Amateur Radio Newsline™ Report 1284 - March 22 2002<p>Amateur Radio Newsline report number 1284 with a release date of <br />Friday, March 22nd, 2002 to follow in 5-4-3-2-1. <br /> <br />The following is a Q-S-T. Ham radio and the FCC join forced to find a wayward<br />transmitter jamming a fire department radio. This story is first on Amateur<br />Radio Newsline report number 1284 coming your way right now.<p><br />(Billboard Cart Here) <br /> <br />**<p>RESCUE RADIO: HAMS ASSIST IN TRACKING DOWN WAYWARD TRANSMITTER<p>Ham radio operators teamed up with the FCC to track down a wayward transmitter.<br /> One that was making communications very difficult for the Fallbrook California<br />fire department. It took place the weekend of March 10th. Amateur Radio<br />Newsline’s Norm Seeley, KI7UP, has the rest of the story:<p>--<p>Milt Davies, KD6UBA, is Division Chief of the North County Fire Protection<br />District. He was the first to identify the problem as radio frequency<br />interference. <p>Davis described the annoying signal as being an unmodulated carrier pock-marked<br />with strange data-like bursts. Sometimes the jamming transmitter was<br />on-the-air all the time. Sometimes it was on and off. And at still other<br />times the signal almost disappeared - transmitting only a few seconds in a 10<br />or 20 minute span.<p>Davies recognized the problem as on-channel jamming. He also knew that he<br />needed outside help. That's when the FCC and the local ham radio community<br />were notified.<p>First to try was the FCC. As you know, the agency has a series of permanent<br />direction finding stations on the West Coast. These can be operated by remote<br />control from Washington, D.C.. <p>The FCC's weekend duty officer attempted to pinpoint the source of the<br />interference using them, but with only partial success. Some of the locations<br />were down for servicing. The result was a single line-of-bearing. This meant<br />that the interfering transmitter could be anywhere along a 45 mile path.<p>To help home-in on the transmitter's location, members of the Palomar Amateur<br />Radio Club were called out. They were asked to listen to the fire dispatch<br />frequency and give signal strength reports on the unmodulated carrier. These<br />reports, coupled with the FCC's own line-of-bearing, pointed to the City of<br />Vista, or vicinity.<p>Now the hunt again became the domain of the FCC. Bill Zears, the District<br />Director in charge of the FCC's San Diego Field Office, arrived with a<br />sophisticated direction finding vehicle. Zears drove to Fallbrook for his<br />first good bearing. That sent him off toward the rugged eastern portion of<br />Vista.<p>At about the same time, a fire broke out in the Camp Pendleton military complex<br />which borders Fallbrook. The jamming signal was preventing firefighters<br />working the Pendleton fire from communicating directly with their Dispatch<br />Center.<p>Zears stayed on the job as Sunday afternoon turned into evening. Finally,<br />enough direction finding bearings were available to pinpoint the wayward<br />transmitter to a 30' tower atop a hill in east Vista.<p>The Vista Fire Department was called. The Battalion Chief on duty offered<br />immediate help. It turns out that a local ham had brought him up-to-speed on<br />the interference case earlier in the day. <p>Then another ham recalled that the City of Vista once had a transmitter up on<br />the suspect peak. That old VHF transmitter dated back to the days before most<br />communications had moved to the 800 MHz band. He also knew that the old box<br />just happened to be tuned to Fallbrook's current VHF dispatch frequency -<br />because that was Vista Fire's old frequency!<p>The crew lost no time in getting up the hill and confirming the location of the<br />offending transmitter. Nobody knows why power was still connected. Probably an<br />oversight by some long forgotten radio installer. None the less, it caused the<br />Vista's Fire Department to unintentionally jam Fallbrook, but pulling the power<br />plug made the interference go away.<p>For the Amateur Radio Newsline, I’m Norm Seeley, KI7UP.<p>--<p>Thanks to the cooperation of everyone involved and the tenacity of FCC District<br />Director Bill Zears, the situation had a happy ending. (W6VR)<p>**<p>OLYMPICS FOLLOW-UP: HANDI-HAM CARRIES OLYMPIC FLAME<p>The 2002 Winter Olympics may be over, but now comes word that a visually<br />impaired ham radio operator was among those who had the honor of carrying the<br />Olympic Torch.<p>Kitty Hevener, WB8TDA, and her trusty guide dog SunStar, carried the Olympic<br />Flame on Saturday January 19th. This, as it made its way to Salt Lake City<br />Uath. Kitty’s segment took the flame up to the gates of Fort Point, in the<br />shadow of San Francisco California’s Golden Gate Bridge. <p>According to the Handi Hams, Kitty Hevener, WB8TDA, is active with that group<br />as well. Handi Hams says that she is a regular volunteer at the annual<br />California Radio Camp held at Camp Joan Mier in Malibu California every March.<p>You can see photos of WB8TDA carrying the Olympic Torch at<br />
www.graystuff.com/gallery/kitty. (HandiHams) <p>**<p>ECONOMICS: JAPANS ECONOMIC RECESSION MAY AFFECT RADIO PRICES <p>The price of ham radio gear and other goods manufactured in Japan may soon<br />change, but its unclear if it will be up or down. This on word that Japan’s<br />economy has fallen into the worst recession in at least two decades. The last<br />time the Japanese economy contracted for three quarters straight was in 1993,<br />when it shrank at around 0.1 percent each quarter. Before that, Japan had<br />never seen even two back-to-back quarters of contraction - the usual definition<br />of a recession - since the government began keeping such records in 1980. <br />(ARNewsline(tm) from published news reports and ARNewsline(tm)interviews.)<p>**<p>EMERGING TECHNOLOGY: WSJT TAKING ON THE WORLD<p>Meantime, a new mode of operation seems to be taking Amateur Radio by storm. <br />We have reported on it before: WSJT. And it lets everyone get in on what used<br />to be the esoteric operation called meteor scatter. Q-News Graham Kemp, VK4BB,<br />looks at the way WSJT is taking on the world:<p>--<p>WSJT is a digital mode, designed specifically for meteor scatter<br />communications. It stands for Weak Signal communications by Joe Taylor K1JT. <br />Its advantage for is that it sends extremely fast in a standard SSB bandwidth<br />at 147 characters per second or about 1700 words per minute. By virtue of this<br />speed it is possible to send two call signs and a signal report in a tenth of<br />a second meteor ping.<p>The equipment to make WSJT contacts is fairly modest. A two meter SSB <br />transceiver and a computer -- a Pentium, at least 75 MHz is the main hardware <br />required. Then you need a simple PSK-31 interface box, as described in March <br />2000 AR magazine and some WSJT software. <p>An RF power output of 50 is the practical minimum, with 100 watts providing a<br />worthwhile improvement. A major advantage with WSJT is the small antenna<br />system required. A five element Yagi will do as well as a 10 element Yagi.<p>From Q-News Australia, I’m Graham Kemp, VK4BB for the Amateur Radio Newsline.<p>--<p>More information and the necessary software is at the official WSJT website. <br />Its in cyberspace at pulsar.princeton.edu/~joe/K1JT. (Q-News)<p>**<p>Break 1<p>From the United States of America, We are the Amateur Radio Newsline, heard on<br />bulletin stations around the world including the CARES repeater on 146.73 MHz<br />and serving Gulfport Mississippi.<p>(5 sec pause here)<p>**<p>ENFORCEMENT: THAT CHARGE SHOULD NEVER HAVE BEEN FILED<p>The FCC has told a Midway, Tennessee ham that his complaint about a club<br />repeater has no basis in fact:<p>--<p>Hollingsworth: “We dismissed a complaint filed by Jeffrey Bible, K4MFD, of<br />Midway Tenneseee. His complaint was against the Andrew Johnson Radio Club<br />repeater W4WC which is located on an adjacent tower.”<p>“We found that despite allegations, the W4WC repeater had not lost<br />coordination just because of a move. The move was within the coordinators<br />limits. In fact, the repeaters have been operating for years with no<br />problems.”<p>--<p>That was the FCC’s Riley Hollingsworth, K4ZDH who also says that both parties<br />are coordinated, so both will have to work together to solve any interference<br />that might arise. (FCC, RAIN)<p>**<p>ENFORCEMENT: FCC REFUSES TO INTERVENE IN ATV REPEATER DISPUTE<p>The FCC has also declined to intervene in a dispute involving two Mid-West<br />Amateur Television repeaters. One owned by a major radio club and the other by<br />an individual. The main reason. There is no coordination for ATV in the area.<br /> The FCC’s Riley Hollingsworth explains:<p>--<p>Hollingsworth: We notified Adrian Oaks, KB8GRJ, of Xenia Ohio that we would not<br />get involved in a dispute that he has with the Dayton amateur Radio Association<br />over the operation of an ATV repeater. Dayton’s repeater, W8BI, has started<br />occasionally operating on frequencies registered to Oaks. I emphasize<br />registered nor coordinated. There is no coordination program there for ATV<br />repeaters. But there’s no showing of actual interference.”<p>“DARA uses it for 20 to 45 minutes a week. It makes the repeater codes<br />available to all so that anyone receiving interference can shut off the<br />repeater. It is (also) willing to adjust operating times to accommodate other<br />ATV users.”<br />--<p>Hollingswoth says that there is no real conflict and therefore the situation<br />does not warrant any FCC enforcement action. (FCC, RAIN)<p>**<p>ENFORCEMENT: PRE OPERATION LEADS TO LICENSE SETASIDE<p>The FCC has told a newly licensed ham that his license grant has been set<br />aside. In a letter to John A Green, KG4RFI, of Mobile Alabama, the commission<br />says that it has information which indicates that he operated on the W4IAX<br />repeater and was also heard at various times on repeaters on 146.685 and<br />147.090 MHz in the Baldwin County area. The FCC says that all of these<br />transmissions were made during a time that Green did not hold am Amateur<br />service license. <p>Green was given twenty days from the date of the FCC letter to him to write<br />back and explain certain issues. This includes any instances between the<br />cancellation of his General Class license on September 14, 2001 and the grant<br />of his Technician Class license on January 24, 2002 in which he operated any<br />Amateur Radio transmitting equipment. (FCC)<p>**<p>BAMES IN THE NEWS: KD7DDG LOOSES AZ MAYORAL RACE<p>A follow-up to the story of Tim Weaver, KD7DDG, who was running for the office<br />of Mayor of Glendale Arizona. Well, the votes have been counted and Weaver was<br />not successful in his bid to oust the eight year incumbent Mayor who had the<br />backing of the firefighters union.<p>The count showed that Weaver had polled only about 24% of the votes needed. <br />Weaver says that the results were disappointing, but respectable for someone<br />outspent and out-volunteered. (RAIN)<p>**<p>NAMES IN THE NEWS: RAIN CONTINUES CLEGG RETROSPECTIVE<p>Hap Holly, KC9RP tells ius that this weeks RAIN Report is part two of a<br />retrospective look at famed ham radio pioneer Edward T. Clegg, W8LOY. This as<br />seen through the eyes of his son-in-law Rob Mc Guffie, K2HZN. Its on line<br />right now in digital streaming audio at
www.rainreport.com or analog telephone<br />audio at 827-847-7246. (RAIN)<p>**<p>NAMES IN THE NEWS: N9RLA FIRST CENTRAL DIVISION ROVER CERTIFICATE<p>Some names in the news. First is Dan Evans, N9RLA, who has taken first place<br />as a rover station in the ARRL Central Division. This in the June 2001 VHF<br />contest. Dan is from Scottsburg Indiana. (VHF Reflector)<p>**<p>NAMES IN THE NEWS: K8JAC NAMED KANAWHA HAM OF THE YEAR<p>Also, congratulations to Amateur Radio Newsline’s own Jeff Clark, K8JAC. <br />This, after being named Kanawha Valley Amateur Radio Operator of the Year 2002.<p>A ham since 1981, Clark’s Amateur Radio volunteer activities include the post<br />of Emergency Coordinator of Kanawha County, West Virginia. He is also<br />Publicity Director of the Kanawha Amateur Radio Club, editor of the clubs<br />newsletter and technical coordinator of the W8GK repeater. But thats not all. <br />The local ARES group, which Clark coordinates receives high marks from county<br />officials and is often called on to provide communications during civic events<br />and emergencies. <p>Clark received his award on Saturday, March 16th at Charleston Hamfest. <br />Another Amateur Radio Newsline anchor, Jim Damron, N8TMW, had the honor of<br />making the presentation to K8JAC. (ARNewsline(tm))<p>**<p>NAMES IN THE NEWS: WA6ITF TO SPEAK IN JOPLIN MO<p>Amateur Radio Newsline producer Bill Pasternak, WA6ITF, will be the featured<br />banquet speaker on Saturday April 13th at the Joplin Hamfest. The venue is the<br />John Q. Hammon Trade Center in Joplin Missouri. <p>Situated about halfway between Tulsa Oklahoma and Kansas City, the Joplin<br />Hamfest is a 200+ table event. It also features spacious parking with easy<br />access, wide aisles, forums, ham radio testing and prizes.<br /> <br />Interested? More information is on the web at
www.joplin-arc.org.<br />(ARNewsline(tm))<p>**<p>BREAK 2<p>Here when you need us 52 weeks a year. We are the Amateur Radio Newsline, with<br />links to the world from our only official website at
www.arnewsline.org.<p>(5 sec pause here)<p>**<p>ANNIVERSARY: HAPPY 20TH ANNIVERSARY HEIL SOUND<p>This week marks the 20th anniversary of a very special company. We are talking<br />about Heil Sound Limited. And when you talk about Heil Sound, you are really<br />talking about its founder Bob Heil, K9EID. <p>Over the years, Bob Heil has been an audio consultant, an inventor, a musician<br />and lots more. Looking back, He says that everything harkens back to his first<br />love. His hobby. Amateur Radio:<p>--<p>Heil: “It’s been an incredible ride from a little kid playing pipe organ<br />in the Fox (theater)n through playing with my Harvey-Wells and SX-99 which I<br />still have, and understanding what it took to make all of these things. <p>“Then I started building different transmitters and then started building<br />sound equipment.” <p>“We actually changed the world. We are the guys that figured out how you<br />stack and hang speakers. Why? Because I could set up a Rohn 25G (tower) and<br />hang speakers higher than anybody else because of my ham radio.”<p>--<p>After years of touring with such number one acts as the Eagles, Bob decided to<br />give something back to the hobby that had lead to his success. Thats how Heil<br />Sound Limited was born. <p>--<br />Heil: My life has evolved around 45 years of being K9EID, and I will always be<br />so grateful to everybody in this hobby for allowing me to do my thing and along<br />the way to help someone. Thats the bottom line that we are able to help<br />somebody and it makes me real happy to be able to do that.”<br />--<p>Bob is now celebrating the beginning of the company’s third decade with a<br />number of new and innovative products for every aspect of ham radio voice<br />operations. You will get to see all of them in a few weeks and meet Bob in<br />person at Hamvention 2002. (ARNewsline(tm))<p>**<p>HANDI HAMS: E-NEWSLETTER MAILING CHANGE<p>The Handi Hams says that it is changing the way in which the groups weekly<br />e-letter is being distributed in HTML format. According to Handi Hams Pat<br />Tice, WAZ0TDA, constant barrages of virus threats to Microsoft Outlook makes it<br />risky to continue maintaining the HTML list in Microsoft Outlook. So the group<br />is moving its list to a mailer called Group Mail. This says Tice will be bring<br />with it minimal risk of sending a virus to the group of HTML subscribers. The<br />text subscribers continue to receive the e-letter through Yahoo Groups.<br />(HandiHams)<p>**<p>EVENTS: 2002 WEAK SIGNAL BANQUET<p>Tom Whitted, WA8WZG, reports over the VHF Reflector that tickets are now on<br />sale for the 10th annual Weak Signal Banquet. This year the gathering will<br />again be held in Dayton Ohio on Hamvention weekend. If you are interested in<br />attending, more information is in cyberspace at
www.wa8wzg.com. (VHF<br />Reflector)<p>**<p>INTERNATIONAL - CANADA: RAC SM ELECTION RESULTS<p>From our neighbors to the North comes word that Tom Caithness, VE1GT is the<br />interim Section Manager for Canada’s Maritime Provences. He was elected for<br />a two-year term, which began March 1st. <p>Also, Derek Hay, VE4HAY was recently re-elected Section Manager in the Manitoba<br />for a two-year term snd Joe Craig, VO1NA has been re-elected Section Manager<br />for the Newfoundland and Labrador Section for a two-year term. Both take<br />office on July 1st. <p>All three ran unopposed in their respective Radio Amateurs of Canada sections. <br />This eliminated the need for a balloted election. (RAC)<p>**<p>DX<p>In D-X, the big story is of coarse Ducie Island. The VP6DI team came on the<br />air on March 17th and its was bedlam. Take a listen.<p>--<br />audio here<br />--<p>Ducie Island is a small, uninhabited atoll in the South Pacific and is part of<br />the Pitcarin Island chain. It is also among the rarest DXCC entities in the<br />world as proven by the recording you just heard. It was made in Australia by<br />VK4DX using a Kenwood TS-570D transceiver and posted to his contest website. <br />(Audio courtesy VK4DX) <p>**<p>THAT FINAL ITEM: ARDF CHAMPIONSHIPS IN ATLANTA<p>And finally this week, the calendar says that its spring and hams around the<br />country are turning to outdoor activities such as new antennas and hidden<br />transmitter hunting. Here's your chance to prove you're the best at the latter<br />activity, as Newsline's Joe Moell K0OV explains:<p>--<p>The biggest annual event in on-foot hidden transmitter hunting is early this<br />year, so time is getting short if you want to take part.<p>The Second USA ARDF Championships will be April 19-21 at Franklin Roosevelt<br />State Park near Pine Mountain, Georgia. That's about 70 miles southwest of the<br />Atlanta airport. No matter what your level of skill or experience at<br />radio-orienteering, you'll be welcome. Experts will be vying for positions on<br />Team USA as it travels to Slovakia for the World Championships later this year.<br /> Beginners will be picking up the best RDF techniques from these experts, and<br />learning how to put on similar events in their home towns.<p>The official deadline to register for the national championships is April 6,<br />but Georgia Orienteering Club urges you to let them know you're coming by March<br />29, so they can plan food for the picnic supper on Friday and the spaghetti<br />dinner on Saturday.<p>Learn more about what it's like to be in the ARDF Championships by reading<br />about last year's event in the March issue of QST, and in December and<br />January's issues of 73 Magazine. There's lots more on the subject at my Web<br />site --
www.homingin.com -- plus a link to the registration site for the Pine<br />Mountain events. That's homingin -- one word -- homingin.com<p>From sunny southern California, where we're soon having our third practice<br />session of the year to get ready for the championships, this is Joe Moell<br />K-zero-Oscar-Victor for Amateur Radio Newsline.<p>--<p>Again, that website is
www.homingin.com (K0OV)<p>**<p>NEWSCAST CLOSE<p>With thanks to Alan Labs, Amateur News Weekly, AMSAT, the ARRL, the CGC<br />Communicator, CQ Magazine, the FCC, the Ohio Penn DX Bulletin, Radio<br />Netherlands, Rain, the RSGB and Australia's Q-News, that's all from the Amateur<br />Radio Newsline(tm). Our e-mail address is newsline @arnewsline.org. More<br />information is available at Amateur Radio Newsline's(tm) only official website<br />located at
www.arnewsline.org. You can also write to us or support us at<br />Amateur Radio Newsline(tm), P.O. Box 660937, Arcadia, California 91066. <p>Before we go, a reminder that the nominating period for the 2002 amateur Radio<br />Newsline Young Ham of the Year is now open. No significant changes from last<br />year. Nominees must be 18 or younger. Full rules and an application is on our<br />website at
www.arnewsline.org.<p>For now, with Bill Pasternak, WA6ITF, at the editors desk, I'm Roy Neal, K6DUE,<br />saying 73, and we thank you for listening." Amateur Radio Newsline(tm) is<br />Copyright 2002. All rights reserved.
