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 “Whatever happened to HF radio?” (No, not HD radio, HF radio!). “High Frequency” radio flourished back in the days before “radio” became “wireless,” when perhaps it was better known as “shortwave radio!” And if you are old enough, the term “shortwave” can still conjure up some half-forgotten memories. Of crackling news broadcasts from far away [...] Last time we began a discussion about some of the factors (mostly human-created) which could limit the future usability of the RF spectrum. The first two were spectrum-use saturation and the spread of poorly-designed, RF-radiating digital devices. In this post we’ll conclude the Curmudgeon’s list with three more possible factors, and then toss it open [...]  The GORC Morse Telegraph Special Event celebrates the first successful demonstration of the telegraph in the US at the Speedwell Iron Works on January 6th, 1838. “On January 6th, 1838 an event occurred that would change the world as we know it today. On January 6th, 1838, Alfred Vail, Samuel Morse and a boy named [...]  Greetings and best wishes for this Holiday Season to our friends and customers worldwide. During 2010, our staff members have been fortunate to visit with many of you around the globe, and they extend their personal greetings to you and your associates. May all of you have peace and prosperity in the coming year! Lawrence [...] The recent series of posts dealing, in part, with the future of the Amateur Radio Service launched the Curmudgeon’s thinking into a new direction. Being a “philosopher dude” kind of guy whose thoughts tend to move toward larger and more futuristic issues, the Curmudgeon generalized his thinking to consider the future prospects for the entire [...]  Back in March we made a post introducing the FCC Spectrum Dashboard which at the time was being beta tested. Now the site has been upgraded and officially taken out of beta! The dashboard adds a sense of transparency into how America’s spectrum is being used. In the FCC’s words: “The Spectrum Dashboard allows new [...] Last time we looked at the consequences of a broadcast channel allocation matter in which a small, analog Low Power TV station was displaced from its high UHF channel assignment in Pleasantville (a medium-size city located near Gotham City, a regional metropolis) by the FCC’s re-allocation of its existing LPTV channel to the new 700 [...]  The 101st Annual Radio Club of America Awards Banquet will be Friday, November 19th at the Park Central Hotel in New York. This one-day event will include a cocktail party at 5:30 p.m. followed by dinner at 6:30 p.m. Several Radio Club of America members will be receiving awards this year: Donald C. Cox PhD [...] There is an article in the October 2010 issue of IEEE Spectrum (p. 26), “The Great Spectrum Famine.” It makes much the same case as does the Curmudgeon, but from more general considerations and a bit higher level. The Curmudgeon said: “It really doesn’t say much that we don’t already know, and I don’t really [...] Compilation of Responses From the Broadcast “BC” Email List Service run by Barry Mishkind September 2010 Main Topic: Three phase or Single phase Secondary Topic: Safety regarding transmitter site AC service An opening thread asked if spending $10k for 3 phase power or 1 phase at no installation cost was worth it. FPL (Florida Power [...]  In a unanimous decision Thursday, the FCC opened up TV white spaces spectrum for use by unlicensed devices, while reserving two channels for wireless microphones. The Commission rejected arguments that white space broadband use was uncontrollable and threatened over-the-air TV. The FCC voted 5-0 on rules for that move. The FCC believes these guidelines could [...]  The Wireless History Foundation (WHF) announced four individuals to be inducted into the Wireless Hall of Fame, including Raymond C. Trott, RF engineering pioneer and founder of Trott Communications Group. Lawrence Behr said on Facebook: “Friend and colleague Ray Trott inducted into Wireless hall of fame – congrats Ray!” On October 5th, 2010, the new [...] This is a tale of two cities and a case of monumentally stupid broadcast regulation by the FCC that has afflicted their region of the country. The story in Part I will make a small point, but one which has larger ramifications that will be developed in Part II. The Curmudgeon lives in a mid-sized [...] In this final part of the series, the Curmudgeon looks backwards (with just a little nostalgia) at the ARS of fifty years ago as a reference point for today’s Service and notes that, even then, it was not a perfect society. And he gazes into a well-clouded crystal ball and hazards a few guesses about its future. [...]  President Obama’s multi-billion-dollar proposal to give every home broadband access seems to be a campaign without a constituency. This is not the first time administration efforts seem guided by something other than a groundswell of consensus. The administration has directed that $7.2 billion in stimulus fund grants target the broadband upgrade effort, declaring that universal [...]  This isn’t really news. President Obama signed a Presidential Memorandum on June 8, 2010 entitled Unleashing the Wireless Broadband Revolution. This committed the federal government to find an available 500 MHz of federal and commercial spectrum over the next 10 years for reallocation to broadband. The President said that this spectrum will foster investment, economic growth and help create hundreds of thousands of jobs by meeting the “burgeoning demand” for mobile and fixed broadband, other “high-value uses” and benefits for other industries. Currently, wireless companies have about 534 megahertz allotted to them. That number will double in the next ten years, apparently. [...] In the previous post, the Curmudgeon looked at the first of the two major sociological changes that, in his opinion, have occurred in the Amateur Radio Service during the past fifty years: the “dumbing down” and “consumerization” of the ARS. In this post he examines the second major change. This other change, the Curmudgeon suggests, is the ascendency of ARS operators’ ego as a principal organizing force. It has changed the Service during the past half-century, and not for the better. There are several ways in which this trend manifests itself today. [...]  We reported in a previous post on the zombie satellite Galaxy 15 that went rogue on April 5th about the potential interference this “zombie satellite” could cause, at the time with AMC 11. This time, roughly 35,000 people in rural Alaska may experience problems caused by the zombie satellite. They may lose Internet access, long-distance phone service or both for periods of 90 minutes to as long as 5.5 hours between Wednesday August 11th and Saturday August 14th. [...] It’s not been the Curmudgeon’s intention to devote appreciable coverage to the Amateur Radio Service (ARS) in these blog postings. A majority (perhaps most) of today’s telecommunications professionals are no longer licensed hams, although in past decades they most likely would have been. However, two recent personal events again brought the ARS into focus. In the first, earlier this year the Curmudgeon (today an Amateur Extra Class licensee) celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of earning his first ARS license, which was the (former entry-level) Novice class ticket. The second event was receipt of a gift of some computer CD-ROMS containing sets of page image files for the historic 1930 through 1959 issues of QST Magazine (the principal ham journal, published by the American Radio Relay League). [...]  Comments are now closed on the FCC Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) to overhaul antenna-related rules, which covers Part 17 on construction, lighting, and marking. Comments were due by July 20th and the deadline for replies is August 19th. A lot of our readers and clients already own AM broadcast antennas or if you own any kind of antenna structure or are expecting to build one, hopefully you have already contacted the FCC and made your suggestions, as this opportunity does not come along often. [...] The US economy, juiced by the national popular culture, is about to commit another major telecommunications blunder! The title of this piece gives a clue to it. Since there is no way to stop or to prevent the developing blunder, it might be of some use at least to understand what we are doing. American [...]  Apparently believing the old Brylcreem advertising slogan “A Little Dab’ll Do Ya,” Canadian proponents of the digital audio broadcasting (DAB) technology relied on a few stations in major markets across the country to spread the word. It didn’t work. The Canadian Broadcast Corp. has announced it is shutting down DAB digital transmitters in Montreal, a [...] Within the developing utility Smart Grid universe, this time we’ll look at some special concerns about the customer-centric Advanced Metering Initiative area. Here the deck is stacked entirely against the consumer. First, the consumer will have to pay the costs for implementing the Initiative; in California alone, the costs just for replacing a significant portion [...] Last time we introduced the new buzzword term, the utility Smart Grid, provided a quick overview of the concept-undergoing-creation, and noted that doubts exist whether the utility industry can successfully implement it. Now let’s spend a little time examining those doubts as they relate to the utility-centric side of the Smart Grid effort. The first [...] The FCC requires that all 2600 MHz band BRS and EBS broadband licensees who would must demonstrate that they provide “substantial service” to actual customers no later than May 1, 2011. Failure to meet this requirement will result in forfeiture of the license and the licensee will be ineligible to regain it. Various “safe harbors” [...] There is a new “next great thing” concept now moving through the land, undergoing promotion in the popular press and probably destined to be a future concern (and cost burden) to the citizens of the United States. That term is “Smart Grid.” And it’s a term that would be much easier to deal with if, [...]  Transmitters are the target of copper thieves once again, this time the target was a high-voltage television transmitter at KMBC in Kansas City. The copper thieves managed to temporarily knock KMBC off the air for some Kansas City viewers, but within an hour KMBC had switched to an auxiliary transmitter with less power than the [...] The Galaxy 15 satellite that was knocked out by a solar storm on April 5th (but is somehow still transmitting) has been slowly drifting towards the AMC 11 satellite and was expected to drift into the orbit of AMC 11 around May 23rd. Since these 2 satellites operate on the same frequencies, there was expected [...]  Some wildlife conservationists and communications industry members have reached an understanding about how to start giving migrating birds safer flights when they take wing in the vicinity of wireless and broadcast towers. In a memorandum submitted this month (May) to the Federal Communications Commission, the ad hoc group recommended the FCC develop interim standards on [...] |
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