XPost: rec.radio.amateur.equipment, rec.radio.info

CQ Newsroom

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Breaking the Glass Ceiling at the FCC

Posted: 10 Nov 2021 06:03 PM PST http://cqnewsroom.blogspot.com/2021/11/breaking-glass-ceiling-at-fcc.html

Jessica Rosenworcel is
the first woman nomina-
ted to be FCC Chair.
(FCC photo)
Three major nominations by the White House may shape the face(s) of telecommunication policy for the next several years.
Acting FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel was nominated by President Biden to another full term on the commission and as Chair. Once confirmed, she will
be the first woman to formally hold the FCC chairmanship. Rosenworcel has
been an FCC Commissioner since 2012. According to the White House, she was instrumental in creating the FCC's Emergency Broadband Benefit program to
help fight the "homework gap" during pandemic lockdowns and help households struggling to afford internet service stay connected. Prior to her
appointment to the FCC a decade ago, she was Senior Communications Counsel
for the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, and previously practiced communications law. FCC Commissioner-
designate Gigi Sohn
(Georgetown U. photo)

The President also nominated attorney Gigi Sohn to fill a vacant seat on
the FCC. She is currently a Distinguished Fellow at the Georgetown Law Institute for Technology Law and Policy and previously served as a
counselor to former FCC Chair Tom Wheeler. Much of her work has been in advocacy for widescale broadband access. The White House notes that, if confirmed, Sohn would be the FCC's first-ever openly LGBTQ+ commissioner.
Alan Davidson
(US Commerce Dept.
photo)
Mr. Biden also nominated Alan Davidson to head up the Communications and Information division of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration. NTIA is the FCC's counterpart in terms of spectrum
management for federal agencies, including the military. This is
significant to hams because many of our bands are shared with federal government users. Davidson was the first Director of Digital Economy at the Commerce Department, which is NTIA's parent agency. He is currently Senior Advisor to the Mozilla Foundation, and previously served as the open-access software group's Vice President of Global Policy, Trust and Security.
Before that, he worked for Google, where he was the company's chief
lobbyist in Washington between 2005 and 2012.
All three nominations are subject to Senate confirmation.

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First Bouvet and Now Crozet

Posted: 10 Nov 2021 05:46 PM PST http://cqnewsroom.blogspot.com/2021/11/first-bouvet-and-now-crozet.html


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AR-SA
The ARRL is
in agreement with two draft positions developed by the FCC's WRC Advisory Committee in advance of the next World Radiocommunication Conference in
2023. According to the ARRL Letter, the League concurs with the committee's preliminary position on two agenda items, one regarding VHF frequencies for
the Earth Exploration Satellite Service and the other dealing with space weather sensors.
The first proposal deals with spaceborne radar sounders proposed for a secondary allocation on 40-50 MHz. The FCC committee studying the
possibility of such an allocation and the ARRL agrees, as long as there
are "adequate means to protect the weak-signal operations of the Amateur
Radio Service on the adjacent 50-54 MHz band without imposing any restraint
on those operations." The League also agreed with the committee's draft position on a proposal regarding space weather sensors which calls for completing comprehensive studies on the possible impact to incumbent
services before considering any changes to the international Radio
Regulations.

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Hearing-Impaired Students at UK School Have ARISS Contact with Space Station

Posted: 10 Nov 2021 01:56 PM PST http://cqnewsroom.blogspot.com/2021/11/hearing-impaired-students-at-uk-school.html



In what is likely a first-ever event for the Amateur Radio on the
International Space Station (ARISS) program, ten students at the Mary Hare School for Deaf Children in the UK took part in a scheduled contact with astronaut Mark Vande Hei, KG5GNP, operating NA1SS from orbit. According to
the ARRL Letter, the school teaches hearing-impaired students to develop lip-reading skills and to use technology as much as possible to promote communication. The students asked their questions orally and the
astronaut's responses were displayed with captions on a large video screen.

The session was watched not only by the 10 participants but also by another
250 people in the auditorium where the station was set up and 600 more
students in other parts of the school who watched via a web feed. A
livestream of the contact is archived at <https://live.ariss.org>.

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Hams Support Major Marathons

Posted: 10 Nov 2021 01:00 PM PST http://cqnewsroom.blogspot.com/2021/11/hams-support-major-marathons.html


Hams in Chicago and New York City recently provided communications support
for marathon events in those cities. The ARRL Letter reports that 135 hams helped provide medical and logistical communications for the Bank of
America Chicago Marathon on October 10, the world's third-largest marathon. This is the 13th year of ham involvement in the event.
Just a few weeks later, roughly 200 hams provided similar communications support for the world's #1 marathon event, the New York City Marathon,
which returned to the streets of all five of New York's boroughs for its
50th running after being cancelled last year due to Covid. Hams have been
key players in the New York City Marathon organization since the race began covering all five boroughs in 1976.


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WiFi DX Record

Posted: 10 Nov 2021 12:55 PM PST http://cqnewsroom.blogspot.com/2021/11/wifi-dx-record.html



Two hams in Italy have set what is claimed to be a world distance record
for WiFi transmissions on 5 GHz. According to Newsline, the two hams were
not identified in the report posted recently on the Wi-FiPlanet website,
but did say the contact was part of a project of the Italian Center for
Radio Activities (CISAR), whose spokesperson is a ham, IZ3HAD.

According to the report, the two hams used dish antennas and Ubiquity
802.11a modems to establish a link between the summit of Monte Amita in
Tuscany and the island of Sardinia, nearly 200 miles away. Most of the path
was over the Tyrrhenian Sea. IZ3HAD said the experiment was a first step in creating "a wide-band digital network to connect all Italian ham radio
users to each other and to other services," including D-STAR, Echolink and digital amateur television. Several 5-GHz WiFi channels overlap the 5-centimeter amateur band.

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