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| The award-winning monthly publication of The Baltimore Radio Amateur Television Society P.O.Box 5915 Baltimore, MD 21282-5915 |
August, 2008
US Government Recalls RadioShack Power Supplies
On July 2, the US Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), in cooperation with RadioShack, announced a voluntary recall of 13.8 V dc power supplies. The CPSC said that consumers should stop using these power supplies immediately, as the “power supplies are wired incorrectly, posing electrocution and fire hazards.” No injuries have been reported in conjunction with the power supplies that were sold in RadioShack stores nationwide from October 2004-January 2008 for between $50 and $85. Manufactured in China, the CPSC said that the recall involves RadioShack 13.8 V DC Power Supplies, catalog numbers 22-507 and 22-508 with date codes from 08A04 through 01A08. Date code format is MMAYY where MM is the month and YY is the year. The catalog number and date code are located on the back of the power supply. Power supplies with a green dot on the product and the product’s packaging have already been repaired and are not included in the recall. The CPSC recommends for consumers to unplug the recalled power supply immediately and take it to any RadioShack store for a free repair. Registered owners of the recalled power supplies will be mailed a notice. For additional information, contact RadioShack at 800-843-7422 anytime, or visit their Web site.
E-mails Asking for Personal Information Are Not from ARRL
We have received several reports from ARRL members with arrl.net e-mail accounts who have recently been contacted
via e-mail asking for personal information, such as user names and passwords. Please be assured that these e-mails
are fraudulent attempts at "phishing" and did not originate from ARRL. According to ARRL Information Technology Manager Don Durand, "This is a very crude attempt at phishing, using an easily determined spoof of the originating/return address. There is never a time when we would ask via mass e-mail for user names and passwords of arrl.net users. There is simply no need to ever do so." If you receive an e-mail asking for personal information and it looks like it originated from ARRL, please do not respond, just delete it.
Ham Radio in Space: Celebrating 45 Years of Women in Space
In ham radio space related news, word that special event station R45VT is on the air. This, to commemorate
the 45th Anniversary of Valentina Vladimirovna Tereshkova becoming the first woman in space. Tereshkova
flew to orbit on June 16th 1963 as pilot onboard Vostok 6. Her call sign during the flight was Chaika. She spent
71 hours in space orbiting the Earth 48 times. Since that time women have made a significant contribution to
space exploration and many of them have been licenced Radio Amateurs. A few of the many notable women
space explorers since Valentina Tereshkova include American Sally Ride and the United Kingdom's Helen
Sharman to mention only a few. Sharman was also the first UK woman to be issued a ham radio call for her
flight. She operated from the Mir Space Station as GB1MIR And very apropos for this type of commemorative operation. At least one UK ham reports that he recently worked R45VT through the VO-52 amateur radio
satellite. (Southgate, via AMSAT)
| August, 2008 |  |
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