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FCC Denies Utah Motorsport Park Use of Amateur Radio Frequencies
On Thursday, April 24, ARRL General Counsel Chris Imlay, W3KD, filed an Informal Objection with the FCC regarding a pending application for a Special Temporary Authority (STA) filed by Miller Motorsports Park in Tooele, Utah. One day after filing the Objection, the FCC agreed with the ARRL, saying, "Due to the possibility of interference to Amateur operators and also the race teams utilizing the proposed frequencies, we feel that it is not in the public interest to grant [Miller Motorsports Park's] request."
FCC Denies Two Amateur Radio Petitions for Rulemaking
In two separate decisions released today, the Federal Communications Commission denied two
Petitions for Rulemaking (PRM) having to do with Amateur Radio. These two PRMs,
one filed by Mark
Miller, N5RFX, of Arlington, Texas, concerning digital spectrum issues, and the other filed
jointly by
Ken Chafin, W6CPA, of La Crescenta, California, and Leon Brown, KC6JAR, of Los Angeles, California, concerning
additional spectrum for more repeaters, including digital systems. Miller's PRM was assigned RM-11392, while the
Chafin and Brown petition was not afforded an RM number by the FCC. According to ARRL General Counsel Chris Imlay,
W3KD, the ARRL filed no comments on either petition in accordance with the League's standard policy on bare
petitions for rule making that do not deal with spectrum allocations.
Wilmington, N.C., to test TV change over to digital
Residents of Wilmington, N.C., will soon become laboratory rats in the nation’s transition to digital TV.
The Federal Communications Commission plans to make the greater Wilmington area a digital-TV test market to work out any bugs before the entire nation goes all digital on Feb. 17.
All four commercial broadcasters in the Wilmington region — with a population of about 400,000 — have agreed to turn off their analog signals and broadcast in digital only starting Sept. 8. The switch will be preceded by an intensive consumer-education campaign, including TV and radio ads.
“This will help us understand what we need to do to prepare the rest of the country,” FCC Chairman Kevin Martin says.
The biggest concern is the roughly 60 million analog sets that aren’t hooked to cable or satellite. Those include about 18 million homes that don’t have pay TV as well as second or third TVs in cable and satellite homes. They won’t work without a box to convert digital signals to analog. Households may request from the U.S. government up to two $40 coupons to help pay for the boxes, which cost about $50 each.
Cable and satellite providers plan to translate digital signals to analog for the 85% of U.S. homes that subscribe to the services.
A Consumers Union survey early this year found that 60% of households with at least one antenna-based analog TV don’t know they’re affected.
NASA Breaking News
NASA Satellite Finds Interior of Mars Is Colder
New observations from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter indicate that the crust and upper mantle of Mars are stiffer and colder than previously thought.
Discovery of Most Recent Supernova in Our Galaxy
The most recent supernova in our galaxy has been discovered by tracking the rapid expansion of its remains, using NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and the National Radio Astronomy Observatory's Very Large Array.
NASA Study Links Earth Impacts to Human-Caused Climate Change
A new NASA-led study shows human-caused climate change has made an impact on a wide range of Earth's natural systems, including permafrost thawing, plants blooming earlier across Europe and lakes declining in productivity in Africa.
| June, 2008 | |
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