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Before all the beards came of age we just called them Ham Radio Operators. They're always raising the level. Glad to see the name promotion and the hobby once again verifying how well spent the frequencies protected and allocated to the service are.

"Scott Tilley VE7TIL / VA7LF discovered a signal from the IMAGE satellite that NASA lost contact with in 2005"

http://www.southgatearc.org/ne...

Bletchley Park looked to its most valuable resource — the veterans who worked there

...and fired them for daring to show historic computers to visitors. And then kicking out the amateur radio society to replace them with a gift shop, and finally putting up a chain link fence to make sure nobody accidentally visits the real museum in building H.

The only reason the current Bletchley park management haven't levelled the place to put up a Starbucks is that the donors might notice and cut off their multi-million pound gravy train.

Using lasers for communications is not new. HAM Radio geeks have been experimenting with it for some time. The big problems seem to be maintaining the alignment of the laser, and atmospheric attenuation of the signal. That aside, the bandwidth of visible light signals will be awesome, compared to longer wavelengths.

I guess you aren't familiar with *cough* proxy servers *cough* which work just fine with SSL being very secure from the organization outward, but able to keep convenient logs of all traffic flowing in and out.

Combine with blocking outbound to 443 from all computers except the proxy. For the truly paranoid, a deep-packet-inspection firewall can be trivially configured to drop all SSL packets.

Problem (mostly) solved, for the sufficiently ethically compromised organization. Private smart phones represent a significant attack vector, forcing exotic techniques like a Faraday Cage, perhaps with special paint?

Also lost in this launch were three Amateur Radio Satellites.

During the Falklands War in 1982, Argentine forces seized control of the phones and radio network on the islands and had cut off communications with London. Scottish amateur radio operator Les Hamilton, GM3ITN was able to relay crucial information from fellow hams Bob McLeod and Tony Pole-Evans on the islands to British military intelligence in London, including the details of troop deployment, bombing raids, radar bases and military activities. However, radio hams usually avoid controversial subjects and political situations and discussions as a part of the code of politeness of radio communications.

A BBC reporter called Laurie Margolis tried to claim he was the guy who first contacted and heard it. however it was not him at all. it was a Scotsman from Clydebank who provided and kept providing the critical information.

recording of it here

BBC page here

It's not hacking, but this is interesting, apparently some amateur radio operators were able to track it.

not evenly distributed

If only there was some sort of certificate of competence enabling a rudimentary understanding of propagation and planning accordingly, this problem might be overcome ;-).

nor is it growing in population.

The trouble is that amateur radio has bad PR, so people think that even when it is completely false.

Not something the community is going to lean on in a few decades.

If you lean on your mobile phone for disaster relief, you are already doing it wrong. I'm not suggesting that hams alone save the day, just that technical knowledge combined with systems requiring less working infrastructure is preferable during a disaster to idiots with sealed boxes. And we are foolish to increasingly rely on systems assuming an infinitely long period of geopolitical and natural stability.

With VHF having significant problems and the FCC wanting to chop another 20 UHF channels out, they want to make you pay.

Maybe they aren't talking about UHF channels, maybe they want to whack out FM Broadcasters, or maybe even ham bands. I agree this could be a terrible news. Maybe somebody could clarify with more information.

Sometimes you also get fun stuff like what's coming up in a week. The Arecibo radio astronomy antenna (huge white dish) is bouncing signals off the moon and listening for ham radio operators in a week or two

Granted, it takes a fairly big antenna and lots of power to bounce signals off the moon. However, there are computer programs that allow for slow text transmission (think really slow modem) via moonbounce, reducing the antenna and power requirements.

http://www.southgatearc.org/news/january2010/haiti_convoy_fired_on.htm

I didn't see where a ham got silent keyed or is are you talking about a different incident?

Lest you think all these secret stations are foreign, here's the story of Yosemite Sam, a station that transmitted "I'm a gonna get you, you varmint!" followed by a quick digital BRAP sound, and how it was traced by enterprising hams to a US military-industrial facility.

The following text is from this article Amateur station hears MRO at 45 million miles on the southgate ARC website:

Amateur station hears MRO at 45 million miles
This week the Mars-Net e-mail list reported that Paul Marsh, an amateur observer, has detected Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter at X band at a range of 45 million miles from Earth.

The MRO transmits on Deep Space Network channel 32 which is 8439.444444 MHz.
By the time that reaches Earth, due to doppler the frequency has dropped to around 8439.031 MHz. The MRO has a 3 meter diameter dish antenna driven by a 100 Watt X-band TWTA to transmit signals to Earth. The signal coming in our direction is of the order of 4.2 mega watts of RF.

The signal was clearly visible in the FFT display of an SDR-14 software radio, and was just audible in SSB bandwidth of a communications receiver. The signal was consistently about 6 to 8 dB above the noise floor.
More details can seen at:
http://www.uhf-satcom.com/mro/

Thanks to Joe, KM1P, the Mars-net list, and
Uhf-satcom.com for the above information

Here is a recording of Sergei on ISS over Bangkok Thailand mentioned on SouthGate ARC's site.

has the FCC not essentially said that it does not interfere in matters for wifi and other unlicensed bands?

All the FCC has said is that a license is not required for equipment operation. However, technical matters relating to radiating (and for that matter receiving) RF do not "go away". The FCC exercises it's authority where it is needed (and sometimes where it is not - ie broadcast flag) in all matters RF, large and small. In fact one whole section of federal law is devoted to nothing but telecommunications under the FCC.

The FCC takes matters of RF interference very seriously, and there is in fact a process where you can file a complaint.

While the WiFi bands are unlicensed, I do know that there are maximum power limits (offhand I believe 1 watt) that may be transmitted.

So if you want to try and "up" the power by making a couple of quick mods to your equipment to get extended range, you would be breaking the law. Often when this is done, the equipment will start radiating in adjacent frequency bands that are used by other services, and those people will notice and file a complaint.

The nature of the infringement will often determine the response. The FCC is very well known for having a fleet of nondescript black vans that say "FCC" on the side with a bunch of antennas on top. They are equipped to listen in on most any frequency and will determine the location by simple direction finding. At which time the often will show up on the doorstep of the offending party with a couple of FBI agents/US Marshalls and confiscate your equipment, arrest and prosecute you in federal court. Which can lead to jail time and nauseatingly hefty fines.

Here are a couple of examples . There are dozens more that don't make the news.

On the surface without investigating deeply, I believe that Logan Airport's complaint is a bald faced lie. If they are having problems with RFI from an unmodified WiFi transmitter which operates in the ++GHz Bands, then they must be having problems with cell phones and cell phone towers and countless other unintentional electronic radiators. What's more, such problems would indicate serious security issues with their equipment that should be dealt with, instead of trying to manipulate the FCC because (in reality) somebody is not paying up.

But in short, both statements in your post - that the FCC won't get involved and that it is a matter for nuisance law are completely false, and should not have been modded up.

Hmm....yes, there are always bad apples but check out:

http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2003/06/24/2/

http://www.southgatearc.org/articles/vu2rbi/andama n_nicobar_1.htm

http://www.qsl.net/trarc/floyd2.html

http://www.skywarn.org/

http://www.severe-weather.org/

GOOD ham groups are great volunteers and eyes and ears for law enforcement, American Red Cross and other agencies. Emergecny Communcations provided by hams is NOT just a PR illusion. It's real.

For what it's worth, it's not really necessary to run an illegal amplifier to cause interference. The legal limit on some bands is 1500 watts. And on the VHF bands sometimes there are problems with the cable company not properly maintaining their cables, leading to the cable signal causing and being subject to outside interference.

Unless you suspect the ham of being a loon, talk to him first and see if you can find out where the problem is.