1) Inability to Store Digital QST on iPad, and Read It on Airplane

This was a complaint that appeared to be the cause behind item 2)
below. K6BP. Bruce Perrins, a perennial and popular Pacificon
presenter, with a packed room, had 2 or so slides at the end of his
presentation that badmouthed the ARRL, and included a statement that
the presenter was not going to renew ARRL membership, and contained a
request for others to join him.

I engaged the speaker and a few others in a conversation at the end.
It was shown to me, that you could not read digital QST on the iPad,
unless you were connected to the Internet.

I mentioned this to several ARRL directors, and was given two
different explanations. One said that this was an Apple flaw that
would be fixed with the next release of the Apple operating system.
Since people showed me that CQ and Astronomy Magazine could be read on
the same iPad, this explanation did not seem reasonable.

Another director said that this was being worked on and would be fixed
in a few months.

Whatever the cause, this seems to be a serious problem, and I would
hope it would be fixed in hours or days, rather than months.

2) Perceived ARRL Intellectual Property Issue

K6BP, the presenter mentioned above, had deduced that the ARRL was
protecting QST content, and the necessity to be connected to the
Internet was an outgrowth of that.

Perrins is an open source proponent. He had a slide essentially saying
that he had published 25 or so books, and after a period of time, they
all were available on the Internet. He is still getting royalties and
has made enough money from them. He therefore is a good guy with his
open source philosophy, and the ARRL is bad for over-protecting
intellectual property.

I was asked things like, "How much time do you need to protect QST
content?" I did not answer, as I'm not sure the ARRL, board or staff,
has a clear policy on this. The League might consider discussing this.

3) 1.25 kHz Bandwidth Digital Voice Codec

Perrins first talk was on a codec which allegedly would give decent
audio quality in a 1.25 kHz bandwidth. It sounded real to me.

I'm not sure where in our HF allocations such a mode is permitted,
either FCC-wise or ARRL Contest-wise. If people use this mode in the
digital bands, do the contacts count in our phone contests? It is
something we might consider.

4) Bruce Perrins

I believe I may have diffused Perrins anger at the ARRL. I suggested
the possibility of him speaking at a Southwestern Division Convention,
and he responded positively.

5) Laura Smith's Presentation

FCC Amateur Enforcement Attorney :Laura Smith's presentation confirmed
what we have been told by ARRL people who interface with her and other
FCC staffers. She does not appear to understand Amateur Radio, doesn't
do much, and doesn't appear to be planning to do much in the future.

A friend sent this out to some of his friends, and included me -

----------------------
Laura Smith, FCC Special Counsel for Amateur Enforcement "FCC Update"
The joke at the FCC is that hams are just a bunch of old guys sitting
in their basements in their underwear.
Don't call me and tell me you know me.  I do not know you.  I only
know two hams, Riley Hollingsworth (K4ZDH) and Bill [should be Bill
Cross, W3TN].
I meet with Riley regularly for lunch.  We do not talk about ham radio.
If you're not having fun on the radio due to malicious interference to
your regular net, go outside, do something else.
I love the OOs, because they have procedures.  Reports from other hams
don't mean much to me.
You tell me you know it's Pete that's causing the interference.  I
call the monitoring station.  After they cuss me out [for making them
listen to hams?] they tell me no, it's not Pete, it's Bob.  Or they
tell me it's coming from a whole bunch of different people at once.
What am I supposed to do?
I only have a few field agents, and they have to serve a wide area.
Unless health and safety are affected [e.g. interference to aircraft
or police], we never act immediately.  We have to bundle up 5 or 6
cases in the same area before we can justify sending an agent into the
field
I can't do anything about interference from China [e.g. BY dragon]
We can work with the Mexican authorities if interference is coming from there.
Part 15 devices made here, causing interference?  I can act.  Devices
made overseas and imported here, I can't do anything about it.
Laura Smith ain't no Riley Hollingsworth, that's for sure.  Think
other end of the scale:  "The worst friend we ever had"?
------------------

6) Pacificon

I thought the convention was well put together and decently attended.
My guess was that over 10% of the attendees were from the Southwestern
Division. Santa Clara is actually closer to the northern SWD members
than are some of our Southwestern Division Conventions.

73,

Dick Norton, N6AA
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