Andy -
What did you say? Hi! Hi!
I LOVE Digital.
Have a GREAT day, and HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Lou WA5LOU
Andrew O'Brien <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
OK, I am coming to this issue rather late but did give the proposal a
quick read. For those who do not have time to read all the email or
the lengthy pdf document, here is is my Bozo's guide. I am sure I
will have some things wrong, after all...I am a bozo. If I have some
things wrong, correct me.
Bottom line : The proposal has no chance of being adopted, The Kyoto
protocol will be easier to implement than this. The FCC will see all
the chaotic comments and ignore the issue.
What N5RFX wants: Nothing wider than 1500 Hz below 10M and automatic
stations will be sent to Soweto and live under an apartheid system .
What are automatic controlled stations?
While PACTOR is the primary "culprit", ALE, Packet, CW, RTTY and PSK
operations occasionally operate in an unattended way . This means a
station leaps in to action with a transmission while the licensee is
in the kitchen making a bologna sandwich, is busy "taking a slash in
the bog "(look it up) or perhaps driving 200 miles from his house.
This is good if you want to get things done without always having to
be close to that damn radio. Some folks get upset at this because ,
while you are making that sandwich , you missed the fact that AA6YQ
was working North Korea on 80M QRP. Your automatic station just
drowned the North Korean giving Dave an RST of 339.
Aside from Pactor, I suspect that many ALE operations are not always
under full manual control. Neither are some Propnet stations that use
300 baud packet or PSK31. Many DXpeditions act like they can transmit
any place they want, and then there are also the folks at W1AW who
send old news automatically at predetermined times via RTTY and CW.
Is this N5RFX geezer mean/nasty and does he want to get rid of all
digital modes ?
I doubt it. He seems more like a bloke that has all his socks neatly
arranged in a drawer, tagged with the day of the week he plans to wear
them. He wants unattended operations confined to certain parts of
the dial, in their own section of the "drawer". In fact, rather than
mean, he may be actually a nice guy since he gives many frequencies to
the unattended folks. Far more than is really needed . If there was
a national or International emergency, a well coordinated event would
need just two or three bands. This N5RFX dude has auto folks all
over the bands.
But will I be able to work K3UK with 3000/128 Olivia? What about all
those other "fun" digital modes"?
N5RFX seems to want to "kill" some wide modes . Does this really
matter to the average ham ? Remember the average ham can't spell
"shortwave". Many average hams think a "shortwave" is one of those
$29.95 small microwave ovens that Wal-Mart has on sale. They could
care less about those funny noises on the airwaves. However, there
are some hams that are as geeky as those JT65A guys warbling their way
through narrow spectrum for five minutes just to exchange a grid
square and call sign . The wide mode freaks are just as geeky but they
like "wide modes" to send the Magna Carta in full , with pictures and
social commentary, all in on 3 second data burst that is 25 mHz wide
! Actually, they are usually not that wide, most are within 2.4 kHz.
The modes appear like the QEII sailing down your waterfall, and
"steal" that spot you were about to use to endlessly call CQ. These
"wide" modes can be very useful and can contain a lot of information
that some people thing is valuable(data, pictures, station ID, even
your voice). Many experimenters try "wide" modes and feel like they
are advancing the state of the art. While some think "girth" has
pleasurable advantages, N5RFX thinks we should be happy with 1500 Hz.
He argues that 1500 Hz can still achieve satisfaction and those who
are obsessed with size can go try 10 meters. 10 meters is the "Nevada
of the amateur radio world", the "Amsterdam" of the spectrum. You can
hang out on 10 meters and be as "dirty" as you want with your wider
than 1500 Hz signals . No one will really care, because 60% of the
time 10M is only open to North Carolina! When it is open to the world,
you can get lost because your dial twirling fingers will get tired
long before you reach the end of the band (just try manually tuning
from 28.001 to 29Mhz !)
So, while the tech folks debate Gaussian White Noise (did they open
for AC-DC once ?) , rest assured that most amateur radio will
continue unaffected by N5RFX's OCD. If he gets his way, you may not
get stomped on as much and you may get frustrated that you can't send
3000/128 Olivia on 80M to work that rare South Dakota station when the
propagation gods have made PSK31 unusable. Oh, and if you run a
PACTOR or ALE station, you may feel yourself to be a bit like Martha
Stewart did when she was under house arrest. Frustrated that you can't
party all over the place.
That's all,
Andy K3UK
