THE LIVE WIRE

A Publication of the Blue Ridge Amateur Radio Society, Inc.
October 1998  

President: William (Buddy) Rodgers-KA4END, 19 Wintergreen Ln., Taylors, SC 29687
Vice President: Mitchell Hawkins-KD4VXP, P.O. Box 41, Pelzer, SC  29669
Treasurer: Carroll Smith-WA4WYE, 202 Agewood Dr., Simpsonville, SC 29680
Secretary: John Chism-ND4N, 139 Mustang Circle, Simpsonville, SC 29681

    NOTICE: The next BRARS Inc. meeting will be on Monday evening, October 5 at our regular meeting place....Greenville Technical College ( Auditorium CE 350 ). Coffee will be ready around 7:00 PM and the meeting will start at 7:30pm.


        Amateur Radio License Restructuring: In July, the ARRL Board met and agreed to submit a proposal for license restructuring to the FCC in the form of a letter to the Commissioners. The proposal was sent because the FCC, as early as last February, had announced their intention to “Streamline Amateur Radio Service”. This proposal was discussed in our August meeting. If you want to review the ARRL rulemaking proposal, you will find it on the BRARS Inc. webpage... www.brars.org. Information about the proposal is also found on page 48 of the September QST.

    The ARRL proposal called for a reduction of license classes from 6 to 4, reduced the code speed requirements and eliminated the novice bands giving more band space to phone service. Existing Technician Plus class license would be upgraded to Class C which is the present General Class. Class D would be the “no code” class license limited to 50 MHz and higher. The Advanced Class license would be called Class B and the Extra Class would become Class A

    Response to this proposal has been both intense and mixed with many letters to QST editors, about half against and half in favor of the proposal.

    On August 10, the FCC made public their first Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) on the subject of Amateur Radio License Restructuring. This seems to be a partial proposal in that a number of important issues are not mentioned. However, the FCC does request Amateur Radio Operator input to a number of questions. Like the ARRL proposal, the FCC would reduce the number of license classes from 6 to 4. Unlike the ARRL, the FCC does not address operator frequency changes. Instead the FCC wants operator input on the subject. The FCC also wants input on code requirements including code speeds and how the test should be given. The FCC also wants input on subjects like rules enforcement and the elimination of the RACES licenses.

        Please try to read over the FCC NPRM and I am sure there will be some discussion on this subject at the next meeting. You can find condensed reviews on the NPRM on our BRARS Inc. webpage or on the ARRL webpage or go directly to the FCC webpage at www.fcc.gov ( it takes a little digging in the Wireless section to find the notice.)

    ADDED NOTE: If you go to the FCC webpage, you may also note the FCC is going electronic with most issues about licensing and replacing the Form 610 again. Don’t know how we will sign-off that we are in limits on RF emissions!!


    What Would Happen If???
At a recent computer expo (COMDEX), Bill Gates reportedly compared the
computer industry with the auto industry and stated: "If GM had kept up with technology like the computer industry has, we would all be driving twenty-five dollar cars that got 1000 miles to the gallon." In response to Bill's comments, General Motors issued a press release stating (by Mr. Welch himself): If GM had developed technology like Microsoft, we would all be driving cars with the following characteristics:

  1. For no reason whatsoever your car would crash twice a day.
  2. Every time they repainted the lines on the road you would have to buy a new car.
  3. Occasionally your car would die on the freeway for no reason,  and you would just accept this, restart and drive on.
  4. Occasionally, executing a maneuver such as a left turn, would cause your car to shut down and refuse to restart, which case you would have to reinstall the engine.
  5. Only one person at a time could use the car, unless you bought "Car95" or "CarNT." But then you would have to buy more seats.
  6. Macintosh would make a car that was powered by the sun,  reliable, five times as fast, and twice as easy to drive, but would only run on five per cent of the roads.
  7. The oil, water temperature and alternator warning lights would be replaced by a single "general car default" warning light.
  8. New seats would force everyone to have the same size butt.
  9. The airbag system would say "Are you sure?" before going off.
  10. Occasionally, and for no reason whatsoever, your car would lock you out and refuse to let you in until you simultaneously lifted the door handle, turned the key, and grab hold of the radio antenna.
  11. GM would require all car buyers to also purchase a deluxe set of Rand McNally road maps (now a GM subsidiary), even though they neither need them nor want them. Attempting to delete this option would immediately cause the car's performance to diminish by 50% or more. Moreover, GM would become a target for investigation by the Justice Department.
  12. Every time GM introduced a new model car buyers would have to learn          how to drive all over again because none of the controls would         operate in the same manner as the old car    
     
        ( Thanks to John Chism, ND4N for these words of wisdom.)

 

 
    Sunspot Activity and Radio Wave Propagation

    ( This E-mail is from Ed Grooms, K4KK )

    There is a lot of talk on amateur radio about sunspots. We all know they impact propagation, particularly on the upper HF and lower VHF bands such as 15, 12, 10, and 6 meters. But what exactly are sunspots and why do they occur?
   
Do you know that there is a "Butterfly Effect" that is associated with sunspots?

    Did you realize that there are multiple ways to count sunspots? Do you know what a sunspot number means? Many of us have heard about the 11 year cycle and know that we are in an upward cycle toward a peak in the early 21st century, but most of us do not know a lot about sunspots. A wonderfully educational look at sunspot science can be found on the Internet. From your browser, go tothe following URL: ( http://www.science.nasa.gov/ssl/pad/solar/sunspots.htm )
   
    This beats a lot of the "stuff" on the Internet as it is truly a well done and highly informational site.
   
        Editor’s note: I had some problems with my browser while trying to follow up on Ed’s suggestions. I cut the URL back to http://www.science.nasa.gov/  and got to the home page. From there I clicked sunspots and found a very interesting area on sun activity. One specific section stood out. This section was dealing with solar wind and I quote: “Solar winds stream off the sun in all directions at speeds of 400 km/sec. or about 1,000,000 miles per hour.” Even at these speeds, it takes several days for solar activity to travel to Greenville SC.


    Proper Operating Procedures:

        Editors Note: Most of us have tuned around on 80 meter or monitored VHF repeaters and have been shocked by some of the crude conversation going on. It seems that the operators are from two schools: those that don’t know any better and those that know better but don’t care. There is little we can do about those that don’t care. We have to put up with them because the FCC’s ability to enforce our rules and regulation are greatly reduced due to reduced budgets and the growth of other communication activities that take up FCC resources. The FCC, in the resent proposal related to Amateur Radio, has stated that they will seek comments on ideas to improve the enforcement process as they relate to Amateur Radio. ARRL will certainly provide input. Our ideas will certainly be heard.

    We can do something about the group that doesn’t “know any better”. We can do that by offering guidelines through our club to teach “good operating procedures. One of our members has taken a cut at that problem and provided the following comments. Please take the comments as they are intended....to improve the quality of Amateur Radio. The member that provided the comments does not intend to insult anyone.


Operating Practices

There are a lot of new amateur radio licenses and consequently a lot of new amateur radio operators. For the first time in many years, amateur radio is growing. There are good and there are bad things associated with growth. One problem that is coming forward is that the FCC is starting to view amateur radio as a hobby instead of as a service. This can be particularly problematic when valuable frequency allocations are being sought by many concerns such as cellular phones, paging systems, TV, etc. It is critical to the continued success of amateur radio that we be viewed as a SERVICE.

One thing I notice more and more on the air is poor operating. Poor operating leads to poor operating habits. Habits are difficult to break and it is extremely important that we try to avoid bad ones. There are lots of things that seem to be rearing ugly heads as problems.

Vile, foul, vulgar, and downright lurid language. We have all been known to push the envelope a little with jokes and double entendre. However, what I have been hearing is far beyond double entendre. The “seven little words” so popularized by George Carlin are rampant.

The use of “we” for “I”. When you are talking on a radio as a person, you are “I” or “me”, not “we” or “us”. This is more prevalent on VHF than on HF for some reason. When alone in a car, it is, “We are on our way to our work QTH.” Why would you not say, “I am on my way to work”?

Overuse of Q signals on voice. There is no reason to use most Q signals on voice. They were developed for Samuel Morse’s code. There is usually no reason to use them on voice. Some of this grew out of CB where everyone thought there had to be a lingo and you had to use it to be accepted.

Suffixes only. This grew out of the “list lizard” approach to working DX on HF where some self anointed master of ceremonies feeds his own ego by hand feeding DX stations to others. In order to avoid being accused of spoon feeding callsigns, they would identify only the last two letters. The FCC gave each of us a full callsign consisting of a prefix, a number, and a
suffix. Use the whole callsign. Less is illegal.

Ignoring breaking stations. When breaking stations break in with the accepted use of a full callsign, they should be immediately given the opportunity to speak. To say that, “the breaking station is acknowledged,” and continue on is not only rude, it can be disastrous. There is a very real possibility that there is a need for an emergency communication. That is one reason that there is a courtesy beep on the local club repeaters. If you feel that you must go ahead and finish your transmission, the least you should do is ask, “WK4XYZ can you wait just a minute and I will turn it to you?”

Technical misdirection: All amateur operators are required to pass a semi- technical test. That does not qualify any of us as experts. I am shocked by the number of times I hear very inaccurate information that is often dangerous and at best confusing. If you don’t really know what you are talking about, just keep quiet. I have “learned” from VHF that a dipole will not work on 10 meters and you can increase the deviation on an FM transceiver to increase power!! Both of these are totally wrong. I heard that you cannot work DX on 75/80 meters, too. There are a lot of DX stations that would have to disagree.

Tiptoeing around things that you can do. It is legal to be legal!! You don not have to avoid facts. If someone asks where you work, you can answer.  That is personal information. You can decline to answer if you wish. But do not blame it on wanting to avoid any commercialization. That is not
commercialization, it is personal. You can say that you are going to play golf at Carolina Springs. You do not have to say that you are playing on a course out off of Scuffletown Road.

Codes and ciphers. Part 97 of the FCC Rules and Regulations specifically prohibits codes and ciphers other than those commonly used and available to all. Asking your friend to go to “channel 3” is illegal. It is a code that is not available to others. You should simply invite your friend to go to
your chat frequency or use real language and say to change to 145.55 simplex.



Minutes of the 9/14/98 Club Meeting

John E. Chism, ND4N
Secretary, BRARS Inc.

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©1998 Blue Ridge Amateur Radio Society, Inc.