On Wed, 26 Nov 2008 12:00:06 -0800, Jeff Liebermann
wrote:

On Wed, 26 Nov 2008 15:48:50 GMT, "JB" wrote:

Excellent post.

Thanks. I'll add one more notch on my LCD frame.

The problem with QEX is not enough submissions.

Well, they rejected one of mine many years ago. The problem was they
never really said why. When I pressed the editor, he replied that he
had enough submissions of sufficient quality. I tried again later and
had it rejected because I wasn't an ARRL member at the time (because I
was broke). I don't know what was going on, but I wasn't thrilled and
never bothered again.

As for the
QST AM mods, I was thinking that was ATV, but maybe you were talking about
something else.

Something else was converting commercial land mobile FM radios from
WBFM or later NBFM to AM (A3A) modulation. Mostly, it was adding a
low level modulation circuit, and converting the power stages from
Class C to Class A or AB. To me, it was a little like publishing an
article today on converting a Prius Hybrid automobile to only run on
gasoline.

The same applies to QST. If there aren't enough
submissions, the only recourse is to hire writers to do columns or fill the
empiness with drivel and ads like 73.

Probably true. I submitted an article in about 2002 on using the
audio time delay through a repeater to do hyperbolic (Loran A style)
vehicle location. I forgot why it was rejected because I ended up in
the hospital and my memory from that period is rather muddled. When I
inquired about the submission a year later, they said that they
couldn't find it or that it was lost. Then, I mentioned that I still
wasn't an ARRL member and all communications ceased.

The best things to come out of 73 was
the Star Trek communicator clone and Byte magazine. I hate how Ham Radio
magazine died out.

73 published Joe Moell's column on amateur radio direction finding. To
me, it was worth the price of a subscription. Before I tossed my
archives, I ripped out and saved most of these issues. Wanna build a
rotating antenna direction finder? The only references in ham radio
land you'll find are in these 73 magazine issues. Same with various
microwave columns. I could have done without Wayne Green's endless
editorials.

I was President of the local ham club for a while, and
wound up doing the newletter too. For the three or four years of that, I
only got 3 submissions from the membership. All the rest I had to either
pull out of my A** every month or go around like a reporter and interrogate
people.

Our current newsletter editor complains about the same thing.
http://www.k6bj.org
Still, he manages to produce a superior ham radio newsletter. I used
to submit irregular technical articles and obnoxious opinionated radio
politix articles. However, one article that I spend considerable time
writing was butchered beyond recognition. When I asked for an
explanation, I got nothing. So, no more articles from me.

On the other hand - What neat inventions can we come up with to share with
the World, so it can be exploited and give reason to take more of our
spectrum?

It probably shouldn't be an invention. More likely, an unusual or
interesting application of some existing technology. Your ATV camera
for disaster services is a good example. Direction finding is still a
common problem (i.e. stuck public safety transmitters). Perhaps
demonstrating how some of the dumb|great ideas originating out FCC can
be made to work (i.e. white space, ultra narrow band FM, on the fly
TDMA, etc). I could think of lots of useful things to build, design,
buy, or analyze.

Interesting to note how public safety volunteers showed Los
Angeles Sheriff how neat ATV was and they turned around and petitioned the
FCC for those frequencies.

We had some floods a few years ago. The levee broke along the Pajaro
river. One of our members has a helicopter and volunteered to fly an
ATV camera over the area for the sheriff. On screen was GPS position
in APRS format. Everything worked and everyone was suitably
impressed. Then, nothing. No clue exactly why, but my guess is that
homebrew is not funded by Homeland Security.

Oh well, we will probably all be shot in head by the next regime because we
are an irritation.

Nope. We will all be promoted to a position of responsibility, where
we will be setup to fail, thus demonstrating that technologists are no
better at running the country than politicians, crooks, bureaucrats,
and thugs.

How very weird. I am the pretty much acknowledged top technologist in
my workplace. Yet i cannot get promoted.

YMMV