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Vol 16, No. 10 October 1997

Cover Story

Late news item: BNN Accused ol Illegal Interceptions

See page 62

Reviews:

Is the Lowe SRXlOO an HF-150 for half the price? Afraid not, says Magne, but it still has some excellent features going for it. See page 92 for the bottom line. Parnass pronounces the Radio Shack PR0-67 portable a fast scanner with the good image re-jection expected of triple conver-sion circuitry (page 94).

CONTENTS

HR2369: Another Specter Looms for Radio Usteners An editorial feature by Bob Grove

lfHR2369 has its way, verbo1e11 will be tuning in to business band frequencies (good-bye NASCAR). public safety frequencies which share trunked frequencies with SMR (good-bye 83% of 800 MHz public safety communicat ions). and anyone caught manufac-turing, selling. or importing a n:ceiver which picks up these frequencies would be subject to a whopping fine and impri w nment.

This Bi ll goes on to criminalize merely li stening lO- ratha than misuse of- prohibited frequencies. And exactly which frequenc ies arc affected is ex treme ly unclear. I I' thi s Bill' s intent was to further protect cel lular and paging communications. it is li ke trying to hit a mosquito with a salvo of buckshot.

As creatively illustrated on our cover. Congress fantasizes that it can surgically carve out specific frequencies without killing the scanner industry. It ~ 11ot that s irnpk. Cel lular and paging services need to e ncrypt. and Congress needs to take down the fence and listen to the voices of its constituents. See page 8 for background.

Radio That's Out of This World............................... 14 By Philip Gebhardt

Radioastronomy may sound like a hobby that's out o f the league of the average hobbyist, but you may already have heard meteor s ignals on your sho rtwave, FM. or TV rece iver without knowing it. With several major showers due this fall, s tay warm and dry while watching meteors-by radio.

Emergency Medical Services ................................... 20 By Ed Muro

The Emergency Medical System has transformed our health care system s ince it was inaugurated in 1966. lls effectiveness is due in part to the close coordination with other medical and rescue services. EMS rad io traflic is prime listening fur off-duty personnel, lirst-responders, vo lunteers, and many pri vale citizens.

Shortwave & Sate/Htes & Cyberspace ...................... 23 By George Wood

When George Wood 's S1reden Calling DXers evolved into Media Scan , it was a s ign of the limes-no! necessari ly one of his choosing. In the intervening years the changes have taken broad-casting onto the ln ternc l as well. Wood 's ins ightful a rti cle looks at the evolutio n o f international broadcasting from a ll perspec-tives and finds everyone has someth ing to gain.

2

fifi-1 MONITORING TIMES (I SSN : 0889-5341] is published monthly by Grove Enterprises, Inc ., Brosstown, N orth Carolina , USA.

Copyright 1997. Pe riodicals postage paid a l Brosstown, N C, and additional moiling o ffi ces. Short excerp ts may be reprinted with appropriate credit. Complete articles may not be reproduced without permission.

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Disclaimer: While Monitoring Times makes on e ffort lo ensure the informa tion it publishes is a ccu rate , it cannot be he ld liable for the contents . The read e r assumes a ny risk for performing modifica t ion or constructio n projects pub li shed in Monitoring Times. Opin ion or conclusion s exp re ssed ore not necessari ly the view o f Monitoring Times or Grove Enterp rises. Unsolicited manuscripts ore accepted . SASE if ma te rial is lo be re turned.

Owners Bob and Judy Grove

Publisher Bob Grove, WA4PYQ

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(704) 389-4007 beth@g rove. net

Business Manager Kelly Davis, KE4TAM

[email protected]

MONITORING TIMES October 1997

DEPARTMENTS

Letters ................................................... 4 Plane Talk ......................................... . 76 Communications .................................... 6 Windsheor The Unseen Enemy PCS Front Line ...................................... 28 Federal File ......................................... 78

Brand names for PCS standards "Privatizing" Federal Comms Scanning Report .................................. 30

Acts of Congress// Satellite 1V .......................................... 80

Satellite Radio for Your Car Utility World ....................................... 34

Military Frequency Bonanza Experimenters Workshop ..................... 82

WiNRADiO SMT Device Primer Global Forum ...................................... 38

Respect for NA Neighbors Computers & Radio .............................. 84

Rodioraft, SWRL updates QSL Report ............... ........................... 42 English Lang SW Guide ........................ 43 Propagation Conditions ........................ 63

Let's Talk the Some Language// Beginner's Corner ................................ 64

When Any Q Won't Do Below 500 kHz .................................... 66

We Hove Winners! American Bandscan ............................. 68

Digital Digest .............................. ......... 86 Moior Protocols

Review ................................................ 88 Opto Micro DTMF Decoder

What's New ........................ ................ 89 Magne Tests ........................................ 92

Lowe SRXIOO/Torget HF-3 Scanning Equipment ....................... ...... 94

Radio Shock PR0-67 Myths of the Domestic Dials

Outer Limits .... ..................................... 70 Tracking the Trunks .............................. 96

Hex Conversions Mode Easy FM Pirates Increasingly Active

On the Ham Bands .............................. 72 Antenna Topics ................................. ... 98

Thoughts on Multibond Antennas Lectrokit SP I B Spider Ask Bob ............................................ 100

Special Events/ Club Circuit ................... 73 DeMaw's Workbench ........................... 74

Repairing Smudged Displays

Feed-line Tips, Equipment Protection Stock Exchange ................................. 102 Closing Comments ............................. 104

America's Cacophony to the World

EDITORIAL STAFF Correspondence to columnists moy bE: mailed c/o Monitoring Times. any request far a reply should include an SASE.

Frequency Manager .. ....... .... Ga yle Van Horn .. .. .......... ......... .. [email protected] Frequency Monitors .. ......... ... David Datko, Mork J. Fine Program Manager ................ Jim Frimmel ................................ lrimme l@startext/ net American Bond scan .. .......... .. Doug Smith, W9WI ................... [email protected] Ante nna Toeics .... .. .. ............. W. Clem Small, KR6A .............. . [email protected] Be ginne r' s Corner ............. .... T.J . Arey, WB2GHA .... .............. tjorey@mosgu ito.com Belo w 500 kHz ................... .. Kevin Carey, WB2QMY ............. [email protected] Communications ................... Larry Miller Computers and Radio ... ........ John Catalano .................. ........ .. [email protected] DeMaw's Workbench ....... .... Doug DeMow, Wl FB Digita l Digest .... .................... Bob cvons ............... ...... ........... .. revans@ostrol. magic.co ExP.erimenter' s Wkshp .......... Bill Cheek ................................... [email protected] Fede ral File .. ......................... John Fulford, WA4VPY ... ........... johnl@emi .net K.l.S . Radio ...... ..... .. ............. Richard Arla nd , K7 SZ ................ [email protected] Mag ne Tests.. .... ........... .. .... ... Lawrence Magne On the Ham Bonds .. ............ . Ike Kerschner, N31K Outer Limits ........ .................. George Zeller ...... ........... ....... ..... George.Zeller@acclink .co m PCS Front Line ....... .. ............. Dan Veeneman ....... ...... ............. [email protected] Pla ne Ta lk .. .. .... .... ................. Jean Baker, KIN9DD Propagation ......... ....... .. ........ Jacques d' Avig no n ...... ..... .......... moni [email protected] QSL Corner ...... .. .. ... .............. Gayle Van Horn .. ....... ... .. ........ ... goyle@grove .net Sa tellite TV ........................... Ken Reitz, KS4ZR ........... .. .......... ks4zr@compuserve. com Scanning Equipment ............ . Bob Parness, AJ9S Sca nning Report ...... ..... .. ...... Richard Barnett .. .. .................. .... ScanMoster@ool. com SW Broadcasting .. ............. ... G lenn Hauser ........... .. .... ......... ... ghouse [email protected] SW Broadcast Logs ........ ....... Gayle Von Horn .... .... .......... .. ..... gayle@g rove.net T rocking the Trunks ...... .... .... Larry Von Horn, N5 FPW ........... [email protected] Utili ty World ..... .. .. .. .... .. .... .... La rry Van Horn, N5FPW .. .. ... .... steditor@grove .net What's New? .......... ... .. .... .... . Lorry Mi lle r

GraveNet hosts the fallowing managed lists free of charge lo the hobby.

ocors .... ...... ACARS moiling list amfmtvdx .... AM/ FM/TV DX moiling list code30users Hoko Code 30 demodulator users code31ist ..... Hoka Code 3 and Code 3 Gold decoder users fedcom ....... Federal communications heorsa t I .... . HeorSotI Mailing List milcom ........ Military HF / VHF7UHF communications monitoring scan-de ....... Sca nner radio topics in Washington, DC Baltimore lrunkcom ..... For d iscussion about the new Trunk Tracker scanners wun ... ...... .. Worldwide UTE News Club Lisi (Nonbroodcasl SW Ra dio)

Example: Ta subscribe la ocors. send E mail to mojorda [email protected], with "subscribe acors" in body (no signature). Add "digest" lo subscrioo ta digest lo black of messages).

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LETTERS

A Fond Farewell to Larr Miller Larry Miller has decided it 's time to tum his attention to o ther

endeavors and has submitted hi s resignation to Monitoring Times with thi s issue (see p. 6) . Although Bob Grove, as founder of Monitoring Times, initiated the magazine ' s basic approach and style, it truly came into its own when La rry Miller joined the team in Ju ly 1986. He courted and won a top-notch sta ff of write rs-most of who m are still with the magaz ine today. Additional hours were spe nt hammering out MI' s c haracte ristic philosophy and approach in countless phone call s with the writing staff.

perspective on life and on radio, and his friendship. We w ill all miss you great ly, Larry.

Bob G rove , as publisher and fi rst MT editor. has high praise for Larry .

The groundwork la id by Larry Mille r made it a relative breeze for me to step into the editor's position, but the fac t that he stayed on to edit two columns was the greatest gift he cou ld have given-both to the magazine and to myself. A lthough Larry' s talents were somewhat stifled in the What's New section, his c reativity was obvious in hi s sometimes off-beat treatment o f radio news in Communications. I have appreciated his help, his humor, his

" It' s always hard saying 'Goodbye' to an o ld friend, and Larry Mille r has been a professional colleague for more years than either of us would care to admit. But I unde rstand his decision. Larry has an active, inquisitive mind; he is a lways looking fo r new avenues, new oppo11unities, new challenges. I commend his enthusiasm for writing, admire his abil ity in front of a computer (remem ber when it was a typewriter, Larry?), and wis h him all the best in his new direction. Most of a ll, I thank him for sharing his w isdom, dedica-tion. and friendship fo r all these years."

Monitoring Times and the radio hobby owe you a big debt of thanks, Larry. May you never lose your love for rad io-it 's in your blood, yo u know it is-

Ocean Hopper Sc::v..:ral of you were inspir..:d to write re-

garding the August "Ocean Hopper" artic.: le. Let's start w ith a note from the author, A l Cika~. KA9GDL. who found a few omissions in our r..:drawn sche matic . He says, " First. the unmarked grid resistor o n the 6AT6 detector is I megohm. Second. the grid

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COMMUNICATIONS

Thanks for the Memories Before we get started th is issue, I wanted to let you know that I have handc

"Wow, when MT said that some people wanted to trash scanning, they really meant it.'''

on the fed-eral charge. Goc.xJm;mson could be subject tu six

ye

Another Specter

Looms for Radio

Are the sca1111er listeners in the crowd at this NA SCA R event doing something illegal? Th ey will be if HR236~ becomes law. Th is ban 011 tile business ba~1d_ ~ould

1 make listening to NASCA R drivers and even tile ma11ufact11re of such radws illegal . Hobbyists

An Editorial Feature by Bob Grove, Publisher, Monitoring Times

H R2369 is the broadest-sweeping a1_1~i ~sl:an ner Bil.I eve1: writ1e n in the name of prival:y protec tion; 1t l1tcra ll y enf orl:ed 1t would vinua lly eliminate the scanner industry. and impact on the shortwave and satellite communit ies as well .

Even a generous interpretation forbids reception of frequcnc ii.:s used by NASC/\R teams. removes police and fire communications in some commun ities. and aff..:cts agenc ies such as the Civil Air Patro l-communicat ions which the public uses on the job. in community volunteer work. for entertainment. and for education.

The penalty for any person who manufacture-. modi lie~. imports. exports, or sells any device capable of receiving the prohibi ted frequen-c ies a lso seems excessive- up to a $500,000 fine and five years in prison! Also, no provision is made in this new !Ji ll fo r grandfathering in older receivers. Is this the end of hobbyists swappi ng out older scanners and general coverage n.:ceivers at a hamfest in order to upgrade to newer equipment?

8 MONITORING TIMES October 1997

A Little History In 1986. the Cellular Te lecommunications Industry Association

(CTIA) successfully lobbied for legislation lo prohibi t the deliberate monitoring of mobile te lephones. The re~u lt i ng Electronic Commu-nications Privacy Act (EC PA) did little to di~rnuragel:ur ious scanner list..: 111.:rs from tunin!! in on cellular and other mobi le t

avai lable except as an expensive add-on, paid for by the consumer.

On February 5th, 1997, hearings at the House Subcommittee on Telecommunica-tions, Trade, and Consumer Protection con-vened, focussing on the continued vu lnerabil-ity of cellular telephones to scanner eaves-dropping. The hearings were prompted by the embarrassi ng disclosure that one oftheirown, Newt Gingrich, had been overheard on a cell phone conversation which implicated him in a strategy to evade a provision of the Ethics Committee. The conversation was overheard and recorded by a Florida couple using an unaltered Radio Shack PR0-51 scanner.

Rather than recognize the failure o f the cellul ar industry to utilize readily-available voice encryption technology-eleven years after it was promised- the blame for the ease of interception was once again placed on scanner owners who were categorically char-acterized as "high-tech eavesdroppers." Rep-resentative Edward Markey (0-MA), the au-thor of the 1993 amendments and the most an imated and vocal of the Subcommittee members, promised we would "see scanner sales drop precipitously.'' He appears to be keeping his word by introducing HR l 964(see September 1997 MD.

CTIA spokesman Tom Wheeler (left) and Subcommittee Chairman Bill Tauzin discuss the modification of a scanner during the February Congressional hearings. Oddly enough, the radio chosen for "restoration" was a Radio Shack PR0-26 - a scanner 110 one else has succeeded in restoring.

ings while other witnesses were denied the courtesy of reply or rebuttal.

withdrawn from the market because of the hearing. remains FCC certified!

I Legislation Looms over the Industry It is clearly less expensive (though less

effective) to try to get Congress to repeal the laws of physics than to implement encryption. This became apparent during the February hearing in which CTIA spo kesman Tom Wheeler was invited to dominate the proceed-

During that hearing, a carefully-rehearsed demonstration between Wheeler and Subcom-mittee Chairman Billy Tauzin (R-LA) pur-ported to show how easy it was to restore cellular coverage on a scanner- in this case, according to a Radio Shack official. a PR0-26. Curiously, thi s model has not been re-ported restored by anyone else and. although

On June 19th, Markey submitted 10 Con-gress HR 1964, a Bill intended 10 provide sweeping changes to both Internet practices and scanner enforcement. Much of the word-ing. including the substi tution of "Commer-

The Target: Commercial Mobile Radio Service Rep. Tauzin says it's not true that his Bill will deny racing fans their

radios, but the case seems pretty clear. Let's take Jeff Gordon' s team, for example. They've been heard on 467.0625 and 469.4875 MHz. Do you sec those frequencies listed below under the prohibited Commercial Radio Service? Of course you do ' The new law will prohibit the manufacture, sale, or even listening to any radio that covers these frequencies!

I) Private Paging Services Private carrier paging system (PCPS): 929-930 I 93 1-932 MHz

2) Business Radio Services VHF low band: 30.76-31 .24 (9 discrete freqs) /33. 14-33. 16 I 33.40 I 35.02-35.1 4 /35.18/ 35.7-35.72 I 35.88-35.98 I 42.96-43.00 MHz VHF Hi-band: 151.625-1 51.9551154.570-154.600 MHz UHF band: 457.525-457.600/ 460.650-462.1875 I 465.650-467. 1875 I 462.750-462.925 I 467.750-467.925 I 463.200-465.000 I 468.200-470.000 MHz There are also a number of chunks of the 470-512 MHz that will be removed.

3) Specialized Mobile Radio (SMR) Services 85 1-866 (806-821 MHz)/ 935-940 (896-90 I MHz)

(home to many public safety agencies for whom there wasn't room in the 866-869 MHz portion)

4) Land Mobile Services in the 220-222 MHz region (recent regulations have turned th is over to the CMRS)

5) Public Mobile Services A) Paging and Radiotelephone Services 35.2-35.66 I 43.2-43.66 MHz I 152.030- 152.240 I 152.480-152.840 MHz 154.625 / 157.740-158.100 I 158.460-159.700 MHz B) Cellular Radiote lephone Service 869-894 MHz (824-849 MHz mobiles) C) 454 MHz Ai r-Ground Radiotelephone Service 454-455 MHz (459-460 MHz mobiles) D) 800 MHz Air-Ground Radiotelephone Service 894-896 MHz (849-851 MHz mobi les)

6) Offshore Radiotelephone Services 7) Satellite Mobi le Services

137-1 38 MHz NYNG ( 148-150.050 uplinks) I 399.9-400.050 I 1525-15591 1610-1660.5 MHz

8) Personal Communication Services (PCS) 901-902 I 930-931 I 940-94 l I 1850-1990 MHz

October I 997 MONITORING TIMES 9

cial Mobile Radio Service .. ror ''domestic cellular radio telecommunications service," in Markey's Bill appears to have rnme from a sllldy by the Center for Democracy and Tech-no logy, released in June 1997. entitled .. Com-munications Privacy in the Digital Age."

Nearly every endorsing organizatio n for th is study is a lobby for the paging. ce llular. or wire line tele phone companies. Jerry Berman. head of the Center (which was formed in Dec 1994). was instrumental in drafting the ECPA of 1986. It is ironic that this organization, so principled in its fight for free access to infor-mation on the Internet. should have- in the name of privacy-so dramatically curtailed public access lo the airwaves.

Fortunate ly for the scanner indu stry, HR 1964 has not at this writing found any co-sponsors. nor is it scheduled for a hearing.

However, on July 3 1, Tauzin introduced HR2369, a nightmarish proposal which not only includes all of Markey' s scanner-related prohibitions, but even changes the provis ions of the original 1934 Communications Act (see accompanying Bill tex t). The simple ex-pediel1l of replacing the word .. and .. with the word "or" now criminalizes the mere act of overhearing a communication protected by the Bill. even though it' s transmilted wi thout encryption, rather than penalizing the illegal use of such communication .

lflilerally enforced. HR2369 will virtuall y e liminate lhe scanner indust ry. an est imated $200 million annual market: additionally. its ambiguous language impacts on the short-wave community as well s ince ut il ity (nonbroadcasl) communications occupy 78% of the frequencies below 30 MHz.

I Accidental or Insidious?

Perhaps HR2369's autho rs s imply do n' t understand the ir own Bill. We li ve in a tech-nical era and few. if any. me mbers of the Subcommiltee are trained in te lecommunica-tions . Errors of commiss io n. omission. and contradict ion are rife in the Bill. Admiltedly. Part A would seem to a llow monitori ng of public safety communications. bul Parts B and C do not. If removal of public safety communications from Americans' radios is nol an in lent. as we are reassured by Tauzin 's offi ce, then why remove frequencies allo-cated to these services?

According to a Tauzin spokesperson. the Bill' s intent is to ban any scanner capable of receiving mobile phone freq uenc ies used by the Co mmerc ial Mobile Radi o Ser vice (CMRS). But, as seen in the accompany ing sidebar, CMRS includes a great deal more than cel lular pho nes and paging services. Of


HR 2369 IH 1 OS th CONGRESS

1st Session {Original text has been inserted where needed for meaning, with strikeol/ls and new text in bold.}

To amend the Communications Act of 1934 to strengthen and clarify prohibitions on electronic eavesdropping, and for other purposes.

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

July31 , 1997

Mr. TAUZIN (for himself, Mr. MARKEY, Mr. OXLEY, Mr. GILLMOR. Ms.ESHOO. and Ms. MCCARTHY of Missouri) introduced the following bi ll; whic h was referred to

the Committee on Commerce

A BILL

To amend the Communications Act of 1934 to strengthen and c larify prohibitions on electronic eavesdropping, and for other purposes.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives o f the United States of America in Congress assembled.

SECTION I. SHORT TITLE.

This Act may be cited as the 'Wireless Privacy Enhancement Acl of 1997'.

SEC. 2. COMMERCE IN ELECTRONIC EAVESDROPPING DEVICES.

(a) PROHIBITION O N MODIFICATIO N- Section 302(b) of the Communications Act or 1934 (47 U.S.C. 302(b)) is amended by inserting before the period at the end thereof the fo llowing: , or to modify any such device. equi pment , or syste m in any manner that causes such device, equipme nt, or system to fai l to comply with such regulations' . TO READ: No person shall manufaclUre, import, sell , offer for sale. or ship devices or home e lectronic equipment and systems, or use devices, which fa il lo comply with regulations pro mulgated pursuant to this section, or to modify any such device, equipment, or system in any manner that causes such device, equipment, or system to fail to comply with such regulations.

(b) PROHIBITION ON COMMERCE IN SCANNING RECEIVERS- Section 302(d) of such Act (47 U.S.C. 302(d)) is ame nded to read as fo llows:

(d) The Commission shall prescribe regulations denying equipment authorization (under part 15 of title47, Code of Federal Regulations, or any other part of that titl e) for any scanning rece iver thal is capable of--

( 1) receiving transmissions in the frequencies allocated to [the clo111e~tic cellul

(4) being equipped with devices that otherwise decode encrypted radio transmissions for , . the purposes of unauthorized interception.'

(c) IMPLEM ENTING REG ULATIONS- Within 90 days after the date of enactment of thi s Act, the Federal Communications Commission shall prescribe amendments to its regulations for the purposes of implementing the amendments made by this section. In prescribing such amendments. and in response to subsequent changes in technology or behavior. the Commis-sion shall review and revise its delinition of the te rm 'capable of readily being alte red as necessary to prevent commerce in devices that may be used un lawfu lly to inte rcept or divulge radio communication.

SEC. 3. UNAUTHORIZED INTERCEPTION OR PUBLICATION OF COMMUNICA-TIONS.

(a) AMENDMENTS- Section 705 uf the Communications Act of 1934

(47 U.S.C. 605) is amended--

( I) in the heading of such section. by inserting ' inte rception or afte r unauthori zed'; TO READ: Unauthorized Interception or Publication or Use of Communications

(2) in the second sentence of subsection (a). by striking and divulge' and inserting 'or di vulge'; TO READ: No person not being au thorized by the sender sha ll intercept any radio communi-cation [amt di 11lge I or divulge or publish the existence, contents. substance. purport, e ffect. or meaning of such intercepted communication to any person.

(3) in subsection (e)( I)--

(A) by striking fined not more than $2.000 or'; and (B) by inserting or lined under title 18. United States Code,' after '6 months,'; and TO READ: Any person who willfully violates subsection (a) of this section shall be [lined 1101 11101e tl1a11 $2.00001 l imprisoned for not more than 6 months or fined under title 18, United States Code, or both.

(4) in subsection (e)(3), by striking any violation and inserting any receipt, interception. divulgence, publication, or util ization of any communication in violation; and TO READ: (3)(A) Any person aggrieved by [any 1iolaticm] any receipt, interception, divulgence, publication, or utiliwtion of any communication in violation of subsection (a) of this section or paragraph (4) of this subsection may bring a c ivil action in a United States district court or in any other court of competent jurisdiction.

(5) in subsection (c)(4). by strik ing any other activi ty prohibited by subsection (a)' and inserting 'any receipt. interception, divulgence, publication, or utili zation of any communica-tion in violation of subsection (a)'. TO READ: (4) Any person who manufactures. assembles, modifies. imports, expo11s. e lls, or distributes any e lectronic, mechanical. or other device orequ i pment, knowing or having reason to know that the device or equipment is primari ly of assistance in the unauthorized decryption of sate llite cable programming, or is intended for [,my otlie1 acti vity p1olribited by .~11b .~ectio11 Wl any receipt, divulgence, publication, or utilization of any communication in violation of subsection (a) of thi s section, shall be fined not more than $500,000 for each vio lation, or imprisoned for not more than S years for each violation, or both. For purposes of all penalties and remedies established for violat ions of this paragraph. the prohibited acti vity established herein as it applies to each such device shall be deemed a separate violation.

(b) RESPONSIBILITY FOR ENFORCEMENT- Notwithstanding any other investigative or enforcement activities o f any other Federal agency. the Federal Communication~ Commission shall investigate alleged violations of section 705 of the Communications Act o f 1934 (47 U.S.C. 605) and may proceed to initiate action under section 503 of such Act (47 U.S.C. 503) to impose forfe iture penalties with respect to such violation upon conclusion of the Commission s investigation.

most concern are public safety systems. which arc currently legal to monitor. and which share frequency spectrum wi th Specia lized Mobile Rad io Services (S MR).

SM R and Bus iness Band systems are c las-sified in the Commercial Mobi le Radio Ser-vice because they both interface with wire communications which are protected. With passage of this bill the reception o f po lice, fire. ambul ances . local governme nt, and NASCAR rac ing teams ut ilizing 800 MHz freque ncies would become illegal: scanners receiving those frequencies would lose their type acceptance.

With the passage of HR2369. 83 percent of the 800 MHz public safety frequencies would be lost. drastica ll y limiting the use of tru nk tracking scanners. Wou ld manufacturers find it worth their while to produce scanners-already a minor market-if they arc forced to omit the frequencies of greatest interest?

T he impact on news med ia is a lso obvious: there is a we ll -established liaison between the media and publ ic safety organizations for news gathering. W ith monitoring of these services outlawed. such leads would become non-existe nt. Cit izen reports to pol ice agen-c ies. enabling apprehension of suspects de-scribed over the ai r. would cease. crippl ing

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th is source of leads. C itizen watch teams and off-d uty fi re fi ghte rs w ho monitor w ith low-cost scanne rs wo uld be a th ing o f the past.

Add itiona lly, the Bi ll appears to prohibi t the mon itoring o f o ther serv ices not intended for publ ic reception. apparent ly inc luding many sate ll ite services. Would we Jose C and Ku band downlinks. NASA shutt le audio. pe rhaps even weather sate ll ite monito ri ng? A mateur rad io would be severe ly restric ted . since transceivers could no longer incorporate w ide-coverage receiver sect ion ~. severe ly handicapping M il itary Affi li ate Radio Ser-vice (MARS), Civil Air Patro l (CA P). and o ther auxi lia ry publ ic service e fforts during natura l disasters, plane crashes. and public we lfa re and morale communications .

Te ll your local news media they are al so be ing targeted. Agent Kallstrom. F BI Ass is-tant Director. NY Di vision. c laimed moni tor-ing by the press fo rced the Federal Bureau of Investigation to abandon use of cell ula r phones during the TWA 800crash investigation. Laws a lready on the books prohibit such invasive lis tening.

T his a lleged inc ident and the improper

publication of G ingrich's phone conve rsation should not be used as justificat ion fo r broad-eni ng the scope of ''i I legal" frequencies. To do so damages legitimate uses of radio and re-moves the responsibi lity from those who should bear it: the communications services which owe it to thei r customers to provide encryp-tion. and those who are violating existing Jaws regarding use of rad io communications.

Going to Bat for Radio Monitoring: A Suggested Letter to Congressmen

The Bill is pe rplex ing . Was it written by someone so inept and inexperi -enced that it is almost tota ll y unus-able? Does the writer s imply not under-stand the radio spectrum and its users?

-------The Honor

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Radio That's Really ...

A woodcut illustrating the famous 1833 Leonid meteor storm.

lJlJT []f TH~S L\JlJRllJ By Philip Gebhardt, VA3ACK

F or decades, bo th rad io professionals and radio e nthusiasts sought ways to e nhance des ired signals while suppress ing both ex traneous s ignals and noise. Some of that noise included extraterrestrial radiat ion: noise from the

Sun, the planets a nd the Milky Way galaxy. Included in the unex-pla ined sources were signals from meteors.

Eventually things turned around and radio ante nnas were pointed toward the sky to detect no n-terrestrial signals. The resu lt was the beginning of radio astronomy.

Unfortunately, radio astrono my is associated with huge parabolic antennas; expensive, sophisti cated rece ive rs; cooled, low-noise ampli -fiers; ultra low-loss transmission lines: and ex tremely hig h frc4uen-c ies. In short , everything beyond the a mateur enthu. iasl s reach. But. in fact. rad io astronomy need nut be expensive nor complicated for the amateur.

While must amateur radio astronomers arc aware of the work of Ka rl Jansky and Grote Reber I I I in the I 930s. radio astrono my has even earl ier roots. Researc hers were using radio to detect meteors in the

14 MONITORING TIMES Oclober 1997

I 920s. H. Nagaoka appears to he the first scientist to suggest that 111eteors might cause sufficient d isturbance in the E region of the ionosphere to affect radio waves. 12 1 Nagaoka's findings appeared in the l'roce'di11gs r~(lhe l111paial Academy of Tokyo in I 929.

Later. E. Quaeck and G.W. Pickard set out to find the connection between meteors and d istu rbances on long-dis tance shortwave trans-mi~sions. In Japan. T. Minohara and Y. Ito invest igated the e ffect of the 1932 Leonid shower. Their work was followed up in India by S.K. Mitra. P. Syam. and B.N. Gimse during the 1932 Leonid shower. Work during the 1936 Leonid ~hower was carried out by J .N . Bhar and reported in the /11dia11 Jo11mal r~l Physics w11/ in Na1ur'.

/\sit turn~ ou t. there isn" ta much eas ie r project (these days) in radio astronomy than the rad io detection of meteors. Just imagine-if Nagaoka could detect meteor~ u~ing the technology and information avai lable in the I 920s. how ea~y it ~hould he for you to detect meteors w ith the receivers a nd antennas available today.

In fact. you may have already heard meteor signals on your shurtwave. FM. or TV receiver wi thout knowing w hat you were

hearing. Figure I shows w hat happens . There is no bette r, more exciting t ime to get

involved w ith radioastronomy than right now. Why? Because the Leonid me teor shower is about to peak. With a known period of about 33 years and the last recorded peak in 1965 and 1966, we are due fo r a spectacular return . How spec tacular is spec tacular'' Robe rt Hawkes of the Phy~ics, Engineering and Ge-o logy Department at Mount Allison Uni ve r-sity in Sack ville , New Brunswick. states in the 1997 edition of Observer 's Handbook (3 J that for a one-hour, high-peak period du ri ng the 1966 Leonid shower, meteors were detected visually at the rate of 150,000 per hour' And if that doesn' t impress you. P. Clay Sherrod makes the statement in A Complete Manual of Amateur Astronomy 14 ] that " .. . at some times as many as 500,000 pe r hour- 140 per sec-ond- were seen."

T he magic date this year w ill he November 17 . Ho wever, the shower has a duratio n of four days, so you should lis ten at least two days before and after this date .

For radio enthus iasts. th is is an opportun ity to hear signal s you might othe rwise not be able to receive. It is also a simple way to learn about signal propagation and the io nosphere.

Although much of the available informa-tion is based on reception in the F M broadcast band, the lower VHF TV band (channe ls 2 through 6) and the 6- and 2-meter amateur rad io bands, meteor detection has been suc-cessfull y atte mpted as low as 6 MHz 151. Powerful shortwave stations were used in the early days of meteor detection. Laureni.:e Manning described 16 1 hearing the signal from a 50-kW, 15.340 M Hz shortwave broad i.:ast s tation on the night of September 16, 1946. Manning and o ther researche rs were also us-ing radar techniques and CW transmitte rs in their search for meteors .

Amateur radio ope rators have been in-volved sini.:e the early days. Oswald G . Villard. Jr., W6QYT. described a techn ique fo r hear-ing dopple r whistles from meteor trails in a QSTartide 171.

Both Villard and Manning were associatc

TABLE 1: Properties of sporadic meteors Sporadic meteor data. Many meteors enter Earth's atmosphere and ablate every day. Many are too small for visual detection. but can be detected by radio means. The mass distribution is such that the total mass of each of the particle sizes is constant. For example. notice in the table that each day 109 particles of 10-4 g mass ablate. However. during the same period 1010 particles of 10-5 g ablate. From this. it can be seen that the number of meteors detectable by radio means far exceeds the number detectable visually. Courtesy of Meteor Communica-tions Corporation. Reprinted with permission.

Mass Radius Number Swept Up l.!l.l Wn1 b~ Eat:lb Q!lt D~~

Particles that suNive 10' 8 10 passage through Earth's atmosphere

Visual and 1(}' 4 102 radio 102 2 1()3 detection 10 0.8 10'

1 0.4 105

Particles totally 10 0.2 105 disintegrated in 10-2 0.08 101 Earth's upper Radio 10 3 0.04 10s atmosphere detection 10"' 0.02 109

only 105 0.008 1010 1Q-6 0.004 10" 10' 0.002 10'2

Particles that can't be 10~ to 103 0.0004 to about 1D' detected by radio

sporadic meteors. (For an explanation of s po-radic meteors and meteor showers as we ll as othe r astronomy terms used in thi s article. sec "An Astronomy Primer" accompanying thi s artic le.)

Meteor showers have the advantages that the meteoroids (within a single shower) are traveling along paralle l paths and that. for the duration of the shower, the meteor rate is higher than it is for sporadic meteors. As a result. you have more chance that successive meteors in the shower will continue the rcn cc-tion process and you will be able to hear the reflected signal for a longer period than a second or two.

Table 2 gives data fo r some upcoming showers to get you started.

While meteor showers occur annually at predictable times. sporadic meteors appear at unpredictable times from unpredictable di-rections in the sky. Nevertheless. there is a predic table daily variation in the number of sporadic meteors detected. As shown in Fig-ure 3. a peak in the number occurs in the early morning hours (normally around 6 a.m. local time) as meteoroids are swept up by Eart h. A minimum occurs in early eveni ng (about 6 p.m. local ti me).

It should be noted that in overall numbers, sporadic meteors outnumber s hower meteors by 4 to I.

How, Where, and When?

Now that you know how meteors re flect terrestria l radio signals and what you arc lis-tening for, you ' II need to know how to hear the s ignals, where to li sten and when to listen.

The "how" part is easy: Turn on your FM receiver and li sten. Well. it' s perhaps not quite that easy. but a lmost. Select a c.:lcar


0.0002

frequency in the FM broadcast band . Remem-ber that in North America the band starts at 88 MHz and ends at I 08 MHz. However, the lowest assigned frequency is 88.1 M Hz and the highest frequency is I 07.9 MHz. Frequen-cies are assigned at 200 kHz inte rvals. that is 88.3, 88.5, 88.7 MHz and so on. In North America, there are no stations on 88.2 MHz. fo r example. Tuning to a frequency used by a loca l station is easy; tuning to a frequency on which there is no station to be heard can be tricky . Having a rece iver with a d igital read-out makes the task easy . If you use a receiver with a dial and poin ter. you' ll need to estimate where the frequency is on the dia l.

If you live in a large metropolitan area where clear frequencies arc as scarce as hen s teeth, you may have to sett le fo r a frequency with a weak signal.

You can connect an FM or FMffV outdoor beam to your receiver. If you s ubscri be to cable T V and don' t have an outdoor antenna on a tower. you can connect a dipole or fo lded dipole to your FM receiver. (See Figure 4.)

But where do you aim the ante nna? If you

Signal Level

FIGURE 2

T Peak Amplitude

Time

use a dipole and you want to detect sporadic meteors. string the antenna in an cast-west direction so your best reception will be north-south. This also applies to a folded di pole and to the collinear antenna.) If you use a beam antenna. point the amcnna south.

Now you can si t back (early in the morning for best result s) and li sten for sporadic mete-ors. You'll know whe n you hear a meteor, because the signal will qu ickly ris1.: out of the noise and then disappear. You may hear a few notes of music or a few words. If you couldn ' t lind a clear frequency and had to choose one wi th a weak. background station. you may li nd that the weak signal is enhanced briefly. In other cases. the weak signal wi ll be mo-mentaril y swamped by another. more d istant station.

When detecting sporadic meteors, the type of antenna you choose is academic. Beam antennas have higher gain than di poles and therefore allow you to hear fa inter meteors. On the other hand. beam antennas achieve gain by sacrific ing heamwidth and so they see less of the sky than dipoles do. Con-versely. dipoles can only detect strong mete-ors, but because d ipoles see more of the sky. they detect strong meteors that arc outside the beam of an FM beam antenna. Depending on your location and the ti me of day. the advan-tages of beams and di poles balance out. In stud ies of meteor ve locity conduc ted by Villard. Manning, and Peterson at Stanford Universi ty. a half-wave dipole mounted a quarter-wavelength above the ground was used as a receiving antenna. 12)

Beam antennas have the advantage when it comes to meteor showers. That' s because these meteor trails re flect s ignals l'rom pre-dictable directions .

If you arc using an FM or FMffV beam on a tower, you can leave the antenna pointed at the horizon j ust as you would fo r normal reception. If you are considering dedicating a beam antenna to meteor detection. you might

Th e signal reflected by most meteor trails lasts up to a f ew seconds. As shown here, the signal rises out of the receiver noise quickly and disappears almost as fast. A small percentage of meteors will reflect signals for longer periods of lime. Often the reflected signal will be loud enough lo sound like a local station.

Ralcs

20

+ +

+

()()

+

+

+ +

a. 1sn FIGURE 4

A The quickest way lo get set up to listen for meteor signals is to connect an outdoor FM or FM/TV beam on a tower to your receiver. For those who do not have a11 outdoor antenna, a simple, half-wave dipole (a) or a fo lded dipole (b) will bring in sig11als. For tlwse who want a11 anlemia with a little gain, the 3-elemenl collinear (c) can be used.

Zo:::300U ).'1 ZI 300U

In each case, the length 112 in centimeters can be calculated using 14550/f where f is the frequency in MHz. (Use 5728/f if you prefer to work in inches.) This is based 011 the use of #14 solid or stranded wire although other sizes can be used. Th e length 114 in centimeters of the two phasing s//lbs for the 3-elemenl collinear can be calculated using 4950/f (if you use 300-ohm TV f eed/ille with solid polyethylene dielectric) or 7125/f (if you use open-wire parallel line). Zoz75n

B

For inches, use 1949/f and 2805/f respectively. A 300175-0/1111 balun as shown can be used lo comert between 75-ohm antennas and 300-ohm receiver input or 300-oh111 antennas and 75-ohm receiver input. If the antenna impedance (Zr) and the receiver input (lo) match, you won 't need the balun.

>.r2 >.r2 ),/2 Zr 300U 11-

I 30CY15U

'' ( balun ~ Zo 75U

stations between I :mo and :WOO km (800 and 1250 mi.) away. An antenna which will re-ceive signals from a higher angle of radiation (such as a half-wave dipole ) will enable you to hear closer stations.

As Laurence Mann ing did in 1946. you can try listening for short wave stations via mt.:teor trail rellet:tion. The station cannot be more than 2000 km away (and preferably it shou ld be closer): however. it must be far enough away that you cannot receive any more than a weak groundwave signal. In addi tion. you must be listening at a time when normal F-layer propagation bet ween you and the station is not a possibility. Since there would be no reason for a shortwave station to be on the air if F-layer propagation was not present. this dictates that you must he inside the skip zone. (Outside the skip 1.0ne. the station s signal will be so strong. it will mask any meteor signals.) If you try this approach, start with stations in the 13-meter band. Later. you can try stations on 16- and perhaps 19-meters.

Now, with al l this ta lk of research at


Stanford University and scientists trying to determine the connection between meteors and shortwave communications. you might think that meteor detection is simply an aca-demic pursui t-something that only research-ers would be interested in.

Not so. There are practical applications that have made all this "time well spent"' as they say on A&E.

There were military appl icat ions for com-munications via meteor trails unt il satell ites came along. But there arc other uses too. One company- Meteor Communications Corpo-

rati un~uscs meteor burst communications (MBC) in applicat ions where very low data rate and wai ting time do not present problems. By low data rate. they mean tens to hundreds of bits per second. Using this technique. the company can send data over links up to 1600 km ( 1000 mi. ).

Applications include the remote sensing of meteorologica l and seismic conditions. One ~ystem monitor~ snowfall and accumulated ~nowfall.

M BC transmitters run I 00 tu IOOOO watts into yagi or log periodic antennas. Although lower frequenc ies would produce longer echoes and higher ampli tude echoes. frequen-cies in the 40-50 MHz range are used to avoid problems with multipath ing and fading asso-ciated with the HF bands. While frequencies above 50 MHz have the advantage of smaller antenna size, these higher frequencies arc subject to higher path loss.

In one system. a master transmiuer sends out a continuous signal to the remote si te. When a meteor trai l appears, the remote s ite senses the renected signal and it in turn trans-mi ts a burst of data.

Amateur radio operators have played a major role in meteor communications and many sti ll attempt communications via mete-ors. In the past. amateurs used the message piecing' technique. That is, one station would repeatedly send a message and the receiving station would piece together the informat ion unt il thecontacteould be confi rmed. Recently however. amateurs have applied packet radio techniques to meteor communications.

A liule practice with sporadic meteors and the Orionid meteor shower wi ll prepare you for the possibili ty or a spectacular show dur-ing the Leonids over the next few years.

BIBLIOGRAPHY I 1) Bob Grove ... Tuning in lhe Stars: Monitormg Tunes. February 1987. p. 8

121 Lovell. A.C.B . Meteor Asltonomy. Oxford University Press. London. 1954

l3J 81shop. Roy L. (edilor). Observers Handbook 1997, The Royal Astronomical Society of Canada. Toronto. 1996

141 Sherrod. P. Clay. A Complete Manual of Amateur Astronomy. Prentice Hall Press. New York. 1981

151 Oswald G. Villard, Jr .. "Clocking meteors by cw radar; Eleclronics. April 1950. pp 120 121

161 Laurence A. Manning, "The theory of the radio detection of meteors. Journal of Applied Physics. August 1948. pp 689699

171 Oswald G. Vi llard. Jr .. "Listening in on the stars." OST. January 1946. pp 5960. 120. 122

18] Hawkins. Gerald S., Meteors. Comets, and Me1eo11tes. McGrawHill. New York. 1964

191 K. Suzuki. N. Nagafuji and M. Kinoshita. "Recordmg meteor echoes by FM radio: Sky & Telescope. May 1976. pp 359362

I 10) A.C.B. Lovell. "Electron Density in Meteor Trails: Nature. November 15. 1947, pp 67067 t

I 11 I L.A. Manning. O.G. Villard. Jr .. and A.M. Peterson, .. Radio Doppler Investigation of Meteoric Heights and Velocities: Journal of Applied Physics. May 1949. pp 475-479

I 12) O.W.R. McKinley and Peter M. Millman. "A phenomenological theory of radar echoes from meleors." Proceedmgs of the l.R.E., April 1949. p.366

FURTHER READING Oswald G. Villard. Jr. and Allen M. Peterson. "Meteor scatter: OST. Apnl 1953

Walter F. Bain. VHF meteor scatler propagation." OST. April 1957

Walter F. Bain, .. VHF propagation by rneteortra1l 10111zation ... OST, May 1974

Investigating Meteoric Radio Reflections on 1 0 Meters One way to learn about meteor detec-

tion is to follow the lead of lhe pionc:ers and experts.

Some of the experiments arc within the capabilities of beginners; others are not. T he ones which are best le ft out arc those which re ly on radar techniques.

There are many "easy" techniques to investigate, however. This fall and winter, I will attempt several meteoractivities with the assistance of Ontario OX Association members. You can try some on your own or help us with ours by listening for our signal and sending reports.

You can start by monitoring sporadic meteors. You can record the reflected s ig-nals on audio tape, stripe hart paper, or your computer. You can tht:n prodm:e your own graphs of daily mean hourly rates of re-flected signals . A variation of this is to produce a graph of average monthly me-dian echoes per hour.

Similarly, you can select a meteor shower and dett:rmine lhc average hourly rate at which you detect meteors during the shower. This information can stand on its own or be compared to the daily mean hourly rate for sporadic meteors.

My planned activities include detecting meteor whistles. Using the amateur radio callsign VE3AC K,aCW signal will be trans-mitted on 29.050 MHz each Saturday and Sunday morning between 5 a.m. and 7 a.m. EST during October. November. and De-cember. As with the experiment conducted by Villard, Manning, and Peterson at Stanford Univers ity, lhe output of lhe transmitter wi ll feed a half-wave dipole. A similar dipole wi ll be used at the receiver site several ki lo-meters away. Although we will be li ste ning for whistles, we will welcome reports from anyone who hears the signal.

We will also be transmitting du ri ng sev-eral meteor showers. including the Leonid~ in November. However. our major ~bower

AN ASTRONOMY

acti v ity will take place during the Geminids (December 13-15).

A poss ible meteor shower activity which we will undertake (and which you can attempt as well) is to set up two beam antennas (preferably narrow-beam an-tennas) pointing at the horizon. The an-tennas will differ in azimuth by 30. As Earth rotates, a large number of echoes will first appear in Antenna I indicating the presence of a group of meteors (the shower). As Earth continues to rotate, activity in Antenna 1 wi ll diminish and echot:s will be heard in Antenna 2. The transfer of activity from Antenna 1 to Antenna 2 confirms the existence of the meteor s tream. This method was used primarily for studies of major showers, such as the Perseids or the Geminids.

For updates on VE3ACK meteor ac-ti vity. frequenc ies. and dates, visit the ODXA web site-http://www.grove.neU -odxa/

PRIMER The following li st of astrono my terms will explain the terms used in this article as well as te rms related to meteors that you will encounter in astronomy books and anicles.

Meteor shower: the increased meteor rate which occurs when Earth intersects a meteor stream

Dcdination:just as you can locate any point on Eanh by specifying its longitude and latitude, you can locate a star (or in the case of meteor showers, a radiant) by specifying the right ascension and declination on the celestial sphere. Right ascension is given in hours and m inutes; declination is g iven in degrees. For example, fo r the Leonid meteor show, the right ascension (a) is !Oh I Im and the dec lination (d) is +22*.

Duration: most meteor showers last for several days. The duration is the period during which the meteor rate is I /4 or more of the rate at the peak date and time.

Meteor: the streak of light (and related phenomena such as ioniza-tion) produced when a meteoroid e nters Earth' s atmosphere

Meteoroid: an interplanetary particle which may be as small as 10-13 g or as large as 104 g. When a meteoroid enters Earth s atmosphere, it ablates at 120-60 km above Earth and produces a meteor.

Meteor stream: a group of meteoroids traveling in highly corre-lated orbits (parallel paths)

Peak date and time : the date and time (i n UT) at which the meteor rate will be maximum. Note that in astronomy, the time scale used is UT not UTC. They are closely related however. so don' t fre t about resetting your clock depending on whether you are listening to the BBC World Service or listening to meteors.

Planisphcrc: a chart of the sky showing the location of stars and constellations. The chart has a clear. plast ic overlay which turns so you can set the date and time to get a view of the sky as it appears at that time.

Radiant: d ue to perspe

MERGEN CY

EDI CAL

ERVICES Transforming

Health Care One Life at a Time

7111! Star uf life wm registered in 1977 by NHTSA. t:ach of the six "points" of the star represents an aspect of the t:MS System: detection, reporting, response, 1111 ~cene care, care in transit, and trall.\fer to deflnitille care. The staff represents medicine and healing.


Story and photos by Ed Muro

As the piercing sounds of s irens wail in the a ir everyone w ithin earshot knows someone is in need of dire assistance. With today's EMS syste m in place. we can be assured help is on the way. T hat help--often vo lunteer help-saves li ves. Its avai lability depends on full communi ty support. The Emergency Medical Services System is the newest profess ion in the pub lic safety

fami ly which inc ludes fire protection services and the police department. Th is vital community se rvice receives around 15 million calls each year for emergency medical aid. It has been said that the ave rage American wi ll have to summon the Emergency Medical Service twice in their li fctimt:: .

Unti l the mid-sixties, ambulances were lill le more than fast moving mt::al wagons . They afforded very lillle medical care and only promised rapid transit to a hospital. T he only requiremt::nt for the job was to be able to drive we ll at high speeds and to be s trong enough to lift the stretcher.

However, advances in med ical technology- much of it pioneered during the Vietnam con flict- led to great changes in how patients were transported to hospitals . These ga ins made it possible to deliver more care at the scene of an emergency and on the way to tht:: hospital. It also created the need fo r more highly trained personnel to operated a cohesive system.

National Standards are Set

Recogn izing thi s, the Congrt::ss directed the U.S . Department of T ransportation to establi sh national EMS standards . In 1966, the National Highway Safety Act was enacted. wh ich inc luded funds and standa rds for the EMS syste m. The result ing curriculum of instructio n and clinical experience, now averaging about 110 hours nationwide. has become the principle model for the basic train ing of Emergency Medical Technicians (EMT. ).

Noting that EMS is an entirely new service in the c ivilian strncture of this nat ion. the ational Highway T raffic Safety Administration declared that it was imperative that EMS be

distinctly identified for the benefit of not only those working in the service but al so the general public. Thus. in 1973 the "Star of Life" became the offic ially recognized ins ignia of EMS personnel and equipme nt on a national basis.

Although often the fi r~ l tu arrive al the scene of an emergency. EM Ts sometimes fi nd that emergency care has already been started by a first responder. such a~ a fire fighter. pol ict: officer. or o ther official trained in CPR. First Aid. and other basic life su pport tech-niques. Last year the New York City Fi re De partment implemented its own first 1T -sponder program by training member~ from several engine companies as EM Ts. in order to supp lement the city's ability to provide timel y care.

I Standard Procedure On the scene. re~pons ibil ity for a victim i~

assigned to the EMT wi th the highest certifi -cat ion. In cw York State there arc several levels and they arc basically the same in other states.

LEVELS OF CERTIFICATION EMT: Emergency Medical Tcchnieian: In-eludes ba~ic Li fe Support Skills and the ability to ex trac t vietims from vchicks. AMT (Or A-EMTJ: not rea lly u~ed any-more. it means Advanced EMT: may or may not b1.: a paramedic. EMT-CC: EMT-Critical Car1.:: that s the new name for AMT. at least in N. Y. State.

EMT-P: EMT-P

the fire department or police department. hut ii. too. carries li fe and death s ignificance. The Emergency Medical Servin: has be.:ome the third leg o f the triad of Poli.:e. Fire. and EMS serv ices. It is an indi spensable scrv i.:c to the security of a ll U.S. residents.

While there are many freq uenc ies used IO dispatch li fe support services around the coun-try (refe r to your favorite local frequency directory for the frequenc ies in use in your area). once on their way wi th a patient in tra nsit to the hospital many ambulances u~e standardized national frequencies set aside for biomedical telemetry. Commonly referred to as Med- I thro ug h Med-!l. the frequencies are:

Used on a nationwide basis: ~ !!fil: Med-1 463.00 Med-2 463.025 Med-3 463.050 Med-4 463.075 Med-5 463. 100 Med6 463.125 Med-7 463.150 Med8 463.175

Mobile: 468.00 468.025 468 050 468 075 468100 468 125 468 150 468 175

Popular EMS dispatch frequen cies used in the New York Metro Area Nassau County, New York: Fire Department Ambulances: 46.100 (Countyl'lide

Dispatch: F1reCom) Volunteer Ambulance Corps : 154.115

(Allanlic Beach. Malverne. Mineola. Wantagh-Levittown Bellmore-Merrick Ambulance Garden City Ambulance Emergency Ambulance Service Corp. Five Counties Ambulance Service T ransCare Ambulance

Ambulance Dispatch) 37.94 155.340 463.300 47.54 935.0t 25-939.9875 (trunked system)

Med-Com (Medical Control) 462.975 Police Ambulances are dispatched on local police precinct

frequencies

Both Police Ambulances and Volunteer Ambulances notify Med-Com of the patients vital signs when in trans1110 lhe hospital. They also inform Med-Com of what hospital lhey are transporting to. Med-Com then notifies the app1opriate hospital of the incoming patient. Med-Coms HO is located at the Nassau County Medical Center (NCMC). where there is staff on hand to instruct the paramedics on what procedures 10 lake should it be necessary. However. even though the headquarters is located at NCMC. not all patients are transported lo that facility.

Suffolk County, Ne w York: 155.235 Cammack Volunteer Ambulance Corps 155.280 Med-Com (County EMS Dispatch)1 155.325 M.C I. 155.400 Central Islip V.A.C. 155. 175 Huntington Community F.A S./

B.S.B.RWVAC Other Freqs: 154.325. 154.385. & t54.415

Putnam County EMS Senices: 154.815 MHz


As EMS becomes (/II i11cremi11gly important part 1~/" our medical sy.\tem , so /ias interest in its co1111111111icatio11s increased. \111l1111teer.~, first-responders, shut-ins, ojf-duty personnel and au e1er-g rowi11g 1111111/Jer uf priwtte citi~ens regularly t1111 e in local EMS radio traffic. New York City: NYC is composed of 5 counties called borouglis. dispatched 111d1vidually. Nevi York City Fire Dept D1v1s1on ol Emergency Medical Services: C1ly\'11de Brooklyn South & Staten Island Brooklyn Central Brooklyn North Queens Bronx North Bronx South Manhattan South Manhaltan North Manhallan Central

H84120 854 987 1Convent1onal) 477.862 478.262 478 262 478.21 2 477 837 860 737 1Conven11ona11 855 487 856-860 987 (Trunked)

s HORTWAVE s ATELLITES c YBERSPACE

S atellites have complete ly changed inte rnational broadcasting. That much is uncontrovcr~ial. Whether the change has been for lhc better depends on who you are. I have a feeling lot of ~hon wave listeners and hardcore DXcr~ arc not terribly pleased about how sate llites have changed their hobby over 1hc pasl len yea r~ or ~o. Certainly when ;.Sweden Call ing DXers .. I urned into .. MediaScan .. and sh i fled its focu~ from shortwave to satellites. 1hcrc were a lot of letters denounc ing the change.

But for a broadcaster. sa1clli1es arc won-derful.

For years we vc struggled with :-.unspots and the ionosphere. shifting frequencies to fo llow the illusive whims of propagation or to avoid acc idental or in tentional interfer-ence. Now, not only t.:an our pro-grams appear on I istencrs re-ceivers in perfect FM quality. but !hanks to satell ites, they arc also reaching far more listeners directly or via rebroadcasts from local rad io s tations and cable systems.

We can also turn off some of those huge 500 kilowatt short-wave transmitte rs that have been consuming massive amounts of e lectricity. and rely instead on much lower-powered uplinks and solar-powered space down Ii nks.

For the sake of the planet" s resources. satell ites arc wonder-ful.

By George Wood

possible to hear the more exotic stations tha1 used to be under the interference before. After all. most DXers don't seem to care much about li stening to .. easy" European broad-casters. 1hey hunt for the rare signals from lilllc transmitters in the tropics.

However. even 1he 'easy" stations have a few programs of interest. One of 1he first applications of satelli tes to international broad-

ca~t i ng was to provide direct links to relay stations. That meant 1hat Radio Netherlands could broadcast live from its stud ios in 1-1 i lvc rsum. rather than send tapes for rebroad-1:ast three weeks later. DX Jukebox becaml! Media Net1mrk. wi th up-to-the-minute news about unusual new stations or shifting propa-gation. Similar programs like Glen n Hauser's Worfd of Radio or the VOA ' s C 111111111111ica -

lions World sudde nly became accessible in Europe and other locat ions where shortwave reception had been difficul t. There's also a whole new hobby hunting satell ite DX and on-the-spot news feeds.

For DXers. satellites are wonderful.

I The End of the Cold War & the Beginning of the Satellite Era

Aside from feeds to relay stations by major broadcasters like the BBC World Service. VO/\. Deutsche Welle. and Radio Nether-lands. the real impact of satellites on interna-tional broadcasting came in Europe at about the same ti me the Cold War was ending, in the l!arly 90' s. Wi th the launch fi rst of satellites from Eu1cl sat. fo llowed by the ti rst Astra

satellites. several radio sig-nals could ride along on each TV transponder. Suddenly there was a relatively inex-pensive way to reach all of Europe with an FM qual ity signal. For European short-wa vc broadcasters thi s scemed too good lo be true.

With so many sho rt wave broadcasters movi ng to sate I I ill!S. the overcrowded sho11wave spl!c-trum is opening up. making it

Although the BBC is deeply interested in alternative 111ethods of delivery, it re111ains co111111itted to shortwave broadcasting. Shown is the BBC's Asia relay station in Thailand.

In a way it was. It turned out that there were a number of problems. For one thing, the audience wa differen t. Shortwave listeners area hob-byist communi ty. and short-wave programming was de-signed for them. cozy. not tcrribly slick. and put together with potentia l poor condi-tions. interference. and fad-ing in mind. Satell ite listen-ers were percei vecl. in con-

October 1997 MONITORING TIMES 23

The new "Sturman" technology utilizes compressed digital signals and a special digital radio to expand the music and message back to its original form.

trast, to be "normal' " people, not hobbyists. Rad io Sweden's management dec ided that the sate llite program format had to sound more li ke domestic radio. and suddenl y we were ordered to produce extra sate llite shows in a new format. with the same staff resources. or less.

Less ... that was the o ther repe rcussion of the end of the Cold War. Mi litary budgets were slashed . but it a lso turned o ut that short -w ave radio was considered by some politi -c ians to be an obsolete re mnant o f the struggle between East and West. whose purpose had gone the way o f the Berlin Wall. At: ross Europe and No rth Amerit:a. funds fo r inte rna-tiona l broadcasting wae cut back. Since sat-e llite transponder ren tal was c heaper than the e lectric ity burned up by half a megawatt short-wave transmitte rs. one way a station could reduce costs was to switd1 to sate llite de li v-e ry.

Radio Finland is a good example of a small s tation that's gotten heavily involved in sate l-lites, yet still re lies on shortwave. But Manag-ing Director Juhanii Niinistoe says he ' s not about to g ive up short wave comple te ly :

"The two forms of deli very complement each othe r. Satellite reception is for fixed location lis tening o nl y, while shortwave of-fers mobility. T he indi vidual touri st will carry a port able SW for immediate news serv ice. but may a lso enjoy hi -ti radio in hi s or he r hote l. delivered by satell ite ."

At Radio Sweden separate programming


for the satellite aud ience didn't work out. Partl y it was a matter of resources. as you just couldn' t do tw ice as much radio with fewer people. But it also turned out tha t the sate llite audie nce was not as 'normal" as management

first thought. A particular part of the general population bought sate lli te d ishes. and then most of them just watched T V. The few who did explore the opportunities on rad io turned out to be another kind o f hobbyist, not that much diffe re nt from the SWLs (shortwave li ste ner) and DXers (a person who listens fo r di stant shortwave stations) on short wave.

The satell ite tu rned out to be j ust another type of transmitter.

Tho ughts turned from using satell ites di -rec tl y to reach li s tene rs, to using them instead to feed local stations for rebroadcast ing. For years shortwave stations have had T ranscrip-tion Services. sending recorded programs on tape to stations around the world . (Back when I worked in college radio at UC San ta Bar-bara. we loved thi s stuff, since once we 'd played the programs, we could e rase the ree ls and avoid having to buy new tape.)

Sate llites could de liver programs in real time to stations providing up-to- the-minute news, ratherthan " time less" features. At many inte rna tional broadcasters. the overall pro-gramming format began to gradua lly change. away from the cozy shortwave community o r the past towards something a little more mod-e rn and fast-paced ; something that fit ted in on lot:al s1ations, yet hopefully still worked on s hortwa ve.

Initially there was a bonanza fo r some or the larger stations. As Eastern European coun-tries regained their freedom. the ai rwaves ope ned up and people hungered for uncen-

sored new~ and e nte rt ainment from abroad. In the ea rl y days ii wa~ easy fur s tati on~ like the Voit:e of America. Radio Free Europe. or the BBC which had been regarded as fri end~ duri ng 1hc det:adc~ of repre~~iun-to a

Swiss Radio International took the ambi-tious route. It was easy to set up 24 hour satell ite channe ls in the country's national languages, German. French, and Italian. But S RI expanded its English programming as well into a 24 hour operation.

Most smalle r stations couldn ' t afford that kind of expansion. T he solution. best ex-pressed by Uwe Schoop, then head of the Swedish service at Deutschlandfunk, who called it " time-sharing," was for stations to get together to put a ll their programs in a single language on one satell ite sound channel. The idea was obvious; the only proble m was doing it , considering the nature of European public broadcasting. Large media bureaucracies just couldn't work together that way.

The "Gang of Four" o f Radio Netherlands. Rad io Sweden, Radio Canada International, and Swiss Radio International discussed the idea, but couldn 't agree on its implementa-tion. The European Broadcasting Union be-latedly set up a special forum for international broadcasters, which also ta lked about the con-cept. but couldn' t make anything happen ei-ther.

Who would run the system? Who would decide who got to broadcast in prime time? How would be costs be divided up? Who would pay for lines to the uplink site? There were lots of questions, and no experience in actually working together on that level.

WRN Runs With the Ball In the end, three defectors from the BBC

made it happen. Karl Miosga, Jeff Cohen, and T im Ashburner kept the ir day jobs whi le they talked to stations about their World Radio Network. They got UPI to provide temporary facilities by doing some work for them, and talked British Sky Broadcasting into provid-ing a free sound channel as a test. For a week stations from all over Europe, and as fa r away as Is rae l and India, s hared a common satellite channel. The s ignals poured into a tiny room at UPJ 's headquarte rs in London's Docklands by sate llite link. expensive broadcast c ircuits, ISON, and even off shortwave.

It looked like chaos with cables running everywhere into equipment just patched to-gether for the week, but it worked. Some weeks later, supported by a contrac t from National Public Radio to bring its programs to Europe, WRN Network One went on the air on Astra, re lay ing some 20 international broad-casters . Separate deals to re lay Vatican Radio and Radio Canada International/CBC to Eu-rope fo llowed . Then WRN turned towards North America, and began re laying its Euro-pean broadcasters on the WTBS transponder

on Galaxy 5. That was followed by a second channel, WRN 2, which turned things inside out by carrying program s in various stations' native languages for their nationals in North America.

hours a day of that service has relied on WRN I.

C-SPAN has re layed international broad-casters on its Secondary Audio Programs for several year: one channel for the BBC World Service, another for a varlet y of stat ions, most of which have been avai lable in North America via some satell ite re lay. Recently. several

One ofWRN' s biggest s uccesses was talk-ing Canada s CBC. beset by budget cutbacks. into taking the WRN I service to provide al l-night programming on one u f its national AM networks. Suddenly international broadcast-ers really were being heard by "nonnal" people. that is. normal insomniacs and normal night shi ft workers . (This has had interesting reper-cussions . One way Radio Sweden has dealt

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with budget cutbacks has been to regularly recycle various interviews and reports. That" s worked on shortwave. where few people seem to listen to every broadcast. But numerous complaints about the repeats have come in from the Canadian night owls.)

More recently. WRN has expanded to Af-rica and Asia. The African service is on Intelsat 707. and is then relayed on the Multichoice DBS package on PAS-4. A deal similar to that with CBC Overnight has been worked out. and WRN I programs are carried in the middle of night across South Africa on a national network called SAfm.

The Asian service is part of a package of European radio broadcasters on Asiasat-2. Both the African and Asian re lays differ from those to Europe and North America in that they are digital. That means right now the average home listener can' t tune in. Instead they are intended for local and cable rebroad-casts.

I've devoted a lot of space to the World Radio Network story. because WRN is prob-ably the most important tool for smaller inter-national broadcasters to reach listeners on satellite. There's simply nothing better right now. The larger broadcasters. of course. have their own 24 hour channels. NPR was so pleased with its response in Europe that it leased its own channel, America One, to-ge ther with PR I. However, both continue to provide programming on WRN as well.

The New Generation Broadcasters The internatio nal radio broadcasters cur-

rently on satell ite have all started with short-wave. But the coming digital age in broadcast-ing will see new stations that have never used any other medium. Europe is just introducing Digital Audio Broadcasting. The first regular transmissions began in September l995 in Britain and Sweden. Canada. Denmark, Nor-way. Finland. Germany, France, and Belgium have all followed suit. and DAB is also testing or planned in the rest of Western Europe, India, Australia. and Russia.

European services are not expected to take off until the first consumer receivers arrive on the market thi~ fall. Ultimately, DAB receiv-ers wi ll pick up transmissions from both ter-restrial and satell ite transmitters. In prepara-tion forth is. the BBC World Service, Deutsche Welle. Radio Netherlands. and Radio France International have, together with a number of smaller stations. organized EuroDAB. Right now the co-operation involves a number of weekly programs called Radio E carried on sate llite and shortwave by the stations in-volved. The intent ion is to provide WRN-type


ervices in English. German, and French lhat would run on DAB channels in each of the partic ipating countries. as well as via satell ite.

This goal seems rather remote, as DAB spectrum wi ll he limited until the FM band is phased out after the tu rn of the century: most countries wi ll be fill ing their current DAB allocations with their own stations and are unl ikely to make room for Radio E. While DAB transmissions are possible from Astra and Eutelsat. a proper service that could seamlessly fit in with terrestrial DAB and portable receivers will have lo wait for low-orbit digi tal satellites.

Following the time-honored "Not Invented Here" philiosophy the National Association of Broadcasters has rejected DAB in the U.S. in favor of an alternative system combining FM and digital signals. Meanwhile, the FCC has granted licenses to Satellite CD Radio and American Mobi le Radio Corp for digital sat-ellite radio services to the US. This OARS (Digital Audio Radio Service) wi ll use spec-trum above 2310 MHz for broadcasts from low orbit satellites. So Europe and America will be fighting out the NTSC/PAL wars once again, over digital radio, with receivers of limited geographic functionality.

One new digital international radio project is defin ite ly moving forward. WorldSpace was founded by Noah Samara in 1990, and has its headquarters in Washington, DC. The plan is to launch three geostationary satellites which will provide programming specifically to Third World countries: AfriStar to Africa and the Middle East, AsiaStar to Asia, and AmeriS tar to Latin America and the Carib-bean. Each wi ll provide 100 digi tal audio channels to the entire coverage area.

The first satellite to be launched will be AfriStar in June 1998 on Ariane. It will be followed at six month intervals by AsiaStar and AmeriStar. All three are being made by Alacatel Espace of France. Broadcasters who have signed up so far include some familiar names to the shortwave and tropical band DX community, such as the Voice of America, Radio Netherlands, Colombia s Radio Cadena Nacional, the Ghana Broadcasting Corpora-tion, and Kenya Radio and TV. along with Korea s New World Sky Media, and Nigeria s Ray Power 100 FM.

The plan depends on the development of affordable receivers. By using economies of scale. the goal is produce new sate I lite recei v-ers costing between $20and S30. These would be truly portable, with antennas the size of credit cards.

WorldSpacc and similar projects may be a threat to traditional tropical band DXing. Some of those exotic stat ions may di sappear from

the shortwave bands if local li steners can tune into one hundred stations on cheap portable receivers. On the other hand. some of the exotic stations may become accessible for listeners over an entire continent, or even a hemisphere. (Some interesting DX prospects here?)

From Satellites to Cyberspace The digital age could open up the planet

for thousands more radio stations over the Internet. When Radio Sweden (and Sweden Calling DXers) changed focus from short-wave to satellites, SCDX founder Arne Skoog was very skeptical. Arne was sure satelli tes would never replace shortwave, and pointed to the cost and size of receiving equipment, and the lack of portability as the main reason.

I always thought Arne was forgeuing the history he had been a part of. In Britain the simplest Astra dishes and receiver packages se ll for under I 00 (around $ 150 doll ars). That's cheaper than almost any decent short-wave receiver. Even in Scandinavia, where a satellite package may cost 5000 kronor (around $800), that"s sti ll less than a quality professional DX machine.

Satell ite receivers admittedly aren't very portable. But unti l very recently shortwave receivers weren' t porta

10 october 1997

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