9 OCT, 2005 - 1030 CDT At the risk of further stirring the pot on the issue of non-ham use of WinLink 2000 on amateur frequencies, I have appended below a message from one of my ham friends. In his message, he references the Ocean Navigator web site he pointed out to me earlier. This URL is what he wanted me to read: http://www.oceannavigator.com/site/csrv/content.asp?id=469 However, when he made some inquiries, he subsequently discovered he no longer has access to this web site. I just tried this URL and it still works for me. But I wonder how long my access will remain. For this reason, I am posting this message to only the OD reflector. 73 - Dick, W9GIG ========================================================================= Delivered-To: dick@pobox.com Received: from ruby.nltc.net (ruby.nltc.net [207.12.164.6]) by boggle.pobox.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id A847210FE16 for <dick@pobox.com>; Mon, 9 May 2005 05:36:16 -0400 (EDT) Received: from n9wb (ip12-166-30.nltc.net [207.12.166.30]) by ruby.nltc.net (8.12.6/8.12.6) with SMTP id j499uoI8068274 for <dick@pobox.com>; Mon, 9 May 2005 04:56:51 -0500 (EST) (envelope-from n9wb@nltc.net) Message-ID: <004b01c5547b$9b7b8040$1ea60ccf@n9wb> From: <SNIP> To: "Isely, Dick" <dick@pobox.com> Subject: "Ocean Navigator" Date: Mon, 9 May 2005 04:43:49 -0500 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary="----=_NextPart_000_0048_01C55451.B1A21200" X-Priority: 3 X-MSMail-Priority: Normal Dick: This is for information and you need not bother to respond unless you know something about this. I sent you a link to an article in a magazine called "Ocean Navigator". It was suggesting that Yachtsmen purchase marine radios that were also capable of operating on Amateur Radio Frequencies. It also hinted at the use of Amateur Radio as a ISP for downloading Internet mail and accessing the Internet. Also was some mention of modifying amateur Radio gear for use on the marine service. It did state that this was not legal but also pointed out that the FCC does not do dockside radio inspections any more. I forwarded this to you but forgot to include the link and then resent it with the link. I also posted the link on QRZ. Quickly Chip N1NR who apparently is connected with QRZ posted a message that he had removed the link and hinted that I was trying to promote illegal radio modifications. I now can no longer access the link to the article or the main web site for "Ocean Navigator" magazine. Until this point I did not know that Chip had any connection with QRZ.com. Being unable to access the magazine web site, I am unable to determine what, if any connection Chip has with the magazine or if he wrote the magazine article. I can't remember if Chip had something to do with CQ at one time. Chip became very defensive when another person mentioned him having a possible interest in using Amateur Radio as an Internet access, and he apparently had enough clout with the magazine to shut down the link and shut down it's web site or at least block me out of it. I wonder if he has connections with Winlink. I am concerned with the use of the Amateur Radio Bands as a Internet access medium and that it will be used for all kinds of non-amateur and even business exchanges. I am also concerned that QSOs will be interfered with by automatically controlled systems that will appear and take the frequency over. I have been hearing rumors that the Yachting industry was wanting to use amateur Radio for non-amateur related commerce but I dismissed this as one of the many rumors we hear daily. However, this magazine article and Chip's reaction to the link being posted make me wonder. While I am not ready to believe that some Directors are in an outright conspiracy to forward this agenda, I can't help but wonder about the agenda of those who are promoting Winlink to the BOD. Here is the link to the magazine website that probably is inoperative, "Ocean Navigator" <http://www.oceannavigator.com>http://www.oceannavigator.com Here is the link to the article <http://www.oceannavigator.com/site/csrv/content.asp?id=469>http://www.oceannavigator.com/site/csrv/content.asp?id=469 <SNIP>