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 Now, we continue the long list of FCC historic spectrum management mistakes that began with Part 1 of this blog series. 6. Nextel (1990s). Back when it all began they were known as “Fleetcall,” but their real intention became apparent with the re-naming of the company after a few years. Their mission: to construct a [...]  LBA Group has asked the Federal Communications Commission to speed up broadband deployment by promoting wireless antenna collocation on AM towers. How? By cutting local red tape for collocations and halving the annual AM fee for station owners who allow use of their towers. The Sept. 30 filing in WC Docket No. 11-59 is LBA’s [...]  Knowledge is power. More to the point, knowledge of radio frequency energy is the surest way for a wireless worker to protect himself from being exposed to dangerous levels of RF radiation. LBA Group, in cooperation with university educators, has developed the OSHA RF awareness course with certificate of completion so that wireless tower workers [...] The Curmudgeon, having been licensed in the Amateur Radio Service for more than fifty years, has had a long-standing desire to attend the nation’s premiere annual ARS convention, the Dayton Hamvention. However many small, niggling practical matters, such as employment, family, and funding have always created road blocks. Now in full retirement and well along [...]  Chris Horne, LBA Group, Inc. CTO, will be moderating a free webinar on PIM: Passive Intermodulation sponsored by the WCAI Engineering committee. The speaker will be Ray Butler, Vice President – Base Station Antenna Products and Development at CommScope. PIM has become increasingly important with the explosion of wireless data services and the increasing need [...]  Recent legal cases between some wireless carriers and manufacturers of signal boosters also known as handset amplifiers have moved the FCC to issue a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) to address interference concerns by the mobile operator. The FCC initiated the proceeding to “facilitate the development and deployment of well-designed signal boosters” In the proceeding, [...] In this series of posts we are looking at the telecommunications technology available to the average consumer in the year 1960 and comparing it with what exists today. We will perhaps be able to see some of the changes in daily life that the technological advances of the past fifty years have brought, as a [...] 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 [...] 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 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. [...] 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. [...]  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 [...]  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 [...]  In response to the last blog posting, a San Diego Amateur radio operator kindly forwarded to the Curmudgeon the enclosed photograph and some of his observations of the monster residential ham antenna that set off the furor with the city government. The enclosed photo shows the situation on the ground there. For identification, this antenna [...] The Curmudgeon has received word about and has done a little investigating on an evolving issue. It’s the sort of thing that has to make you scratch your head and wonder just exactly where we have taken ourselves. It’s the kind of matter that causes you to feel a bit queasy inside. We’re back for [...] |
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