[South Florida DX Association] (Digital Modes) Jim's GAZETTE Newsletter #166

Mon, 19 Apr 2004 21:29:09 -0400

Jim's GAZETTE Newsletter #166
20 April 2004

Please feel free to forward this document to any and all interested parties, or reproduce it
any other publication. All we ask is that you give credit where credit is due.

However, if you forward this document to others, please make certain that you remove my
Email address as the sender. Use your own for otherwise you will not receive the message
regarding bounced mail. Three-fourths of the "bounces" I receive are not on my mailing
list! Please help solve the problem.

>>>>>>>>>>>>

SHORT NOTES: Roger, G0SWC is back in the Falklands and will be on the air most nights,
except Fridays, at approximately 2000Z. Thanks to Tim KU4J for this info.

The TAPR/ARRL Digital conference takes place in Des Moines, IA on September 10-12.
Papers for  the conference proceedings should be submitted by August 10 to Maty
Weinber, ARRL 225 Main St, Newington, CT 0611, or Emailed to [email protected]. You need
not be present to have your paper included in the proceedings.

Clive ZS6AVP admits that MFSK16 is an interesting mode, but he is now pursuing an even
newer mode (we have at least one new mode a month now, hi) called PSKFEC31. Read that
carefully and realize we are talking about adding the blessing of error correction to the
already near-perfect PSK code. You can take a look at 21119 from 1430-1530Z. Look for
signals from ZS, G3, GW3 and DL who are chasing regular skeds. Get the latest software
from members.aol.com/f6cte/. Let the GAZETTE know about your reaction.

>>>>>>

Some folks have it all figured out. You have read about the hazards and stress of
operating a DXpedition and we all appreciate their efforts. Then along comes a story about
a successful expedition ignored all the risks and unpleasantries. Good planning!

Paolo I2UIY, of the Pizza and Pasta Contest Club, operated P40G and produced a record
score of over 5.5 million! It was his first ever SO2R, too. But that's not all he did. You see,
his old friend Jacobo P43P had told him that WPX RTTY and the big Carnival Weekend
occupied the same spot on the calendar. Paolo booked a flight without delay.

Well, according to Paolo, the Carnival is the greatest show on earth . . . and means
everything to the folks who live on Aruba. Music, parades, costumes, even some Dutch
oom-pa-pa. One wonders how he had time to get to the contest!

Needless to say, Paolo is not too excited about going back home to the usual contest
routine. Dull!

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The BPL discussion in NL165 produced a flurry of comments. Most feel somewhat
betrayed by the FCC, and most feel the power industry lobby simply bought the FCC and
wrote their own regulations. It happens in Washington! I continue to see it as I have from
the beginning. 

After I read the speech made by one of the Commissioners, a talk delivered to the power
industry annual meeting, I knew it was a done deal. I wrote to the lady and suggested that
she did not write the speech at all. It was simply copied from the power industry public
relations handouts for it stressed 'this wonderful opportunity to deliver broadband to so
many anxious users, so quickly, so efficiently.' There was no mention of potential
problems.

 An FCC attorney responded at length to my Email and assured me that she was merely
seeking input from this powerful group of good people. I replied and suggested he might
have read a different speech than the one posted on the FCC website. He didn't respond.

Steve K4CJX sent a note reminding me that ham radio is not the only potential victim of
this service. Hospitals are big users of vulnerable equipment, like EEG and EKG and
related gear. I had seen no mention of that before.

And Dean W5PJR, though disappointed that the ARRL was not able to make any headway
with the FCC, has felt from the beginning that 'the money has changed hands.' And it is a
done deal. Sadly, he is probably right.

>>>>>>

And, yes, the freeband warriors comments flooded the mailbox as well. Among the most
interesting (and threatening) came from Costas SV1XV. He went to a flea market recently
and found some surplus military airband gear for 225-400mHz. An elderly man came up
and said they were for the ham band that covers those frequencies. Costas informed him
that the European allocation for hams was 430-440mHz. He was then told in no uncertain
terms that he was ignorant because even if there was an official band, the 225-400 space
was an unofficial ham band as well! He swore he was in the air force and knew for sure that
the only air force band was 127-150. Imagine, said Costas, he and his friends chatting on
243mHz, the official emergency UHF-AIR frequency!

Ed W4EP calls the freebanders a nice group who pollute the 10M CW and RTTY space with
their SSB signals, and could not care less about our problem. He hopes we can figure out
how to use RF guided projectiles soon!

Steve W3HF wasted little band width. He simply concludes that they are pirates and are
illegal, and that is all there is to it!. And, of course, he is right, but it is quite obvious that no
regulatory agency anywhere is making a serious effort to eliminate the problem.

>>>>>

The value/legitimacy of electronic QSLs will be argued as long as amateur radio exists.
The argument has some of the same characteristics of the endless CW feud, the one about
how an amateur must be able to send and receive code in order to obtain a license. The
two sides of the argument were clearly explained recently. On the one hand Fred PY7ZZ
stated NO LOTW, NO E-QSLS, ONLY REAL QSLs. 

The opposite side of the fence, painted by Bill W6WRT, says PAPER QSLS IN THE
INTERNET AGE ARE AN ANACHRONISM. Whoever thought up LOTW was right on track.

Choose your weapons!

>>>>>

Finally, Chen W7AY, the oracle of Portland, learned the truth. When he couldn't work T33C
on RTTY, he switched to 20M PSK31. And, of course, made the contact. He explained that if
the mountain does not come to Mohammed, Mohammed has to change to a camel and go
to the mountain! Wise man.

And listen to his comment--the T33 signal lit not a light on the S-meter (he'd worked 3 JA
and one VK before my contact) but he was 100% copy. What a mode!

It was a bit awkward, though, for he had to reboot to an old operating system because he
had not yet updated his home-brew PSK31 program. Hi!  Welcome aboard, Chen.

>>>>>>

73 de Jim N2HOS
[email protected]
GAZETTE www.n2hos.com/digital