QRZ! Ham Radio 4/QRZ Ham Radio Callsign Database - Volume 4.iso/digests/space/940158.txt

Internet Message Format | 1994-11-13 | 20KB

Date: Thu, 16 Jun 94 04:30:32 PDT
From: Ham-Space Mailing List and Newsgroup <[e-mail]>
Errors-To: [e-mail]
Reply-To: [e-mail]
Precedence: Bulk
Subject: Ham-Space Digest V94 #158
To: Ham-Space


Ham-Space Digest            Thu, 16 Jun 94       Volume 94 : Issue  158

Today's Topics:
                Guide to the Personal Radio Newsgroups
                      radio comparison (2 msgs)
                    Railroad track as an antenna?
                 Shortwave radio guide book  HELP!!!
                     Wanted: Copy of Wintrack 2.0

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

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

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: Wed, 15 Jun 1994 11:01:45 GMT
From: ihnp4.ucsd.edu!usc!sol.ctr.columbia.edu!news.unomaha.edu![e-mail]
Subject: Guide to the Personal Radio Newsgroups
To: [e-mail]

Posted-By: auto-faq 3.2.1.2
Archive-name: radio/personal-intro
Revision: 1.5 12/18/93 14:15:53
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]

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

Date: 16 Jun 1994 00:47:24 GMT
From: ihnp4.ucsd.edu!library.ucla.edu!europa.eng.gtefsd.com!newsxfer.itd.umich.edu!zip.eecs.umich.edu!yeshua.marcam.com!insosf1.infonet.net![e-mail]
Subject: radio comparison
To: [e-mail]

If someone has some ideas on comparisons of radios I am looking at the ICOM 970 and the 736R Yaseau.  Right now I am favoring the ICOM 970.  I do not need the six meters as I am planning to get a seperate unit.  any thoughts ... also on antennas ... am probably going to use the hygain oscar units ..

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

Date: Thu, 16 Jun 1994 02:32:13 GMT
From: ihnp4.ucsd.edu!swrinde!emory!kd4nc!ke4zv![e-mail]
Subject: radio comparison
To: [e-mail]

In article <2to7es$[e-mail]> [e-mail] writes:
>If someone has some ideas on comparisons of radios I am looking at the ICOM 970 and the 736R Yaseau.  Right now I am favoring the ICOM 970.  I do not need the six meters as I am planning to get a seperate unit.  any thoughts ... also on antennas ... am probably going to use the hygain oscar units ..

I considered the 970H but wound up buying the 736. The 970H has a great
set of features, it makes enough power you don't need an external amp,
and the human factors boys did a good job on the controls, but the
receiver isn't quite up to the standards of the 275/475 Icoms (they're
the best). It folds under conditions of strong adjacent signals. Perhaps
the synthesizer has too much phase noise. I checked 5 of them, and they
all were the same. It'd probably be fine in a RF quiet location. It's
also much more expensive than the other radios.

I bought and quickly sold a Kenwood 790A, that radio was a huge
disappointment. Not only were the human factors horrible, but
it had serious flaws for satellite use. The narrow filters only
work in the main band unit, but you listen to the satellite
on the sub-band unit, so they're a waste. It won't do sat-track
tuning unless you hold the SAT button down. That's just stupid,
requiring you to use both hands to tune the radio. And the thermal
design of the radio is horrible. It gets very hot after only
brief transmissions. The UHF amplifier brick died after a month.
The receiver is pretty sensitive though, but that's not a real
issue for satellite since you'll be using a mast mount preamp
anyway.

So I finally settled on the 736R. You can't listen to two bands
at once like the other two, some of the function controls are
laid out funky, the discriminator center meter doesn't center,
but it works fine for satellites, the narrow filters work, it
never runs hot, and it's been rock reliable. It seems I don't
have a lot of good things to say about this radio, but that's
misleading. It's very competent at what it does, and what it does
is what you need for satellite work. I also got a great deal on it.

My ideal station though would be the IC275H/IC475H. The twins are
just wonderful radios, great receivers, rock reliable transmitters,
good control layouts and functions, but I couldn't justify the cost.
Each individually costs more than a street priced 736R.

On the subject of antennas I'm adamant, there's no substitute for
the KLM22C and KLM40CX. They're simply better than anything else
available. Use a Yaesu 5400B dual axis rotator system, fiberglass
crossboom, SSB Electronics preamps, hardline, and a TAPR Trakbox,
and you have an ideal antenna system. That's *the* key to satellite
operation.

Gary
--
Gary Coffman KE4ZV          |    You make it,     | gatech!wa4mei!ke4zv!gary
Destructive Testing Systems |    we break it.     | uunet!rsiatl!ke4zv!gary
534 Shannon Way             |    Guaranteed!      | emory!kd4nc!ke4zv!gary
Lawrenceville, GA 30244     |                     |

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

Date: 16 Jun 94 06:58:33 GMT
From: dog.ee.lbl.gov!agate!howland.reston.ans.net!torn!spartan.ac.BrockU.CA![e-mail]
Subject: Railroad track as an antenna?
To: [e-mail]

I have heard a legend that a college radio station (either at MIT, Tufts,
or Swarthmore) welded antenna to railroad tracks, and peeved the FCC by
broadcasting nationwide.  Is this true?  If anyone knows, please email me
(or post here)  If you do know, could you please direct me to some
documentation regarding this legend if you can.

This is very important!  Thanks in advance.
______________________________________________________________________________
James R. Storm                      |
Accounting Student                  | This message was brought to you by
[e-mail]  | the letters M, Q, and the number 6
[phone] voice                |
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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Date: 16 Jun 1994 07:33:16 GMT
From: ihnp4.ucsd.edu!swrinde!howland.reston.ans.net!nctuccca.edu.tw!news.cc.nctu.edu.tw!news.edu.tw!aladdin.iii.org.tw![e-mail]
Subject: Shortwave radio guide book  HELP!!!
To: [e-mail]

HI!

I am considering buying    a shortwave radio guide    book.
   Here    are 3 three books to choice.
      1.Passport World Band Radio 1994
      2.1994 Edition Wordldradio TV Handbook
      3.Shortwave Listening Guide Book,    Harry Helms, Second Edition
Do you have an opinion on which    one of these is    better for my to buy ?

Please send mail to [e-mail] preferably.

thanks a much !
-Percy WANG

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Date: 15 Jun 1994 23:11:37 GMT
From: ihnp4.ucsd.edu!usc!nic-nac.CSU.net!charnel.ecst.csuchico.edu!yeshua.marcam.com!news.kei.com!ssd.intel.com!chnews![e-mail]
Subject: Wanted: Copy of Wintrack 2.0
To: [e-mail]

How can a friend of mine obtain a copy of Wintrack 2.0? Is it
shareware?

thanks and 73, KG7BK, OOTC, [e-mail]

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End of Ham-Space Digest V94 #158
******************************