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Circuit Cellar Marks 250th Issue. Hope it is the last.

The venerable Circuit Cellar magazine just put out its 250th issue. I'm hoping it is the last. Here's why.

For Sale: Four MegaHertz of prime VHF real estate

The FCC has just announced yet another rule change, removing the requirement for "governmental entities" to obtain a waiver from the rules for employee participation as amateur radio operators in communications exercises, and allowing non-governmental entities the right to pay their employees to run amateur stations during "exercises", too.

If you don't believe that this is a significant step to losing the 2m band, think again. The police department in Indianapolis, IN was recently fined for having AND USING amateur gear in their police vehicles, without anyone being licensed at all. That cop-shop realized that they could get cheap radios and use infrastructure paid for by someone else just by taking over a ham band. Why in the world would anyone think that other government and non-government groups aren't just as aware of the value?

The FCC based their decision on the "value of amateur radio in emergency communications". How long before someone points out that the value of emergency communications is not limited to hams and uses that as an excuse to get the "exercise" limitations removed, just like they got the "need a waiver" requirement removed after just a few months of that?

How long before the hospitals point out that if they are going to be allowed to use ham radio for "emergency" communication, they need to be able to encrypt everything they say based on federal regulations? We'll get the pleasure of hearing our ham bands filled with digitally encrypted signals that we can't monitor for compliance -- and government entities have NO limit on the length of their "exercises" or "drills".

It's was nice having bands near the LMR bands. Cheap ham gear with minor, if any, mods required. Now we will suffer the opposite reaction: cheap ham gear makes great "emergency communications" systems without the federal narrowbanding or digital rules and without the "safe harbor" rules that will limit LMR use. And if you can find someone ~~stupid~~ gullible enough to pay for the repeaters you need, so much the better.

And the ARRL supported this change. Thanks, guys. How's that "Spectrum Defence Fund" working out?

Today's Nonsense Newspaper

From the Aug. 20, 2009, Corvallis Gazette Times:

"Race Unity Picnic set for Saturday

Corvallis' 51st annual gathering of people from varied races and ethnic backgrounds
will be at noon Saturday at Thompson Kitchen in Avery Park."

After living in this town for nearly 20 years, I'm so glad to finally learn that the Benton County Fair; Corvallis Fall Festival; the Red, White and Blues July 4th celibration; Spring Fling; DaVinci Days; and a number of other public parties aren't really intended for people of "varied races and ethnic backgrounds". The ONLY gathering THOSE people are supposed to go to is this weekend. Would someone please tell them to stop coming to everything else? Thanks.

Below, I have a story about Dish Network. Now let me tell you one about Comcast.

Consumer Alert: KASER 8Gb USB mini-disk: THEY DON'T WORK. I bought two. Neither one works. Both show up as a "removable disk" and demand that I insert a disk before it can be used. Badly broken, unusable product.

Has anyone else noticed that Barry has plagiarized his campaign slogan? "Yes we can!"

I could not have said it better. Well, maybe I could, but here's an essay that says it well. And here's a local copy if the first link goes away.

Oh, the train wreck that is the Democrat primary.

Here's a comment about PAVE PAWS and amateur radio.

Here's a story about DISH Network and Why I am no longer a subscriber.