The electronic publication of the Amateur Radio Newsline is distributed
with the permission of Bill Pasternak, WA6ITF, President and Editor of
Newsline.  The text version is edited from the original scripts and
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All other information and disclaimers are in the text header below.

- - - - - - - -
NEWSLINE RADIO - CBBS EDITION #121 - POSTED 04/23/94
 
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   The following is late news about Amateur Radio for Radio
 Amateurs as prepared from NEWSLINE RADIO scripts by the staff of
 the AMATEUR RADIO NEWSLINE, INC. -- formerly the WESTLINK RADIO
 NETWORK.  For current information updates, please call
 
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             Electronic Hardcopy Version of Newsline
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        In bulletin number 36
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        In bulletin number 6 of the ham radio conference
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(****************************************************************
 
Some of the hams of NEWSLINE RADIO...
 
WA6ITF WB6MQV WB6FDF K6DUE W6RCL N6AHU N6AWE N6TCQ K6PGX N6PNY
 KU8R N8DTN W9JUV KC9RP K9XI KB5KCH KC5UD KC0HF G8AUU WD0AKO DJ0QN
 and many others in the United States and around the globe!!!
 
(****************************************************************
 
[871]
                      The following is a QST
 
   Can a new Fairness Doctrine impact on ham radio and will the
 ARRL get its way on vanity call signs?  Find out on Newsline
 report number 871!
 
(*****
               HAM RADIO AND THE FAIRNESS DOCTRINE
 
   Bowing to extensive White House demands, congress is again
 pressuring the FCC to reinstate the "fairness doctrine" and to
 expand it past its original intent.  Because of the latter some
 hams want Amateur Radio discussion groups included.  Heres the
 story.
   The fairness doctrine was an FCC regulation repealed in 1987
 which required broadcasters to air both sides of a controversial
 issue.  According to a report in the trade publication Daily
 Variety, a Federal Communications Commission staffer confirmed the
 agency is getting "heat" from Capitol Hill on the issue, although
 the aide would not identify the lawmakers involved.  Radio -
 Television News Directors Association president David Bartlett
 asserts that the pressure is coming from Rep. John Dingell.
 Dinghall is the powerful Democratic chairman of the House Energy
 and Commerce Committee and is believed to be acting in concert
 with the president and his staff.
   Not reported in Variety is a strange Amateur Radio connection
 in all of this.  It now seems that several hams involved in long
 running 75 and 20 meter debate net activities believe it is
 important to include on-the-air amateur Radio discussions under
 the terms of any new Fairness Doctrine.  Anyone listening above
 3850 KHz or 14.300 MHz is already aware that this small but vocal
 group of hams feel that they have a constitutional right to have
 their views on various issues known to all of Amateur Radio using
 their ham stations as a broadcast platform.  Some are already
 believed to be lobbying their local congressional representatives
 for inclusion of private radio service communications in any new
 Fairness Doctrine legislation.
   In 1987, the FCC under then-chairman Dennis Patrick repealed
 the fairness doctrine on grounds that it could no longer be
 justified in an era of cable TV and other burgeoning media
 outlets.  A congressional effort to codify the regulation died
 when proponents failed to muster enough votes to override
 President Reagan's veto.
   Most congressional observers expected Congress would easily
 reinstate the rule following the election of President Clinton in
 1992.  But the effort died last year after Rush Limbaugh and other
 radio talk show hosts engineered a well-organized effort to kill
 the proposal.  If the Fairness Doctrine is ever reinstated, the
 inclusion of Amateur Radio and other personal communications
 services is doubtful because none fall under the purview of any
 broadcast related FCC rules.  But that does not seem to be enough
 of a reason to convince proponents of including ham radio
 communications in a new Fairness Doctrine from trying.  Stay
 tuned.  This one is not over yet.
 
(*****
                       FELDMAN RESPONSE
 
   Over the past several weeks Newsline has reported on legal
 action by Southern California's Claremont Amateur Radio
 Association to bar several radio amateurs from the clubs
 repeaters.  One of the people who was the target of a CLARA
 restraining order is Drew Feldman, N3KSO.  Newsline had the
 opportunity to talk to Feldman to get his perspective on the legal
 action taken against him.  The comments that follow express
 Feldman's point of view.
   Interestingly Feldman is not as upset with the Clarmont Amateur
 Radio Club as he is with the attorney that is representing the
 organization, Sid Radus, N6OMS.
 
   "The first order of business of Southern California's Repeater
 Coordinating Committee was to close a repeater that had been
 coordinated open going on two decades.  The repeater, high level,
 blanketing most of southern California with great coverage was
 originally coordinated properly open.  But with no consideration
 for its large user group, its own rules, the FCC guidelines, no
 notice of this action was taken by Sid Radus, the new TASMA
 President.  This is the same Sidney Radus that brought hams to
 court in an attempt to control the user group of the very same
 machine.  A conflict of interest is obvious.  I'm one of two
 amateurs that as of late has been caught up in this mess.  There
 have been three cases prior, and I know of two more scheduled in
 the near future."  Drew Feldman, N3KSO.
 
   Obviously Feldman's point of view differs from that of the
 Claremont Amateur Radio Club and is members.  He is aware of the
 mistake made by the court in accepting an older version of section
 97.113 in denying a change of venue request.  Its now up to him
 and Anthony Cardines, WA6IGJ to go forward with any appeal.
   A more in-depth interview with N3KSO has been conducted by RAIN
 Producer Hap Holly, KC9RP.  That report will be on the RAIN
 Dial-Up in a few weeks.
 
(*****
               CANADIAN AMATEUR RADIO REALIGNMENT
 
   What would you say if you learned that the FCC was going to
 delegate the overall administration of the United States Amateur
 Radio Service to the American Radio Relay League, the National
 Amateur Radio Association or maybe even Sears Roebuck?  You would
 probably be more than a bit shocked.  So imagine the way hams in
 Canada must be feeling after learning that the Canadian government
 and the national society Radio Amateurs Canada have formed a
 working group aimed at turning the administration of the Canadian
 Amateur Radio Service over to the national society.
   According to Fred Maia's W5YI Report, if the details are worked
 out and approved by Parliament, Radio Amateurs in Canada could
 wind up managing the certification and documentation of all
 aspects of the service, the examination and licensing of all
 applicants for ham radio licenses and overall control of the
 Amateur Radio spectrum within Canada and its possessions.  In
 fact, word out of Ottawa is that the government is even
 considering delegating every aspect of the Canadian Amateur Radio
 service to Radio Amateurs of Canada.  This would give the RAC wide
 ranging pseudo government powers to maintain examination
 questions, approve amateur service examiners, issue call signs and
 perform Amateur Radio spectrum surveillance to assure that all
 Canadian hams were abiding by the service rules.  Such an
 agreement would also give the Radio Amateurs of Canada exclusivity
 in the publishing and distribution of all documents related to the
 Canadian Amateur Radio service.
   The working group is expected to take at least a year before
 it arrives at any definitive agreement.  If an accord can be
 reached it could set an example that other nations may emulate,
 worldwide.
 
(*****
                ARRL DEVELOPS VANITY CALL PROPOSAL
 
   The ARRL's Executive Committee has approved the recommendations
 of the Ad Hoc Committee on Preferred Call Signs in preparation for
 the ARRL's filing of formal comments in PR Docket 93-305, the
 FCC's Vanity call sign proposal.
   The committee report says that all amateurs should be eligible
 for participation in the program.  A phase-in period and priority
 system of what the League calls gates should be adopted to allow
 the Commission relief from the administrative burden expected from
 the heavy initial submission of applications, and to afford
 licensees the opportunity to regain lost call signs.  Included in
 the first gate would be those who wish to obtain the call sign of
 a direct family member.  Clubs with lapsed club licenses and call
 signs should be allowed to recoup those call signs in the first
 priority group.  The second gate in the priority system would be
 opened to Extra Class licensees; a priority third gate would be
 opened to Advanced Class licensees.  The League says it will also
 recommend that one by one prefix call signs be made available for
 limited duration special events that are of national significance.
   The April 6th recommendations were based on membership input
 solicited by the committee.  A copy of the committee's complete
 report is available for an SASE from the Regulatory Information
 Branch at League Headquarters, and on electronic services
 including CompuServe, America On Line, Prodigy, and the ARRL
 Bulletin Board.
 
(*****
               ARRL SEEKS CLUB CALL SIGN RULING
 
   The ARRL has also petitioned the FCC to increase the minimum
 number of members necessary for granting a club station license
 from two to four.  The League says that the FCC's 1993 notice of
 proposed rule making to reinstitute club licensing makes this a
 timely issue.
   In 1990, the League, as part of a petition for rule making
 seeking miscellaneous changes in the Amateur Service Rules,
 proposed the same change.  At the time, no club station licenses
 were being issued, but the League said that if that program was
 resumed, the two-person criteria would invite applications from
 parties that are not clubs, such as two or three licensees simply
 wanting an alternative call sign.
   The League believes that the two-person criterion is
 insufficient to distinguish bona fide clubs from two or three
 individuals who do not function as a normal Amateur Radio club.
 By way of example league says that of 1,957 Amateur Radio clubs
 that are ARRL-affiliated, only 10 have fewer than four members.
   Until 1976, the FCC required an application for a club station
 license to file copies of the club's constitution and bylaws,
 which helped ensure that the club was bona fide.  But the FCC has
 not issued club station licenses since 1979.  So the commission
 declined to change the criteria, since new club licenses were not
 being issued.
   The Leagues request has designated as RM-8462.
 
(*****
               ARRL BEGINS LICENSE RENEWAL SERVICE
 
   The ARRL has now begun mailing amateur radio license expiration
 notices to its members.  The notices, including an envelope
 addressed to the FCC's processing facility in Gettysburg, PA, are
 sent 90 days before the license expiration date and are generated
 from the official FCC database.  All addresses are being cross
 checked with the ARRL membership database and the QST magazine
 mailing address is used if it is different from the address in the
 FCC database.  This the League says is being done for both
 accuracy and to insure prompt delivery.
 
(*****
                     SHACK AND THE HAMVENTION
 
   Now for an update on next weeks Dayton Hamvention starting
 with word that Radio Shack for the first time ever it is
 recognizing this very popular ham radio event.  An advertisement
 page 22 of the latest Radio Shack flyer heralds a banner
 proclaiming "Dayton Hamvention Ham Convention Specials."  It also
 invites readers to  --and we quote -- "Plan to visit the worlds
 largest and most famous Ham gathering, the Dayton Hamvention with
 its Giant Flea market, exhibits and activities for the family
 taking place April 29, 30 and May 1 at the HARA Arena, Dayton
 Ohio."  Radio Shack also offers their popular 2 meter and 70 cm
 hand-held FM transceivers at substantial savings off their usual
 prices.
 
(*****
            PACKET CLUSTER DESIGNER TO RECEIVE AWARD
 
   One ham who is definitely going to be at next weeks Dayton
 Hamvention is Dick Newell, AK1A.  Newell and his Packet Cluster
 software have become a staple on the VHF and UHF bands worldwide.
 As a result Newell is the winner of this years Dayton Amateur
 Radio Associations Technical Achievement Award.
   Mr. Newell is being recognized for his efforts in amateur radio
 through the creation of the packet cluster concept.  As well as
 the software that supports it.  AK1A first started working on the
 packet cluster concept in 1986.
 
   "I designed the protocol to talk, to hook these computers up
 together.  They exchange information with each other and send what
 nodes that are connected to each station, which users are
 currently connected to the system.  And then when somebody does an
 announcement or DX spot it gets distributed to each node.  Then
 the node is responsible and the software sends it to all the users
 that are locally connected to that node."  Dick Newell, AK1A.
 
   Packet cluster has grown from just a small number of computers
 linked together.
 
   "The number of amateurs that use packet cluster all the time is
 probably between 35,000 to 40,000 amateurs."  Dick Newell, AK1A.
 
   Mr Newell was humbled and surprised by the award.
 
   "I was completely surprised, I had no idea that I was even
 being considered.  I consider it a very big honor.  That is all I
 can say.  I was very surprised."  Dick Newell, AK1A.
 
   Dick Newell, AK1A will receive the 1994 Technical Excellence
 Award at the Grand Banquet to be held Saturday evening, April the
 30th at the Dayton Convention Center located in downtown Dayton.
 
(*****
                            FM-RPT
 
   "The World of FM and Repeaters" is a new monthly column by
 Newsline producer Bill Pasternak, WA6ITF premiering in the May
 issue of Worldradio News.  According to Pasternak, he was enticed
 into writing the column after it was pointed out to him that no
 publication other than QST Magazine was devoting any regular
 page-space to the largest sub-group within the United States
 Amateur Radio service.
   Pasternak says that the Worldradio FM and repeater column will
 not be a rehash of his old "Looking West" that ran 22 years in 73
 Magazine.  Instead Bill says that he will use the world-wide news
 gathering potential of Newsline to procure timely information that
 is vital to the day to day on-air operations of all FMers,
 repeater licensees, system owners and repeater users.  The column
 will also solicit original articles and papers from prominent
 FMers, repeater groups and frequency coordination councils.  You
 can meet Bill at the Worldradio News booth at next weeks Dayton
 Hamvention.  He will also be hosting two forum sessions at
 Hamvention '94 as well.
 
(*****
          TONY ENGLAND, W0ORE TO SPEAK AT QCWA DINNER
 
   Former NASA Astronaut Tony England, W0ORE, will be the keynote
 speaker at the Southwest Ohio QCWA dinner in Dayton, Ohio on
 Friday, April the 29th.  The event also takes place Hamvention
 weekend at the Continental restaurant which is located about a
 half mile west of Interstate 75 on State Route 725.  The dinner
 gathering begins at 7:30 PM.
 
(*****
                        RUSSIAN TIMES
 
   The Russians are really taking to electronic mail in a big
 way.  The March 9 New York Times notes in a story that Russians
 are taking to e-mail in a big way, some of them even being able to
 access the Internet.  "We can use the Library of Congress in five
 minutes, while it takes a magazine from the US three months to
 reach Russia," a Russian scientist said.
 
(*****
                              DX
 
   In DX, word that the Radio Society of Great Britain has
 scheduled its 1994 International HF and Islands on the Air
 Convention for October 7 to 9, 1994.  Included this year is a 30th
 birthday party for IOTA.  The convention will be held at the
 Beaumont Conference Centre in Old Windsor, Berkshire.  More than a
 dozen speakers already have signed on, including Peter Casier,
 ON6TT, one of the 3Y0PI Peter I Island expedition operators, and
 Roger Western, G3SXW/ZD9SXW.  For more information, contact E. N.
 Cheadle, G3NUG, Further Felden, Longcroft Lane, Felden, Hemel
 Hempstead, Herts HP3 0BN.
 
(*****
                           VANITY CALLS
 
   When amateur radio operators get the go-ahead to request vanity
 callsigns... one radio club already has a particular call sign in
 mind.  Members of wars -- West Alabama Amateur Radio Society, will
 ask the FCC to grant W4WYN as the club's new call sign.  It's the
 Club's way of paying tribute to a special amateur radio operator:
 Don McDaniel.  McDaniel was a driving force in amateur radio in
 Tuscaloosa, Alabama, for many years.  He was a close friend of
 many wars members -- and was very active in public service.  In
 fact, McDaniel was always one of the first to volunteer, any time
 emergencies arose.  WARS members say having W4WYN as their club
 call sign would be a fitting tribute to Don McDaniel... an amateur
 radio operator admired by all who knew him.
 
(*****
 
   And for this week, that's all from the Amateur Radio Newsline.
 You can write to us at Post Office Box 463, Pasadena, CA 91102.
 
   Next week a full report on planned activities at Hamvention 94.
 Please check it out.
 
(* * * Newsline Copyright 1994 all rights are reserved. * * *
