Bob, KG7D, writes:
> Precedence has already been established in King County Superior
>Court for his neighbor to file a nuisance and harassment suit and get an
>injunction to get him off the air regardless of what the FCC bill of health
>is. KT7G spent $20,000 on a simple TVI case. Finding it was better to move
>to the country. (now in MI)
If the basis for the nuisance lawsuit was TVI alone (and not some
complex of factors, of which TVI was but a part), a precedent
established in a state court would not, in the final analysis, be
controlling.
There is federal precedent, involving federal preemption of
state law under the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution, that
is directly relevant to cases of this kind. Federal law will
supersede state law in a pure TVI case. Many lawyers who are
unaccustomed to practice in the federal courts in the area
of administrative-agency law and the related constitutional issues
may attempt to try this type of case on state-law prinicipals. That
is often a losing strategy.
If you have a problem in this area, call John Hennessee of the
Regulatory Information Branch of the ARRL, tel. (203)666-1541,
for a package of useful information on this subject. You should
show the package to any local lawyer you might consult on such
issues. A single, properly worded letter (to the city or county
attorney, as the case may be) that analyzes the issue from the
standpoint of established, superseding federal law might save
you the futility and expense of ill-conceived litigation.
--
73 de Bob, K0KR
>From Norton, Richard" <nortonr@MRD.SRL.dsto.gov.au Sat Sep 10 01:35:00 1994
From: Norton, Richard" <nortonr@MRD.SRL.dsto.gov.au (Norton, Richard)
Subject: UA9BA's Responses About UA On-Site Contest
Message-ID: <2E70FFAF@msmail.dsto.gov.au>
I received a direct response from Willy, UA9BA (ex UW9AR), to my request for
UA on-site contest information as well a response to some follow up
questions. I found them interesting and pass them along to the reflector.
The responses are in parentheses.
_______________________________________________________________
Can anyone please provide information on the on-site contests held
periodically by the UAs?
Good things to cover:
1) How many on-site stations participate? (about 12, one per former republic
and one from the host organization) How are they chosen? Are they nominated
by a local radio club? (Chosen by national organizations) Are they in
some way seeded or nationally
ranked so that the top so many are allowed to participate? Are there some
teams that would like to participate but are not allowed to? How many people
on a team? (5, 2 operators, 2 set-up assistants, 1 judge for the judging
pool)
2) Are they in tents or buildings or what? (Tents in a field)
3) Do they provide the tents themselves? (Yes)
4) Do they set the tents and stations up by themselves? (Yes) Are
there team
members who set up but do not operate? ( All 5 set up)
5) Do they bring their own equipment? (Yes)
6) What is the allowable equipment? ( There are 2 independent stations per
team. They are 2 single-op entries. Their scores are combined in some way to
produce a team score. There is also a single-op winner. They set up in two
separate tents. There is sometimes some tradeoff between trying to be the
individual winner and having your team be the winner) to Is their a power
limit? (Yes, each transceiver/amplifier is limited to 200 watts output)
Is there a limit
to the number of simultaneous stations? Is there a limit to the number of
simultaneous receivers?
7) What kind of antennas are allowed? ( Two bands, 40 and 20. no limits
on antennas) Do the participants set them up themselves? (The 2 team
stations and antennas must be within a 75 meter diameter circle. The
distance between the circles is 200 meters)
8) How long is the contest? ( Varies from year to year, last one he
recalls was 10 hours during the LZDXC) What time of day in local time
does it start and
end? Are the teams allowed to set up ahead of time? Is setting up time part
of operating time? (Stations have 24 hours to install antennas and set up)
9) Are schedules allowed? ( Unspecified) Are private contacts with
friends discouraged? (Yes)
10) Are logs scrutinized very carefully? ( Yes) Are the operators
watched by
judges? (Yes) Do they tape record the contest? (Yes) How long
after the contest are the
results ready? (Last time it was 4 hours) Do they exchange claimed
scores before the final results are announced? (Yes)
11) How close in distance are the stations to each other? (200 meters) Do
they cause bad
interference to each other? ( Yes) Are some of the locations better than
the
others? Why? If one entrant has a particularly bad signal that interferes
badly with others, is anything done to make him correct it? (Yes, bad
signals are made to QRT)
12) Is there a detailed set of rules that applies to the event to cover
every situation, or very few rules - like US contests have?
13) For the most part, is there general agreement that the winner has indeed
beat the competition and deserved to win? Does the same team generally win
year after year? Is it a close contest? (Yes)
14) Are the callsigns distinctive so that UAs try to work the on-site
stations? or just calls that look like any other call? (Yes the callsigns
are distinctive)
15) Do the stations work much DX? or with all the local QRM, do they really
only work other UA stations.
(The one he was in was a domestic contest)
16) Do they run using mains power, or do they use generators? If they use
generators, do they bring them themselves?
(Each team has its own power supply, either a generator, or two in their
case to reduce mutual QRM, or 12 volt batteries! They have to bring
everything themselves.)
17) Does the judge that is part of a team judge the team he came with, or
judge one of the other teams?
(The judges are swapped between the participating stations. Your judge does
not judge your team.)
Is the judge at the site usually considered friendly, hostile, or just fair?
(Fair, but humans are involved, therefore a tape is a must.)
18) Is the score the sum of what the 2 operators make? or are they competing
against each other also? In other words, would the winner be one of the
stations? - or the team?
( Covered earlier, a combination)
18.5) If they are combined, is it sum of the scores or some combination
like (QSOs1+QSOs2) x (MULTS1+MULTS2).
I would guess that the sum of the scores is used, or some combination.
Otherwise there could be much fighting between the members of a team to see
who gets the best band.
(Conflicts arise)
Do you and your teammate have some sort of plan for optimally sharing the
bands? Like- each gets 1 hour and then change bands. Do you change this plan
based on what is happening? Like- There is a VU4, and a 9K2, and a JT1 on 40
now. Lets change bands so you can get these multipliers?
Do you pass multipliers to each other as you switch bands? Like passing a
sheet of paper with calls and frequencies?
19) Are you both in 1 tent or in 2 tents to reduce interference.
(In 2 tents to reduce interference)
20) Did the participants pay the train or plane fares or car expenses to go
themselves or were they sponsored by the local republic's radio society?
(pre-Perestroika, all fares were paid by the DOSAAF. Now, some of expenses
are paid by the government and some by the participants)
21) Is the contest on CW only or both SSB and CW?
(Only CW)
My comments follow:
They certainly can't be called fair weather contesters.
Obviously, different on-site groups have successfully used different ideas.
I found what W7NI and N2AA added, to be very interesting also.
73,
Dick N6AA
NortonR@MRD.SRL.DSTO.GOV.AU
>From Wirzenius Jari <HATJWI@HATMAIL.HATFI1.msgw.kone.com> Fri Sep 9 22:06:00
>1994
From: Wirzenius Jari <HATJWI@HATMAIL.HATFI1.msgw.kone.com> (Wirzenius Jari)
Subject: TVI problem
Message-ID: <2E70CE50@msgw.kone.com>
Rob VE4GV wrote:
>... have a very ominous side-effect. If you are in EU, all new products
imported into >EU must be able to withstand 3v/m. If your neighbor has a
problem with you
>getting into one of these devices, I am told that you are AUTOMATICALLY at
>fault since these devices are assumed to be resistant at that level.
I am not yet in EU and not running a big contest station but a modest
DX/contest station. Used to live in a city center having lots of neighbors
complaining of TVI.
I could solve all problems with filters installed outside the neighbors
electronic equipment TV, stereos, telephones etc. I was running a A3 and
variety of wire antennas with a 1 kW transmit power.
We are obliged to co-operate with neighbors when there exist a TVI problem.
This comes from the rules for operating hamradio. The government may force
you to use less power in difficult cases, but usually the problems can be
solved.
The EU laws will come in force 1996 January 1st. There is a so called
EMC-directive (electromagnetic compatibility). This directive specifies: "
the equipment must be able to work as intended in its environment where it
has been designed to be used. It shall not either radiate more than allowed
in that environment". Then there has been prepared a set of standards for
different environments like industrial and the other is domestic, office and
light industry environment.
The domestic standard specifies that the minimum requirement for domestic
electronic devices on the immunity against radiated electromagnetic field to
be 3 V/m. If in some cases these equipment fail to operate - these cases
will studied individually. If the field strength in this case is over 3 V/m
when the unit fails then the source of the field must be found. It is not
straight forward that you as a ham (source) will be punished. In case the
disturbance happens below 3 V/m level - the equipment importer or
manufacturer must send a similar unit into a third party test house where
the immunity of that electronic device is verified. If that test fails the
manufacturer must make the unit to withstand the level of 3 V/m. In this
case the 3 V/m meters means the field strength around the unit. not outside
the building or at the property lines.
If the field strength is over 3 V/m at the equipment location which is
disturbed, when you transmit, it is up to the government in question to
decide, if they require you to do anything or do they ask you to work out
the problem with your neighbor. I see it as a benefit for hams that it has
been finally realised that the TV-sets and radios are vulnerable and its not
always ham radio operators fault that the equipment fail.
The requirement of radiated field immunity isd not only requirement. There
are requirements on electrostatic discharge, transient immunity (fast and
slow transients, thse low transient simulate lightning strikes or akind) and
also in some cases magnetic fields. There will also be immunity requirements
for commercially available ham equipment. Also there will be requirements of
radiation for each type of electronic devices.
If you have any other question on this EU EMC politics, I will try to answer
you.
73's Jari, OH2BVE
jari.wirzenius@hat-fi.kone.com
>From Eugene Walsh <0004504465@mcimail.com> Fri Sep 9 13:00:00 1994
From: Eugene Walsh <0004504465@mcimail.com> (Eugene Walsh)
Subject: More UA onsite observation
Message-ID: <45940909120054/0004504465PK4EM@mcimail.com>
With regard to the UA onsite contests; I would
like to comment that these contests are a regular
part of UA etc. contest activity beyond anything
folks here can relate to. Recently, RV0AR (Paul)
and RZ9UA (Mike) drove across Russia (We are
talking 9000 miles round trip) to participate
in one of these events. There are no Interstate
highways like we take for granted, and they never
whined even once.
N2AA
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