2017 13 Colonies Special Event

/

13 Colonies is an annual Special Event held during the 4th Of July Week (1-7th July 2017). Participants try to make contact(s) with all 13 Colony Stations, and the 2 Bonus Stations. You do not need to make contact will all 13 to be awarded the 2017 13 Colonies certificate.

Making contact with all 13 stations is known as a "Clean Sweep", and whilst working the 2 bonus stations provides kudos, you do not need the 2 bonus stations for a clean sweep.

13 Colonies Bonus Stations

WM3PEN - Philadelphia, PA, where independence was declared. The 13 Colonies certificate will have a Liberty Bell added for a contact with "WM3PEN"

GB13COL - Durham, England. Making a Contact with "GB13COL", the 13 Colonies certificate will have an endorsement of the "British Standard".

More information - http://www.13colonies.net/

Southern Ireland Repeater Group

/

Starting in early March 2017,  the Southern Ireland Repeater Group have been experimenting with the MMDVM and have interfaced it with a UHF MTR2000.
 
After several months of configuration, testing and sourcing equipment, the group have obtained a licence and a repeater location and plan to put their project into service from a hilltop in West Waterford, providing coverage from Cork City to Waterford City.
 
Call Sign will be EI7CDD, with operating modes DMR, DStar, Fusion and Analog modes on 439.650 MHz with a shift of -9 MHz (DVU52) which is one of the newly allocated 70cm channels for digital voice in Ireland and the UK.
 
Digital modes will be given priority on the new repeater.
 
More infomation - sirnrepeaters.blogspot.ie

FCC strictly Enforces RF Equipment Rules

/

The FCC has recently threatened to prohibit non-compliant RF equipment suppliers, including IoT suppliers, from marketing their devices in the US

The IoT For All site reports the FCC is quietly imposing brutal penalties on suppliers that don’t comply with its equipment authorization and marketing rules.

In a recent release, the FCC took the unprecedented action of threatening to prohibit non-compliant radiofrequency (“RF”) equipment suppliers, including IoT suppliers, from marketing their devices in the U.S.

More information -  https://iot-for-all.com/fcc-strictly-enforces-rf-equipment-rules/

FCC Order and Consent Decree - https://apps.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DA-17-471A1.pdf