100th anniversary of Amateur Radio's entry into disaster service.

"SOS Hilltop Business Men’s Association wants city to sendboats... Supplies will last until about tomorrow.... Men are hanging on trees.... Send supplies.... Water is receding....Try and get us water and gas.... People are suffering.... Send this to Mayor Karb at once.... SOS."
It was with these words sent by a 15 year-old teenager 100 years ago that Amateur Radio entered into Disaster Service.
Herbert V. Akerberg was a student at West High School in the Hilltop neighborhood of Columbus, Ohio when he anxiously tapped out that Morse code message on the afternoon of March 26, 1913.
A slow moving storm had dumped 11 inches of rain over much of Ohio’s already saturated soil.
In Zanesville the Muskingum River was cresting at 27 feet and 20 feet of water stood in her intersections. Five of the town’s seven bridges were washed away. Only the tips of the lamp posts of the famous “Y” bridge could be seen.
In Defiance, Ohio the Maumee River rushed in 10 feet above flood stage and covered 268 homes. Row boats plucked people from trees and rooftops everywhere.
In Tiffin help came too late for several. Nineteen people waiting on their roofs for help, perished when their homes collapsed and they were swept away by the Sandusky River
On the west side of Columbus, where young Herb Akerberg was manning his station, the Scioto River crashed through the downtown dumping flood waters 17 feet deep into his neighborhood. Thirteen people were rescued from the branches of a single tree.
“For about three days and nights, practically continuously for seventy-two hours, young Akerberg remained on duty at his radio set, in communication with the radio station on top of the Huntington Bank Building, sending messages to the mayor and keeping the public advised as to the conditions on the devastated West Side. Many messages were sent to the friends and relatives of those in the devastated district.”
C. B. Galbreath-Author “The History of Ohio”
 
The greatest destruction was in the areas around Dayton, where the rushing waters of the Great Miami River washed away homes and bridges claiming hundreds of lives.
In Dayton 360 souls were lost, 3,400 domesticated animals and horses perished, 65,000 people were displaced and 20,000 homes were destroyed. Damage, in today’s dollars, exceeded $2 Billion.
The flow of the Great Miami River through Dayton during that Easter week storm in 1913 was equivalent to the same amount of water that spills over Niagara Falls in a month!
In nearby Hamilton four-fifths of the town was covered and 400 people lost their lives.
“People talked about how fast the waters rose, sometimes one or two feet per hour, and there wasn’t any way of sending warnings downstream because of the downed wires. There was no radio then except for a few ham radio operators, and the 1913 Flood is what triggered the legislation to create an emergency broadcast system.”
…Trudy E. Bell-Author “The Great Dayton Flood of 1913”
 
Back in Columbus, Herbert Akerman, pounding brass from his home shack is joined by the station from Ohio State University. Unlike Akerman, the OSU students are not proficient in Morse Code.
To the North of Ohio, B.N. Burglund at the University of Michigan station was unaware of the flooding in Ohio until he intercepted a call from a operator in Freemont, Ohio who reported that the town was under water and that the Captain of the Port Townsend Life Saving Station had drowned while attempting a rescue. The operator reported that all telegraph and telephone lines were down.
This call was followed by one from D. A. Nichols in Wapakpmeta, Ohio that his town was also cut off from the world.
Burglund put out a General Call to any station located in the flooded areas. This call was responded to by operators in Mansfield, Springfield, and Mt. Vernon, as well as the OSU station in Columbus.
Burglund, assisted by engineering students George Norris, Worth Chatfield, and Mr. Watts (who had once been a commercial operator) began handling Health and Welfare traffic from the devasted area.
The Ohio State University station was now being manned by a capable operator, J. A. Mercer who pounded the key for more than 70 hours before he collapsed from exhaustion and was temporarily relieved by operators from the U.S. Army Signal Corps.
Young Mr. Akerberg, the first Ham ever to use Amateur Radio in a disaster would go on to honorably serve with the men of the Army Signal Corp during World War I.
In 1923 he directed the building of Radio Station WPAL in Columbus. Six years later he joined the start-up network CBS, where he built much of their network of radio and television stations.
Herbert Akerberg passed away in Scottsdale, Arizona on November 6, 1964.
“Wireless has shown itself up so beautifully during this great crisis, that a bill is pending in the State Legislature of Ohio providing for a large central station or stations and each city to have a permanent local station, so in case of need all cities so isolated are in communication with the different central stations. By all means let this bill pass. This is a step in the right direction and it is a good example for other States to follow.”
“Wireless in the hands of the amateur, while it is used by some as a plaything, is capable of doing excellent service in time of need; and we hope the work done by these men who did all they could to maintain communication between the flood stricken cities and the rest of the world, will long be remembered.”
B.N. Burglund –Modern Electrics, April 1913

Voice of America to Test Digital Transmissions this Weekend

03/14/2013
The Voice of America Radiogram show, hosted by Kim Andrew Elliot, KD9XB, will be testing a variety of digital modes on March 16 and 17.
The data transmissions can be decoded by anyone with an AM shortwave receiver using any of the popular sound-card-based programs such as Fldigi, Ham Radio Deluxe, MixW, MultiPSK, DigiPan (for BPSK31, BPSK63 and QPSK31 only),CocoaModem (for Macs) and others.
Each test will last one minute, unless otherwise specified, on the following modes at the audio frequencies indicated. During some tests as many as four modes will be used simultaneously . . .

• BPSK31 at 2000 Hz
• QPSK31 at 1000 Hz, BPSK31 at 2000 Hz
• QPSK31 at 1000 Hz, PSK63F at 1500 Hz, BPSK31 at 2000 Hz
• QPSK63 on 1000 Hz, PSKR125 at 1500 Hz, BPSK63 at 2000 Hz
• QPSK125 at 1000 Hz, PSKR250 at 1500 Hz, BPSK63 at 2000 Hz
• QPSK250 at 800 Hz, PSKR500 at 1500 Hz, BPSK250 at 2200 Hz
• QPSK500 at 800 Hz, PSKR1000 at 1500 Hz, BPSK500 at 2200 Hz
• PSKR500 at 1000 Hz, PSK63F at 1500 Hz, PSKR125 at 2000 Hz, and PSKR250 at 2500 Hz (5 minutes, 40 seconds total). The latter portions of the PSKR250 and 500 transmissions are formatted for Flmsg, a function within theFldigi software suite. (In Fldigi, go to Configure > Misc > NBEMS > under “Reception of flmsg files.” Click Open with flmsg and Open in browser and select the desired location of the flmsg.exe file.)
• MFSK32 image on 1500 Hz (54 seconds)

The 30-minute Radiogram program is scheduled to air . . .
Saturday 1600 UTC at 17860 kHz
Sunday 0230 UTC at 5745 kHz
Sunday 1300 UTC at 6095 kHz
Sunday 1930 UTC at 15670 kHz
... from the IBB Edward R. Murrow Transmitting Station in North Carolina.
E-mail reception reports are welcomed at radiogram@voanews.com.
According to Elliot, future VOA Radiogram programs will transmit only one mode at a time. “This will ensure the highest possible signal-to-noise ratio and the best possible chances for a successful decode. These broadcasts are an experiment. We will try different modes in different programs to see which work best via AM analog shortwave broadcast transmitters.”

$25,000 Fine for Operating an Unlicensed Radio

On March 1, the FCC issued a Notice of Apparent Liability for Forfeiture (NAL) in the amount of $25,000 to Terry L. VanVolkenburg, KC5RF, of Cocoa, Florida. The FCC alleged that VanVolkenburg “apparently willfully and repeatedly violated Sections 301 and 333 of the Communications Act of 1934, as amended…, by operating a radio transmitter without a license on…465.300 MHz and for interfering with licensed communications.” VanVolkenburg holds an Advanced class license.

In September 2012, FCC agents in the Tampa Office received a complaint of radio interference from the Brevard County Sheriff’s Department. The Sheriff’s Department -- licensee of call sign WQCW384 -- utilizes a wireless radio communications system in the county jail in Sharpes, Florida. According to the complaint, the Sheriff’s Department experienced intermittent interference to its radio communications in the jail on the frequency 456.300 MHz on at least 14 days during September and October 2012. According to the NAL, audio recordings taken by the Sheriff’s Department suggest “that a male individual interfered with the prison’s communications by transmitting vulgar language, sound effects, previously recorded prison communications and threats to prison officials over the prison’s communications system.”

On October 28, the agents used direction finding techniques and traced the source of the interfering radio frequency transmissions on 465.300 MHz to a residence in Cocoa, Florida. The frequency 465.300 MHz is allocated to public safety stations; as an Advanced class licensee, VanVolkenburg does not hold privileges to operate in this portion of the spectrum. In addition, the FCC’s records showed that no authorization was issued to anyone to operate a private land mobile station at this location.
“Approximately two hours after locating the source of the transmissions, agents from the Tampa Office inspected the radio stations in Mr VanVolkenburg’s residence,” the FCC noted. “The agents recognized Mr VanVolkenburg’s voice as the one interfering with the prison’s communications system. Mr VanVolkenburg initially showed the agents an Amateur Radio [that was] incapable of transmitting on 465.300 MHz, but eventually produced an Alinco DJ-C5 portable radio transceiver that could operate on 465.300 MHz.”

According to the NAL, VanVolkenburg “did not specifically admit that he had interfered with the prison’s communications system, but when asked about the transmissions on 465.300 MHz and the interference to the prison’s communications systems, he stated that he chose 465.300 MHz because the prison’s transmissions on that frequency were strong; that he was only using 300 mW and did not think that he ‘could talk over anyone and therefore wasn’t interfering with anyone’; and that the interference would not happen again.”

Although VanVolkenburg holds an Amateur Radio license, it does not authorize him to operate on public safety frequencies. “Part 15 of the Commission’s rules sets out the conditions and technical requirements under which certain radio transmission devices may be used without a license,” the FCC explained in the NAL. “In relevant part, Section 15.209 of the rules provides that non-licensed transmissions in the 216-960 MHz band is permitted only if the field strength of the transmission does not exceed 200 μV/m at 3 meters. The agents observed the transmissions on 465.300 MHz at a distance of approximately 2 miles from VanVolkenburg’s residence. Given the distance from the source, the agents determined that the transmissions’ field strength exceeded allowable Part 15 levels.”

Section 503(b) of the Communications Act provides that “any person who willfully or repeatedly fails to comply substantially with the terms and conditions of any license, or willfully or repeatedly fails to comply with any of the provisions of the Act or of any rule, regulation, or order issued by the Commission thereunder, shall be liable for a forfeiture penalty.” In addition, VanVolkenburg was found to be in violation of Sections 301 and 333 of the Communications Act, stating that “no person shall use or operate any apparatus for the transmission of energy or communications or signals by radio within the United States, except under and in accordance with the Act and with a license granted under the provisions of the Act.” Section 333 states that “[n]o person shall willfully or maliciously interfere with or cause interference to any radio communications of any station licensed or authorized by or under this Act or operated by the United States Government.”

“The totality of the evidence convinces us that it was Mr VanVolkenburg who was operating the unlicensed transmitter from his residence that was causing interference to the prison communications systems over at least a two-month period,” the FCC stated in the NAL. “Because Mr VanVolkenburg consciously operated the station and did so on more than one day, the apparent violations of the Communications Act were both willful and repeated.”

According to the Commission’s Forfeiture Policy Statement and Section 1.80 of the rules, the base forfeiture amount for operation without an instrument of authorization is $10,000, and the base forfeiture amount for interference is $7000. In assessing the monetary forfeiture amount, the FCC must also take into account statutory factors that include the nature, circumstances, extent and gravity of the violations, and with respect to the violator, the degree of culpability, any history of prior offenses, ability to pay and other such matters. “We find Mr VanVolkenburg’s misconduct particularly egregious because his unlicensed operation involved willful and malicious interference to the communications of the Brevard County Sheriff’s Department, which included threats against the officers, after being told (multiple times) to cease his interfering communications,” the FCC stated in the NAL. “Thus, we find that an upward adjustment of $8000 to the combined base forfeiture of $17,000 is warranted. Applying the Forfeiture Policy Statement, Section 1.80 of the rules and the statutory factors to the instant case, we conclude that Mr VanVolkenburg is apparently liable for a forfeiture in the amount of $25,000.”

VanVolkenburg has until March 30, 2013 to pay the forfeiture in full, or file a written statement seeking its reduction or cancellation.