Tag Archives: ARRL

SAQ’s 17.2 kHz Christmas Eve transmission

ARRL News: “Broadcasters Intruding on Exclusive Amateur Radio Frequencies”

(Source: ARRL News via Ron)

The International Amateur Radio Union Region 1 (IARU-R1) Monitoring System (IARUMS) reports that Radio Hargeisa in Somaliland has returned to 7,120 kHz after a break of several weeks, while Radio Eritrea has been reported on 7,140 and 7,180 kHz. Radio Sudan has been transmitting on 7,205 kHz with excessive splatter, IARUMS said. German telecommunications authorities have filed official complaints.

IARUMS has also reported digital signals attributed to the Israeli Navy on 7,107 and 7,150 kHz. In addition, a Russian military F1B signal was observed in mid-November on 7,179 kHz. A Russian over-the-horizon radar has returned to 20 meters on 14,335 – 14,348 kHz. It was monitored on November 22. Earlier this fall, IARUMS reported digital signals from the Polish military daily on 7,001.8 kHz where Amateur Radio has a worldwide primary allocation. Telecommunications officials in Germany filed a complaint.

IARUMS has received reports of short “beeps” exactly 1 second apart, as well as frequency hopping between 10,108 and 10,115 kHz and 18,834 and 18,899 kHz. The signals are believed to emanate from a site near Chicago associated with an FCC-licensed Experimental operation involved with low-latency exchange trading on HF (see “Experiments Look to Leverage Low-Latency HF to Shave Microseconds off Trade Times”). Although Amateur Radio is secondary on 30 and 17 meters, Experimental licenses may not interfere with Amateur Radio operations.

Spread the radio love

SSTV Special Event from the International Space Station on Saturday, October 27

ARRL takes minor exception to wording of FCC Enforcement Advisory regarding uncertified two-way radios

2 Replies

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Eric McFadden, who shares the following ARRL response to the FCC Enforcement Advisory we posted last week. The following was published in the ARRL News:

ARRL has taken a minor exception to the wording of a September 24 FCC Enforcement Advisory pertaining to the importation, marketing and sale of VHF and UHF transceivers and is in discussion with FCC personnel to resolve the matter. The Enforcement Advisory was in response to the importation into the US of certain radio products that are not FCC certified for use in any radio service, but identified as Amateur Radio equipment.

“While much of this equipment is actually usable on Amateur bands, the radios are also capable of operation on non-amateur frequencies allocated to radio services that require the use of equipment that has been FCC-certified,” ARRL said. “Such equipment is being marketed principally to the general public via mass e-marketers and not to Amateur Radio licensees.”

[…]“In several places, the Enforcement Advisory makes the point that ‘anyone importing, advertising or selling such noncompliant devices should stop immediately, and anyone owning such devices should not use them,’” ARRL pointed out. “The Advisory broadly prohibits the ‘use’ of such radios, but our view is that there is no such prohibition relative to licensed Amateur Radio use — entirely within amateur allocations — of a radio that may be capable of operation in non-amateur spectrum, as long as it is not actually used to transmit in non-amateur spectrum.

ARRL has had extensive discussions about this issue with FCC Wireless Bureau and Enforcement Bureau staff, and those discussions are ongoing.[…]

Click here to read the full news article.

Spread the radio love

A free book (PDF) on sun-earth interaction

3 Replies

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Eric (WD8RIF), who writes:

This came in the most recent ARRL Contest newsletter:

The Sun, The Earth, and Near-Earth Space: A Guide to the Sun-Earth System by J. A. Eddy is a readable and accessible textbook that explains the dynamics of the Sun and its interaction with the Earth’s ionosphere. It’s available as a free download, courtesy of NASA and the International Living with a Star Program. Anyone using the ionosphere as a medium for radio wave transmission and wants to better understand propagation should find this book of interest. (Ward, N0AX)

Thank you for the stellar tip, Eric!

Spread the radio love

Repeat repeater offender proposed $18,000 FCC fine

1 Reply

(Source: ARRL News)

The FCC has issued a Notice of Apparent Liability (NAL) proposing to fine Jerry W. Materne, KC5CSG, of Lake Charles, Louisiana, $18,000 “for apparently causing intentional interference and for apparently failing to provide station identification on amateur radio frequencies,” the FCC said.

“Mr. Materne was previously warned regarding this behavior in writing by the Enforcement Bureau and, given his history as a repeat offender, these apparent violations warrant a significant penalty,” the FCC said in the NAL, released on July 25.

In 2017, the FCC received numerous complaints alleging that Materne was causing interference to the W5BII repeater, preventing other amateur licensees from using it. In March 2017, the repeater trustee banned Materne from using the repeater.

Responding to some of the complaints, the Enforcement Bureau issued a Letter of Inquiry (LOI), advising Materne of the allegations and directing him to address them. Materne denied causing interference but admitted to operating simplex on the repeater’s output frequency. In June 2017, the FCC received an additional complaint alleging that Materne had repeatedly interfered with an attempted emergency net that was called up as Tropical Storm Cindy was about to make landfall. The complaint maintained that Materne “repeatedly transmitted on the repeater’s input frequency, hindering the local emergency net’s ability to coordinate weather warnings and alerts on behalf of the National Weather Service,” the FCC said in the NAL.

Local amateurs were able to track the interfering signal to Materne’s residence and confirmed their findings to the FCC, prompting a Warning Letter advising Materne of the complaint and pointing out that his behavior “as described in the complaint would be a violation of Section 97.101(d) of the Commission’s rules.”[…]

Click here to read full story at the ARRL.

Spread the radio love

Skov notes possible role of amateur radio tech with Mars OTH communications

8 Replies

(Source: Southgate ARC)

Over-the-horizon communication on Mars

ARRL highlights a post by The Space Weather Woman, Dr. Tamitha Skov, that notes the role amateur radio technology could play in over-the-horizon radio communications on Mars

I am still smiling at the huge response I got to a post I put up on Twitter this week. A newbie to our Space Weather community dared to talk about Amateur Radio as if it were an outdated hobby– whoops, bad idea. I gently educated him.
In doing so, I roused many radio amateurs and emergency communicators, who added their own comments and talked about their own personal experiences in the field. It was very gratifying.

What I hadn’t expected, however, was the strong interest in the concept that amateur radio will be critical to establishing over-the-horizon radio communications on planets like Mars in the near future.

This idea brings me back to how we managed to communicate over long distances many decades before we had satellites, internet or cellular networks. In terms of wireless communications on Earth, we were very much in the same place back in the early 1900s that we find ourselves in now when we think about colonizing Mars.
Yet few people realize that despite all our advanced technology, we can’t bring a cell phone to Mars. We will need to fall back on our ‘old ways’ of doing things when it comes to communicating on other planets. Isn’t it funny how ‘old’ things become ‘new’ again?

Source ARRL
http://www.arrl.org/news/the-k7ra-solar-update-527

Space Weather Woman
http://www.spaceweatherwoman.com/
https://twitter.com/TamithaSkov

Dr. Tamitha Skov’s latest video report: