wheatley@inuxi.UUCP (Steven Wheatley) (01/05/86)
/\ / \ / A \ / \ ===============/ \============== THE / R R \ LETTER VOLUME 4 \ / NUMBER 26 ===============\ /============== \ / \ L / \ / \/ December 19, 1985 The ARRL Letter is published bi-weekly by the Information Services Department of the American Radio Relay League, 225 Main St., Newington, CT, 06111; (203) 666-1541. Larry E. Price, W4RA, President; David Sumner, K1ZZ, Executive Vice President; Dave Newkirk, AK7M, Editor; Debra Chapor, Circulation Manager. Information from The ARRL Letter may be reproduced in whole or part in any form including photoreproduction and electronic databanks, providing credit is given to The ARRL Letter and to the American Radio Relay League. The ARRL Letter is available in printed form from ARRL. Subscriptions, limited to ARRL Members, are $19.50 (U.S. funds) per year for First-Class Mailing to the U.S., Canada, and Mexico. Overseas air mail subscriptions are available at $31 (U.S. funds) per year. Sample copies are available for an s.a.s.e. In this issue: o PRIVACY ACT DOES NOT TARGET PHONE PATCHES o LEAGUE OPPOSES LOW-POWER 902 MHz VIDEO LINKS o NEW THIRD PARTY AGREEMENT WITH 4U1VIC o ...and much more! PRIVACY ACT DOES NOT TARGET PHONE PATCHES We first mentioned the Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1985 in the November 7 Letter. Here's more. This League Lines item is preprinted from January 1986 QST and is copyright (C) 1985 by the American Radio Relay League, Inc: In communications to ARRL and to their representatives in Congress, amateurs are running up verbal "hurricane warning" flags regarding the Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1985, S. 1667 and H.R. 3378. "Small craft warnings" would be far more appropriate: The bill indeed requires some attention from the amateur community, but it poses far less threat to amateurs than some people think. More next month, but for now be assured that: (1) the bill does not propose to outlaw phone patches; (2) it would not make possession (by anyone) of any kind of equipment illegal; (3) the bill can't possibly reach the House (or the Senate) for a vote before February or later; and (4) ARRL is working closely and personally with Committee staff to smooth out rough spots. ARRL had been asked to testify at a December 5 hearing scheduled by the House Subcommittee on Courts, Civil Liberties and the Administration of Justice on the Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1985, but that hearing will probably be rescheduled to January 29 or 30 of next year. Whenever, ARRL will be there. Why was the hearing rescheduled? It was preempted by the Chairman of the full Judiciary Committee, Peter W. Rodino, Jr, D-New Jersey. The Judiciary Committee had received a 1400-page report on doings at the Environmental Protection Agency, and on a procedural point it was insisted that the entire report be read! Wrote ARRL's Washington Area Coordinator: "Part way through the reading, after an hour or so, however, a compromise was struck, waiving the reading . . . so some useful purpose could be accomplished by the hearing. None of this is germane to our work; I mention it because I was fascinated, and also to show that the cancellation of the hearing on the Privacy Act was not part of solows: (cc) Spread spectrum transmission. An information bearing transmission in which information is conveyed by a modulated RF carrier and where the bandwidth is significantly widened, by means of a spreading function, over that needed totransmit the information alone. Add a new Section 97.71, Spread spectrum communications, as follows: (a) Subject to special conditions in paragraphs (b) through (i) of this section, amateurlows: (cc) Spread spectrum transmission. An information bearing transmission in which information is conveyed by a modulated RF carrier and where the bandwidth is significantly widened, by means of a spreading function, over that needed totransmit the information alone. Add a new Section 97.71, Spread spectrum communications, as follows: (a) Subject to special conditions in paragraphs (b) through (i) of this section, amateur stations may employ spread spectrum transmissions to convey information containing voice, teleprinter, facsimile, television, signals for remote control of objects, computer programs, data, and other communications including communication protocol elements. Spread spectrum transmissions must not be used for the purpose of obscuring the meaning of, but only to facilitate transmission. (b) Spread spectrum transmissions are authorized on amateur frequencies above 420 MHz. (c) Stations employing spread-spectrum transmissions shall not cause harmful interference to stations of good engineering design employing other authorized emissions specified in the table. Stations employing spread spectrum must also accept all interference caused by stations of good engineering design employing other authorized emissions specified in the table. (For the purposes of this subparagraph, unintended triggering of carrier operated repeaters is not considered to be harmful interference. Nevertheless, spread spectrum users should take reasonable steps to avoid this situation from occurring.) (d) Spread spectrum transmissions are authorized for domestic radio communication only (communication between points within areas where radio services are regulated by the U.S. Federal Communications Commission), except where special arrangements have been made between the United States and the administration of any other country concerned. (e) Only frequency hopping and direct sequence transmissions are authorized. Hybrid spread-spectrum transmissions (transmissions involving both spreading techniques) are prohibited. (1) Frequency hopping. The carrier is modulated with unciphered information and changes at fixed intervals under the direction of a high speed code sequence. (2) Direct sequence. The information is modulo-2 added to a high-speed code sequence. The combined information and code are then used to modulate a RF carrier. The high speed code sequence dominates the modulating function, and is the direct cause of the wide spreading of the transmitted signal. (f) The only spreading sequences which are authorized must be from the output of one binary linear feedback shift register (which may be implemented in hardware or software). (1) Only the following sets of connections may be used: Number of stages Taps used in in shift register feedback 7 [7,1] 13 [13,4,3,1] 19 [19,5,2,1] (The numbers in brackets indicate which binary stages are combined with modulo-2 addition to form the input to the shift register in stage 1. The output is taken from the highest numbered stage.) (2) The shift register must not be reset other than by its feedback during an individual transmission. The shift register must be used as follows. (i) For frequency hopping transmissions using x frequencies, n consecutive bits from the shift register must be used to select the next frequency from a list of frequencies sorted in ascending order. Each consecutive frequency must be selected by a consecutive block of n bits. (Where n is the smallest integer greater than log2 x.) (ii) For a direct sequence transmissions using m-ary modulation, consecutive blocks of log2 m bits from the shift register must be used to select the transmitted signal during each interval. (g) The station records shall document all spread spectrum transmissions and shall be retained for a period of one year following the last entry. The station records must include sufficient information to enable the Commission, using the information contained therein, to demodulate all transmissions. The station records must contain at least the following: (1) A technical description of the transmitted signal. (2) Pertinent parameters describing the transmitted signal including the frequency or frequencies of operation, and, where applicable, the chip rate, the code, the code rate, the spreading function, the transmission protocol(s) including the method of achieving synchronization, and the modulation type; (3) A general description of the type of information being conveyed, for example, voice, text, memory dump, facsimile, television, etc.; (4) The method and, if applicable, the frequency or frequencies used for station identification. (5) The date of beginning and the date of ending use of each type of transmitted signal. (h) When deemed necessary by an Engineer-in-Charge of a Commission field facility to assure compliance with the rules of this part, a station licensee shall: (1) Cease spread spectrum transmissions authorized under this paragraph; (2) Restrict spread spectrum transmissions authorized under this paragraph to the extent instructed; (3) Maabove; narrow band identification transmissions must be on only one frequency in each band being used. Alternatively, the station identification may be transmitted while in spread spectrum operation by changing one or more parameters of the emission in a fashion such that CW or SSB or narrow band FM receivers can be used to identify the sending station. NEW THIRD PARTY AGREEMENT WITH 4U1VIC United Nations Vienna and the US government have concluded a thirdabove; narrow band identification transmissions must be on only one frequency in each band being used. Alternatively, the station identification may be transmitted while in spread spectrum operation by changing one or more parameters of the emission in a fashion such that CW or SSB or narrow band FM receivers can be used to identify the sending station. NEW THIRD PARTY AGREEMENT WITH 4U1VIC United Nations Vienna and the US government have concluded a third-party traffic agreement, effective January 2, 1986. The call sign at the Vienna International Centre is 4U1VIC, operated by the Vienna International Amateur Radio Club. The usual third-party-traffic guidelines in Section 97.114 of our Rules apply. JOB OPENING AT ARRL HQ ARRL HQ is looking to fill a vacancy in the Regulatory Information Branch Manager position. Primary responsibilities include editing The ARRL Letter and writing the Happenings and League Lines columns for QST, as well as updating The FCC Rule Book. The RIB Manager also answers phone and letter inquiries on a wide variety of regulatory matters, including antenna ordinances and FCC rules interpretations. Applicants must have a General Class or higher amateur license; good writing ability and experience are required. A broad background in Amateur Radio and some supervisory experience would be helpful. Annual salary range $18,226-$25,506. If you feel you're qualified for this position, call Bob Halprin or John Lindholm at 203-666-1541. LEAGUE OPPOSES LOW-POWER 902-MHz VIDEO LINKS In the November 7 Letter we covered a petition by Jerry Iggulden of Valencia, California, requesting that FCC allow unlicensed operation of low-power video transmitters at 902-928 MHz. The idea behind the petition (RM-5193) is the operation of such transmitters to link video sources, such as VCRs, to television sets without the bother of interconnecting wires. Unlicensed low-power communication devices operate at quite a few places in the radio spectrum, it's true -- but this proposal would plunk strong video sources smack dab in our new 902-MHz band! "Ungood," is ARRL's response. "The consumer would be ill- served by the proposal. The largest potential market for such consumer devices would be for use in single- or multiple-family dwellings in or near major metropolitan areas. The highest concentration of Amateur Radio stations also can be found in single- or multiple-family dwellings in or near major metropolitan areas." Such unlicensed devices must not interfere with any licensed services on any frequency -- and the projected 902-MHz devices would provide quite a front-end-full: "Calculations by the League's Technical Staff indicate that a radiated signal of the permitted intensity (50,000 microvolts- per-meter at 30 meters) would produce a voltage of over 540 microvolts at the receiver input of a good amateur station at a distance of 1 kilometer . . . at 10 kilometers, the predicted signal would be 54 uV/m. The amateur receiving such interference at ranges of over 10 kilometers would face the problem of indentifying one or multiple interference sources; calling on all neighbors within that range to determine which one(s) had installed such a video transmitter (a continuous-duty-cycle device when operated); and the difficult or impossible chore of convincing the consumer that the device should not be operated." "Neither the Commission nor the manufacturers of garage-door openers should have forgotten the problems which arose when those devices were operated on frequencies adjacent to voice frequencies in the Citizens Radio Service and on frequencies assigned to the Aviation Radio Service . . . it would appear . . . that Part 15 Rules as presently stated sufficiently provide for the type of device proposed by Petitioner (on frequencies other than those assigned to the Amateur Radio Service), provided that all technical rules are observed." ARRL's Comments in Opposition to Petition for Rule Making in RM-5193 end there, but we'll add something you already know: say such devices were allowed, did sprout all over the 902-928 MHz band in metro areas (although with the projected signal levels at 10km and beyond, rural amateurs would be hit with this, too) -- who would be blamed when your licensed amateur signal messed up someone's unlicensed video link, the video link that's supposed to accept harmful interference and not cause any? The answer's in your mirror: you. CQ HOLIDAYS DE W1AW Over the weekend of December 28 and 29, ARRL HQ staffers will put W1AW on the air on all HF bands for general contacts. The regularly scheduled biweekly transmission of Keplerian data at 2330 UTC on Saturday will be sent, but other scheduled transmissions may be preempted as activity warrants. Operation will begin at approximately 1300 UTC each day. All QSLs received for this operation will be answered with the distinctive W1AW QSL, including a commemorative "350 Years of Connecticut" sticker. REACTION TO CANADIAN RESTRUCTURING Last Letter's lead covered the Department of Communications' proposal for restructuring Amateur Radio in Canada. Initial reaction seems mostly favorable. There is strong feeling that the examination for the entry level Certificate A be substantial, and that DOC should offer a "Slow Code" certificate that, in conjunction with Certificate A, would give CW privileges on the HF bands. CLOSE, BUT NO CIGAR We correct two glitches in the last Letter: In "Ad Hoc Committee on Spread-Spectrum Interoperability," page 3, the callsign of committee member Dick Bingham is W7WKR. Re the US/Korea holiday traffic (page 4), the traffic is limited to amateur stations in the Republic of Korea with the prefix HL9. Once again, this temporary third-party agreement is in effect for the period 0001 UTC December 20, 1985, to 2359 UTC January 4, 1986. AND, AT YEAR'S END, Speaking of holiday traffic: peace and enjoyment for the holiday season are wished you by the entire HQ staff.