Bob K0NR

New Rover Rules for VHF Contests

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Without much notice or fanfare, the ARRL posted a new set of general rules for VHF contests. The changes seem to be centered on the rover category, which has been the subject of much controversy over the last decade or so. See So You Want to Be A Rover for more information on the rover … Read more

Ham Radio in the News

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Jeff KE9V picked up on a news item about the ham radio response in the recent Oregon floods. (The ARRL has a more detailed report here.) There is a news report from KPTV that has this great quote in it: “One of the problems in this is always communication,” Gov. Ted Kulongoski said after a … Read more

Motorola, Yaesu (Vertex), Kenwood and ICOM

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The amateur radio community has been buzzing about Motorola’s purchase of Yaesu. Actually, the deal is structured as a joint venture with Mot owning 80% of Vertex Standard (Yaesu is the marketing name for Vertex ham products.) The speculation is running wild on eham.net and other forums about what this means. As usual, these opinions … Read more

BPL Provider Ambient Gets FCC Hand Slap

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I guess things must be a bit slow at the FCC Enforcement Bureau this month. They finally got around to responding to the complaints about Ambient’s Briarcliff Manor, NY BPL (Broadband Over Powerline) system. It seems that the FCC has concluded that Ambient has “violated the radiated emission limits of Section 15.109 of the Commission’s … Read more

FCC Reports on Broadband

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From the ARRL web page: FCC Releases Broadband Report (Nov 5, 2007) — The FCC has released their latest report summarizing the state of broadband in the US as of December 2006. It shows that in December 2006, Internet-access BPL has increased slightly over December 2005, but also shows that it has been decreasing slightly … Read more

Slow Death for Broadband Over Power Line (BPL)

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The ham radio community has been rightly concerned about the radio frequency interference potential from most Broadband Over Power Line (BPL) systems. The ARRL continues to do battle with the BPL providers and the FCC over specific RFI issues. Most recently, the ARRL faced the FCC in the US Court of Appeals, challenging the FCC’s … Read more