::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: :: :: :: T H E W 5 Y I R E P O R T :: :: :: :: D i t s & B i t s :: :: :: :: Vol 11 #16 --- 08/15/89 :: :: :: :: HamNet Electronic Edition :: :: CompuServe's Ham/SWL Forum :: :: :: ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: Up to the minute news from the worlds of amateur radio, personal computing and emerging electronics. While no guarantee is made, information is from sources we believe to be reliable. May be reproduced providing credit is given to The W5YI Report. This HamNet Electronic Edition is a limited excerpt from the full published edition of The W5YI Report. Selected and prepared by Scott, W3VS. Commercial redistribution of this copy is prohibited. IMPORTANT Note: Some of the material included in The W5YI Report - Electronic Edition may not be suitable for transmission via Amateur Radio. In this issue: - New FCC Coming On Board - News from Project DOVE HamNet thanks Fred Maia, W5YI, for permission to excerpt this Electronic Edition of his W5YI Report. The full ten-page biweekly newsletter is available by mail for $23 per year from Fred at Dept. C, PO Box 565101, Dallas, TX 75356-5101. Samples available for a 2 stamp large SASE. : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : Do you have Amateur Radio news to contribute to The W5YI Report? If so, please call (817) 461-6443 and leave a message on Fred's recorder! : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : o Changing of the Guard at FCC: The End of an Era "The amateur radio service has never had any problem staying high on the agenda at this commission. Even those of us who are great proponents of markets, understand that there are some values that will not necessarily be accommodated in a free market... What these [amateur radio and public safety[ services have to do is come to the commission and try to make the case that they cannot be thrown to market forces, that the commission has to somehow accommodate their needs and interests. Now we will look at such requests with some skepticism. Regulated parties always want the FCC to give them stuff, like spectrum, for free, rather than have to go and buy it. The idea is you rely generally on markets, and you carefully identify those cut-outs which will not be accommodated by the market, and then you provide for them." --- Outgoing FCC Chairman Dennis Patrick, in his last press conference. "I am aware of the concern expressed by the amateur community over the FCC's [220 MHz] decision... Since the amateur community provides valuable public services, particularly in times of emergency, this decision must have been an especially difficult one to make. NTIA, in consultation with the Interdepartment Radio Advisory Committee, supported the Commission's proposal to reallocate the 220-222 MHz band to the land mobile service. It was NTIA's view that this reallocation would facilitate the development of narrowband technologies and would provide additional spectrum resources to support commercial operations. I am aware of no reason to think that the Commission decision was erroneous." --- Incoming FCC Chairman- designate Alfred Sikes, in his first official statement before the Senate Commerce Committee On Wednesday, August 2, Dennis Patrick said his farewells and exited the FCC after service the agency for the last six years ...four as its chairman. As the commission's chief spokesman and pacesetter, Patrick delighted the broadcast industry with his aggressive deregulatory policies and agitated consumer groups by changing the economics of telephone service. He granted frequency coordination monopolies to powerful trade associations, and then reversed the policy after bitter protests from mobile radio dealers. He supervised the reallocation of amateur spectrum, the rewrite of Part 97 and the establishment of new ham bands. Patrick's successor, Alfred Sikes of Missouri, may well be confirmed by the full Senate by the time you read this. Sikes, a former broadcaster and administrator of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, endured a grueling four hour confirmation hearing in the Senate on July 31. At the hearing, Democratic senators repeatedly coaxed Sikes and fellow nominees Sherrie Marshall and Andrew Barrett to distance themselves from the policies of the Patrick FCC. They generally refused to do so, but won the Commerce committee vote anyway. Although Sikes addressed Amateur Radio in his prepared statement, the key topic of the hearing was sex and violence on radio and television - and what, if anything, the three commissioners-to-be were going to do about it. Nominee Andrew Barrett noted that sex and violence are on TV and radio because "there is a market for it. We always have to keep that in mind." Barrett's statement infuriated members of the committee. Sen. Al Gore (D-TN) launched the most intense oration of the hearing. He recounted a recent broadcast of a tape containing sounds of the murder of a mother and daughter. According to Gore, it was broadcast as entertainment. He noted that the FCC has the power to destroy unauthorized stations: "If somebody else tried to broadcast on the frequency used by that businessman, you will, if necessary, dynamite the tower. And there's a market for what that broadcaster's putting on. It's becoming more and more common because there's a market for it. ...I'm not saying this for effect of news coverage. I'm telling you straight from my heart as the parent of four children: I'm sick and tired of it, and I believe that parents all across this country are tired of it. They know that there's a way to [regulate broadcasting] that's consistent with our values and traditions." "The American people want to see an FCC that enforces the law and the public interest standard. Children are part of the public. And whether it's explicit or violent, you can attract their attention and get more of the market because there's a market for it. Is it going to be more of the same or not?" Gore demanded. Sikes replied that as the owner of a rock radio station, he instructed his manager to remove "vulgar lyrics" from the station's programming. He said he declined to subscribe to MTV or HBO cable channels because he didn't want to expose his teenage daughters to the channels. He endorsed FCC action to stop programs if they are "obscene" but not if they are "indecent", prefering that broadcasters voluntarily discontinue indecent material. He did not address the programming of violence such as the murder tape. Sikes said that Supreme Court decisions preempt much broadcast content regulation. Gore disagreed. "It's not all the Supreme Court. The FCC has a lot of power, a lot of latitude, a lot of jurisdiction. Your predecessor decided not to exercise that jurisdiction because there's a market for indecency and explicitness. And because broadcasters have a right to make as much money as they can doing it, and if the public doesn't like it they can watch Nintendo instead." Barrett said he thought that anyone using the public airwaves has a higher responsibility, but he didn't know what standards the FCC had for programs. Marshall believed that the FCC had for programs. Marshall believed that the FCC should find some way to regulate "parts of this area" but that the courts keep striking down such regulations. One senator claimed that recent Federal court decisions do affirm the FCC's power to enforce rules against indecency, and in fact they allow the FCC to fight "broader" programming that goes beyond the narrow definition of obscenity. He noted that the current FCC chose not to use that power. He asked each nominee if they would enforce these rules. Each one said, simply, "Yes." Sen. Bob Packwood (R-OR) suggested that the advance of technology has eliminated the need for FCC regulation in many cases. On the other hand, committee chairman Ernest Hollings (D-SC) said that technology created the need for regulation. "The technology [of broadcasting] was so abundant that the industry pleaded for regulation -- there was jamming, interference, no one could hear anybody else. "We had to bring order out of chaos, and that created the Communications Act of 1934. So we have the rules, regulations and the laws against obscene broadcasts. But that ragamuffin commission that preceeded you said, 'Oh well, you can get obscene from midnight to four in the morning.' Garbage is garbage regardless of time of day. So Congress passed legislation to forbid obscenity over the 24- hour period." Hollings said the FCC's policies of "deregulate, deregulate, deregulate" are destroying legitimate broadcasters, discouraging minority ownership of stations and reducing the quality of programming for children. The hearing was followed by a panel of ministers and attorneys from religious and 'pro-family' organizations. The current FCC and the three nominees did not fare well before these groups. The Religious Roundtable said that when leaders learn of the "years of misdirection of the FCC under [previous chairmen] Mark Fowler and Dennis Patrick ... they will react in moral outrage." Sikes was seen by several of the groups, and by members of the Commerce committee, as a continuation of the Fowler/Patrick chairmanship. The Family Research Council said it is "frankly upset that the nominees for the FCC vacancies were chosen with absolutely no regard for our concerns. Our interest in the FCC issue was well known, yet we were completely excluded from the process. We were not even afforded the courtesy of an explanation ... it cannot escape our notice that the members of this committee have been more hospitable to our concerns than the administration that was put in place by the votes of our constituents." Most of the groups asked the committee to reject the nomination of Sikes for FCC chairman. The efforts failed; the Commerce committee voted to confirm all three nominees. If the hearing witnesses were opposed to the current FCC, at least Patrick had friends among his fellow commissioners and staff. FCC staff hosted a going-away party for Patrick, which featured a humorous videotape "roast" of the chairman and his career at the FCC. The program made fun of his high school report cards, his trademark California hairstyle and his enthusiasm for surfing and rock music. TV celebrities appearing on the video included Night Court's Harry Anderson, who instructed Patrick in how to use the gavel as a macho symbol; Entertainment Tonight's Mary Hart who urged Patrick to replace co-host John Tesh and to tell he "all about cellular telephones," and Pat Sajak of Wheel of Fortune. Sajak claimed responsibility for thinking up most of the important objectives of the FCC. He revealed that Patrick's only accomplishments were "getting free cable TV for commissioners, and appointing a blue ribbon committee to investigate why the little dot in the middle of the TV screen stays on after you turn off the set." Much was made of Patrick's often rocky relationship with a Congress upset over the FCC's broadcast, telephone and spectrum policies. In one skit, an angry Congress cuts the FCC's electric power, forcing commissioners to have meetings by candlelight. The announcement of Patrick's resignation inspires Congress to turn the lights back on. o News from Project Dove ---------------------- Thanks to DOVE education director Richard C. Ensign/N8IWJ we have the latest on the preparations for the Nov. 10 launch of the DOVE Microsat. Bob McGwier/N4HY is designing the satellite's speech software and components. After overcoming some initial problems in the circuit design using the Votrax SC-02 speech chip, DOVE first spoke on July 12. In addition to telemetry, packet data and bulletins, DOVE will retransmit digitized messages of peace from children around the world. This is called Language Arts Project (LAP) 1. The messages are uploaded by command stations. N4HY reports that digitizing children's voices presents some problems. There are high frequency components in kids' voices that the digitizing process might not catch. To make the speech clearer, sampling rates may be increased. This means that more data must be uploaded by ground stations into the satellite for a given talk time. With only 5-7 minutes of good upload time per pass, command stations will be very busy uploading LAP 1 messages. To reduce pressure on the stations, AMSAT decided to have DOVE speak one, or at most two, messages per week. The deadline for schools to submit LAP 1 messages has been extended to the launch date: Nov. 10, 1989. Unfortunately, some schools are sending tapes that do not meet criteria. Via packet, contact N8IWJ @ WA8OOJ (Livonia MI) or via mail at 421 N. Military, Dearborn, MI 48124 for information. Remaining tasks include populating flight circuit boards with components, spacecraft integration and vacuum chamber testing to simulate launch and space conditions. With all tests passed, DOVE and its companion Microsats will be transferred to the South American Atlantic coast for launch from Kourou, French Guiana. Dove will transmit on 145.825 MHz (changed from previous frequency) with an ID-Bulletin-Telemetru-Packet sequence. The ID will be in FM voice speaking the time, altitude and coordinates of the satellite. Voice bulletins will include QSL address, tracking information and LAP 1 message. Telemetry may include parameters such as temperature and battery status. Unlike other satellites which required decoding and application of formulas, DOVE will speak these readings in real time in their actual values ("Battery 11.6 volts"). Finally, a 30 second or so packet transmission may include specific school bulletins and more detailed telemetry. N8IWJ can provide an excellent school administrator's letter that explains DOVE and its many applications in the educational environment. It's a good "foot-in-the-door" for hams who want to help out the program in their local areas. To date, schools in 42 states and 17 foreign countries have gotten involved. [End this issue]