Chess Controversy and Morse Code

A controversy in the world of Chess has been linked back to Amateur / Ham Radio.

A BBC Report claims that Chess Officials intervened in a match when a 37 year old Mr Ricciardi from Italy, appeared to be blinking in an unusual manner and holding his hand under his armpit.

“Then I understood it, he was deciphering signals in Morse code.”

— Match referee Jean Coqueraut

The player, after refusing to open his shirt, was uncovered when a metal detector found a small camera that officials believe was transmitting pictures to an advisor who was sending back moves from a Chess computer in morse code to Ricciardi.

Match referee Jean Coqueraut became aware of Ricciardi earlier in the tournament as he was performing well above his ranking level.

He noticed Ricciardi was always sitting, played with his arms across his chest and was batting his eyelids in an unnatural way.

The Italian Chess Federation is deciding whether to press charges for sports fraud.

Full Story - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-34184940

Ofcom Suggest 70.5 MHz for Internet of Things

In April Ofcom announced radio amateurs would have access to 70.5-71.5 MHz but now they are consulting on plans to use it as one of the bands for the Internet of Things (IoT) 

Ofcom say they intend to encourage investment and innovation in the Internet of Things by using 10 MHz of existing spectrum for new applications.

The Internet of Things (IoT) is set to enable large numbers of previously unconnected devices to communicate and share data with one another via ‘Machine-to-Machine’ communications (M2M).

Ofcom’s aim is to encourage M2M applications to use spectrum that will enable them to connect wirelessly over longer distances. This VHF spectrum has different properties to other frequencies, already in use for the IoT, and can reach distant locations which other frequencies may not.

Ofcom believes access to spectrum in this range could open new opportunities and bring benefits to citizens and consumers, especially those in remote and rural parts of the UK. The frequencies being made available span the 55-68 MHz, 70.5-71.5 MHz and 80.5-81.5 MHz bands.

Ofcom is also seeking views on whether any changes to the existing licence products are necessary in order to promote innovative uses in these bands, especially for serving rural and remote locations.

There are already more than 40 million devices connected via the IoT in the UK alone. This is forecast to grow more than eight-fold by 2022, with hundreds of millions of devices carrying out more than a billion daily data transactions.

The consultation closes on 12th November 2015.

Consultation information and online response form - 
http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/consultations/radio-spectrum-internet-of-things/

Link to consultation PDF document - 
http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/binaries/consultations/radio-spectrum-internet-of-things/summary/more_radio_spectrum_internet_of_things.pdf

Reflectorless Yagi Radio Antennas Designs

Chris Moulding, G4HYG has added a new webpage to the Cross Country Wireless website detailing some of the reflectorless yagi designs he has been experimenting with.

Included in the article are  designs for VHF antennas for portable operation and a home station HF version.

Chris’s designs are optimized using the freeware antenna modeling software 4NEC2, and were recently tested during a RSGB UKAC contest.

Antenna Article - http://www.crosscountrywireless.net/reflectorless_yagi_design.html

4NEC2 - http://www.qsl.net/4nec2/