You may soon see a big change in the way ALE is done on the ham bands, or its
disappearance altoghether... Riley's initial response to my inquiry is that he
feels I am correct on all counts. He has forwarded the matter to the WTB for
their official ruling. Without the soundings, ALE is pretty useless.
(BTW, you should see the HUGE propaganda piece Bonnie sent to Riley and Bill
Cross when she found out that the League had forwarded my inquiry to them...
bury 'em in BS 'til they can't see the forest for the trees, I guess. All of
it was irrelevant to the questions at hand.)
Back to RTTY 'til I have something solid to report.
George, KA3HSW
-----Original Message-----
>From: Joseph Lutz <kwz99@comcast.net>
>Sent: Jan 11, 2008 1:32 PM
>To: George Henry <ka3hsw@earthlink.net>, rtty@contesting.com,
>andrewobrie@gmail.com
>Subject: Re: [RTTY] Fw: ALE Sounding. What is it and how does it work?
>
>Well, I guess I have to say something re: ALE. It seems very odd that so
>many do not know or understand what
>ALE is and what it is for. I am also surprised that one of the many Hams
>that are also MARS operators do not
>step in and explain what ALE is and what it is for. I do know that it was
>becoming very prevalent in MARS
>when I left it - so perhaps one of the current MARS members can give some
>workable knowledge of ALE.
>[Just a thought]
>73,
>JOE W7LPF
>Ex: W7ZQV/KG6 - W7LPF/DU2 - CT1DKG/CR7DKG - HB9IBA
>[FORMER NNN0KUU]
>MGR: 4L1DA
>----- Original Message -----
>From: "George Henry" <ka3hsw@earthlink.net>
>To: <rtty@contesting.com>; <andrewobrie@gmail.com>
>Sent: Friday, January 11, 2008 15:52
>Subject: [RTTY] Fw: ALE Sounding. What is it and how does it work?
>
>
>> Have to disagree with you on the soundings, Andy... re-read Bonnie's
>> explanation of what soundings are and how they work: her very first point
>> says "... ALE sounding is simply a station ID. No other text is sent."
>> Later she specifially states "Sounding is not CQ. If you want to call CQ,
>> use the HFL or QRZ netcall." If it's not sent to a specific station or
>> with the intent of establishing 2-way communication *at that moment*, it's
>> an illegal one-way transmission. I believe this also constitutes
>> automatic beaconing, despite what Bonnie claims (her claim that they are
>> not one-way transmissions is absurd), and automatic beacons are prohibited
>> below 10 meters. Third, Bonnie defines ALE as a message-forwarding
>> system, and automatic control of a digital station is prohibited UNLESS
>> the station is 1) responding to interrogation and 2) transmitting with a
>> bandwidth of less that 500 Hz. The only thing that soundings actually do
>> is establish a heard list at other ALE stations,
>> unless someone happens to be holding traffic for the sounding station, at
>> which time it will respond with a link request. However, since the
>> station holding the traffic actually initiates the connection, and not in
>> response to a connect request or interrogation, it's almost certainly
>> illegal automatic control of a digital station.
>>
>> To summarize, I believe that automatic ALE soundings are 1) prohibited
>> one-way transmissions; 2) illegal automated beaconing below 10 meters,
>> and; 3) illegal automatic control of a digital station.
>>
>>
>> At any rate, the ARRL has forwarded my inquiry to the FCC for a rules
>> interpretation, so we should know for sure soon.
>>
>> 73,
>>
>> George, KA3HSW
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