March 2005 - arrl-odv - reflector.arrl.org

[arrl-odv:11985] Re: CITI workshop on Alternative Broadband Platforms
by W3KD＠aol.com 21 Mar '05

21 Mar '05

In a message dated 3/21/2005 1:36:09 PM Eastern Standard Time, dsumner(a)arrl.org writes: > In short, it was an interesting and I believe a productive day although I > don’t think Brett Kilbourne likes me any better now than he did before. > > Dave Sumner, K1ZZ > > Sweet! Dave, you lucky dog. I would rather have Brett Kilbourne hate me than hit the lottery. Shows we are getting someplace. Nice metaphor for BPL, also: donkey offal. Chris

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[arrl-odv:11984] CITI workshop on Alternative Broadband Platforms
by Sumner, Dave, K1ZZ 21 Mar '05

21 Mar '05

Last Friday, March 18, the Columbia Institute for Tele-Information (CITI) at Columbia University held a workshop on "Alternative Broadband Platforms: Can They Compete With Fiber Optics? Where?" The Director of CITI is Eli Noam, KE2PN. CITI held its first workshop on BPL (then called PLC) in February 2002 and has held several more since then. Last Friday's was the first in which we were invited to participate. The workshop was not limited to BPL, but the morning session was devoted to the topic. There were about 70 people in attendance. I don't know how to characterize the participants; I think most of them were involved in some aspect of broadband telecommunications, although there were also a number of academics and students. The first speaker was Walter Adams, Vice President of ComTek, the company that took over the Manassas franchise after the first franchisee failed to deliver (which he didn't mention). ComTek is a telecommunications company, not a BPL company, and Adams was careful to stress that in their view BPL is like a golf club that you'd like to have in your bag but wouldn't use for every shot. They also do wireless, and sometimes wireless is a better solution. He acknowledged that the power grid was not invented to deliver broadband signals and that BPL was not the answer for rural areas. He talked quite a bit about the internal benefits of BPL to the utility rather than of the retail broadband business. Manassas is a 10-square-mile area where 82% of the electric lines are underground. There are 15,000 electric utility customers with an average of 7.5 per transformer. He said that as of now about 7,000 customers have access to BPL, up from 2,000 in December, and they expected nearly everyone to have access by the end of April. The basic service is 500 kbps in both directions for $28.95 per month. Adams said they now have 300 subscribers and are adding 100 per month with about a 10% "take rate" after 3 or 4 months. The next speaker was Joe Cufari, Vice President of Business Development, Current Communications Group. They're working with Cinergy in Cincinnati, and Cufari claimed they had "several thousand customers on line" there. He talked quite a bit about customer service and the need to deliver a good "gaming experience," especially for violent interactive video games that require short latency. He also talked about the internal benefits of BPL for utilities. The third speaker was Brett Kilbourne, Director of Regulatory Services for UPLC. Brett was there to address internal use of BPL by utilities and BPL standards, so the first part of his talk covered much the same ground as the previous speakers. He talked a little about various standards bodies, including ARRL involvement through IEEE, and industry initiatives to develop standards (which brought mind the old saying, "The nice thing about standards is that there are so many to choose from"). A question later in the session revealed that there are no industry standards for the internal utility applications. I was next. My entire focus was on radio interference and what it meant for the business case for BPL. In his introductory remarks Eli Noam had said that you could view the workshop as addressing the question, "Do you feed your old mule vitamins or do you get a new truck?" So, I began by saying that I was there to talk about the byproduct of feeding the mule. The text I prepared is attached. I didn't read it precisely as written, but I covered the same ground and showed a 30-second video prepared by Gary Pearce, KN4AQ, at my request showing the interference in Briarcliff Manor. I also distributed an updated version of our BPL leave-behind and a copy of my October 2002 QST editorial. The final speaker on the panel was Rahul Tongia, Ph.D., of Carnegie Mellon University. It was a special pleasure for me to meet Dr. Tongia, as I have quoted him often and have referred to his August 2003 paper, "Promises and False Promises of PowerLine Carrier (PLC) Broadband Communications - A Techno-Economic Analysis." He noted that this group had been talking about PLC/BPL for three years, and that BPL didn't have much traction in terms of actual subscribers after all that time. He pointed out that BPL was a shared medium with insufficient bandwidth to deliver video, and questioned whether BPL could ever deliver enough bandwidth for the market since it was inherently a noisy, lossy medium (he said BPL systems had losses of between 10 and 40 dB per km). The present focus of his BPL research is on "smart metering" and other internal utility applications for which less bandwidth is necessary (i.e. it could be done at LF without impacting HF). I fielded two questions from the audience. One was about whether we had any active interference complaints, which gave me the opportunity to say that we had just filed complaints earlier in the week against the Irving, TX and Briarcliff Manor, NY systems. The second was about Corridor Systems, which uses the power line as a travelling wave transmission line; I said that did not raise the same interference concerns as did what the FCC defines as "Access BPL." Commenting on the presentations, Prof. Christian Hogendorn of Wesleyan University questioned the wisdom of using BPL for internal applications since if the power line goes down you've lost your communication -- at precisely the time you need it the most. He noted that one advantage of BPL was that the bandwidth was symmetric -- i.e. it was the same in both directions -- but he didn't see how BPL's latency would be lower than other media and "latency will be a huge issue" not just for gaming but also for VoIP. Just before the lunch break, Hon. Thomas Dunleavy, Commissioner, NY Public Service Commission spoke about NARUC's BPL Task Force and Report which was released in February. He said the basic theme was that "Traditional regulation should not be applied to this nascent technology." However, he also said that he doesn't think "BPL is a telecommunications play" right now. The luncheon speaker was Alan Scrime, Chief, Policy & Rules Division, of the FCC's Office of Engineering & Technology. He talked mostly about wireless broadband and what the FCC had done recently to facilitate it. Of interest to me was that when he hooked up his laptop to the projector, one of the icons on his desktop read something like "ImlayLetter_briarcliff2.doc." The afternoon session did not have to do with BPL, but it was interesting to hear about wireless alternatives to fiber. GigaBeam Corp. uses 70/80/90 GHz for "WiFiber" point-to-point links of up to one mile under FCC Part 101; Terabeam Wireless uses "Free-Space Optics" for paths of up to one km. Each has its own advantages and disadvantages, but both claimed 99.999% reliability. The principal applications are to connect between tall buildings when running fiber would be prohibitively costly. Another afternoon presenter was R. Gerard Salemme, EVP and Director, Clearwire. You don't hear much about Clearwire because it is privately held by Craig McCaw and therefore, unlike companies like Ambient, they don't need to con people into buying their stock. Clearwire is using licensed wireless broadband in the 2.5-2.7 GHz range to deliver a consumer service roughly equivalent to DSL and cable, but with the advantage that it is nomadic - that is, you can move around with it. Jacksonville is the first market they entered; he said they are in three other US markets in Texas and Minnesota. Salemme (who I remember was on the staff, in an earlier life, either of the House Telecomms Subcommittee or of Congressman Ed Markey) described Clearwire as a "WiMax precursor." They sell the service out of shopping mall kiosks. He said their system is "plug and play" and that about the only calls they get about installation are from customers who can't figure out how to disable their old dial-up connection. The final presenter was Prof. Heather Hudson of the University of San Francisco, who talked about telecom availability in rural/developing countries. Along the way she noted that BPL didn't seem like a good choice for developing countries since their power grids are seldom reliable. Summing up the day was Prof. A. Michael Noll of the University of Southern California, who said nothing could compete with fiber's capacity but that he would be in his grave before we saw fiber to every home. As for BPL, he said the real use was the internal niche market and that it didn't compete with anything to the home. Responding to his questions as to what we were likely to have 10 years from now, the majority of workshop participants said we would have fiber "close" to the home but that the last link in most cases would be by coaxial cable. They also liked wireless because of mobility and portability. When he asked who would invest in BPL, only two or three hands went up. (It bothered me a bit that there were even that many until I realized there were at least that many people in the room who were already invested in BPL.) In short, it was an interesting and I believe a productive day although I don't think Brett Kilbourne likes me any better now than he did before. Dave Sumner, K1ZZ <<CITI Sumner.doc>>

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[arrl-odv:11983] Re: kb0ztu
by warren morton 19 Mar '05

19 Mar '05

Jim: Thank you very much and I hope this is the last we hear from Mr. Alesick. In addition, I feel we are also very lucky to have staff members such as Kathy Capodicasa on board. Rev On Fri, 18 Mar 2005 19:08:09 -0500 w5jbp(a)aol.com wrote: > Kathy Capodicasa > > > Dear Kathy: > > I want to thank you for how you handled the situation with Mr. Aleksick. As >you will note in the header of this message I am sending a copy of this >e-mail to the full board. > > I talked to Mr. Aleksick today and pointed out that you are not paid enough >to take that type of verbal abuse. Interestingly enough he was very >apologetic to me as you might imagine. I had ask several years ago that on >something like this all you have to do is say: "Would you like to speak to >the President?" and give them my phone number. I will not tolerate staff >being abused in this manner. > > Again, thanks for representing all of us in such a professional manner. > > Sincerely, > > > Jim Haynie, W5JBP > President > > PS: Now I know you are wondering how I know about this.----- It is part of >my job.

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[arrl-odv:11982] kb0ztu
by w5jbp＠aol.com 19 Mar '05

19 Mar '05

Kathy Capodicasa Dear Kathy: I want to thank you for how you handled the situation with Mr. Aleksick. As you will note in the header of this message I am sending a copy of this e-mail to the full board. I talked to Mr. Aleksick today and pointed out that you are not paid enough to take that type of verbal abuse. Interestingly enough he was very apologetic to me as you might imagine. I had ask several years ago that on something like this all you have to do is say: "Would you like to speak to the President?" and give them my phone number. I will not tolerate staff being abused in this manner. Again, thanks for representing all of us in such a professional manner. Sincerely, Jim Haynie, W5JBP President PS: Now I know you are wondering how I know about this.----- It is part of my job.

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[arrl-odv:11981] IN-News
by Kustosik, Lisa, KA1UFZ 18 Mar '05

18 Mar '05

IN-Newsletter Vol. 28, No. 11 March 16, 2005 Upcoming Meeting April 9th in Denver, CO at 8:30am Executive Committee Meeting Development The member solicitation for the Education & Technology Program will be in the mail by week's end. The goal of this campaign is to raise $125,000 to support the program's goals of placing stations in schools, to begin work toward effecting science and math standards, and to support the expansion of the Teachers Institute. Funding of $4000 has been received for the Teachers Institute and one donor commitment was received this week. The round of Member Loyalty recognition for members of 40 years or more is in circulation and Development has fielded calls and emails of thanks and notes of further clarification of our records. The next issue of the Legacy Circle Letter is near completion. 5000 copies will be printed and mailed to members of the Legacy Circle and targeted prospects. The Diamond Club continues to grow. Through the end of February, 161 new Diamond Club members have been welcomed in 2005. The average new contribution is $118 - $40 above plan, and the average renewal contribution is $178 - $53 above plan. 76% of the growth is coming from term members. A special message to Life Members is planned for the third quarter and a solicitation to renew lapsed Diamond Club members is in circulation. Other heartening news is that between July 2004 and March 2005 the Diamond Club renewal rate has increased 3.5%. A strong advertising presence in QST, a bold presence in Dayton with a special offer crafted with our Circulation staff, and the continuing offers as part of the renewal processes should improve results moving forward. Our thanks to the Marketing and Circulation staff for their support and creativity to incorporate the Diamond Club and membership programs to benefit ARRL. Plans are firm for the Donor Reception during the Dayton Hamvention at Wright State University. We expect final word on our Guest of Honor from NASA this week. Guests will receive a special gift this year to commemorate the National Convention. Media & Public Relations There is a plan in place to cover the events of TOPOFF 3 and maximize any opportunities for Amateur Radio public relations. Allen Pitts and Mary Hobart will be at the media center. Materials are in final preparation and coordination with the SEC, Red Cross, OEM and others has been arranged. "I think we're ready." The McGan award has been re-announced, PR breakfast at Dayton arranged, and a full set of Field Day materials has been completed and ready to post to the web April 1st. Annual report text is being collected from many people and the PSAs are still being requested at a heavy rate, heard on the air and seen on TV. The "Swiss Army Knife 05" CD of reference materials for PIOs has been complimented and heavily requested. Over 80 copies were sent out in two weeks. There is a continuing discrepancy between the low number of Bacon's media clips and the much higher number of copies of articles collected here. An alternative (and less expensive) option has been found which will be presented for consideration. Production/Editorial Our condolences to Technical Editor Stu Cohen on the death of his father. Rick Lindquist reports The ARRL Letter, Vol. 24, No. 10, was distributed to 65,806 ARRL members on March 11. Rick prepared/edited an article for May QST on Amateur Radio's tsunami response in Indonesia. In addition: the "QRP Community" column by K8ZT, plus stories on BPL petitions for reconsideration, ARRL national convention update, FCC enforcement cases in VT and NY, an ARISS school group contact in CA, FCC enforcement letters, CNCS grantees meeting in DC, Dayton Hamvention award winners and several news briefs and announcements. Rick voiced, edited and produced ARRL Audio News for March 11, 2005. Sales & Marketing Advertising staff began work on the May 2005 issue of QST very early. Consequently, we are already 99.8% complete with insertion collection for regular May 2005 QST advertising. At this point, we stand at 59 pages with expected invoicing of approximately $10,000 over projections. In addition to expanded advertising from some of our regular advertisers, several new and lapsed advertisers have also placed ads in the magazine body. The Dayton theme pullout advertising section of May 2005 QST is completely filled and the $19,500 target has been exceeded by a small margin. In addition to the inclusion of five new advertisers to QST, several lapsed advertisers have also returned, along with those advertisers who will only advertise when we offer a pullout section. In total, this pullout will feature ads from 27 advertisers. We are pleased to report that one of our new advertisers is an organization that we have been pursuing for quite some time; Eimac. After placing a smaller initial order, Barnes & Noble placed a follow-up order for $9,000 worth of soft-cover Handbooks The following new publications have all been added to the ARRL e-store for customer ordering: ON4UN's Low Band DXing (Shipping in April) Fourth Edition. #9140 <http://www.arrl.org/catalog/?item=9140> --$39.95 The ARRL Repeater Directory (Shipping April 1) 2005-2006 Edition. #9426 <http://www.arrl.org/catalog/?item=9426> --$10.95 TravelPlus for Repeaters CD-ROM with BONUS! (Shipping on or about April 1) 2005-2006 Edition. FREE ARRL Repeater Directory BONUS: Pre-order TravelPlus with Bonus ARRL Repeater Directory. You get both for only $39.95 plus S&H. Bonus offer expires April 30, 2005. Pre-orders will ship after April 1. #9434 <http://www.arrl.org/catalog/?item=9434> --$39.95 2005 ARRL Field Day pins and T-shirts are available for ordering. The items have been added to the ARRL e-store, and an order form was produced for the downloadable Field Day information package. Items will begin shipping in April: 2005 Field Day Pin #9533 <http://www.arrl.org/catalog/?item=no-9548> --$5 each GOTA (Get On The Air) Pin #8911 <http://www.arrl.org/catalog/?item=no-9548> --$5 each. Now Shipping! 2005 Field Day T-Shirts. Soft, heavy weight cotton. $12.95 each. Unisex sizes: Small #9548-S <http://www.arrl.org/catalog/?item=no-9548> , Medium #9548-M <http://www.arrl.org/catalog/?item=no-9548> , Large #9548-L <http://www.arrl.org/catalog/?item=no-9548> , X-Large #9548-XL <http://www.arrl.org/catalog/?item=no-9548> , 2X-Large #9548-2XL <http://www.arrl.org/catalog/?item=no-9548> , 3X-Large #9548-3XL <http://www.arrl.org/catalog/?item=no-9548> Membership recruitment materials for Section Managers have been updated to reflect the new edition of the ARRL Repeater Directory. Section Managers can continue to request free copies of the Repeater Directory to use as an incentive for recruiting new ARRL members. They can also offer the free book incentive for renewals. Additional information and recruitment tips are available on the SM web page. We are continuing to work with RSGB on a two-page advertising spread for May QST, covering RSGB publications available from ARRL. The ad ties into a campaign for increasing sales of this product line. Congratulations to Mark Spencer for the flurry of activity he generated with his offer for a free electronics CD-ROM. We produced a promotional flyer on ARRL's book, Understanding Basic Electronics, which Mark has offered to include with orders for the CD. Bob and Dennis met in Seattle with ICOM representatives to negotiate terms surrounding two initiatives: (1) a program involving contest award sponsorship; and (2) online training of amateur radio dealer salespersons using the ARRL online training tools. ARRL National Convention Planning The Hamvention Committee has shared an advance copy of their pre-show booklet with us (mailing to hams east of the Mississippi). It includes a center spread for the ARRL National Convention and ARRL EXPO 2005. We are finalizing the combined ARRL Membership / Diamond Club application form. All staff traveling to Dayton met on Wednesday for the second of our regularly held planning meetings. Special thanks to everyone involved for his or her ongoing contributions to this effort. Membership Services Awards Branch WAS QSL Cards Checked 250 WAS End. (50 QSLs ES/C) 1 WAS in the 90th Certs. 3 WAC QSL Cards Checked 108 WAC Certs. (144 QSLs F/C) 24 5BWAC Certs. (24 QSLs F/C) 4 A-1 Op. Nominations 7 A-1 Op. Certificates 4 Awards Mailed 54 Also, worked on some LTMA projects (on-going). Processing Status: Current or up to three weeks. For the coming week-WAS QSL card checking, U.S. WAC, WAS Specialty, and VUCC awards, and mail out all awards processed this week. DXCC Branch For the week of: March 13, 2005 Beginning Credits 37,715 Credits Received 6,679 Credits Processed 15,013 Ending Credits 29,381 Applications Pending 295 Processing Time (Conventional) 5.8 Weeks Processing Time (LoTW) 1 Working Day DXCC is currently mailing applications received on January 31, 2005. DXCC is currently entering credits received on February 8, 2005. Wayne Mills attended the Charlotte Hamfest this past weekend. DXCC work included 17 applications with 1,828 country credits. Logbook of the World QSO records entered into the system 66,385,563 QSL records have resulted 2,813,822 Logs Processed 105,824 Active Certificates 13,697 Users registered in the system 9,204 Hybrids Pending Mail 39 QSL Bureau Processing time is 7 days from receipt. This week 111 pounds of cards were received from members. Cards mailed as of 03/06/05: 206,500. Cards mailed on 03/11/05: 82,950. Martin has also been working on clearing the backlog of misrouted cards from our US Incoming QSL Bureaus. Field & Educational Services Rosalie returned from CNCS grantor meetings with requests from fellow attendees. She set up and moderated an ARISS-international education committee telecon and wrote draft minutes. She took part in a Dayton planning meeting. She squared away some problems with travelers' trip expense reports. Since packet has been active on ARISS, about 4000 unique callsigns have been logged. Field Organization/Public Service Team Leona Adams reports that two SM elections will be held this cycle. West Texas candidates are Bill Lawless, W5WRL, and Ricky Dean, AA5AW. New Hampshire candidates are Russell Santos, K1TSV, and R. Sterling Eanes, AK1K. The following unopposed incumbent SMs will begin a second term, July 1: Tom Abernethy, W3TOM (MDC); Dick Flanagan, K7VC (NV); Bill Hudzik, W2UDT (NNJ); Charles McConnell, W6DPD (SJV); Mel Parkes, AC7CP (UT) and Bob Beaudet, W1YRC (RI). Doug Dunn, K7YD, was nominated to continue as Montana SM for a new term beginning in October. With help of OOs and Volunteer Monitoring stations, Chuck Skolaut has been keeping track of an unidentified carrier on 20 meters. There is also an unidentified SSB operation in the 80-meter CW allocation, and a new report of 5-letter code groups heard on 30 meters from the Midwest. We learned that the same person in California causing interference to amateur repeaters was recently observed doing likewise on the local MARS repeater. Chuck received and relayed a request from the FCC for assistance with a 2-meter interference report from Pennsylvania. Steve Ewald is compiling responses he is receiving from a brief questionnaire sent to ARRL SECs, DECs, and ECs about how they recognize their volunteers. 46 responses have arrived so far after the first night. Steve is also working on May QST and catching up with work after a vacation. He is looking forward to attending the Tennessee State Convention on March 19 -20 in Tuallahoma. Regulatory Information John Hennessee reviewed constitutions for several clubs whose officials sent paperwork to ARRL, hoping to become ARRL affiliated clubs. He processed an application for a Volunteer Counsel. He also assisted amateurs with local government zoning problems in Westchester County, NY (WF2R); and Apache County, AZ (N7VLT). Field-Education Team Norm Fusaro edited an article by Murray Green, K3BEQ and, with Tom Hogerty's help, it was posted to the web as a feature story. The article deals with maintaining an active club and increasing membership. Norm answered correspondence from members on various topics, including accelerated classes in response to the April QST article. He finished preparing for his upcoming trip to the Oklahoma State Convention. Norm met with other staff members this week to go over material for the ARRL National Convention in Dayton. Margie Bourgoin updated 41 records of affiliated clubs, processed 2 Special Service Club renewals and 2 club reactivations. She also did some research for a club on the history of their club call sign that belonged to a Silent Key who had been a club member. She assisted Mary Hobart with getting up-to-date information for a grant report. Margie prepared statistics for the Public Service Column for May QST. She put together materials for the club exhibit booth to be set up at Dayton. Margie reports that for the month of March, F&ES generated $1486 of revenue for licensing materials and for shipping costs on exhibit materials she sent to clubs and individuals. Gail Iannone sent 14 hamfest approval letters and 2 convention approval letters to the sponsoring committees confirming the Division Director's approval of their events as ARRL-sanctioned. She processed 9 handout and door prize orders, and 4 label requests for upcoming events and sent a Wouff Hong supply package for the ceremony to be performed at the Great Lakes Division Convention on March 19 in Toledo, OH. She coordinated travel for Steve Ewald to be the HQ rep at the San Francisco Section Convention on June 3-5 in Ferndale, CA., and for Bill Moore to be the HQ rep at the Southeastern Division Convention on August 20-21 in Huntsville, AL. She sent 6 new club applications for clubs seeking ARRL-affiliation, to the Division Directors and SMs for their approval. Amateur Radio Education & Technology Program Mark Spencer received 190 requests in a few days' time for the Basic Electronics Course on CD-ROM that was described on the ARRL web front page. Mid-week, Mark asked that the Web item be pulled because he couldn't keep up with demand. More schools will be added as a result of this Web exposure -- 11 schools asked about the full kit, and Mark is awaiting their requests on letterhead, and has added them to his ETP list. The offering is posted now on the ETP portion of the web and is generating a more manageable demand! A group of Scouts will participate in "Radio Merit Badge in a Day" activities at W1AW on Saturday. Community Education Program Bill Barrett prepared a "roadmap" for managing many required tasks prior to each of his trips. He also developed more guidelines for the Citizen Corps Councils that he will work with, since some persistent misconceptions keep cropping up. This includes a better explanation of the flow of events at meetings. He worked on revising the pre- and post-meeting surveys, and now hopes for a better return on the post-survey. His trip next week is to Butler, MO, followed by Silver City, NM, two weeks later. CCE Jean Wolfgang received many emails and phone calls from folks who found that the Level 1 Emergency Communications class filled up so quickly (about 24 hours). She processed records of graduates, printed certificates and ID cards for them, and also processed 9 students who took field tests. Jean assisted the Nashville General Hospital with enrolling 9 employees into the online Technician License course. (These enrollments were made possible by a grant, which the hospital had received.) They will also become ARRL members. EmComm Grants Dan Miller prepared booth materials and handouts for next week's presentation at the National Hurricane Conference. Dan's presentation at the Louisiana State Convention was well attended. Evaluations provided interesting statistics: 82% were ARRL members; 11 volunteer-hours per month was the average reported by 22 people. Topic of most interest: Winlink 2000. 59% were 55+ years old (oldest was 71, youngest 39), 41% were 60-70, 88% were male; 50% were veterans. By license class: Novice-0, Tech-8, Tech+2, General-4, Advanced-1, Extra-19 (56%). Sincerely, Dave Patton, NN1N Special Assistant to the Chief Executive Officer DCP: lk Staff Absentee List All Staff 3/25 Holiday Dave Sumner 4/9 Executive Committee Meeting, Denver, CO `` 4/13-4/18 IARU Reg. 1 Conference Preparatory Meeting, Croatia Mary Hobart 4/3-5 TOPOFF 4/15-4/17 International DX Convention, Visalia, CA `` 5/18-5/22 Dayton Hamvention Dennis Motschenbacher 4/7-4/8 Int'l Wireless Conference Bob Inderbitzen 3/21-3/23 National Postal Forum `` 3/24 & 3/28 Vacation `` 3/31-4/1 AES Superfest Kathy Capodicasa 3/21-3/23 National Postal Forum `` 4/14-4/18 Vacation `` 5/9-5/13 Vacation Dan Miller 3/21-3/24 Nat'l Hurricane Conference, New Orleans, LA `` 3/28-3/30 Vacation Joel Kleinman 3/29 Vacation Wayne Mills 3/18 Great Lakes Division Convention, Toledo, OH Stu Cohen 3/17 & 3/18 Leave of Absence Judy Miller 3/28-3/30 Vacation Cathy Stepina 4/4-4/15 Vacation Rick Lindquist 4/1-4/4 Vacation Steve Ewald 3/18-3/20 Tennessee State Convention `` 3/21-3/24 Vacation Norm Fusaro 3/18-3/19 Oklahoma State Convention Rose-Ann Lawrence 4/4-4/8 Drill

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[arrl-odv:11980] BPLWorld online interview
by Sumner, Dave, K1ZZ 17 Mar '05

17 Mar '05

This one runs about 8 minutes. Marc Strassman called me after the two Web articles appeared this afternoon. http://www.etopiamedia.net/bplw/pages/bplw24-5551212.html Dave

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[arrl-odv:11979] Re: FW: Briarcliff Manor, NY BPL Interference Complaint, WD2XEQ
by John Bellows 17 Mar '05

17 Mar '05

The actions of the FCC in Briarcliff remind me of the knight in Monty Python and the Holy Grail, who kept insisting it was only a flesh wound after he had both arms and legs severed. Jay, KØQB -----Original Message----- From: Sumner, Dave, K1ZZ [mailto:dsumner@arrl.org] Sent: Thursday, March 17, 2005 12:46 PM To: arrl-odv Subject: [arrl-odv:11977] FW: Briarcliff Manor, NY BPL Interference Complaint, WD2XEQ Another salvo. Dave -----Original Message----- From: Imlay, Chris (ARRL Counsel) Sent: Thursday, March 17, 2005 12:20 PM To: Bruce.Franca(a)fcc.gov; James.Burtle(a)fcc.gov Cc: Riley.Hollingsworth(a)fcc.gov; Sumner, Dave, K1ZZ; Hare, Ed W1RFI; Rinaldo, Paul Subject: Briarcliff Manor, NY BPL Interference Complaint, WD2XEQ Gentlemen: Attached is ARRL's response to Mr. Franca's February 10, 2005 correspondence concerning the ongoing harmful interference and Part 15 violations at the Briarcliff Manor, NY BPL facility, operating pursuant to an experimental authorization. The original of this letter is being filed today by courier at the office of the Secretary. A copy is being mailed to counsel for Ambient Corporation today. Any further investigation of this matter should be coordinated with Mr. Alan Crosswell, one of the complainants. ARRL reiterates its request that this facility be shut down without further delay, for the reasons set forth therein. Chris Imlay Booth, Freret, Imlay & Tepper, P.C. 14356 Cape May Road Silver Spring, Maryland 20904-6011 301-384-5525 telephone 301-384-6384 facsimile bfitpc(a)aol.com w3kd(a)arrl.org

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[arrl-odv:11977] FW: Briarcliff Manor, NY BPL Interference Complaint, WD2XEQ
by Sumner, Dave, K1ZZ 17 Mar '05

17 Mar '05

Another salvo. Dave -----Original Message----- From: Imlay, Chris (ARRL Counsel) Sent: Thursday, March 17, 2005 12:20 PM To: Bruce.Franca(a)fcc.gov; James.Burtle(a)fcc.gov Cc: Riley.Hollingsworth(a)fcc.gov; Sumner, Dave, K1ZZ; Hare, Ed W1RFI; Rinaldo, Paul Subject: Briarcliff Manor, NY BPL Interference Complaint, WD2XEQ Gentlemen: Attached is ARRL's response to Mr. Franca's February 10, 2005 correspondence concerning the ongoing harmful interference and Part 15 violations at the Briarcliff Manor, NY BPL facility, operating pursuant to an experimental authorization. The original of this letter is being filed today by courier at the office of the Secretary. A copy is being mailed to counsel for Ambient Corporation today. Any further investigation of this matter should be coordinated with Mr. Alan Crosswell, one of the complainants. ARRL reiterates its request that this facility be shut down without further delay, for the reasons set forth therein. Chris Imlay Booth, Freret, Imlay & Tepper, P.C. 14356 Cape May Road Silver Spring, Maryland 20904-6011 301-384-5525 telephone 301-384-6384 facsimile bfitpc(a)aol.com w3kd(a)arrl.org

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[arrl-odv:11976] Re: IRLP Contest
by warren morton 17 Mar '05

17 Mar '05

Bob: To date I have not heard a word about the captioned IRLP contest. Due to the fact we are not a sponsor of said "test" I do not feel the complaints are that justified. Rev WS7W On Wed, 16 Mar 2005 14:08:31 -0800 "R. B. Vallio" <w6rgg(a)sbcglobal.net> wrote: > I haven' seen anyone address this on ODV, so I will bring to everyone's > attention. Please take a look at: > > http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2005/03/14/3/?nc=1 > > before you read further. > > This is an announcement of an IRLP contest, on our WebPages, with no > indication of any sort that sponsorship is not by the ARRL. The CQ Contest > reflector was filled with comments on March 14, the first day the > announcement appeared, and although the number is down, there are still > comments being made. > > The thought of the ARRL sponsoring a contest where entrants need not have a > radio or a license to participate, has certainly sparked some comments from > Pacific Division members. I believe that there is no harm in mentioning it, > but that a disclaimer of ARRL sponsorship should have been included. Have > any of you folks received any mail on the subject? Thanks. > > Bob -- W6RGG > > >

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[arrl-odv:11978] Re: IRLP Contest
by Frank Fallon - N2FF 17 Mar '05

17 Mar '05

Right on, Kay. Well said as usual. Frank...N2FF... Kay Craigie wrote: > There is no indication that the event is sponsored by the ARRL, and the > entries are not sent to addresses having anything to do with the ARRL. As > far as I can see, it's a news story about a new operating event. > > As I understand it, IRLP is not accessible to non-hams. > > I don't think we should be shaking in our shoes every time somebody beefs > about a topic we cover that's not their cup of tea. If we avoided mentioning > every subject that somebody thinks is dumb or somebody doesn't approve of, > we'd have an awful lot of white space in QST and a very empty web site. If > everything in ham radio that *somebody* hates were to be done away with, > we'd all have to go take saxophone lessons or start breeding schnauzers. > There wouldn't be any more ham radio. > > It's a free country. People who don't like the IRLP thing don't have to > participate in it. IRLP and Echolink don't interest me one bit, personally, > but so -- in the great cosmic scheme of things -- what? > > 73 - Kay N3KN > > > >

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