Here is the new wording:

§ 97.113         Prohibited transmissions.

(a) * * *

(3) Communications in which the station licensee or control operator has a pecuniary interest, including communications on behalf of an employer, with the following exceptions:

(i) A station licensee or control station operator may participate on behalf of an employer in an emergency preparedness or disaster readiness test or drill, limited to the duration and scope of such test or drill, and operational testing immediately prior to such test or drill. Tests or drills that are not government-sponsored are limited to a total time of one hour per week; except that no more than twice in any calendar year, they may be conducted for a period not to exceed 72 hours.

That wording works for our purposes and I appreciate the Commission’s relatively speedy action on this important issue. 

I have attached a copy of the R&O so you can read the discussion if you like.

Thank you to everyone who supported this important rule change.

San Joaquin County ARES Registration and Training (3/20/2010)

Registration

The Amateur Radio Emergency Service of San Joaquin County is a volunteer group of Ham Radio operations that provide public service and emergency communications in California’s Central Valley.

SJ ARES membership is free and open to all licensed amateurs in San Joaquin County. There are three steps to becomming a member:

1. Please use this electronic form (PDF format) to join. The form can be emailed back to us for processing.
2. ARES members are also asked to sign-up online as Disaster Health Volunteers. Be sure to select “San Joaquin” for your Volunteer affiliation, “non-medical” for your occupation type (unless, of course, you are a medical person) and “radio operator, ham” as your occupatuion. You may select more than one occupation.
3. Once registered as a DHV, ARES members are eligible to become state-certified Disaster Service Workers, by filling out and returning this form.

Emergency Notification

SJ ARES uses an automated telephone emergency notification system for emergency activation. ARES members are automatically signed up for this system, called CAHAN, the California Health Alert Network. Note that CAHAN only works with Internet Explorer.

Disaster Health Volunteers are also added to the DHV notification system.

Both systems notify members using telephone, e-mail, fax, and SMS, as configured by the user. They are, however, used for different types of messages, so it is important to be signed up on both.

 CPR for the Professional Rescuer (or equivalent)

 First Aid (exact course to be determined)

 Hazardous Materials Awareness

 State of California SEMS (offered by Tracy CERT, to be taken after ICS-100 and 200, shown below)

 SJ ARES Introduction to Emergency Communications

 American Red Cross “Introduction to Disaster Services”http://www.redcross.org/flash/course01_v01/
 ICS-100.a  (Introduction to the Incident Command System)http://training.fema.gov/EMIWeb/IS/IS100a.asp
 ICS-200.a  (ICS for Single Resources and Initial Action Incidents)http://training.fema.gov/EMIWeb/IS/IS200a.asp
 IS-700.a (National Incident Management System, An Introduction)http://training.fema.gov/EMIWeb/IS/IS700a.asp
 IS-800.b (National Response Framework, An Introduction)http://training.fema.gov/EMIWeb/IS/IS800b.asp
 IS-802 (Emergency Support Functions Communications)http://training.fema.gov/EMIWeb/IS/IS802.asp

The following classes are optional, but recommended:

IS-240 (Leadership & Influence) http://training.fema.gov/EMIWeb/IS/is240.asp
IS-241 (Decision Making & Problem Solving) http://training.fema.gov/EMIWeb/IS/is241.asp
IS-244 (Developing and Managing Volunteers) http://training.fema.gov/EMIweb/IS/is244.asp
IS-120.a (An Introduction to Exercises) http://training.fema.gov/EMIWeb/IS/IS120A.asp
IS-139 (Exercise Design) http://training.fema.gov/EMIWeb/IS/is139.asp
IS-130 (Exercise Evaluation and Improvement Planning) http://training.fema.gov/EMIWeb/IS/IS130.asp
IS-250 (Emergency Support Function 15, External Affairs)http://training.fema.gov/EMIWeb/IS/IS250.asp  (ARRL required for ARES senior managers)
ICS-300 is an optional, but recommended, in-person class for leadership.

More free online training:

The complete FEMA Independent Study Course List  can be found athttp://training.fema.gov/IS/crslist.asp   

Texas Engineering Extension Service (Texas A&M Univ) offers the following free courses online:

Awareness Level Courses

Continuing Education Topics



Here are the proposed changes:

Proposed Rules

Part 97 of Chapter 1 of Title 47 of the Code of Federal Regulations is amended as follows:
The authority citation for part 97 continues to read as follows:

AUTHORITY: 48 Stat. 1066, 1082, as amended; 47 U.S.C. 154, 303. Interpret or apply 48 Stat.
1064-1068, 1081-1105, as amended; 47 U.S.C. 151-155, 301-609, unless otherwise noted.

1. Section 97.113 is amended by revising paragraph (a)(3), adding new paragraphs (a)(3)(i) and (a)(3)(ii), redesignating paragraphs (c) and (d) as new paragraphs (a)(3)(iii) and (a)(3)(iv) respectively, and redesignating paragraphs (e) and (f) as (c) and (d) respectively, to read as follows:

§ 97.113 Prohibited transmissions.

(a) ***

(3) Communications in which the station licensee or control operator has a pecuniary interest, including communications on behalf of an employer, with the following exceptions:

(i) A control station operator may participate on behalf of an employer in a government-sponsored emergency preparedness or disaster readiness test or drill, limited to the duration and scope of such test or drill, and operational testing immediately prior to such test or drill.

(ii) An amateur operator may notify other amateur operators of the availability for sale or trade of apparatus normally used in an amateur station, provided that such activity is not conducted on a regular basis.

* * * * *

The FCC Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (10-72) also includes a mention of the petition filed by Tom Blackwell, N5GAR; Gordon West, WB6NOA; and myself, as follows:

We are also in receipt of a related Petition for Rulemaking submitted by the Amateur Radio Policy Committee (ARPC). See Petition for Rule Making, WP Docket No. 09-XX (filed Oct. 15, 2009) (seeking to amend the rules to permit amateur transmissions “necessary for disaster relief or emergency response, including training exercises, planning, drills or tests, without regard to whether the amateur operator has related employment, where the transmissions are for the exclusive use of amateur radio operators for noncommercial purposes.”). We have incorporated the ARPC Petition into the docket of this proceeding.

I want to talk to Tom and Gordo and will post further comments on Thursday.

http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DA-10-365A1.txt

DA 10-365
Released:  March 3, 2010
WIRELESS TELECOMMUNICATIONS BUREAU AND PUBLIC SAFETY AND HOMELAND
SECURITY BUREAU SEEK COMMENT ON REQUEST BY AMERICAN HOSPITAL
ASSOCIATION FOR BLANKET WAIVER TO PERMIT HOSPITALS TO USE AMATEUR
RADIO AS PART OF EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS DRILLS
WP Docket No. 10-54
Comment Date:   April 2, 2010 Reply Date:  April 19, 2010

73,
Benn KC5CW

Here’s their release:

Imagine, Depict and Share With the Powerful Mapping, Simulation and Collaboration Tools in Depiction 1.2 Evacuating during disasters. Planning for urban growth. Ensuring the security of your neighborhood. Our communities face challenges like these every day—and a new software tool can help overcome them. Depiction, Inc. announced today the release of Depiction 1.2: desktop mapping, simulation and collaboration software that anyone can use—and afford. Everett, WA (PRWEB) February 23, 2010 — Evacuating during disasters. Planning for urban growth. Ensuring the security of your neighborhood. Our communities face challenges like these every day—and a new software tool can help overcome them. Depiction, Inc. announced today the release of Depiction 1.2—desktop mapping, simulation and collaboration software that anyone can use—and afford. Depiction enables users to imagine, depict and share interactive geospatial scenarios like these and many others. Depiction 1.2 enables users to imagine, depict and share interactive geospatial scenarios.  With Depiction, you can create and interact with your own ‘what if’ scenarios, in minutes, creating a living map unlike anything you’ve seen before.  “People know and care about their community, but have previously lacked the tools to visually explore and share the insights, dreams and fears that affect it,” said Depiction, Inc. founder and president Mike Geertsen. “With Depiction, you can create and interact with your own ‘what if’ scenarios, in minutes, creating a living map unlike anything you’ve seen before.” Depiction 1.2 is a web-enabled desktop program that incorporates technology from the mapping, simulation and collaboration industries to create a visual story—or depiction—about a real or potential scenario. These capabilities have previously been reserved for highly trained systems engineers, analysts and programmers using complex, expensive, enterprise-level installations. From Agencies to Individuals Depiction is being used by city and county emergency managers, fire and police departments, health districts, homeland security, universities, businesses and others for a wide range of planning and operational activities. And because it is both affordable and easy to use, Depiction is also used by individual volunteers, from groups like the Red Cross, Community Emergency Response Teams (CERT), Amateur Radio Emergency Services (ARES) and more. Both agencies and individuals have used it to coordinate responses during Hurricanes Gustav and Ike in the Gulf Coast, wildfires in California, the recent winter storms in the Northeast, and other events across the country. Other industries, such as logistics planning, real estate portfolio development and hazardous material handling, are also seeing the value of using affordable, easy to operate software to imagine, depict and share dynamic views of their community. Imagine What if the river rose by five feet? By ten? How would key employees make it to work if an earthquake destroyed all the bridges in town? Depiction is “the easiest way for non-programmers to use the power of geographical simulation models,” according to Dr. Timothy Hare, Professor of Anthropology in the Institute for Regional Analysis and Public Policy at Morehead State University. The software’s simulation tools are immediately accessible to educators, consultants, preparedness professionals and even everyday citizens. As users move elements around the map, floods disable buildings, barriers block planned routes—they can even create custom elements and interactions, such as a blackout that shuts down critical facilities. Depict Volunteer groups can map their neighborhoods, companies plot their office locations, politicians keep track of voting patterns and more with Depiction’s easy to use mapping technology. Users can combine their own data files with publicly available resources and even data created by advanced Geographic Information Systems (GIS), including ESRI shapefiles, Geographic Markup Language (GML), elevation data models, and more. Even spreadsheets, database files, scanned paper maps or GPS-generated waypoints and tracks can be easily dropped into a depiction file. Depiction automatically populates your scenario with publicly available maps, data and imagery from sources such as NASA, USGS and NOAA. It also brings in crowdsourced maps and data from OpenStreetMap, touted for its immediacy, accuracy and usefulness during the relief efforts after the recent earthquake in Haiti. All this data is saved into a local depiction file, meaning it is available for exploration and simulation even when the Internet is unavailable—on an airplane, or during an emergency. Share Depiction’s innovative “Live Reports” feature enables individuals and organizations to create visual collaboration networks in minutes, without needing a central server. Emergency managers, security teams, event planners and others can maintain a common operating picture during exercises, events, disasters and more, and can share situational awareness with people in the field, in an operations center—or anywhere in the world. The program’s export features also enable users to share their data as images or spreadsheets with individuals who do not use Depiction, or with other GIS systems in the form of GML files. Mike O’Day, Seattle Red Cross Government Liason, praises Depiction’s power in “obtaining a visual representation of the common operating picture.” Current customers in other fields are making good use of the product’s powerful features. “Depiction will quickly become the most effective tool for any planner to integrate planning data and real property information,” says Michael J. Dinn, CRE, of Dinn Focused Marketing. Available Now See Depiction 1.2 in action during a live webinar this Thursday, February 25 at 1 PM EST/10 AM PST, hosted by president and founder Mike Geertsen, and Depiction Customer Engagement Director Kim Buike, a retired Navy Captain and Red Cross chapter board member. Version 1.2 is available immediately. Current Depiction users can upgrade to the latest version at no cost. Depiction 1.2 can be purchased risk-free and downloaded for just $199 at www.depiction.com, and requires no subscription or maintenance agreement. Volume discounts and discounts for volunteers are available. ###

(Download a copy of the petition here. .DOC format).

These groups, and a few others, could run afoul of the “pecuniary interest” prohibition while doing things like operating from the International Space Station, writing a product review, or participating in a contest.

Here is CQ’s proposed wording:

Proposed Rule Changes

18. Therefore, for the reasons cited above, petitioner proposes the following changes to §97.113 (Proposed additions in italics; proposed deletions are shown with a strikethrough):

1. Amend subsection (a), paragraph (3), as follows:

§97.113 Prohibited transmissions.

(a) No amateur station shall transmit:

(3) Communications in which the station licensee or control operator has a pecuniary interest, including communications on behalf of an employer, except as otherwise provided in these rules. Amateur operators may, however, notify other amateur operators of the availability for sale or trade of apparatus normally used in an amateur station, provided that such activity is not conducted on a regular basis;

2. Add a new subsection(e), as follows:

(e) Communications on behalf of an employer may be transmitted on an occasional basis, provided that:

(1) Such communications are incidental to the employee’s normal job responsibilities and are conducted voluntarily;

(2) Such communications are conducted during an employee’s personal time, including but not limited to lunch hours, days off and other non-compensated time periods, and

(3) The primary beneficiaries of such communications are other amateurs and/or members of the general public, and not the employer.

(4) Nothing in these rules shall be construed to limit the recreational use of an amateur station on an employer’s premises by a duly licensed employee, as authorized by the station licensee.

3. Redesignate existing subsection (e) as (f) make the following changes:

(f) No station shall retransmit programs or signals emanating from any type of radio station other than an amateur station, except propagation and weather forecast information intended for use by the general public and originated from United States Government stations and communications, including incidental music, originating on United States Government frequencies between a manned space vehicle shuttle and its associated Earth stations. Prior approval for manned space vehicle shuttle retransmissions must be obtained from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Such retransmissions must be for the exclusive use of amateur operators. Propagation, weather forecasts, and manned space vehicle shuttle retransmissions may not be conducted on a regular basis, but only occasionally, as an incident of normal amateur radio communications.

4. Redesignate existing subsection (f) as (g).

In a more-reasoned era, this wording was not necessary and good sense prevailed. With the FCC on the warpath, this petition now seems necessary.

I am supportive of this petition, but don’t like one paragraph, specifically the one that requires employees to communicate “on their own time.”

I don’t see how to make this work in the real world, especially with public safety employees. Are workers really expected to submit special time sheets to make sure they are not paid while on-the-air? And what about people who multitask, are they supposed to add up their total airtime and have it deducted from their wages?

I understand what CQ hoped to accomplish with the paragraph. We considered and quickly rejected similiar wording for our petition, based on the reasoning I’ve outlined.

When the FCC finally assigns a Rule Making number and comment periods on this issue, I will comment in favor of the CQ proposal.

My radio is now down at Yaesu in Orange County and is having the fix applied. This problem (described in the video posted below) appears to effect all FTM-350R’s now available.

Not being fixed—because it cannot be reliably reproduced—is the problem of the radio hanging, apparently while receiving an APRS packet. I have had this happen on five occasions, so it’s not a showstopper. But, the only way to restart the radio is to remove power from the base unit, which can be inconvenient and shouldn’t be necessary, in any case.

I have had other reports of this problem, but am aware of no specific cause or cure. Seems to be a software issue.

Finally, the Bluetooth VOX on my FTM-350R is useless, which makes Bluetooth hands-free impossible. I am not sure how common this problem is. I sent my Yaesu Bluetooth headset in with the radio for testing.

It is a shame that a radio that in many ways is such a breakthrough was not better tested (and fixed) before release.

Free New Generation USGS Digital US Topo Maps Available

Upgraded (from beta map) content and improved contours and hydrography features, and technical functions such as data layers, are now all rolled into one with the new digital US Topo Maps based on the USGS National Map. Other advantages to using the digital maps are the ability to turn data layers off and on, zoom in, printed to scale or used on-screen, compatibility with Google Maps, and choice of reference systems. Plus, the maps are free.

http://nationalmap.gov/ustopo/

Do you suppose this radio was actually tested before it was released? How difficult is it drive around and see if the navigation function points in the right direction?

It appears the radio cannot be changed with a firmware upgrade, so I am expecting they may all need to go back to the factory. As I remember, there was also a recall of VX-8’s when they were released.