From wang!elf.wang.com!ucsd.edu!info-hams-relay Sat Mar 9 18:09:54 1991 remote from tosspot Received: by tosspot (1.63/waf) via UUCP; Sat, 09 Mar 91 17:43:17 EST for lee Received: from somewhere by elf.wang.com id aa23481; Sat, 9 Mar 91 18:09:52 GMT Received: from ucsd.edu by uunet.uu.net with SMTP (5.61/UUNET-primary-gateway) id AA22947; Sat, 9 Mar 91 10:50:21 -0500 Received: by ucsd.edu; id AA13132 sendmail 5.64/UCSD-2.1-sun Sat, 9 Mar 91 04:30:18 -0800 for nixbur!schroeder.pad Received: by ucsd.edu; id AA13124 sendmail 5.64/UCSD-2.1-sun Sat, 9 Mar 91 04:30:14 -0800 for /usr/lib/sendmail -oc -odb -oQ/var/spool/lqueue -oi -finfo-hams-relay info-hams-list Message-Id: <9103091230.AA13124@ucsd.edu> Date: Sat, 9 Mar 91 04:30:12 PST From: Info-Hams Mailing List and Newsgroup Reply-To: Info-Hams@ucsd.edu Subject: Info-Hams Digest V91 #203 To: Info-Hams@ucsd.edu Info-Hams Digest Sat, 9 Mar 91 Volume 91 : Issue 203 Today's Topics: Amiga Morse Code Tutor ARRL SSB Contest from W3LPL Multi-Multi Info-Hams Digest V91 #199 Mailing lables MAJOR SOLAR FLARE ALERT - 07 MARCH Re: Data Packet Radio Might be Censored After FCC Citation Send Replies or notes for publication to: Send subscription requests to: Problems you can't solve otherwise to brian@ucsd.edu. Archives of past issues of the Info-Hams Digest are available (by FTP only) from UCSD.Edu in directory "mailarchives/info-hams". We trust that readers are intelligent enough to realize that all text herein consists of personal comments and does not represent the official policies or positions of any party. Your mileage may vary. So there. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: 9 Mar 91 00:36:54 GMT From: hpl-opus!hpspdra!paulz@hplabs.hpl.hp.com (Paul Zander) Subject: Amiga Morse Code Tutor To: info-hams@ucsd.edu Try the "Fish" disks of Public Domain software. Somewhere around #200 or 300 there is one which reads a text file and generates Morse code at a specified speed. Of course, you need some text files... Paul AA6PZ ------------------------------ Date: 8 Mar 91 15:19:01 GMT From: hpfcso!jayk@hplabs.hpl.hp.com (Jay Kesterson) Subject: ARRL SSB Contest from W3LPL Multi-Multi To: info-hams@ucsd.edu Subject: Info-Hams Digest V91 #199 To: From: Larry Jack ....question concerning having a scanner in a car in Michigan.... Conditional, General, Extra Class licenses.... Most, if not all of us are acutely interested in the technical side of (ham) radio. But how many have paid attention to the historical aspects, the why-we- are-where-we-are part of this hobby(?)? Since so little of this history is recorded, it is the duty of us OF's to pass it along to the rising generations of new hams. It is not that I am that old, its just that I've had my license for +28 years so I have seen a few more things than many. Call this a Personal History of Ham Radio in the U.S.- Part One *The Licenses* Back in the very early 1950's (when I was very young, by the way) the FCC restructured the Amateur Servc. to the include the 3 common licenses we know today: The Novice, Technican and General. For history pre '50' consult a real OF. The old (then) Advanced class liceses of the pre 50's era were grand fathered, and at some point the Extra Class license was introduced. But neither of these licenses had any more priv. to them than the (then) new General class license. I can imagine the screams and the nashing of teeth that this 'cheaping' of the Service must have produced, but it was done and surpringly the world still revolved. Point to remember... The Extra Class license was nothing more than an ego boost, a Government sponsored way to show you knew more about ham radio than the run of the mill new General. And the Advance chaps were just Grandfathers. The Extra did have a nice cert- ificate appearance unlike the other computer cards of the other classes, tho... The Novice license was much the same them as today- miserable little slivers of HF spectrum for young kids to chirp out CW contacts to each other on 75W (input) crystal controlled transmitters. No VFO were allowed. The license was good for 1 year and not renewable. It was move up or move out. Surprisingly, by todays standards, they did have 2 meter allocations- 2 meter 'phone- from 145-147MHZ (or Mc's, as we called them then). For some it was glorious year of 2-meter 'phone, and like the all-too-brief life of a May fly, they expired, never to renew (translated as this as Upgrade) or be heard from again! Alas... They had a very distinct callsign, WN, KN or in some rare cases WV prefixes. When a novice upgraded, the N or V was dropped. Depending on the callsign area and the station licenses issued, they could end up with 1X3 (K#***) or the N (or V) would be replaced by an A, or B (WB#***). Everyone knew a Novice and those that chose to treat them as some lesser life form could readily identify them as inferiors. Time changes few things... To oper. HF a Tech could hold a Novice license. Many did-with 2 callsigns. The original Technican license was, as today, an license of consession. Neither fish nor fowl, it still remains the license everyone one tolerates, modifies, slings mud at and restricts. The original, like the Novice, was a "Mail-Order" license- ie, a voluteer examiner. Allegations of cheating just went with the license, and no Tech was ever thought totally clean. But there were really two types of Techs... the Tech and the Tech(C)...Or Tech Conditional. If you went all the way into the big city to take the General- you had to go to the FCC offices, and if you failed, could only return after waiting 30 days- and DID fail the Code, they often let you take the test at a reduced speed for the Technican. The written test was the same, both the General and Tech were identical. Paper and pencil test- hard little cusses too, no memorizing guide books for those Hams! Those that passed the FCC-given exam got a regular license, all the mail-order guys got a " (C) " beside their license. This meant you could, at any time, be called into an FCC office and retested- just in case it was true and you did cheat on the volunteer exam. A license of compromise, the original Techs had "...All frquencies, power etc. above 220 Mc." Just great! Think what 220 is like today..imagine this in 1955! It was later modified to include 6 meters, and later 145-147 Mc. (Notice, the same as the Novices.... historically these two have always been connected, even back then. Remember too, that the only real difference between Tech and General then was 8 WPM (5 v.s. 13) The license was renewable, every 5 years, and the call signs were the same as Generals. Back then, all callsigns were issued in sequence, no special classes like today, so an Extra could have a 2X3 call while a Tech could have a 1X3. You could tell how long someone was a ham by their callsign, and the 1X2's were the oldtimers. I mentioned a Conditional class of the Technican; there was a Conditional Class for the General- called just that- Conditional. Orginally this was for anyone living more than 75 miles from an FCC office (those pre-Interstate days travelling was harder, I guess) Later this was tightened up to 175 miles, which pretty well excluded anyone in the lower 48 States. Same as the General license, but subject to recall and retesting. When the VEC programs were begun this license was grandfathered to the regular General class (as were the Tech's- to a regular Tech's) In the mid 1960's the American Radio Relay League lobby'd the FCC to clean up ham radio. They proposed and got what was to become known as Incentive Licensing. Ask any of your ARRL officers just what a great deal this was...Incentive license with a vengence! It took away major privels. from all license classes, and "gave them back when you up graded." Now you know where the Advanced (remember, these grand- fathers) and the Extra's (those Super hams- all dressed up but no where to go) come in. And hence the present day license structure. The higher your qualifications, the better the frequencies you got. Keep in mind, though, that unlike grandfathering, this took away and made you re-earn. A BIG difference. Ham radio is just now recovering from the "Incentive Licensing" flop of the '60's. For many it was a gross insult, to have to be retested. Many hams dropped out, fewer new ones joined, thing stagnated for years. While commerical interests eyed the ham frequencies, the ranks were thinning. The status of ham radio would be much different today if there were 2.5 million hams instead of the 0.5. Many still think this is due to the ARRL Incentive Plan. Look in the 25 Years Ago Sections in QST, and you won't find much even mentioned about this dark period in American Hamdom. An aside to the ARRL- they did not recognize Techs and Novices as "Real" ham back into the good old days. Full membership was reserved for General Class and above. No Mail-Order Space Cadets need apply. I think this history has gone on long enough. This hasn't had much to do with operating mobile in Michigan, but I had fun recalling (and calming my blood pressure) those Halcyon days. Things are so much better today. Larry Jack KL7GLK / V77LJ Of course this history is seen thru may own eyes, and as an OF, you younger squirts will just have put up with its interpretation. I welcome anyone elses... ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 8 Mar 91 08:45:34 EST From: skitch@NADC.NADC.NAVY.MIL (M. Squicciarini) Subject: Mailing lables To: info-hams@ucsd.edu Does anyone know of a program to print lables on a HP laser jet printer. I would like to print several different address at one time. 73 -- marty -- nr3z skitch@nadc.navy.mil ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 9 Mar 1991 03:47:42 -0500 From: oler@HG.ULeth.CA (CARY OLER) Subject: MAJOR SOLAR FLARE ALERT - 07 MARCH To: info-hams@ucsd.edu -- MAJOR SOLAR FLARE ALERT -- MARCH 08, 1991 Flare Event Summary Potential Impact Forecast -------- MAJOR ENERGETIC EVENT SUMMARY Region 6538 continues to be extremely active. It spawned three M-class flares on 08 March as well as one major flare. This region has exhibited tremendous spot growth over the past 24 hours. The region, now located at S25E47 (at 00 UT on 09 March), covers an area of 2,400 million square kilometers encompassing a total of 63 spots (and increasing). The region contains significant shear and high magnetic gradients configured as a type Beta-Gamma magnetic group. This region extends 27 angular degrees. The most noteworthy event of 08 March was the impressive class X1.7/2B major Tenflare which began at 20:25 UT, peaked at 20:30 UT and ended at 20:34 UT. Although this flare was not of long duration, it produced a very significant 91,000 s.f.u. radio burst at 245 MHz and was also accompanied by a strong 2,700 s.f.u. Tenflare which lasted 14 minutes. This flare is suspected of having produced a SID/SWF for approximately 30 minutes, but this has not yet been confirmed. No sweeps were observed from this event. The location of this flare was S24E43. POTENTIAL TERRESTRIAL IMPACT FORECAST No significant terrestrial impacts are expected from todays major class X1.7/2B flare. However, Region 6538 is now within range to produce moderate geophysical impacts. By 10 March, major flaring will be capable of inflicting potentially high terrestrial impacts such as major geomagnetic and auroral storming (depending on the flare characteristics). The potential for proton activity and PCA activity will increase beginning on 11 March. Major flaring is expected to continue. Major M-class flares are likely. Isolated X-class flares may also be expected. Numerous minor M-class flares can also be expected. Flare sizes could reach an optical category 3B with accompanying major SID's/SWF's of long duration (exceeding 40 to 60 minutes). Geomagnetic storming may occur over the next 24 to 48 hours over the high latitudes in response to the major flaring which took place on 07 March. Storming could become sustained at minor storm levels with possible isolated bursts of major storming. Middle latitudes should remain mostly active, although there is a slight risk for some brief periods of minor geomagnetic storming over the middle and low latitudes. Polar and auroral radio paths will become more disturbed over the next 48 hours if the higher latitudes do become affected by the flare events of 07 March. Signals passing through the polar and/or auroral zones will likely suffer from moderate to strong fading and absorption. As a side note, another Stratospheric Warming Alert has been issued. Stratospheric warming has occurred over eastern Siberia. Stratospheric temperatures over that area have increased by more than 30 degrees over the past week. Watch for future major flare alerts and possible geomagnetic storm warnings for middle latitudes. ** End of Alert ** ------------------------------ Date: 8 Mar 91 21:03:50 GMT From: hpda!hpcupt1!holly@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU (Jim Hollenback) Subject: Re: Data Packet Radio Might be Censored After FCC Citation To: info-hams@ucsd.edu The point that the FCC was using to bring the fines against the node operators is that the amateur service is not to be used for commercial applications. The message that was post was clearly a commercial message. It advertised a 900 number. This is a clear violation of 97.113(a). Secondly, the distribution was 'ALL', which in effect made it a broadcast. The message fell outside the limits of 97.3(a)(23) and therefore made a violatoion of 97.113(c). 97.113(c) states that the amateur service can not be used for broadcasting. So the message violated the no broadcasting rule and violated the no commercial message rule. The sticky part of the stick is that there is NO exemption in the rules for the operators of a store-and-forward station. By agreement in PR-85-105 the FCC agreed that the screening of the messages at the entry point would prevent the retransmission of inappropiate messages. Also in this agreement was the necessary trail of accountability. The Commision was clearly concerned about the unsupervised transmissions of third party traffic in this Memorandum Opinion and Order. Granted that there were no doubt a number of previous messages that would fall into this catagory little was done because they did not come to the attention of the FCC. The FCC office that initiated the action was the Virginia Beach office, which is in the Norfork-Portsmouth metropolitian area. This is a MAJOR navy town on the east coast. The fact that the message was for a anti-war movement probably is what brought it to the attention of the FCC. In the case of a person using a telephone to perform illegal activities, the phone company is NOT responsible because their mission in life is to provide unlimited, public access to there network FOR PROFIT. In short, they provided the service required of them so they can not be held responsible. It seems to me that by PR-85-105 the operator of a store and forward station is REQUIRED to screen all incomming message to insure that the retransmission of inappropiate third party, messages from non-amateur stations, or commercial messages can not occur. I did not say I agree with it, BUT these are the rules by which we have to play the game. I have a feeling the incident is far from over ... film at 11. 73, Jim, WA6SDM holly@hpcupt1.cup.hp.com not occur. ------------------------------ End of Info-Hams Digest ******************************