This was posted by Jeff Reinhardt, AA6JR, on the ARRLSBCLUBS listserver.
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ARRLSBCLUBS - Helping Your Club Grow and Prosper.
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The Amateur Radio Spectrum Protection Act is an effort to protect our
frequencies from encroachment. Each club should consider adding a brief
segment to its next meeting, emphasizing the importance of this effort.
Ask your members to bring a QSL Card and a stamp. If they do nothing
more than write "Please support HR-713" on the QSL and address it to
their congressional rep, (club to provide address at meeting), it will
go a long way toward achieving the goal of the legislation.
DO NOT SEND E-MAIL. As a lobbying tool, it does not have the value of
actual mail.
Each club newsletter editor should consider publishing the following
release:
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Help Protect Our Frequencies!
The Amateur Radio Spectrum Protection Act of 2003 has been
introduced in the US House of Representatives. The measure is an
ARRL legislative initiative. Florida Rep Michael Bilirakis filed the
latest version of the bill, HR 713, on February 12. It has been
referred to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce.
HR 713 is aimed at ensuring the availability of spectrum to Amateur
Radio operators. It would protect existing Amateur Radio spectrum
against reallocations to or sharing with other services unless the
FCC provides ''equivalent replacement spectrum'' elsewhere.
The previous version of the Spectrum Protection Act attracted more
than 50 cosponsors. An effort will be made to encourage additional
House members to sign onto HR 713 as cosponsors. Additional details
are on the ARRL Web site.
You can locate your Congressional Representative at www.house.gov
Send a QSL card or letter that identifies you as a ham and that you
support HR 713.
I just ran across this description of the case (circa 1996) and this
corresponds to what a judge said about it a couple of years ago when I
was on a jury trial.
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The following courtesy of the Consumers Attorneys of California:
There is a lot of hype about the McDonald's scalding coffee case. No one
is in favor of frivolous cases or outlandish results; however, it is
important to understand some points that were not reported in most of
the stories about the case. McDonald's coffee was not only hot, it was
scalding capable of almost instantaneous destruction of skin, flesh and
muscle. Here is the whole story.
Stella Liebeck of Albuquerque, New Mexico, was in the passenger seat of
her grandson's car when she was severely burned by McDonald's coffee in
February 1992. Liebeck, 79 at the time, ordered coffee that was served
in a styrofoam cup at the drivethrough window of a local McDonald's.
After receiving the order, the grandson pulled his car forward and
stopped momentarily so that Liebeck could add cream and sugar to her
coffee. (Critics of civil justice, who have pounced on this case, often
charge that Liebeck was driving the car or that the vehicle was in
motion when she spilled the coffee; neither is true.) Liebeck placed the
cup between her knees and attempted to remove the plastic lid from the
cup. As she removed the lid, the entire contents of the cup spilled into
her lap.
The sweatpants Liebeck was wearing absorbed the coffee and held it next
to her skin. A vascular surgeon determined that Liebeck suffered full
thickness burns (or third degree burns) over 6 percent of her body,
including her inner thighs, perineum, buttocks, and genital and groin
areas. She was hospitalized for eight days, during which time she
underwent skin grafting. Liebeck, who also underwent debridement
treatments, sought to settle her claim for $20,000, but McDonald's
refused.
During discovery, McDonald's produced documents showing more than 700
claims by people burned by its coffee between 1982 and 1992. Some claims
involved third degree burns substantially similar to Liebecks. This
history documented McDonald's knowledge about the extent and nature of
this hazard.
McDonald's also said during discovery that, based on a consultants
advice, it held its coffee at between 180 and 190 degrees fahrenheit to
maintain optimum taste. He admitted that he had not evaluated the safety
ramifications at this temperature. Other establishments sell coffee at
substantially lower temperatures, and coffee served at home is generally
135 to 140 degrees.
Further, McDonald's quality assurance manager testified that the company
actively enforces a requirement that coffee be held in the pot at 185
degrees, plus or minus five degrees. He also testified that a burn
hazard exists with any food substance served at 140 degrees or above,
and that McDonald's coffee, at the temperature at which it was poured
into styrofoam cups, was not fit for consumption because it would burn
the mouth and throat. The quality assurance manager admitted that burns
would occur, but testified that McDonald's had no intention of reducing
the "holding temperature" of its coffee.
Plaintiff's expert, a scholar in thermodynamics applied to human skin
burns, testified that liquids, at 180 degrees, will cause a full
thickness burn to human skin in two to seven seconds. Other testimony
showed that as the temperature decreases toward 155 degrees, the extent
of the burn relative to that temperature decreases exponentially. Thus,
if Liebeck's spill had involved coffee at 155 degrees, the liquid would
have cooled and given her time to avoid a serious burn.
McDonald's asserted that customers buy coffee on their way to work or
home, intending to consume it there. However, the company's own research
showed that customers intend to consume the coffee immediately while
driving.
McDonald's also argued that consumers know coffee is hot and that its
customers want it that way. The company admitted its customers were
unaware that they could suffer third degree burns from the coffee and
that a statement on the side of the cup was not a "warning" but a
"reminder" since the location of the writing would not warn customers of
the hazard.
The jury awarded Liebeck $200,000 in compensatory damages. This amount
was reduced to $160,000 because the jury found Liebeck 20 percent at
fault in the spill. The jury also awarded Liebeck $2.7 million in
punitive damages, which equals about two days of McDonald's coffee
sales.
Postverdict investigation found that the temperature of coffee at the
local Albuquerque McDonald's had dropped to 158 degrees fahrenheit.
The trial court subsequently reduced the punitive award to $480,000 or
three times compensatory damages even though the judge called McDonald's
conduct reckless, callous and willful. Subsequent to remittitur, the
parties entered a postverdict settlement.
Hello Everyone:
Have been seeing many user group complaints about the person or persons
listed below.......wondered if any body knows if they are real people and
what, if anything, exists at the given address..
Tnx & 73's
Bill W6WCW
=====================================================
Gabe Mariscal and Jeff Graham
1120 Laguna ST. #14
Santa Barbara, CA 93101
Phone: 805-560-3193
mojo-radio(a)cox.net
===================================================
Subject: Re: BEWARE Fraud Alert
From: "DeWayne" <A HREF="mailto:k9kz@indy.rr.com">k9kz(a)indy.rr.com</A>
Date: 2/6/03 8:58 AM Pacific Standard Time
Message-id: <Iuw0a.117401$i73.26254338(a)twister.neo.rr.com>
He has used the email address mojo-radio(a)cox.net .
> This person has used the names Gabe Mariscal and Jeff Graham.
>
> > Beware, myself and one other guy have been ripped off after advertising
a
> > want to trade. The address of the person is:
>
> > 1120 Laguna ST. #14
> > Santa Barbara CA
> > 93101
> >
> > Phone: 805-560-3193
> >
> > DeWayne K9KZ
===========================END====================
Subject: Beware of thief Gabe Mariscal
From: "RS" <A HREF="mailto:wizard2000@tiscali.co.uk">wizard2000(a)tiscali.co.uk
</A>
Date: 2/6/03 10:52 AM Pacific Standard Time
Message-id: <b1uapi$bho$1(a)newsg2.svr.pol.co.uk>
Do not do business at all with this thief, He tried to rip me off a while
ago, I am in the UK and work for the Police Force, I had him checked out
with the Santa Barbara PD, they are working on him.
==================================================
Subject: Re: Fraud Alert- Do Not Deal With Gabe Mariscal
From: "DeWayne" <A HREF="mailto:k9kz@indy.rr.com">k9kz(a)indy.rr.com</A>
Date: 2/6/03 7:01 AM Pacific Standard Time
Message-id: <mNu0a.116092$i73.26173087(a)twister.neo.rr.com>
Well Dan, you know what I told you about my SW2 being stolen, well this is
the guy : ) But he went under the name Jeff Graham and said he was blind.
DeWayne
"Dan Schopp" <dschopp(a)earthlink.net> wrote in message
news:548df96e.0302060126.1fb04415@posting.google.com...
> Do not trade or do business with this person:
>
> Gabe Mariscal
> 1120 Laguna St #14
> Santa Barbra CA 93101
>
> Here's why:
>
> In mid Januay I posted an add on rec.radio.swap and
> rec.radio.shortwave offering a Panansonic DR 49 and a Realistic
> Astronaut 8 for trade. Mr Mariscal contacted me by email and offered
> me a Sangean 818 and DX 398 for my radios. We agreed on the trade and
> both agreed we would ship the radios, to each other, UPS. I received
> several emails from him regarding the conditions of his radios and how
> he was looking forward to receiving my radios.
>
> Monday January 26th I shipped my radios to him via UPS. That evening I
> received an email from him stating he had been unable to ship the
> radios that day and a offer to pay for my shipping costs since he
> hadn't shipped on the day we agreed to ship. I declined his offer and
> in an email stated it was OK to ship the next day. The next day I
> received an email with a UPS tracking number that didn't work. I sent
> him another email and received another one back with another UPS
> tracking number that didn't work. The third email I received contained
> a tracking number that worked. The UPS web site showed a package was
> on it's way to me.
>
> On Monday February 3rd, I checkd the UPS web site and confirmed that
> Mr. Mariscal had signed for and received the radios I sent him.
> Tuesday, February 4th I received the package from him. In an nicely
> packaged box was a Boise radio stand and nothing else, no DX 398, no
> Sangean 818, as promised. Thinking that he had mistakenly sent me the
> wrong package I emailed him and told him what I had received. I also
> offered to return the Boise radio stand to him. No reply to my email.
>
> The next day, Wednesday, Feburay 5th, I emailed him again. Again no
> reply.Since the package I received from him had his address and phone
> number on it I called the number last evening. A man answered and I
> asked to speak to Gabe. A hesitation, and the the reply, "you have the
> wrong number." When I dialed the number again no answer.
>
> After the phone call I again emailed him. This morning, I find that my
> last email to him has been returned, and the email address he gave me
> has been cancelled.
>
> I've been trading radios for several years and this is my first bad
> experience.I know you take your chances in this type of situation but
> it's a shame that dishonest people like can get away with something
> like this with litle or no chance of being held accountable. I believe
> my legal recourse is limited but I do plan on calling the Santa
> Barbara PD to determine if there is anthing, legally, I can do.
>
> Dan
==========================END===================
Lake Los Carneros Park in Goleta, CA will be the site of southern
California's next international-style on-foot foxhunt on Saturday,
February
8. A ham radio license and knowledge of radio equipment is not
required.
All ages are welcome, but small children should be accompanied by an
adult on
the course.
This event is being hosted by Scott Moore KF6IKO, assisted by Marvin
Johnston
KE6HTS. There will be five fox transmitters on 146.565 MHz FM with
international-rules timing, plus one or more two-meter transmitters for
beginners. An optional 80-meter transmitter may also be hidden.
Gathering time is 12 noon with a two-meter test transmitter on the air.
The
main 5-fox hunt starts at 12:30 PM. Color orienteering maps of the area
will
be available.
Bring any 2-meter and 80-meter RDF "sniffing" gear you have. If you
don't
have any, just bring your handi-talkie or scanner. If you don't have
that,
come anyway. A limited number of RDF sets will be available for loan.
Also
be sure to bring anything you'll need while going after those radio
foxes,
such as munchies, bottled water and sunscreen. Bring your own compass,
protractor and pencil if you plan to use them for map marking. Make
sure
that all batteries are fresh.
Starting point is the Stow House Parking Lot just off of Los Carneros
Road.
What is a good rig for a dual or triband base station to put on my
desk at home so I can keep in touch with family from the back country?
Paul Cronshaw DC
KF6TRT
Hi Folks -
It is that time of the month again! Tomorrow Feb 3rd is the deadline
for articles, information, reports, etc for the February Key-Klix.
Anyone have pictures from the January General meeting? Please send me
some - maybe it will make the February cover!
Thanks for your help.
73 de Denny AD6EZ<><
