The electronic publication of the Amateur Radio Newsline is distributed with the permission of Bill Pasternak, WA6ITF, President and Editor of Newsline. The text is transcribed from the audio service by Dale Cary, ND0AKO, and is first published on Genie. Editorial comment or news items should be E-mailed to 3241437@mcimail.com or B.PASTERNAK@genie.geis.com. Voice or FAX to +1 805-296-7180. All other information and disclaimers are in the text header below. - - - - - NEWSLINE RADIO - CBBS EDITION #114 - POSTED 03/07/94 ***************************************************************** * * * * * ***** * * **** * ***** * * ***** * * ** * * * * * * * ** * * * * * * * *** * ** * *** * * * * * *** * * * ** * * ** * * * * * ** * * * * * ***** * * **** ***** ***** * * ***** * * * * **** * **** ***** *** * * * * * * * * * * * * * **** ***** * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * **** ***** *** * * * ***************************************************************** The following is late news about Amateur Radio for Radio Amateurs as prepared from NEWSLINE RADIO scripts by the staff of the AMATEUR RADIO NEWSLINE, INC. -- formerly the WESTLINK RADIO NETWORK. The electronic version of newsline is posted on this CBBS twice monthly. For current information updates, please call Los Angeles............................ (213) 462-0008 Los Angeles (Instant Update Line)...... (805) 296-2407 Seattle................................ (206) 368-3969 Seattle................................ (206) 281-8455 Tacoma................................. (206) 927-7373 Louisville............................. (502) 894-8559 Dayton................................. (513) 275-9991 Chicago................................ (708) 289-0423 New York City.......................... (718) 353-2801 Melbourne, FL.......................... (407) 259-4479 For the latest breaking info call the Instant Update Line listed above. To provide information please call (805) 296-7180. This line answers automatically and will accept up to 30 minutes of material. Check with your local amateur radio club to see if NEWSLINE can be heard weekly on the air in your area. Articles may be reproduced if printed in their entirety and credit is given to AMATEUR RADIO NEWSLINE as being the source. For further information about the AMATEUR RADIO NEWSLINE, please write to us with an SASE at P.O. Box 463, Pasadena, CA 91102. Thank You NEWSLINE ***************************************************************** Some of the hams of NEWSLINE RADIO... WA6ITF WB6MQV WB6FDF K6DUE W6RCL N6AHU N6AWE N6TCQ K6PGX N6PNY KU8R N8DTN W9JUV KC9RP K9XI KB5KCH KC5UD KC0HF G8AUU WD0AKO DJ0QN and many others in the United States and around the globe!!! ***************************************************************** [864] * * * * C L O S E D C I R C U I T A D V I S O R Y * * * * * * * Newsline report number 864 for release on Friday, March * * 3, 1994 to follow. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * The following is a QST The FCC takes another step toward the electronic filing of license applications. ***** PRB SIGNATURE The FCC's has taken another step toward an eventual start-up of an all electronic filing system for radio licenses. This, with an announcement by its Private Radio Bureau of the adoption of procedures to govern the signing of electronically filed private radio service applications. Last April, the commission amended its rules to permit the electronic filing of applications for PRB governed services but the agency also continued the requirement that handwritten signatures accompany all applications until the Private Radio Bureau establishes guidelines for accepting the electronic filing of applications. The bureau is currently developing these procedural requirements with some already in place. So far on an experimental basis at least 7000 licenses applications already filed by electronic means. The signature procedure that the Private Radio Bureau has now adopted is quite simple. It states that if the applicant is an individual then the signature on an electronically filed must consist of the electronic equivalent of an individuals typed name. In a partnership, it will be the electronic substitute of both partners names while for a corporate entity the signature must be the electronic equivalent of the typed signature of an officer, director or duly authorized employee. An electronic signature submitted according to these new guidelines will designate the individual authorized to bind the applicant who is certifying to the accuracy of the information contained in a given application. By signing electronically, all applicants agree to comply with the terms of the Communications Act and the rules governing a particular radio service in the same way as if they has submitted a hand written signature on a printed application form. What does this mean for ham radio? Simply that the legal framework is now in place for electronic signatures to be accepted by the Private Radio Bureau. It also means that the start-up of electronic filing of Amateur Radio applications and a shortening of an applicants waiting time for an applicant to get on the air can't be all that far away. ***** CMRS The FCC has established a new procedure whereby license holders in the private land mobile radio service who are subject to reclassification into the commercial radio service can file for a waiver to retain existing foreign ownership. Under the framework of the 1983 Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act, certain private land mobile radio license holders were re-categorized as common carriers and are now subject to foreign ownership restrictions as outlined under section 310 B of the Communications Act. Section 310 B prohibits the granting of common carrier authorization to any alien or representative of an alien or to any corporation that has been organized under the laws of a foreign government. It also bars any corporation where any officer or director is an alien or which has more than 20% of its capital stock own by non-citizens or their representatives. The budget act does allow those affected by the change in status to petition the FCC for a waiver of Section 310 B as long as the foreign ownership interest lawfully existed prior to May 24, 1993. If a foreign ownership waiver is granted, the FCC says that it will recognize only the particular person or entity that held the foreign ownership interest as of the May 24th 1993 cutoff date. Subsequent transfers of these grandfathered foreign ownership interests will be limited to domestic persons or entities so as to keep the waiver valid and in effect. ***** VOICE MAIL HACKERS Pacific Bell Telephone in San Ramon, California says some of its voice mail customers are getting an unpleasant surprise. The company is admitting that electronic hackers are breaking in to the voice-mail system that it runs for business and residential customers. The hackers have altered message greetings and changed pass words. One recent incident happened earlier this week when a woman found a stranger was using her voice-mail box. Pacific Bell's corporate security and various San Francisco area law enforcement agency are investigating these incidents. In California, breaking into and tampering with a voice-mail system violates state law. ***** CUBA AND THE ARRL Cuban American hams are angrily denouncing ARRL acceptance of an invitation for United States hams to join their Cuban counterparts in future operating events. They are making their displeasure known on voice, on CW and on packet. The crisis began after the league issued an official bulletin saying that the Cuban national society had invited American amateurs to participate in a joint operation in the 1994 ARRL June VHF QSO Party. It said that ARRL Oklahoma Section Manager Joe Lynch, N6CL, received the invitation to lead the group during his visit to Cuba the week of February 7th. Lynch, who is also the VHF editor of CQ Magazine was in Cuba as a member of a Methodist Church work team. While there, he extended greetings from ARRL officials and presented Federacion Radioaficionados de Cuba President Pedro Rodriguez, CO2RP, with a certificate of participation for the June 1993 ARRL VHF QSO Party. Joe also presented an author's certificate to Arnie Coro, CO2KK, for his article in December 1993 issue of the League's QST magazine. But many Cuban expatriate hams living in south Florida say that Rodriguez is nothing more than a puppet of Cuban Dictator Fidel Castro. They claim that Rodriguez is a member of the Cuban military who was given a ham call sign and a new political job. The job of keeping Cuban hams following the Castro party line. This they say at the risk of loosing their ham radio privileges and possibly going to jail. The Cubans hams living in the United States say that hams outside Cuba should not be holding hands with the FRC. Instead they should be pressuring their national societies to force the FRC to loosen the reign that dictator Castro has placed on the Cuban ham community. If it does take place, the joint VHF operation will place from Bellomonte, Cuba. Officials of the FRC say they have also taken under consideration a proposal from an American group for a joint operation from Cuba on the High Frequency bands in 1995. ***** DAYTON BANQUET On a lighter note, the planners of the 1994 Dayton Hamvention have announced that a broadcasting pioneer will serve as this years featured banquet speaker. The 1994 Dayton Hamvention Committee has selected the featured speaker for this years grand banquet. Joseph M. Costello III, WA5HSI, President and CEO of WRNO International will present the main address at this years banquet. Mr Costello is best known for promoting the licensing and establishment of a US commercial shortwave station. Mr. Costellos perseverance has thrust radio station WRNO into fore front of shortwave broadcasting. The grand banquet will be held Saturday evening April 30th at the Dayton Convention Center. ***** QSO PARTY In the contest corner, the 1994 Wisconsin QSO Party is scheduled for 18:00 UTC on March 13th. It runs until 01:00 UTC on March 14th. Send your entries and logs to WARAC, P.O. Box 1072, Milwaukee, Wisconsin 53201. ***** MALTA In DX, you may have noticed that the 1A0KM, Sovereign Military Order of Malta DXpedition scheduled for February was postponed. According to word from I0JBL, the scheduled activity from the area was put on hold because of some serious problems that occurred to two of the four operators. There were no details given but it is assumed that most DXers were focusing most of their attention on the Peter I Island DXpedition. The 1A0KM operations are now scheduled to begin shortly. In fact, the group may be on as we go to air. ***** RS-15 Also from overseas comes word that there has been a delay in the setting of a launch date for Russia's new RS-15 ham radio satellite. Sources close to the project now say that the official technical presentation before the Russian Space Agency has been delayed until at least March 20th. ***** WARD Congratulations to the new DOCTOR Jeff Ward, K8KA/G0 who recently earned his Doctorate degree. Jeff has been instrumental in the design of not only OSCAR satellite hardware, but also the ground station software that is used for Pacsat type communications. His work has had a great impact on the emerging micro satellite and digital communications technologies as well. ***** SPACENEWS Word that KB2DB's "SpaceNews" is now available by satellite! The distribution of John Magliacanes' "SpaceNews" ham radio newsletter via Amateur Packet Radio networks has been improved recently with the help of high-speed "Pacsat" satellites. These polar orbiting satellites now make SpaceNews available to every inch of the planet several times daily at 9600 bps. W3QNS uploads copies of SpaceNews to the KITSAT OSCAR-23 satellite and is making them available for all KO-23 users. ***** HELP FIND MARTY We have a special request from our producer Bill Pasternak, WA6ITF to try and help him to locate a boyhood friend who he says is trying to find him. The person that Bill is trying to contact is Martin Schiff, the former K2TRU. Bill says he learned that Marty was looking for him when he ran into a non ham cousin at a recent family gathering. "I was more than a little surprised when I was in New York not long ago I ran into a cousin, who I haven't seen in 32 years, who told me that a friend of mine, who I haven't seen in about 34 years, has called him, surprisingly, and asked to get in touch with me. My cousin did not know where I was at the time and had no way of contacting me, so he threw the piece of paper away. He really doesn't remember where Marty Schiff, ex-K2TRU is living." Bill Pasternak, WA6ITF, Editor of Newsline. According to Bill, he and Marty Schiff palled together in the late 1950's and into the early 1960's. He says they lost contact after Marty went off to college somewhere in the north-east. Possibly to MIT. "Well the last time I saw Marty was a couple weeks before he went of to college. He went off to an engineering school as I remember some place in the northeast. It could have been MIT. I am not a hundred percent sure. This would have been back in 1960 I guess, 59 to 60 something like that. I did try to contact MIT, both the Registrars Office and the Alumni Association, but I have had very little luck. Also tried the radio club and some friends of mine in the Boston area and other states and nobody seems to know Marty. But I've got a feeling if he is still around electronics, he's around radio people and even though he is not listed as holding a call sign right now. There is a good chance he has got some friends who are hams. I have exhausted every other method of trying to find him short of flying back east and starting a house to house search, so it occurred to me possibly one of our listeners here on Newsline might know him and might put me in touch with him." Bill Pasternak, WA6ITF, Editor of Newsline. If you happen to know someone named Marty or Martin Schiff and if he is originally from West 8th Street in Brooklyn, New York, let him know that Bill Pasternak, the former WA2HVK is now WA6ITF, that he is living in California and can be reached at area code (805) 296-7180 on voice or fax, 24 hours a day. ***** And for this week, that's all from the Amateur Radio Newsline. You can write to us at Post Office Box 463 in Pasadena, CA 91102. * * * Newsline Copyright 1994 all rights are reserved. * * *