Submitted by Bryan VE6HBD, from a Super 8 Motel in Sawyer, Michigan.
All hotels in Dayton, Ohio are being refitted with the ARRL Standard Part 90 s/s 2 Paragraph 4 shower stall, designed to fit the dimensions of the modern amateur radio operator. Complete with loading ramp for Hamabout scooter.
Reprinted from the ARRL without permission (http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2010/01/18/11293/)
Dominican Hams Attempt to Install Repeaters in Haiti
Eight members of the Radio Club Dominicano (RCD) — the Dominican Republic’s IARU Member-Society — and Union Dominicana de Radio Aficionados (UDRA) arrived in Haiti on Friday, January 15, to install an emergency radio communications station and a mobile station. Shortly after they arrived, the hams returned to the Dominican Republic for safety reasons.
team — using the call sign HI8RCD/HH — had to shut down their operations after their convoy was fired on. Germinal Garcia, EB9GF, who is integrated in the Spanish Red Cross contingent, was able to contact colleagues at the RCD. According to IARU Region 1 Emergency Communications Coordinator Greg Mossop, G0DUB, the RCD initially reported that their team crossed the Haitian border at 1550 UTC, time arriving at the Dominican Embassy in Haiti at 1929 UTC when they started installing and testing their equipment.
“Within a few hours though, reports via the RCD Facebook page — confirmed by a long telephone conversation between Hugo Ramón, HI8VRS, and Ramon Santoyo, XE1KK — reported that the HI8RCD team of eight amateurs were back in the [Dominican Republic] border town of Jimani,” Mossop said. “Their convoy, which included other non related Dominicans, was assaulted and one person is reported dead. The radio amateurs are uninjured, but they decided to leave the capital for safety [reasons] and return to the border unescorted. They report the situation as ‘extremely unsafe.'”
On Saturday afternoon at 2104 UTC, Rafael Martinez, HI8ROX, posted this to the RCD’s Facebook page: “I regret to inform you that the communications equipment is returning to Jimani due to the lack of security that there is in Haiti. The convoy was attacked as the team was leaving the embassy, with several wounded people confirmed. I do not know how many. For the moment, our equipment is safe, but I’m not sure.” Martinez is the RCD’s Web master.
On January 19, Martinez told the ARRL that two non-ham members of the team suffered “bad injuries,” but no one had been killed, as had been reported earlier: “The gentleman who was behind the RCD convoy was very severely wounded (not deceased), although the first news was that he had passed away. The gentleman only is very severely wounded along with another person.”
The team was able to install two VHF repeaters in the Dominican Republic linking that country’s capital — Santo Domingo — and Port-au-Prince, but only one is in operation: 146.880 (-600), CTCSS 100 Hz. Mossop said that these repeaters are being used by the Red Cross and Civil Defense “since there is no other way to communicate. The station at the embassy in Haiti could not be activated. To confirm, all members of the RCD team are safe and have returned to Jimani in the Dominican Republic.”
On the morning of Monday, January 18, Martinez wrote that “the equipment that was returned to Santo Domingo is all being sent to Jimani and then sporadically to Port-au-Prince.”
Details are sketchy, but it looks like Jayhaed Saade was back on the air for a brief time today.
Listeners to his internet stream reported on Digital Home that he was back on the air with a 30 watt transmitter and apparently tired to kill himself, forcing several listeners to call 911 and causing an on-the-air showdown with the police.
Audio of the drama this afternoon are forthcoming, and will be posted here as soon as possible.
Aside from certainly having the rotund body of an amateur radio license holder, the only tunes 14-year-old Jayhaed Saadé will be spinning will be on his daddy’s ipod.
After months of ignoring orders from Industry Canada to shut down his 2000 watt transmitter illegally broadcasting his MP3 collection on 91.9 FM, officers from the RCMP and IC raided his father’s Ottawa, Canada strip club on early on January 15th to confiscate the $80,000 worth of broadcasting equipment. After Jayhaed refused to disclose the location of his transmitter, the RCMP cut power to the hotel and technicians climbed his radio tower and clipped his transmission lines before dismantling and removing the antenna. Through statements on his website, he claimed to have obtained a ‘class b2 license’ for his radio station. Unfortunately, IC has not issued any license to him, nor does any ‘B2’ broadcasting license exist in Canada. His signal was interfering with local broadcasters and emergency radio transmissions (his EIRP is close to 3000 watts from his dipole antenna).
“Why has this broadcast gone on so long when we are so heavily regulated, and a 14-year-old kid can put a stick up on his dad’s building and broadcast?” said Al Smith, operations manager at a local radio station.
In another move remarkably similar to those of amateur radio operators, Jayhaed reportedly started to cry when technicians dismantled his equipment and surrendered it to the police.
According to reports at the Cornwall Free News,/, he is now broadcasting live at http://www.mixfmottawa.com/ – where the bleach-blonde fat kid is swearing and is spouting racist comments against ‘Canadians’ (I have no idea what nationality he is, possibly Lebanese). He also is claiming to have ordered a new transmitter twice as powerful as the one confiscated, and vows to go back on the air.
After his first two ignored cease-and-desist orders, he claimed to be in the process of applying a proper broadcasting license. Unfortunately, having your illegal transmitter raided and confiscated via court-ordered search warrant by federal police, as well as making Industry Canada a laughing stock in the Canadian broadcasting industry will most likely make all license applications end up in the circular filing cabinet.
In addition to facing hefty fines and possible jail time, the portly pirate also faces possible lawsuits regarding his on-air content. Dismissing the fact that his entire playlist consists of MP3s downloaded from the internet with no licensing to broadcast them, he also uses voiceovers and voice talent illegally obtained from voice talent agencies, who are considering taking Jayhaed to court. Jayhaed also rebroadcasts voicetracks, production elements and stings from various MIX-FM branded radio stations across North America and the Middle East. He also rebroadcasts radio programs from the BBC without permission.
The drama continues.
Hamsexy reader Rodney sent us this email in response to our posting earlier this day (see below) on the Radioactive Colt:
This ham whacker mobile belongs to one of the members of the Jupiter, FL ham club…notice this “ghetto glider” being touted in a parade, nice. Nothing like this to represent ham radio. I am sure young women get wet at the mere sight. Not to mention their “mascot” on page 1 (last image) with the fabulous middle school sign must be a hit with the cheerleaders from the middle school…NOT. What whackers…
http://www.jtrg.org/Photoalbum/Events/Parades/Parade%202009/index.html
Some times I think that introducing Ham Radio to your children should be considered a form of child abuse.
We’ve gotten a metric assload of emails from people urging us to do a write-up on the ‘Radioactive’ Dodge Colt crammed full of radios that was featured on Jalopnik last month. Here’s the sample:
We would, but we featured it on this very site back in April of last year.
We’ve been on Twitter for a while, but I thought since we never update the site hardly ever, I’d advertise it here.
It is, predictably, @hamsexy
Might as well follow us there, it’s a pretty foregone conclusion we are either too busy or don’t care enough to post shit here.
Dallas hamsexual Victor Xray posted this gem of a tragedy to the forums earlier today:
911 Calls Released After Family Electrocuted
“Melville Braham, 55, his wife Anna, 49, and their 15-year-old son, Anthony, were trying to put up a new amateur radio antenna when it fell onto power lines. The accident happened at Melville’s mother’s house on Alaska Avenue.
The Brahams had amateur radio antennas in their yards. They were trying to put a second one up when the accident happened. Eyewitness News learned that family members couldn’t get near them to help. Melville’s mother did have an amateur radio license.
‘They were trying to put up an antenna in the backyard and my brother and mom and my dad were holding it down and, um, something happened and something went off and they got electrocuted and they are all laying on the ground,’ daughter Melissa Braham told the 911 operator.”
The worst thing about this is that it was absolutely preventable. I personally don’t like insulting the intelligence of my readers by stating the obvious, bust apparently the ham world at large needs to be reminded of a few Antenna 101 basics.
1.) STAY AWAY FROM POWER LINES. There is a very simple formula you use here: if the height-to-tip of your antenna structure exceeds the shortest ground distance to the nearest power line, don’t do it. Period. Shorten your antenna structure, move forther away from the power lines, or stick to handhelds and indoor antennas.
2.) DON’T DO ANTENNA WORK AT NIGHT OR IN INCLEMENT WEATHER. When the sun goes down, it’s time to call it quits for the day. If there’s a stiff breeze or clouds looming on the horizon, put it down and wait for better conditions. You can’t be a part of EMERGENCY COMMUNICATIONS or SAVING THE WORLD THROUGH HAMMING if you’re recovering from electrocution or being struck by lightning (if you’re even lucky enough to get a shot at recovery.)
3.) KNOW THE LIMITS AND REQUIREMENTS OF YOUR SUPPORTING STRUCTURE. From the article pictures (and from the mouth of the reporter), it appears that the family was attempting to use a Buddipole contraption of at least 40 feet or greater, un-guyed and not set in the ground. Stupid, stupid, stupid. Don’t try to stand up a fully-extended mast from the ground.. they’re not meant to do that. And don’t go top-heavy with your antennas, either. A Rohn zip-pole was not meant to support an Andrew Decibel DB420 dipole array fully extended, to use an example.
4.) USE COMMON SENSE. In ham radio as in many other aspects of life, if it seems like a bad idea, don’t do it. If you don’t know what you’re doing or feel uncertain as to your capabilities, seek experienced help.
Hopefully we can all learn a lesson from this. And maybe if you’re sitting there and reading this and thinking “gee, what a bunch of idiots, I would never do that” then you especially need to give it some thought.
And last but not least, don’t do it like this guy.
