The electronic publication of the Amateur Radio Newsline is distributed with the permission of Bill Pasternak, WA6ITF, President and Editor of Newsline. The text version is edited from the original scripts and transcribed from the audio reports by Dale Cary, WD0AKO, and is first published in The Radio & Electronics Round Table on the Genie Online System. If you have any comment, suggestion, or news item you would like to submit, send them via E-Mail to 3241437@mcimail.com or B.PASTERNAK@genie.geis.com. You can contact Newsline at +1 805-296-7180. It is a combination answering and FAX machine, if you have a FAX to send, wait for the voice prompt and press your fax-send button. All other information and disclaimers are in the text header below. - - - - - NEWSLINE RADIO - CBBS EDITION #888 - POSTED 08/20/94 (***************************************************************) (* *) (* * * ***** * * **** * ***** * * ***** *) (* ** * * * * * * * ** * * *) (* * * * *** * ** * *** * * * * * *** *) (* * ** * * ** * * * * * ** * *) (* * * ***** * * **** ***** ***** * * ***** *) (* *) (* **** * **** ***** *** *) (* * * * * * * * * * *) (* **** ***** * * * * * *) (* * * * * * * * * * *) (* * * * * **** ***** *** *) (* *) (***************************************************************) 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. For current information updates, please call Audio Version of Newsline ========================= Los Angeles............................ (213) 462-0008 Los Angeles (Instant Update Line)...... 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In the rec.radio.info newsgroup FTP: oak.oakland.edu, archive: pub/hamradio/docs/newsline Fidonet, RIME, Intellec, I-Link........ In the Ham Radio conferences on those networks 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!!! (**************************************************************** [888] Newsline report number 888 for release on Friday, August 19, 1994. The following is a QST An international organization is formed to do away with mandatory code requirements in ham radio worldwide. Also, a big win for ham radio in its effort to save a microwave ham band from reallocation. The FCC sides with the ham radio community and against the NTIA. These stories and more on Newsline report number 888 coming your way right now! (***** ORACLE SAYS: "NO CODE - WORLDWIDE" Mandatory Morse Code testing for any class of ham radio license, anywhere in the world, will be a thing of the past if the Organization Requesting Alternatives by Code Less Examinations has its way. Up to now you probably have never heard of The Organization Requesting Alternatives by Code Less Examinations, but by the time the next World Radiocommunications Conference the group hopes to have the acronym of its name, ORACLE, and its goal of optional CW as household terms in the worlds ham radio community. Oracle is a newly organized international organization based in Wellington, New Zealand. It holds the status of a legitimate New Zealand corporation. It's stated purpose is to do away with the mandatory knowledge of the International Morse Code as a requisite requirement for obtaining an Amateur Radio License anywhere in the world. A big undertaking yes, but one the six member board of directors feels it can accomplish. ORACLE views as its fundamental mission to lobby for the modification of International Radio Article 32, section 2735. This rule says that any person seeking a license to operate an Amateur Radio station below 30 MHz has to prove that he is able to send correctly by hand, and receive correctly by ear, texts of communications in Morse Code signaling. ORACLE believes that the main reason that the Morse telegraphy requirement is being retained in ham radio is to limit access to amateur bands below 30 MHz. It wants that policy changed. Rather than attempting to work with national Amateur Radio societies -- many of which are primarily in favor of retaining the code -- ORACLE is bypassing them. Instead, the organization is taking it's case against keeping the code requirement directly to the international regulators and communications policy makers from every nation that belongs to the International Telecommunications Union. They say that these are the people who will make the decision as to whether the code stays or goes. They are the ones who must be convinced to say no to keeping of the code. The final ORACLE goal is to have a section 2735 modified to read -- and we quote -- Administrations may take such measures as they judge necessary to verify the proficiency in the Morse Code of any person wishing to operate the apparatus of an amateur station. In other words, give every nation the option waiving code and code testing as a requisite requirement to operation on any valid Amateur Radio frequency -- HF or VHF. It appears that ORACLE must have some pretty good funding behind it. The group has already announced plans to present arguments for abolishing the current mandatory Amateur Service telegraphy proficiency requirement to the Voluntary Group of Experts subcommittee of the International Telecommunications Union. This, at or before the next two World Radiocommunications Conferences in 1995 and 1997. For those of you who are interested, the address of the Organization Requesting Alternatives by Code Less Examinations -- Code and Less being two separate words -- is -- 90 Campbell Street, Karon, Wellington, New Zealand. Please mark your envelope to the attention of Mr. Bob Vernall, ZL2CA. Their internet address -- all in lower case letters is -- vernall@corp.telecom.co.nz As an aside, Webster's New Collegiate dictionary defines the word Oracle as being a person through whom a deity is believed to speak or a person giving wise and authoritative opinions. This oracle seems to be saying that the Morse Code is dead in ham radio, and its time to travel on. (***** FCC vs. NTIA The ARRL's effort to protect Amateur frequencies in the 13 cm band from reallocation is a step closer to success the week of August 8th. This, with the release of a report from the FCC to the Commerce Department that strongly supports continued Amateur Radio presence in the band. The report disagrees with National Telecommunications and Information Agencies preliminary recommendations that large portions of the band be reallocated for other uses. The frequencies that NTIA had identified for possible reallocation are 2300 to 2310 MHz, 2390 to 2400 MHz and 2402 to 2417 MHz. All are shared by Amateur Radio on a secondary basis with Government services. While the FCC report praises the NTIA for its initial efforts, it also says that the proposal requires extensive modification. The FCC cites concerns in the Amateur Radio community that this reallocation would disrupt ham radio operations in the band as a primary reason. The FCC goes on to say that the NTIA also failed to meet the statutory requirement that it attempt to determine the extent to which the band could be shared with the Amateur service. And the report also noted that the largest factor affecting the future use of these bands is their existing availability for use by the United States Amateur Radio service. Commenting on the this happy turn of events is ARRL President George Wilson, W4OYI. Wilson notes that the ham radio community not out of the woods on this one yet, but it is beginning to look like the comments filed by knowledgeable West Coast hams combined with the League's Washington effort may well succeed in carving out territory for continued Amateur development in the microwave bands. The words of ARRL President George S. Wilson, W4OYI. We cannot end this story without giving credit where credit is due. That being to former ARRL Washington Liaison Officer Perry Williams, W1UED. Just prior to his retirement last April, Williams was known to be devoting a lot of his time and effort in the nations capitol to protecting this very vital spectrum for use by future generations of hams throughout the United States. (***** TASMA TO RE-EVALUATE 2 METERS IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA Repeater coordinators might want to keep an eye on Southern California. That's where the Two Meter Area Spectrum Management Association of Southern California has embarked on two new policies that could impact on FM and repeater operations nationwide. The first is the organizations decision carry out an in-depth survey of both repeater subbands on two meters. This as a way of determining the exact amount of activity on each frequency open to repeater operation. With two meters bursting at the seams in the Los Angeles to San Diego RF corridor, TASMA wants to determine if there are any channel pairs that are playing host to non-existent paper repeaters. TASMA feels that it has an obligation to the areas ham community to rid it's database of these machines so as to make way for new systems willing to pick up the ever increasing load of users coming onto the band every day. The exact way in which this spectrum survey is being handled has not been announced, but for owners of some paper repeaters it may already be to late to put them on the air. The other new policy? An annual service feel for maintaining the listing of a coordinated repeater in the Tasma database. More on that part of the story next week. (***** TRAIL LEADS TO STOLEN EQUIPMENT Back with regulatory matters, word that the Philadelphia FCC Office has issued a Notice of Apparent Liability to Monetary Forfeiture for $8,000 to the Maui Nightclub in Philadelphia charging willful violation for operating an unauthorized station. The unlicensed operation and illegal equipment were discovered after FCC engineers used direction-finding equipment to identify unauthorized operation on U.S. Government frequencies. Agents from the Federal Protection Service accompanied FCC inspectors on the inspection. Radios reported stolen from the Government Services Administration were found at the scene. (***** ILLEGAL CONSTRUCTION OF A CELLULAR TOWER The FAA and the FCC have teamed up to resolve the problem of an unlighted tower. A tower reported by pilots to be too close to Greensboro Airport in North Carolina. FCC investigators from the Norfolk Virginia Office confirmed the FAA complaint that the tower, recently constructed as a cellular "fill in," penetrated the glide slope for the airport. Apparently, the licensee, Centel, had constructed the tower without obtaining antenna clearance from the FAA. The two agencies ordered Centel to reduce the tower height by 20 feet and install temporary lighting to it. (***** RADIO PRICES GOING UP If you have been planning on buying a new piece of ham gear that is made in Japan, the Westlink Report ham radio newsletter says that now may be the best time. Not because dealers are having any kind of ham radio super sale. Rather it may be the only way to avoid what could be the biggest price hike in all Pacific Rim manufactured merchandise ever to hit the United States. Most hams -- in fact most Americans are not aware that the cost of items manufactured outside of the United States is not directly measured in U.S. dollars. Rather, it is how much of another foreign currency a U.S. dollar will buy. When we talk about most of todays electronics -- especially consumer electronics which includes most ham gear -- we are talking about the Japanese unit of currency called the Yen. Let's suppose that a piece of ham gear costs ten thousand Yen in Japan. A year ago, a United States dollar would buy about 125 Japanese Yen. Divide 10,000 Yen by 125 Yen to the dollar and you find that eighty United States dollars would equal the 10,000 Yen needed to buy that piece of equipment. But as we go to air, the United States dollar has fallen to a new all-time exchange low. Currently a dollar will buy only about 97 Yen. So if we divide 10,000 Yen by 97 Yen to the dollar, the eighty dollar piece of ham gear now costs $103 United States dollars -- an increase of about seventeen percent. And these are what we call base price increases that do not take into account the upward cost of excise taxes and import duties levied on almost all imports. Nor does it cover the higher import duty, state and city sales taxes that you will have to pay. If you add in all the real world costs, the actual increase is probably closer to 19%. Making matters worse is that the Japanese economy is in it's worst recession in modern times. Because of their economy is in a tailspin, the value of their currency is unstable. We won't go into the science of international money trading. But we will say that the Japanese Yen and United States dollar are changing value on a daily basis, with the dollar constantly sinking in relation to the Yen. So the big question is when will the downward spiral of the dollar in relation to the Yen end? That is not an easy question to answer since the best minds in the world of global economics are divided on it. Some thought the spiral had ended last fall when the exchange rate hit 100 only to be shocked back to reality few weeks ago when 96 was the new record low. In other words, your guess is as good as the international money experts, and they are not venturing any real estimates right now. (***** DX In DX, the saga of IS1A/0S1A -- that's the Principality of Seborga continues to get interesting and intriguing every week. The Principality of Seborga is located 20 km north of Monaco and is 517 meters above sea level. The principality was established on 20 August, 959 AD. It's tiny. Only about 5 square km in area, and currently has 300 inhabitants. Now several DX bulletins report that I1RBJ who operates the station has called the ARRL DXCC Desk. He reportedly told them that he has returned from a meeting with the International Telecommunications Union with a new agreement. Under it, the ITU and the Italian government says he can now use the call sign IS1A/0S1A for his operations. This obviously brings with it the question of what this means for all those previous 0S1A contacts that were made? Add to this the fact that there is currently no DXCC status for the Principality of Seborga and you have a very interesting situation in the world of ham radio, DX. (***** ARNS CONTEST Word that the Amateur Radio News Service will again conduct a publication contest aimed at recognizing superior amateur radio journalism. The contest is open to all amateur radio organizations. There are very few rules to the ARNS contest. General circulation magazines and professional journals are not eligible. To participate, a club need submit only one copy of any issue of its newsletter dated July of 1993 through December of 1994. The deadline for receipt of the entries is December 31st, 1994. Mail entries to Lee Knirko, W9MOL, 11 South La Salle St., Suite 2100, Chicago, Illinois 60603. Membership in ARNS is not required to enter. (***** And for this week, that's all from the Amateur Radio Newsline. You can write to us at: Newsline Post Office Box 463 Pasadena, California 91102 (* * * Newsline Copyright 1994 all rights are reserved. * * *