Members and BoD Recognize “Shackmaster”
By Levi K6LCM | April 25, 2015 - 7:00 pm | Club News, Featured
The award presented to K6HWN on April 25 recognizes him as “The Voice of K6TZ.”
At 10:00 AM on Saturday, April 25 2015, a group of SBARC members, including the club president and BoD members, gathered at the American Red Cross building at State and Alamar in Santa Barbara to present an official citation in recognition of the tremendous efforts put forth by Dave – K6HWN in his role as the official “Shackmaster” at the K6TZ Club Station and the coordinator of many of the SBARC on-air nets.
First licensed years ago, Dave returned to the hobby in the mid-2000s when he began operating on 2-meters from his boat in Santa Barbara Harbor. He quickly made friends on the K6TZ repeater and found a second home on the air with Santa Barbara-area hams. Shortly thereafter, Dave committed to opening access to the nearly forgotten SBARC Club Station in the Red Cross basement by creating open station hours where he could host members and guests and train them on the operation of the station’s many HF, VHF and UHF radios. It is through this mentoring that many new hams have gotten on the air for the first time. Quite a few seasoned hams have returned to the hobby and the club also as a result of the Shackmaster’s efforts to provide a nexus for activity around the K6TZ repeaters and Club Station.
Over the years, Dave has also taken on the duties of recruiting net control operators for many of the club-sponsored nets and hosts the “Technical Mentoring and Elmering Net” himself on Thursday evenings. Even casual listeners to the K6TZ 146.79 repeater will certainly recognize Dave's voice from “K6HWN Announcements” his trademark periodic bulletin, which he reads throughout the day on the repeater and collects for posting on the club Web site and at k6hwn.org.
The plaque, presented by SBARC board member Brian – K6BPM reads:
With sincere appreciation to Dave – K6HWN “SHACKMASTER” for your years of dedication, mentorship, friendliness and being “The Voice of K6TZ” Presented in 2015 by the Board of Directors and the members of the Santa Barbara Amateur Radio Club.
“Its really hard to believe this,” said Dave upon receiving the award. “Many individuals have expressed (their appreciation) to me but never as a group; this is a ‘wow!'”
An audio recording of the presentation can be heard online at this link:
http://www.sbarc.org/2015/04/25/members-and-bod-recognize-shackmaster/
Tiger Teams and the FCC Enforcement Bureau
Apr 15, 2015
The FCC has announced plans to reduce the staff
of its Enforcement Bureau. Given the explosion in
the use of wireless devices across all
marketsthereby increasing the potential for
interferencewouldn't it make more sense to
expand the Enforcement Bureau's capabilities
instead of trying to consolidate them?
By Mark E. Crosby, President and CEO,
<http://urgentcomm.com/organizations/ewa?intlink=autlink>EWA
We remain dumbfounded that the
<http://urgentcomm.com/organizations/fcc?intlink=autlink>FCC
leadership continues to extol the virtues of its
plans to significantly shrink the Enforcement
Bureau, reducing the number of its employees by
perhaps as much as 60%, and the number of its
field offices by nearly 50%. Apparently saved
from the chopping block will be New York City,
Atlanta, Miami, Los Angeles, San Francisco,
Chicago, Dallas, and Columbia, Md., bureau
offices. Not so lucky may be the offices in
Seattle, Denver, Boston, Philadelphia, and Houston.
According to one Commission official,
Interference resolution is and will remain the
fields top priority, our methods and
organization need to evolve with changes in the
industry such as spectrum sharing, improvements
in remote detection, and self-regulation. The
proposals under consideration would adequately
equip the field to meet the enforcement needs of the commission.
Emerging plans call for concentrating staff in
Washington, D.C., and even the formation of
mobile Tiger Teams that will be launched from
Columbia, Maryland on a moments notice to
address critical enforcement matters around the
country. We have also heard that there will be no
reduction in enforcement effectiveness, as
Enforcement Bureau personnel will be better
trained, investments will be made in improved
technology, and the travel budget will be increased.
I would like to believe these commitments and
promises of better wireless days ahead resulting
from these reorganization plans, but I am having
difficulty drinking the Kool Aid. The Enforcement
Bureau is full of very dedicated government
employees, although one might assume that those
fortunate enough to still have a job might be
concerned about their future prospects. It also
remains to be seen whether the Bureau is keeping
its already well-trained staff or planning to
train its less experienced personnel.
The Bureaus critical role has been underfunded
and underappreciated for decades. Not that long
ago, its field staff too often had to say we
cant go investigate this interference matter, as
we do not have the budget to put gas in our
vehicles. Yet now the Commission is going to
invest in new interference-mitigation technology,
remote-monitoring capabilities, agent training,
airline tickets, and rental cars for the Tiger Teams?
By the way, expect the Tiger Teams to come home
to Columbia only a few days each year as they
will remain in perpetual motion out in Americas
wireless world chasing down unlicensed operators,
purposeful interference to mission-critical
communication, pirate broadcasters, unbalanced
folks who have fun interfering with aeronautical
functions, citizens-band users who like to add
amplifiers to their systems, and those nasty
enough to impede ubiquitous access to the
internet, thus prohibiting the opportunity of all
citizens to download past episodes of the Game of Thrones.
The Bureau has its idiosyncrasies, such as
differences in effort from one office to another
and forfeitures that increasingly appear to be
based on the operators apparent ability to pay
rather than on the severity of the crime, but we
can work with these issues. At a time when the
number of devices is exploding across all
wireless markets, at a time when the economy is
growing ever so more dependent on private
wireless systems and national broadband networks,
and at a time when new sources of shared spectrum
will be forthcoming from the federal government,
the Enforcement Bureau has never been needed so
much. One hopes that the FCC leadership will
revisit these plans to consolidate the
Enforcement Bureau, and choose instead to broaden
its presence and reach with a meaningful
expansion of resources in staff and equipment.
Tiger Teams are a good solution best deployed in the armed forces.
In preparation for our move out of State I have listed my U.S. Tower 55 foot tower for sale on eBay, it can be found here: http://www.ebay.com/itm/U-S-Tower-TX455-55-telescoping-tower-with-motor-dri…
In the near future I will be holding a come and get it, it's free to a good home of a lot of the radios and other electronics I have accumulated over the years, stand by for details.
Andy W6AMS
