Posts Tagged ‘News’
No More Hara
July 29th, 2016 | 
Author: The news just came crashing down from the ARRL that the 2016 Dayton Hamvention would be the last to be held in the Hara Arena. The home of the Dayton Hamvention since 1964 is closing. Hamvention 2017 will be held at a new, yet-to-be-disclosed location in the Dayton area.
I wish I could share with all my readers all the wonderful memories I have of Hara Arena. But unfortunately, this was something I kept putting off year after year after year. This is really unfortunate for me, as I am one who truly appreciates most of the history behind our hobby.
But oh well, right? We live….we learn…we endeavor to not repeat the errors of our ways.
Is there a silver lining in all this? As the news regarding Hara Arena began to surface on Twitter. I had to chuckle a the following tweet “Forget “no code” hams. We will soon complain about “no Hara” hams!” T-Shirts are already available to help drive this fact home. 
Well…one thing is for sure. The 2017 Dayton Hamvention will most certainly be an event none of us will want to miss. While I may have missed out on being able to say I went to the Hamvention at Hara. I certainly don’t want to miss out on saying I attended the first Hamvention at the new venue.
Well I really didn’t intend to release two blog postings today. Again I wish I had lots of memories to share about Hara. But I’m sure many other amateur radio bloggers will fill in the gap soon enough.
I hope to see you in 2017 in Dayton at the Hamvention in the yet-to-be-disclosed location.
Until next time…
73 de Jerry (KDØBIK)
1000
The Radio Artisan group reached a milestone recently, surpassing 1000 members. While I acknowledge some of these 1000 are undoubtedly inactive or spammer accounts, I consider this an accomplishment after starting this discussion group three years ago. Originally intended as a support group for my Arduino open source amateur radio projects, I’m hoping to continuing expanding the group into general discussions involving DIY projects involving amateur radio and software code, Arduinos, Raspberry Pis, and open source, and in cutting edge areas such as satellites and DSP. I’m seeing more discussions in areas like this, especially with using Arduinos to automate shack functions. My ultimate goal is to have this group continue regardless of my projects or participation.
I’m pleased that I’ve been able to keep the group friendly, civilized and free of mode wars, politics, and other nasties that tend to pollute some amateur radio forums. There are a lot of smart and creative people from all around the world. It’s great when we can all share in this great hobby. (What is a radio artisan?)
ARRL Bulletin 25
ARLB025 FCC Universal Licensing System, Other Applications to be Down for Maintenance
ZCZC AG25
QST de W1AW
ARRL Bulletin 25 ARLB025
From ARRL Headquarters - Newington CT August 25, 2015
To all radio amateurs
SB QST ARL ARLB025
ARLB025 FCC Universal Licensing System, Other Applications to be Down for Maintenance
FCC website maintenance in early September will make the Universal Licensing System (ULS), the Electronic Comment Filing System (ECFS), the Electronic Document Management System (EDOCS) and other public applications unavailable for more than 5 days. The Commission said the outage will begin at 2200 UTC on Wednesday, September 2, and continue through the Labor Day weekend. The maintenance work should be completed by 1200 UTC on Tuesday, September 8. During the ULS outage, it will not be possible to file any Amateur Radio applications.
"[M]ost Commission resources normally accessible through the Commission's website, including access to all electronic filing systems and electronic dockets, will be inaccessible for the same period, with the exception of the Network Outage Reporting System (NORS), the Consumer Help Center (CHC), and the Disaster Information Reporting System (DIRS), which will remain available," an FCC Public Notice said on August 20. "The Commission's website will remain available, but with reduced content and limited search capabilities." According to the Public Notice, the FCC will follow its normal schedule of operation during the maintenance period, but voicemail will be offline, and most Commission staffers will not have access to e-mail. Static content webpages on the fcc.gov domain, such as the FCC consumer guides, should remain available during the outage.
The FCC will extend filing deadlines for all regulatory and enforcement filings that fall during the maintenance period. Filings due on September 2, 3, 4, or 8 now will be due on Wednesday, September 9. "Except for the due dates specified herein, we are not automatically extending the deadlines for any other comment or filing periods that will be running during this time period, but requests for extension of time will be considered consistent with the Commission's normal practice," the FCC Public Notice said. "To the extent the due dates for filings to which reply or responsive pleadings are allowed are affected by this Public Notice, the due dates for reply or responsive pleadings shall be extended by the same number of days."
In a blog, "Modernizing the FCC's IT," FCC CIO David Bray said that with the world and the technology we use are changing rapidly, "the information technology used by the Federal Communications Commission must change as well." Bray said the FCC has "made significant progress to upgrade and modernize our infrastructure, and we continue to work on modernizing the FCC's legacy IT systems with the resources we have available."
"We understand that this temporary downtime before and during the Labor Day Weekend may be inconvenient for some FCC stakeholders," Bray added.
NNNN /EX
72 de Larry W2LJ
QRP - When you care to send the very least!
FCC Eliminates Amateur Radio Vanity Call Sign Regulatory Fee
05/22/2015
The FCC is eliminating the regulatory fee to apply for an Amateur Radio vanity call sign. The change will not go into effect, however, until required congressional notice has been given. This will take at least 90 days. As the Commission explained in a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, Report and Order, and Order (MD Docket 14-92 and others), released May 21, it’s a matter of simple economics.
“The Commission spends more resources on processing the regulatory fees and issuing refunds than the amount of the regulatory fee payment,” the FCC said. “As our costs now exceed the regulatory fee, we are eliminating this regulatory fee category.” The current vanity call sign regulatory fee is $21.40, the highest in several years. The FCC reported there were 11,500 “payment units” in FY 2014 and estimated that it would collect nearly $246,100.
In its 2014 Notice of Proposed Rule Making (NPRM) regarding the assessment and collection of regulatory fees for FY 2014, the FCC had sought comment on eliminating several smaller regulatory fee categories, such as those for vanity call signs and GMRS. It concluded in the subsequent Report and Order (R&O) last summer, however, that it did not have “adequate support to determine whether the cost of recovery and burden on small entities outweighed the collected revenue or whether eliminating the fee would adversely affect the licensing process.”
The FCC said it has since had an opportunity to obtain and analyze support concerning the collection of the regulatory fees for Amateur Vanity and GMRS, which the FCC said comprise, on average, more than 20,000 licenses that are newly obtained or renewed, every 10 and 5 years, respectively.
“The Commission often receives multiple applications for the same vanity call sign, but only one applicant can be issued that call sign,” the FCC explained. “In such cases, the Commission issues refunds for all the remaining applicants. In addition to staff and computer time to process payments and issue refunds, there is an additional expense to issue checks for the applicants who cannot be refunded electronically.”
The Commission said that after it provides the required congressional notification, Amateur Radio vanity program applicants “will no longer be financially burdened with such payments, and the Commission will no longer incur these administrative costs that exceed the fee payments. The revenue that the Commission would otherwise collect from these regulatory fee categories will be proportionally assessed on other wireless fee categories.”
The FCC said it would not issue refunds to licensees who paid the regulatory fee prior to its official elimination.
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So basically the FCC is saying, it costs more to process the fees and refunds of fees than it's worth. I am going to assume (a dangerous thing), or at least hope that this also applies to the renewal as well as the initial application.
72 de Larry W2LJ
QRP - When you care to send the very least!
Some great news
My initial reactions were thus:
1) Wow! It's great to hear from John.
2) John's writing again - fantastic!
3) I know diddly squat about motorcycling.
4) This ties into QRP, so how can this be a bad thing?
5) Even though #3 is true, #4 is also true, so maybe I can learn something here.
6) Boy, it's good to have John back again.
So even if you're like me (and don't know squat about motorcycling), you do know about QRP and you do like the way John writes - it's still a win/win situation. AND if you DO know about motorcycling, then you've really hit pay dirt! (Win/win/win).
I have added John's new blog to the blog roll on the right, and the hyperlink above will take you right there. Please take the time to read his work, and if you like what you're reading - let him know. We bloggers appreciate the feedback and love hearing from you, good, bad or indifferent. Just do ME a favor and tell him W2LJ sent you.
72 de Larry W2LJ
QRP - When you care to send the very least!
Heathkit Announces Acquisition of Radio Shack
Heathkit announced today they have reached an agreement to acquire the assets of Radio Shack for $300M, blocking efforts from mobile wireless carrier Sprint to acquire a large portion of the struggling and now bankrupt North American consumer electronics retailer. No further details were mentioned by Heathkit other than they “had big plans” and “everyone should stay tuned to the website for details.”
Radio Shack CEO Joseph Magnacca was quoted in a press release as saying “We are very happy and excited about the pending transaction with Heathkit. The Heathkit team has shown us they have a more viable business plan than Sprint, and our creditors agree that the Heathkit team brings a higher level of management, leadership, and strategy to Radio Shack, more than the company has ever had.”
Immediately after the announcement amateur radio online forums were alive with discussions and speculation on when closed stores would reopen. Several commenters reminisced about the days when Radio Shack offered amateur radios and components. One person noted how difficult it is to get good 68k ohm resistors and Radio Shack could chart a course to profitability if they just stocked these resistors. Others bemoaned Radio Shack’s practice of asking for customer addresses, claiming it was a front for NSA information-gathering efforts. Several commenters agreed that Radio Shack should offer a vacuum tube code practice oscillator kit.
Spurious Emissions
