCOMMWEST 2004 conference and the Reno 
Spring Hamswap is slated for the weekend of May 22nd to the 23rd.  This 
years theme is Amateur Radio Emergency Communications in the 21st 
Century and will feature appearances by knowledgable guests that include  
Dan Miller, N-3-U-F-G from ARRL Headquarters.  His presentation will 
include information on the ARRL Emergency Communications on-line courses 
as well as an overview of how amateur radio interfaces with The Office 
of Homeland Security.  

For complete up to date information, location and on-line registration 
for EMCOMMWEST and the Reno Spring Hamswap, take your web browser over 
to  www.emcommwest.org.   Planners say that the site will be updated 
frequently with new information as it becomes available.  (Emmcom West)

**

EMERGING TECHNOLOGY:  PROFESSOR SAYS ISP'S SHOULD POLICE CONTENT

A new cyberspace business plan from a legal scholar says that Internet 
Service Providers should become cyber cops and force  everyone to pay a 
royalty fee for every song, movie or book they download to their 
personal computers.  Bill Pasternak, WA6ITF, has the details:

--

Lon Sobel is a professor at Loyola Law School and an expert on copyright 
and entertainment law.  He says that Internet service providers such as 
America Online and Earthlink must become digital police and send 
customers monthly bills based on how much copyrighted material they 
download.  

Under Sobel's plan, consumers who download expensive software such as 
Adobe Photoshop could pay as much as $600, while someone who grabs a 
single song could be charged as little as 49 or 50 cents.  These charges 
would be in addition to the usual dial-up or broadband monthly 
connection fees. 

Critics of the plan include computer experts, Internet service providers 
and -- believe it or not -- the entertainment industry.  Bob Blakley, a 
computer scientist and security expert at IBM, says that a clever hacker 
could write computer code that would attaches itself to every piece of 
copyrighted content on the Internet.  Then it could funnel some of the 
cost of the download to the hackers personal bank account. 
   
Blakley and others say peoples attitudes is one of the biggest 
challenges in digital rights management .  That an entire generation of 
consumers has become used to free music and other content posted on the 
Internet.  He says that they will do anything it takes to get content 
for free.  This includes breaking the law to avoid paying $10 to $20 for 
a compact disc, DVD or electronic book.  

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

--

A senior executive at Verizon Communications is quoted as saying  that 
Internet service providers will reject the plan noting that few 
companies could keep track of every downloaded item or determine the 
value of every file passing through their system.  (Published news 
reports)

**


WORLDBEAT - CANADA:  NEW CONTEST MANAGERS

Radio Amateurs of Canada has announced the appointment of Sam Ferris 
VE5SF, Bart Ritchie VE5CPU and Bruce Rattray VE5RC as managers for the 
Canada Winter and Canada Day contests. They replace retiring managers 
David Shipman, VE7CFD and the Moncton Seniors Amateur Radio Club who 
have performed this duty for the past several years.  (RAC)

**

WORLDBEAT -NEW ZEALAND:  NZART COUNCIL APPOINTMENTS

NZART President Peter Norden, ZL2SJ, has announced the appointment of 
Noel Rowe, ZL3GR, to society's Council.  Rove is a second term councilor 
having served previously in the 1990's.  He replaces Ted Minchin, ZL1MT, 
who resigned for personal reasons.

Another Council appointment is that of Joe Reed, ZL2AH who volunteered 
to take on the tasks of Reciprocal License Bureau Manger.  He replaces 
the late Russ Garlick, ZL3AAA.  (NZART)

**

HAM RADIO IN SPACE:  K6DUE MEMORIAL ARISS EVENT QSL CARD UPDATE

Hams waiting for QSL cards from the K6DUE Memorial operating event, 
please listen up.  Frank Bauer, KA3HDO, who is ARISS International 
Chairman says in order to save postage costs, the process being used for 
the special event certificates is this.  The various regions such as 
Europe, Canada, USA, Russia and 
Japan are collecting the QSLs and generating  compiled lists of names 
and callsigns.  These lists are then used to print the certificates and 
return them to the regions for direct distribution.  Bauer asks that 
everyone be patient, indicating that it will be well worth the wait.  
(KA3HDO)

**  

DX

In D-X, three German operators will be active as A35DA, A35DH and A35DJ 
from Fafa Island in Tonga through the 29th of March.  Activity is on all 
bands from 80 to 10 meters on SSB, PSK 31 and RTTY. QSL as directed on 
the air.

Also, word that KE2SP is active on 10 through 20 meters from the island 
of Hydra.  This, as  SV8 stroke KE2SP.  He will be there until the 15th 
of June. The island counts as EU-075 for the Islands on the Air awards 
program.

And the Ohio Penn D-X Newsletter reports that ZL1CT is planning to be 
active fro Chatham as ZL7V.  This, from July 5th to the 15th.  Activity 
will be on 80, 40, 30 and 20 meters using CW and SSB.  QSL this one via 
N3SL.  

(Above from various DX news sources)

**

THAT FINAL ITEM: A HAMVENTION 2004 RADIO ROAD INFORMATION SERVICE

And finally this week, if you plan to drive to this years Hamvention, 
there will be a special service to make your trip a bit more pleasant.  
This as Information Radio in Dayton, Ohio announces plans to provide 
Road to Hamvention announcements on Highway Radio 1610 AM.  As you might 
expect, 1610 Kiloherrtz is the frequency and the person behind the idea 
is Norm Schrein, KA8PGJ.

--

Schrein"  "For Hamvention, we are planning on putting some information 
in regard to directions to the Hara and hours  of the hamfest itself.  
People coming into town can obviously get information via the ham 
repeaters, but we may be hitting people who aren't hams at all or who do 
not have Amateur Radio equipment but who will pick this up in the loop 
and take in the hamfest."

--

Information Radio is a service provided by the Emergency Communications 
Center Incorporated.  This is a not for profit organization with which 
Schrein is associated.  He says that stations like this are a lot more 
common than many people realize:

--

Schrein:  "530 Khz is where to find a lot of the stations like this and 
then about 1610 through about 1700 Khz you will find a lot of these 
travelers information stations as well.  A lot of them tend to be site 
specific.  That is, if you go through Pennsylvania, you may hear 
something about one of the state or national parks or involving the 
roadways if its run by the Dept. of Transportation.  Where ours is a 
little unique is that it is kind of all encompassing.  It covers 
everything happening in the Dayton area from local parks and recreationb 
to people having a parade to events like the Hamvention."

--

Schrein says that anytime you are headed to the Dayton area be sure to 
tune your car radio to 1610 kilohertz.  Whether its trying to find your 
way into town or heading to the HARA Arena for Hamvention 2004, 
Information Radio will be there to serve you.

More information on information radio stations can be heard on this 
weeks Rain Report.  Its at www.rainreport.com or landline at 847-827-
7246.  (ARNewsline (TM))

**

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 Jim 
Damron, N8TMW, and I;m Jeff Clark, K8JAC, saying 73 and we thank you for 
listening."  Amateur Radio Newsline(tm) is Copyright 2004.  All rights 
reserved.