Author Archive
Spectrum Wars: Coalition to Save Our GPS vs. LightSquared
September 20th, 2011 | 
Author: 
This time it isn’t about ham radio spectrum. But it is about something we use extensively in our hobby: GPS.
Browsing the Web today I noticed an ad from LightSquared, a Virginia company that’s in the process of rolling out a terrestrial broadband service in competition with the cellular providers.
So far, so good, right? Well, according to a recent article in The Daily Beast, the Obama administration allegedly pressured Gen. William Shelton to alter his testimony on Capitol Hill where he planned to raise Pentagon concerns about potential GPS interference, making them more favorable toward commercial broadband interests:
According to officials familiar with the situation, Shelton’s prepared testimony was leaked in advance to the company. And the White House asked the general to alter the testimony to add two points: that the general supported the White House policy to add more broadband for commercial use; and that the Pentagon would try to resolve the questions around LightSquared with testing in just 90 days. Shelton chafed at the intervention, which seemed to soften the Pentagon’s position and might be viewed as helping the company as it tries to get the project launched, officials said.
“There was an attempt to influence the text of the testimony and to engage LightSquared in the process in order to bias his testimony,” Rep. Mike Turner (R-OH) said in an interview. “The only people who were involved in the process in preparation for the hearing included the Department of Defense, the White House, and the Office Management and Budget.”
The article raised concerns that the White House’s motivations may have been political. Philip Falcone, a major Democratic donor, runs an investment fund with a substantial stake in LightSquared. While one can speculate about whether politics could have played a role, that’s well beyond the scope of this blog post. I’m more concerned about how LightSquared’s plans could affect hams who use GPS for APRS and other applications.
What’s the worry? Only that LightSquared’s 40,000 ground-based transmitters would overwhelm current GPS receivers rendering them unusable in some situations. Industry officials argue that GPS receivers, especially those designed for consumer use, may not have been built robustly enough to reject interference from adjacent users such as LightSquared. There are many organizations signed on as being in opposition including such diverse interest groups as the FDNY, Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association, and the American Sailing Association.
I remember buying my first GPS. I remember something else about it: it was expensive. And it didn’t work that well. But it was still a couple hundred bucks.
Fast forward to 2011. GPS devices are cheap and they’re everywhere, integrated into many of the devices we own. We depend on them every day. You can even buy a standalone GPS receiver for under $50.
From a civilian perspective, GPS service is a national resource that deserves protection. While I’m all for GPS manufacturers tightening up their receiver tolerances when they can do so at a reasonable cost, I don’t think that the public interest is served allowing a company to launch a service that may interfere with legacy GPS devices. LightSquared argues that GPS manufacturers have known that this was coming for a long time. That may be true, but the losers here will be the consumers — not the manufacturers.
You can view both arguments here:
Coalition to Save Our GPS vs LightSquared
What’s your take on this?
Malware at TWiT’s Ham Nation?
I tried to visit the Bob Heil’s Ham Nation show homepage on the TWiT.tv site today and received this error:
Hopefully they’ll be able to get this resolved soon. Ham Nation is a great show and provides needed exposure to ham radio to quite a large tech audience.
UPDATE:
From Graham Cluley at Sophos:
The website run by internet celebrity Leo Laporte, TWiT.tv, has been hit by a malware infection intended to infect visiting computers.
Hackers have managed to inject a line of malicious code, in the form of an iFrame, at the very top of the TWiT website pointing to a webpage with a .cz.cc domain name.
For Sale: Tune-A-Tenna
I was perusing eBay a few weeks ago and stumbled upon an interesting listing:
What is it? According to the listing, it’s a remote adjustable half-wave dipole antenna with an SWR of less than 1.5:1 from 1.8 MHz to 55 MHz. How does it work? From the listing:
By Extending or retracting the 2 Antenna elements until you have reached the point of Resonance for the desired operating frequency. There by providing maximum forward power and little if any reflected RF power.
You have effectively built a custom cut to frequency dipole antenna each and every time you change frequency with out leaving the equipment operating position.
The Antenna is controlled by the flip of a switch, or could possibly be controlled by the micro processor in most modern day transceivers and could possibly track the VFO as you move up and down in frequency so it would always be at its resonant point.
A little intrigued, I e-mailed the creator, Frank McGinley, WB4NWV, to inquire about it. I asked how he developed it and told him that I’d be interested in doing a little post on his antenna design.
THE TITLE OF THE THE STORY IS HOW FAR HAVE WE COME.
LOCATION FORT BRAGG NORTH CAROLINA, UNIT OF ASSIGNMENT, 50TH SIGNAL BATTALION ( AIRBORNE ), FIELD TRAINING EXERCISE.
IT WAS DARK EXCEPT FOR THE LIGHT FROM THE STARS, THAT SHOWN THROUGH THE CLOUDS , IT WAS BITTER COLD AND THE WIND WAS HOWLING , THE RAIN AND SLEET WAS INTENSE, AS I STUMBLED THROUGH THE BUSHES TRYING NOT TO GET THE DIPOLE ANTENNA ELEMENTS TANGLED UP IN THE SAME BUSHES, UNSUCCESSFULLY I MIGHT ADD,THE TIME 23:45 HOURS I HAD TO CHANGE THE LENGTH OF THE DIPOLE FROM THE DAY FREQUENCY TO THE NIGHT FREQUENCY, AFTER A HECK OF A FIGHT TO LOWER THE ELEMENTS TO THE GROUND AND SPENDING 3 OR 4 MINUTES TRYING TO UNTANGLE THE HALYARDS, THE FLASH LIGHT WITH THE RED LENS HELD IN MY MOUTH AND MY GLOVES REMOVED, MY FINGERS SO COLD THAT THEY DID NOT WANT TO COOPERATE I WAS SHAKING SO BAD FROM THE COLD THAT THE LIGHT WAS HAVING A HARD TIME STAYING ON THE SPOT WHERE I NEEDED IT, MAKING IT EVEN MORE DIFFICULT TO UNTIE THE TANGLED MESS ALL THE TIME TRYING TO HURRY TO BE BACK UP ON THE AIR BY 24:00 HOURS
WELL AFTER WHAT SEEMED LIKE FOREVER I GOT IT BACK UP,AND RETURNED TO THE WARMTH OF THE RADIO TELETYPE SHELTER, AND BEGAN THE PROCESS OF CHECKING THE SWR, ONLY TO FIND THAT IT WAS TOO HIGH, WELL BACK OUT INTO THE COLD AND RAIN I WENT, THE ANTENNA WAS TO SHORT, ROUND 2 WENT ABOUT LIKE ROUND 1 NOT VERY SMOOTH, AS THE WIND HAD BLOWN THE ANTENNA ELEMENTS INTO THE BUSHES, IT TOOK ME QUITE A WHILE TO UNTANGLE THEM, LENGTHEN THEM AND PULL THEM BACK UP, BACK TO THE RADIO VAN, CHECK THE SWR AGAIN, NOT FLAT BUT GOOD ENOUGH, I WAS SOAKED AND FROZEN AND WAS NOT GOING TO TRY IT A THIRD TIME, NOT TO MENTION THAT IT WAS 00:24 HOURS,AND TIME FOR ME TO CHECK IN WITH THE NET CONTROL STATION, I HAD NO TRAFFIC AND THE RADIO CHECK WENT WELL, IT WAS NOW TIME FOR ME TO GET OUT OF MY COLD WET UNIFORM AND INTO A DRY WARM ONE, WELL AS YOU CAN IMAGINE I WAS NOT A VERY HAPPY CAMPER, AND TO THIS DAY I DO NOT ENJOY CAMPING OUT, THERE WERE MANY DAYS AND NIGHTS LIKE THESE THAT FOLLOWED , EXTREME HEAT,EXTREME COLD, WET AND SOGGY, BITING FLY’S, MOSQUITOES, YOU NAME IT AND ALWAYS THE SAME PROBLEM, TO LONG OR TO SHORT, KNEE DEEP IN MUD, UP AND DOWN BACK TO THE VAN, UP AND DOWN AND BACK TO THE VAN,AND NEVER COULD I GET THE SWR FLAT, CLOSE BUT NEVER FLAT.
TIME FLY’S WHEN YOU ARE HAVING FUN, SOON 20 YEARS OF FUN TRAVEL AND ADVENTURE HAD COME TO AND END, AND IT WAS TIME TO ENJOY H. F. RADIO AS A SERVICE, WELL THE MORE THINGS CHANGE THE MORE THEY STAY THE SAME, MY DIPOLE ANTENNA CUT FOR THE HIGH END OF THE BAND WITH A CLIP LEAD EXTENSION TO MAKE IT RESONANT AT THE LOW END OF THE BAND, WELL YOU GUESSED IT, BACK OUT INTO THE NIGHT IN THE SNOW IN MY BEDROOM SLIPPERS P.J.’S AND HOUSECOAT, NOT A GOOD THING, I KNOW I COULD HAVE USED AN ANTENNA TUNER OR COUPLER AS IT IS CALLED, BUT ALAS I AM A PURIST, AND DO NOT LIKE THEM, EVERY TIME I HAD TO DO THIS, I KEPT HAVING FLASH BACKS OF MY MANY FIELD TRAINING EXERCISES , THAT WAS WHEN IT STRUCK ME THERE, HAS GOT TO BE A BETTER WAY.
WELL I TRIED EVERY THING, G5RV’S, OFF CENTER FED DIPOLES, YOU NAME IT I TRIED IT, WAS I HAPPY, TO PUT IT MILDLY, HECK NO, SO IT WAS TIME TO PUT ON MY THINKING CAP, MY MIND WANDERED BACK TO WHEN I WAS THE NONCOMMISSIONED OFFICER IN CHARGE OF THE MARS RADIO STATION AT FORT BRAGG, WE HAD A DIPOLE MADE FOR COLLINS BY HYGAIN THE TD-1 IT WAS MADE OUT OF TAPE MEASURE TAPES, IT WAS A POOR DESIGN, IF YOU USED MORE THEN 100 WATTS IT WOULD ARC INTERNALLY , BUT THE CONCEPT WAS THERE, CHANGE THE DESIGN SOME ADD A 13.8 VOLT D.C. MOTOR, SOME LIMIT SWITCHES AND A CONTROL BOX AND , YOU HAVE A MOTORIZED ONE HALF WAVELENGTH DIPOLE THAT CAN BE REMOTELY ADJUSTED FROM INSIDE THE RADIO OPERATOR’S LOCATION, WITH NO NEED TO SEE IT OR GO OUTSIDE TO ADJUST THE ANTENNA.
YES 1.8 MEGAHERTZ TO 55 MEGAHERTZ AND EVERYTHING IN BETWEEN WITHOUT COMPROMISING, PERFECTLY FLAT SWR 1 TO 1, AND NO NEED FOR THE INFAMOUS ANTENNA TUNER, IN THIS AGE OF ALL MODE ALL FREQUENCY H.F. TRANSCEIVERS, THERE WAS A NEED FOR AN ANTENNA THAT WOULD COVER THE ENTIRE H,F, SPECTRUM WITHOUT COMPROMISE, MANY THOUGHT THAT DAY WOULD NEVER COME, ARE YOU SICK OF DUMMY LOAD ANTENNAS AND ANTENNA TUNERS, GENERAL COVERAGE TRANSCEIVER MEET GENERAL COVERAGE ANTENNA, I GIVE YOU THE AMAZING TUNE-A-TENNA.
Frank has a fascinating story and I salute his service to our country.
Pretty neat. But… well, $25,000 is a lot of money for an antenna. What do you get? A patent (7,286,100B1), trademark (3,336,489), domain names, and a few prototypes. According to the eBay listing, Mr. McGinley believes that the right buyer could base a business around this antenna design and manufacture them for about $300 each:
Our best estimate, the cost to produce the final product for sale should be around $300, Possibly lower.
Our best Estimate of the retail price of the semi-auto version would be $825, which equates to $525 per unit. If you advertise wisely on Ebay, Qrz.com and QST Magazine you should have no problem netting $500 per unit profit, possible more?
Our best estimate of the retail price of the auto version would be $1,225 which equates to $700 net per unit possibly more?
What do you think? Is there a market for such an antenna? If you think so, check out the eBay listing or contact Frank. I’m sure he’d like to hear from you.
Nifty Accessories Winners!
Congratulations to:
Jim, AF5S
Frank, NF8M
Francisc, YO4PX
Larry, KI6ZQY
Jim, KK4DJX
They’re the five winners of our Nifty Accessories giveaway!
Thanks to everyone for participating and stay tuned for our next contest.
Win a $20 Gift Card to Nifty Accessories!
AmateurRadio.com & Nifty Accessories
have teamed up to give away a
$20 Gift Card to FIVE very lucky hams!
Entry Deadline: 1 September 2011 18:00 UTC
File: Batteries, What Not To Name Them
Do you ever look at a product and wonder if someone was asleep at the switch when they named it?
Trust Fire? For batteries? REALLY?
Believe it or not, they actually get great reviews:
Wouxun KG-UV6D Dual-Band Handheld?
There are rumors afoot that Wouxun is releasing a new version of it’s popular KG-UVxD line, the KG-UV6D. Based on the popular KG-UVD1P, “updates” have popped up such as the KG-UV2D and KG-UV3D. The internals of the radio are the same (as is the FCC ID). Only the firmware and some cosmetic differences in their cases separate the different models.
Andrews Communications in Australia has this page up where they show the radio. While some owners of previous versions have complained that it can’t be tuned in 2.5kHz steps in compliance with narrowbanding rules that go into effect in 2013, it seems the KG-UV6D firmware corrects the problem.
Who will carry this radio in the US? Maybe PowerWerx, current retailer of the KG-UV3D. Back on July 19th, they registered the web addresses KGUV6D.com and KG-UV6D.com. Could be a coincidence. Or maybe not.
One unknown is whether or not Wouxun.us and PowerWerx will update their firmware to reflect the new 2.5KHz tuning capability.
Do you have one of these Wouxun HTs? What do you think of it?
