Fallbrook Amateur Radio Club Bulletin
January, 2020

Fallbrook Amateur Radio Renewals

	Name	Call	Date Expires
Final Notice
	Weldy, Andrew	KG6YWB	9/30/2019
Third Notice
	Arnold, Chris	N3IZN	11/30/2019
Second Notice
	Carlson, David	WA6DKN	12/31/2019
First Notice
	Gibbs, Gregory	KI6RXX	1/31/2020
	Scott, Don	KJ6DFU	1/31/2020

There will be no more paper notices mailed due to the rising cost of postage and supplies. All future notices will be sent electronically.

See Members List for your expires date.

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de W6VR

High-Tech Planes, Supercomputers and Helitankers Help Fight Wildfires – WSJ

https://www.wsj.com/articles/high-tech-planes-supe…

Extending the Nationwide Reach of 5G

https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/DOC-361168…

Another step toward CallerID integrity

https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/DOC-361231…

Absolutely Amazing – This is the Drone You Want to Fly

Just check out the videos – almost too good to be true:

https://spectrum.ieee.org/automaton/robotics/drone…

New Uses for 5.9 GHz Proposed

https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/DOC-361339…

$450K Pirate Fine Proposed

FCC proposes fine of over $450,000 against Boston-area pirate. This is the highest proposed fine ever for unlicensed broadcasting:

https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/DOC-361345…

National 988 Phone Number Proposed

Suicide prevention hotline:

https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/DOC-361337…

Proposed Changes @ 3 GHz

Yesterday’s FCC Daily Digest carried the following item of more than routine interest to ham radio operators. The Digest synopsis reads as follows:

“ This NPRM proposes to remove the existing non-federal secondary radiolocation and amateur allocations in the 3.3-3.55 GHz band and to relocate incumbent non-federal operations out of the band and seeks comment on appropriate transition mechanisms.”

The NPRM is here:

https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/FCC-19-130…

Amateur Radio operators have been actively developing a large scale emergency digital network (AREDN) that in part relies on 3 GHz operations and you may read about it here:

https://www.arednmesh.org/

It would be wonderful if the FCC recognized Amateur Radio’s pioneering efforts and paid them to relocate to equally viable spectrum. Relocation costs (paid out of spectrum auction funds) have been covered in the recent DTV transition so there is precedent for this kind of thinking. But knowing how the FCC operates….

FCC Item of Interest (5 GHz)

In today’s (12/18/19) FCC Daily Digest, the Commission said:

“USE OF THE 5.850-5.925 GHZ BAND. The FCC adopted a NPRM that takes a fresh and comprehensive look at the rules for the 5.9 GHz band and proposes, among other things, to make the band’s lower 45 MHz available for unlicensed operations and to permit C-V2X) in the upper 20 MHz:”

https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/FCC-19-129…

Improved Wireless Emergency Alerts Now Available

Great news from the FCC:

https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/DOC-361468…

Results of FCC Tests on Cell Phone RFR Exposure Compliance

The following report summarizes the results of FCC lab tests of popular cell phone devices for radio frequency radiation (RFR) exposure compliance and finds that all tested sample devices comply with FCC’s RF exposure guidelines:

https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/DOC-361473…

Fighting Robocalls

Yesterday I was inundated with fake Apple “your iCloud account has suspicious activity” calls coming in about every half hour. The repetition was incredibly annoying. The calls didn’t quit until after dark.

Fortunately the #1 complaint to the FCC is robocalls and they are looking into the matter (as they have been for some time). The next anti-robo chapter is being written now. Check out:

https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/DOC-361507…

https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/DA-19-1312…

Watch “Breaking Into a Smart Home With A Laser”

Managing SW Broadcasts From Ascension Island

Ever dream of island living with electronics all around to keep you occupied? Check out the shortwave (“SW”) broadcast installation on Ascension Island off the west coast of Africa:

https://www.radioworld.com/columns-and-views/manag…

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KG6HSQ

How Do Solar Panels Work? (Physics of Solar Cells)

de KJ6UMY

5G won’t change everything, or at least probably not your things

https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/201…

Reality continues to dawn over 5G. Marketing hype just can’t overcome physics.

High-frequency trading by bots

https://www.wimp.com/high-frequency-trading-by-bot…

The Bitter Economics of MLM’s

I’ve always had a notion of the economics of multi-level marking companies, this video puts some numbers and statistics to them.

FCC tries to bury finding that Verizon and T-Mobile exaggerated 4G coverage

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2019/12/fcc-tr…

After all, the FCC works for the carriers and not the public.

U.S. cybersecurity agency uses pineapple pizza to demonstrate vulnerability to foreign influence

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/u-s-cybersecu…

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/dhs…

Visualizing Moore’s Law

https://www.visualcapitalist.com/visualizing-moore…

Christmas Dinner in a Can for Busy Gamers

https://www.game.co.uk/en/the-game-christmas-tinne…

Can 5G replace everybody’s home broadband?

https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/201…

It MUST be good for something!

The Snapdragon 865 will make phones worse in 2020, thanks to mandatory 5G

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2019/12/qualcomms-…

When marketing rules the earth.

Who Knew Big Brother would be a Private Company?

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2019/12/ring-u…

Unusual type of flu virus is dominating early start to this year’s flu season

https://arstechnica.com/science/2019/12/this-years…

Senate Judiciary committee interrogates Apple, Facebook about crypto

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2019/12/senate…

And let’s make the aerospace industry weaken encryption too. What could go wrong?

I tear my hair out (what little is left) every time politicians come up against a technical issue. They seem to think that “just tell God to change physics because I said so” is a viable solution. Far too much ego and far too little brains.

Wave of Ring surveillance camera hacks tied to podcast, report finds

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2019/12/wave-o…

This video seems like it’s about my customers…

FCC’s “illogical” claim that broadband isn’t telecommunications faces appeal

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2019/12/fccs-i…

Circuit Judge Patricia Millett, one of the three judges who decided the case, wrote that the FCC’s justification for classifying broadband as an information service instead of a telecommunications service “is unhinged from the realities of modern broadband service.” But the FCC has broad authority to classify offerings as either information services or telecommunications, as long as it provides a reasonable justification for its decision, and judges said they had to leave the net neutrality repeal in place based on US law and Supreme Court precedent.

AT&T doesn’t want you to see its slow Internet speed-test results

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2019/12/att-dr…

Kind of defeats the purpose of testing…just let AT&T make it up. Wait, we already do that. Seen a commercial lately?

Congress slaps robocallers with $10,000 penalty—per call

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2019/12/congre…

Facebook Data Leak

https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnbbrandon/2019/12/…

https://www.digitaltrends.com/news/facebook-data-l…

Tomorrow’s press release: “Our customers privacy is our highest priority, bla bla bla.”

Terms of Service Didn’t Read

https://tosdr.org/

After an amazing decade in space, these are humanity’s top achievements

https://arstechnica.com/science/2019/12/after-an-a…

Scroll down for the video of Space X landing failures and successes.

The Light Bulb Conspiracy

Prior to WWII, lightbulb manufacturers limited the lifetime of lightbulbs to 1000 hours. Manufacturers whose bulbs were shorter or longer lived were fined.

More SimplySafe

I don’t think there is a “software fix” for this problem. If they were going to use RF, spread spectrum (or just multi-frequency) is the way to go, but parts wouldn’t be as cheap.

Scientists model dynamic feedback loop that fuels the spread of wildfires

https://arstechnica.com/science/2019/12/scientists…