QRZ! Ham Radio 3/QRZ Ham Radio Callsign Database - Volume 3.iso/digests/policy/930530.txt

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Date: Sat, 18 Dec 93 04:30:08 PST
From: Ham-Policy Mailing List and Newsgroup <[e-mail]>
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Subject: Ham-Policy Digest V93 #530
To: Ham-Policy


Ham-Policy Digest           Sat, 18 Dec 93       Volume 93 : Issue  530

Today's Topics:
               ARRL's callsign admin position (2 msgs)
                      Brady Bill for Ham Radio?
                Guide to the Personal Radio Newsgroups
              Question about radio pirating... (2 msgs)
                                Robert

Send Replies or notes for publication to: <[e-mail]>
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Problems you can't solve otherwise to [e-mail].

Archives of past issues of the Ham-Policy Digest are available
(by FTP only) from UCSD.Edu in directory "mailarchives/ham-policy".

We trust that readers are intelligent enough to realize that all text
herein consists of personal comments and does not represent the official
policies or positions of any party.  Your mileage may vary.  So there.
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: 16 Dec 93 06:12:12 GMT
From: ogicse!emory!kd4nc!ke4zv![e-mail]
Subject: ARRL's callsign admin position
To: [e-mail]

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Zack Lau) writes:
>Interesting idea Gary.  How small an interest group gets to have
>as much influence as a Director?  And how narrowly can an interest
>group be defined.  Who decides?

Well of course any such decisions are ultimately somewhat arbitrary,
but let's try this scheme. Anyone can declare as a director candidate
for some interest group he declares. Only candidates who get as many
votes as the territorial director with the smallest vote count get to
take office. So the interest groups would have to have at least as much
support as the least supported territorial director. That could lead
to a fluctuating number of directors from election to election as
interest groups wax and wane, but that's fine since it dynamically
assigns representation in a proportional manner.

Gary
--
Gary Coffman KE4ZV          | I kill you,             | gatech!wa4mei!ke4zv!gary
Destructive Testing Systems | You kill me,            | uunet!rsiatl!ke4zv!gary
534 Shannon Way             | We're the Manson Family | emory!kd4nc!ke4zv!gary
Lawrenceville, GA 30244     |         -sorry Barney   |

------------------------------

Date: 17 Dec 93 13:26:14
From: idacrd.ccr-p.ida.org!idacrd![e-mail]
Subject: ARRL's callsign admin position
To: [e-mail]

Gary:

In general this may be correct, but god forbid, I am going to come to
Mendelsohn's defense.  He does NOT appoint yes men EXCLUSIVELY to his
cabinet.  Phil Karn and I were both asked to be on his cabinet and Karn
actually served in some places.  Now Phil and I had been a thorn in Steve's
side before and he had no reason to believe that we would `behave' in these
meetings.  I did not serve, primarily because I wasn't in Hudson, I am
in Atlantic.  Mendelsohn, whether you like or hate him, does NOT choose
exclusively yes men for his cabinet.

Bob

--
Robert W. McGwier                  | [e-mail] Interests: ham radio,
Center for Communications Research | scouts, astronomy, golf (o yea, & math!)
Princeton, N.J. 08520              | ASM Troop 5700, ACM Pack 53 Hightstown
(609)-279-6240(v) (609)-924-3061(f)| I used to be a Buffalo . . . NE III-120

------------------------------

Date: 14 Dec 1993 20:14:43 GMT
From: nntp.ucsb.edu!library.ucla.edu!europa.eng.gtefsd.com!howland.reston.ans.net!sol.ctr.columbia.edu!news.cs.columbia.edu!mix-cs![e-mail]
Subject: Brady Bill for Ham Radio?
To: [e-mail]

> Have any of you heard about this new Brady Bill regarding Ham Radio?
>
> It seems they want to put a five-day waiting period on the purchase of
> any amateur radio capable of transmitting.

:-) It's worse than that, actually; they also want to ban the
possession and sale of any battery that's capable of providing power
for more than 10 transmissions without recharging. :-) They say that
they want to prevent thoughtless people from spraying their useless
chatter all over the 2-meter and 70-cm bands; after all, who really
*needs* to transmit so many times in order to communicate?  I think
this is in the "Crime Bill" that will be considered early next year,
and the name's right, it *is* a crime.  They call it the "assault
radio" ban.  And then there's Moynihan's proposed 50 to 10,000 percent
tax on electro-magnetic waves, especially the evil kind emitted from
omnidirectional antennas that, instead of traveling in a tight beam,
expand to infinity as they move away from the transmitting station...I
think he calls them "Black Talon" waves, because of the great amount
of damage that they can do in many areas simultaneously.  There are
perfect examples of these on 14.313 MHz, that can enrage people all
around the world. :-)
 -Steve

------------------------------

Date: Wed, 15 Dec 1993 12:00:59 GMT
From: nevada.edu!news.unomaha.edu![e-mail]
Subject: Guide to the Personal Radio Newsgroups
To: [e-mail]

Posted-By: auto-faq 3.1.1.4
Archive-name: radio/personal-intro
Revision: 1.5 09/18/93 16:49:31
Changes: new mailing lists, .packet rmgroup, and .policy updates

(Note:  The following is reprinted with the permission of the author.)

This message describes the rec.radio.amateur.*, rec.radio.cb, rec.radio.info,
and rec.radio.swap newsgroups. It is intended to serve as a guide for the new
reader on what to find where. Questions and comments may be directed to the
author, Jay Maynard, K5ZC, by Internet electronic mail at
[e-mail]. This message was last changed on 18 September
1993 to add the mailing lists for the new rec.radio.amateur newsgroups, to
note the rmgroup of rec.radio.amateur.packet, and to officially retire some
(in)famous threads of discussion on rec.radio.amateur.policy.

History
=======

Way back when, before there was a Usenet, the Internet hosted a mailing list
for hams, called (appropriately enough) INFO-HAMS. Ham radio discussions
were held on the mailing list, and sent to the mailboxes of those who had
signed up for it. When the Usenet software was created, and net news as we
now know it was developed, a newsgroup was created for hams: net.ham-radio.
The mailing list and the newsgroup were gatewayed together, eventually.

As the net grew, and as packet radio came into vogue, packet discussion began
to dominate other topics in the group and on the list. This resulted in the
logical solution: a group was created to hold the packet discussion, and
another corresponding mailing list was created as well: net.ham-radio.packet
and PACKET-RADIO, respectively.

These two groups served for several years, and went through Usenet's Great
Renaming essentially unchanged, moving from net.ham-radio[.packet] to
rec.ham-radio[.packet]. Readership and volume grew with the rest of the
network.

The INFO-HAMS mailing list was originally run from a US Army computer at
White Sands Missile Range, SIMTEL20. There were few problems with this
arrangement, but one was that the system was not supposed to be used for
commercial purposes. Since one of hams' favorite pastimes is swapping
gear, it was natural for hams to post messages about equipment for sale
to INFO-HAMS/rec.ham-radio. This ran afoul of SIMTEL20's no-commercial-use
restriction, and after some argument, a group was created specifically
for messages like that: rec.ham-radio.swap. This group wasn't gatewayed to
a mailing list, thus avoiding problems.

While all this was happening, other folks wanted to discuss other aspects
of the world of radio than the personal communications services. Those
folks created the rec.radio.shortwave and rec.radio.noncomm newsgroups,
and established the precedent of the rec.radio.* hierarchy, which in turn
reflected Usenet's overall trend toward a hierarchical name structure.

The debate between proponents of a no-code ham radio license and its opponents
grew fierce and voluminous in late 1989 and 1990. Eventually, both sides grew
weary of the debate, and those who had not been involved even more so. A
proposal for a newsgroup dedicated to licensing issues failed. A later
proposal was made for a group that would cover the many recurring legal issues
discussions. During discussion of the latter proposal, it became clear that it
would be desirable to fit the ham radio groups under the rec.radio.*
hierarchy. A full-blown reorganization was passed by Usenet voters in January
1991, leading to the overall structure we now use.

After the reorganization, more and more regular information postings began to
appear, and were spread out across the various groups in rec.radio.*. Taking
the successful example of the news.answers group, where informational postings
from across the net are sent, the group rec.radio.info was created in
December, 1992, with Mark Salyzyn, VE6MGS, initially serving as moderator.

In January, 1993, many users started complaining about the volume in
rec.radio.amateur.misc. This led to a discussion about a second
reorganization, which sparked the creation of a mailing list by Ian Kluft,
KD6EUI. This list, which was eventually joined by many of the most prolific
posters to the ham radio groups, came up with a proposal to add 11 groups to
the rec.radio.amateur hierarchy in April 1993. The subsequent vote, held in
May and early June, approved the creation of five groups:
rec.radio.amateur.digital.misc (to replace .packet), .equipment, .homebrew,
.antenna, and .space.

The Current Groups
==================

I can hear you asking, "OK, so this is all neat history, but what does it
have to do with me now?" The answer is that the history of each group has
a direct bearing on what the group is used for, and what's considered
appropriate where.

The easy one is rec.radio.amateur.misc. It is what rec.ham-radio was renamed
to during the reorganization. Any message that's not more appropriate in one
of the other groups belongs here, from contesting to DX to ragchewing on VHF
to information on becoming a ham.

The group rec.radio.amateur.digital.misc is for discussions related to
(surprise!) digital amateur radio. This doesn't have to be the common
two-meter AX.25 variety of packet radio, either; some of the most
knowledgeable folks in radio digital communications can be found here, and
anything in the general area is welcome. The name was changed to emphasize
this, and to encourage discussion not only of other text-based digital modes,
such as AMTOR, RTTY, and Clover, but things like digital voice and video as
well. The former group, rec.radio.amateur.packet, should be removed by
September 21st, 1993. It is obsolete, and you should use .digital.misc
instead (or the appropriate new mailing list, mentioned below).  The group
has .misc as part of the name to allow further specialization if the users
wish it, such as .digital.tcp-ip.

The swap group is now rec.radio.swap. This recognizes a fact that became
evident shortly after the original group was formed: Hams don't just swap ham
radio gear, and other folks besides hams swap ham equipment. If you have radio
equipment, or test gear, or computer stuff that hams would be interested in,
here's the place. Equipment wanted postings belong here too. Discussions about
the equipment generally don't; if you wish to discuss a particular posting
with the buyer, email is a much better way to do it, and the other groups,
especially .equipment and .homebrew, are the place for public discussions.
There is now a regular posting with information on how to go about buying and
selling items in rec.radio.swap; please refer to it before you post there.

The first reorganization added two groups to the list, one of which is
rec.radio.amateur.policy. This group was created as a place for all the
discussions that seem to drag on interminably about the many rules,
regulations, legalities, and policies that surround amateur radio, both
existing and proposed.  Recent changes to the Amateur Radio Rules (FCC
Part 97) have finally laid to rest the Great Usenet Pizza Autopatch Debate
as well as complaints about now-preempted local scanner laws hostile to
amateurs, but plenty of discussion about what a bunch of rotten no-goodniks
the local frequency coordinating body is, as well as the neverending no-code
debate, may still be found here.

The other added group is rec.radio.cb. This is the place for all discussion
about the Citizens' Band radio service. Such discussions have been very
inflammatory in rec.ham-radio in the past; please do not cross-post to both
rec.radio.cb and rec.radio.amateur.* unless the topic is genuinely of interest
to both hams and CBers - and very few topics are.

The rec.radio.info group is just what its name implies: it's the place where
informational messages from across rec.radio.* may be found, regardless of
where else they're posted. As of this writing, information posted to the group
includes Cary Oler's daily solar progagation bulletins, ARRL bulletins, the
Frequently Asked Questions files for the various groups, and radio
modification instructions. This group is moderated, so you cannot post to it
directly; if you try, even if your message is crossposted to one of the other
groups, your message will be mailed to the moderator, who is currently Mark
Salyzyn, VE6MGS. The email address for submissions to the group is
[e-mail]. Inquires and other administrivia should be
directed to [e-mail]. For more information about
rec.radio.info, consult the introduction and posting guidelines that are
regularly posted to that newsgroup.

The groups rec.radio.amateur.antenna, .equipment, .homebrew, and .space are
for more specialized areas of ham radio: discussions about antennas,
commercially-made equipment, homebrewing, and amateur radio space operations.
The .equipment group is not the place for buying or selling equipment; that's
what rec.radio.swap is for. Similarly, the .space group is specifically about
amateur radio in space, such as the OSCAR program and SAREX, the Shuttle
Amateur Radio EXperiment; other groups cover other aspects of satellites and
space. Homebrewing isn't about making your own alcoholic beverages at home
(that's rec.crafts.brewing), but rather construction of radio and electronic
equipment by the amateur experimenter.

Except for rec.radio.swap and rec.radio.cb, all of these newsgroups are
available by Internet electronic mail in digest format; send a mail message
containing "help" on a line by itself to [e-mail] for instructions
on how to use the mail server.

All of the groups can be posted to by electronic mail, though, by using a
gateway at the University of Texas at Austin. To post a message this way,
change the name of the group you wish to post to by replacing all of the '.'s
with '-'s - for example, rec.radio.swap becomes rec-radio-swap - and send to
that [e-mail] ([e-mail], for example). You may
crosspost by including multiple addresses as Cc: entries (but see below). This
gateway's continued availability is at the pleasure of the admins at
UT-Austin, and is subject to going away at any time - and especially if
forgeries and other net.abuses become a problem. You have been warned.

A Few Words on Crossposting
===========================

Please do not crosspost messages to two or more groups unless there is genuine
interest in both groups in the topic being discussed, and when you do, please
include a header line of the form "Followup-To: group.name" in your article's
headers (before the first blank line). This will cause followups to your
article to go to the group listed in the Followup-To: line. If you wish
to have replies to go to you by email, rather than be posted, use the word
"poster" instead of the name of a group. Such a line appears in the headers
of this article.

One of the few examples of productive cross-posting is with the rec.radio.info
newsgroup. To provide a filtered presentation of information articles, while
still maintaining visibility in their home newsgroups, the moderator strongly
encourages cross-posting. All information articles should be submitted to the
rec.radio.info moderator so that he may simultaneously cross-post your
information to the appropriate newsgroups. Most newsreaders will only present
the article once, and network bandwidth is conserved since only one article is
propagated. If you make regular informational postings, and have made
arrangements with the moderator to post directly to the group, please
cross-post as appropriate.

--
Jay Maynard, EMT-P, K5ZC, PP-ASEL | Never ascribe to malice that which can
[e-mail]      | adequately be explained by stupidity.
      "If my car ran OS/2, it'd be there by now" -- bumper sticker
                 GCS d++ p+ c++ l+ m+/- s/++ g++ w++ t+ r

--
73, Paul W. Schleck, KD3FU

[e-mail]

Celebrating 60 years of the Univ. of Maryland ARA - W3EAX (1933-1993)

------------------------------

Date: 17 Dec 93 14:51:54 GMT
From: ogicse!cs.uoregon.edu!sgiblab!darwin.sura.net!dtix.dt.navy.mil!dtix.dt.navy.mil![e-mail]
Subject: Question about radio pirating...
To: [e-mail]

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (VaxCat) writes:

 >I believe that Americans should be FREE to broadcast their words to
 >the public and I believe that it's abhorrant that they have to be
 >especially BRAVE to do so.  I'm not about to let self-serving
 >politicians and business-people take America away from me, my family
 >and my friends.  I'm going to take America back from them.
 >
 >Anthony
 >

 Bravo! I'd salute you if this wasn't email....

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
My opinions are my own, I know cause I bought them for $20 from a store.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
[e-mail]
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Date: 17 Dec 93 15:40:09 GMT
From: ogicse!cs.uoregon.edu!sgiblab!darwin.sura.net!dtix.dt.navy.mil!dtix.dt.navy.mil![e-mail]
Subject: Question about radio pirating...
To: [e-mail]

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Jeff Herman) writes:
>In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] writes:
>>
>> And [e-mail] also comes to mind. There are some
>
>[e-mail] will work just fine, or [e-mail], too.
>
>>time. Poor Jeff must not have any fun, and seems to want anyone else to.
>
>Hee hee, I have a ball on CW with my homebuilt QRP xmtrs. I've been
>posting QRP circuits on .homebrew and QRP.mail for others to enjoy
>this fun aspect of the hobby. I'll pass them along to you via email.
>But make sure you pass your test before you operate them. No more
>outlaw activity, understand? We won't stand for it.

 I could care less if you stand/don't stand for anything. As for
xmitters, I have two solid state 5kw am broadcast units I converted
to the ham bands. Speach processing by Orban opti-mod AM. It will
be the best sounding rig on the ham bands. As for antennas I've
got some of the nicest ground/plane/ directional tower setups
ham radio will ever be graced by. Sorry, the challange in building
equipment of an inferior nature ain't my cup of tea. Intergrating
real broadcast engineering into the hobbie is. Our two meter
repeter and our 220/440 mhz repeters are using modified Orban
technology to get the sound and clarity punch we needed. The standard
ham knows zip about digital sound and signal processing, It's my
life. As for legal/illegal use of the airwaves, I had nothing to loose
as a HS kid, I'd been incarcerated five times, and did not give a
flying fandango about the legalities... Since my other job now
hinges on the fact that I carry an FCC general license, (and the
fact I have my own show) I no longer pirate. I do feel free to
pass along information useful to anyone who wants it. If they
use it to break the law, they pay not me.

>Well, at 39 I hope to be around for quite some time. And I am
>only bitter at folks who have no respect for the law. There's
>enough lawlessness out on the streets; we don't need it on the
>ham bands.

 That's why I have a concealed weapon permit, and carry a gun.
Takes care of the lawless ones who attempt to invade my space.

>Putz? Total looser? I'll send you a copy of my curriculum vitae
>and a copy of my current mathematics research paper I am
>authoring in Analytic Function Theory.

 Your talking to someone who may decide to finish up my doctorate in
nuclear physics one day. Hell, I might even take the redial english
course I've wanted to take for years (improve my spelling).
I've worked on some of the best nuclear reasearch projects this
country had to offer. Not bad for age 32. I work in the
electronics/computer science field not because I had to, it's
because I want to. I learned the old fashioned way: I did it.

>
>Jeff NH6IL (back in the days when we had the greatest respect
>            for the law: WA6QIJ)

 I respect the law, and work to change law that unrespectable....
Mike


-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
My opinions are my own, I know cause I bought them for $20 from a store.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
[e-mail]
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Date: Thu, 16 Dec 1993 15:31:19 GMT
From: brunix!doorknob![e-mail]
Subject: Robert
To: [e-mail]

In article <[e-mail]> Rick Aldom <[e-mail]> writes:
   Come on back Robert it has become quite slow without you!!

What are you saying?!  We can make an alt.radio.amateur.robert for
you, if you *really* want it, but personally I like rrap without the
mindless style and no-code flames.

  Scott

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End of Ham-Policy Digest V93 #530
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