Join Us for Our Quarterly BEARS Meeting & VE Session!

Our first quarterly meeting of the 2017 activity year will be held January 18th, 5pm, at the ABC News HQ, 47 West 66th Street in Manhattan (between Central Park West and Columbus Avenue).

The meeting will take place in the multimedia room at the rear of the cafeteria on the mezzanine level.

In our 5p-6p hour, we’ve invited Jose Lugo/KD2CJP, New York & Bronx Counties Emergency Coordinator from NYC ARES, to present on the important work this group does to train volunteers and sustain communications in emergencies. And from 6p-7p, as promised, we’re pleased to have Bryan Boyle/WB0YLE in the house from the skunkworks team that is perfecting an all-mode digital/analog repeater system that will allow any radio operating in any ham flavor (analog, DMR, Fusion or D-Star) to talk with any other radio on that repeater. It’s truly the holy grail of universal accessibility we hams have been clamoring for. Bryan will demo the system and explain not only how it works, but how soon we may be see it in regular use.

Please RSVP to Howard Price/KA2QPJ, our Club president, so that he can put you on the clearance list for building security. Use the subject line BEARS RSVP.

Our first VE session of 2017 will take place immediately following the Club meeting at 7pm. Walk-ins are welcomed, but please let Bill Kirkpatrick/WK2O know in advance if you plan to sit for an exam.

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DMR is HERE!

K2JRC AntennaBEARS, in its continuing partnership with the Disney Emergency Amateur Radio Service (DEARS) at Walt Disney World in Orlando, is pleased to announce a new DMR link between New York and Florida.

The link is the result of extensive work by Ken Kerns/N2ZXS, Kurt Livingston/N7WWL and our own Jerry Cudmore/K2JRC, and utilizes a Florida-based C-Bridge administered by Bob Schneider/KC2CWT. Bob’s C-Bridge delivers a feed to the Bronx TRBO C-Bridge, administered by Bernie Berger/NY4Z — who in turn, routes it to Jerry’s DMR repeater here.

BEARS members, and all licensed users with Digital Mobile Radio capability, can connect to this link — and with an extensive DMR network serving greater NYC as follows:

On the K2JRC Manhattan Repeater:
(438.5625 MHz  [-5 Mhz], Color Code 3)

Time Slot
#1 – Group Call  TG 347639 = DARI Talk Group – (Fulltime priority over Time Slot 1)
#1 – Group Call  TG 9 = Local Talk Group – Fulltime
#1 – Group Call  TG 9998 = Parrot Audio Test Server
#1 – Group Call  TG 3 = U.S / English Speaking Countries  – PTT
#1 – Group Call  TG 310 = Tac 310 Talk Group – PTT
#1 – Group Call  TG 311 = Tac 311 Talk Group – PTT
#2 – Group Call  TG 444 = NY Metro System wide

(Fulltime on all repeaters in Bronx TRBO Network)

On the K2JRC Queens Repeater
(438.6125 MHz  [-5 MHz] Color Code 3

Time Slot
#1 – Group Call TG 444 = NY Metro Systemwide (Fulltime)
#1 – Group Call TG TG 347639 = DARI Talk Group (Fulltime)
#2 – Members-Only Private Talk Groups

The NY4Z Bronx TRBO repeater system is vast — too extensive for us to detail here. But we encourage you to visit the NYDMR website for all the details.

Repeater: K2JRC 438.5625  (-5), Color Code 3

Time Slot #1, Disney Talkgroup 347639

This has been an arduous process — but we think one well worth the wait and effort. We thank everyone involved for the extraordinary work that has brought a terrific new operating experience to our members.

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“Long Regional Nightmare is Over” – FCC Hits Recidivist NY Jammer with Huge Fine

Daniel Delise FCC NAL 201632380003Accused jammer Daniel Delise of Astoria, Queens, NY faces $23,000 in fines following an extensive FCC investigation into malicious activity on a number of NY-area amateur radio and government repeater systems.

BEARS President Howard Price/KA2QPJ celebrated the Notice of Apparent Liability issued against Delise by the FCC,  saying “our long regional nightmare is over.”

The NAL caps an investigation going back to at least 2012, which produced a Warning of Unlicensed Operation against Delise. The Commission continued to receive complaints about Mr. Delise throughout 2013 and 2014. FCC agents had difficulty tracing some of the malicious activity back to Delise, because many of his transmissions were too short to track, and were made on a number of different frequencies.

In April of this year, FCC agents caught a break. According to the FCC NAL [local copy]: “Two field agents started to monitor the area in Astoria, NY, where Daniel Delise had been reported to reside. The agents detected strong voice transmissions on the amateur radio frequency 147.96 MHz. The agents used direction finding techniques to determine that the voice transmissions were originating from the antennas on the roof where Mr. Delise had been reported to reside. After determining the direction from which the radio transmissions were coming and one of the agents believing that he recognized Daniel Delise’s voice in the transmissions, the field agents approached his apartment. Mr. Delise’s father, Samuel Delise, gave the agents permission to enter the apartment. Once the agents were inside, Daniel Delise then permitted the agents to inspect his radio transmitting equipment. The agents were able to confirm that the voice they heard on 147.96 MHz was that of Daniel Delise.” These findings resulted in a Notice of Unlicensed Operation being issued against Delise.

Later that same month, according to the FCC, “the New York City Police Department (NYPD) informed a Commission field agent that the NYPD had taken Daniel Delise into custody [local copy] for “sending out false radio transmissions over the New York City Police Department’s radio transmission system” and for possessing radios that operate on NYPD frequencies without permission in violation of New York law. The NYPD report said that a call went out over the police radio for an officer in need. When an NYPD officer responded to the call, he saw Daniel Delise speaking into a radio device. The report said that Mr. Delise admitted to making the transmissions, and that he said he had more radios and would continue to transmit on police frequencies. The NYPD obtained a warrant for Mr. Delise’s apartment and confiscated all the radio transmitting equipment from Mr. Delise (except the antennas), including fourteen radios that transmit and receive NYPD communications.”

This week, the FCC issued a Notice of Apparent Liability against Delise, assessing fines of $23,000, citing violations of Sections 301 and 325 of the Communications Act. Delise has 30 days from the date of the NAL to either pay the full amount of the fine, request an extended payment period or file documents in support of a request to reduce or cancel the fine. Delise could have faced total fines in excess of $140,000.

BEARS thanks the ARRL and our own Hudson Division leadership for their help in bringing this action, and to our fellow hams and repeater operators for the time and effort they devoted to logging the complaints that resulted in this enforcement action. While this NAL sends a strong message to other would-be violators, this is not likely to be the last time jammers and pirates seek to cause havoc on our bands. BEARS urges all its members to remain vigilant, and to report violations to the FCC and the ARRL Hudson Division in a complete and timely manner.

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Welcome to the NEW BEARS Website & Blog!

It’s our great pleasure to debut the all-new, long-anticipated BEARS website & blog.

Our club secretary and webmaster, Brad Berson/W2ZZZ, has been at work on this project for months — and his hard work and creativity are evident.

You still access the site at www.w2abc.org (where you’ll start at a splash page featuring links to BEARS and other Disney ham clubs and affiliates). But once you’re on our site, you’ll find exciting new functionality:

  • Real-time links to our social media presence!
  • ONLINE membership applications!
    • …with ONLINE election nomination & voting to come soon!
  • A clean, easy-to-read BEARS activity calendar!
  • A list of helpful links!
  • Streamlined menus!
  • Mobile-friendly layout!
  • …and more to come!

To make sure you’re notified anytime we post new items to the site, please register using the SUBSCRIBE link on our homepage. Our new blog will allow us to keep you up to date on breaking BEARS news between monthly editions of our BEARFax e-letter.

Thanks, Brad for a job extremely well done!

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Our Next BEARS Quarterly Meeting & VE Session – July 19th

Meetings MemeBEARS members, and all current and aspiring ham radio licensees, are invited to join us for our next quarterly BEARS meeting. The get-together will take place in the cafeteria multimedia room at ABC News HQ, 47 West 66th Street (between Central Park West & Columbus Avenue), in Manhattan (the location is one block east of the 66th Street stop on the #1 subway line).

The meeting will begin with regular Club business — and our annual election — at 5pm. Our Volunteer Examination session will take place immediately following at 7pm.

Please click here for details on our upcoming exams.

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Progress..!

BB#1A quick greeting from your webmaster: I’m working on getting all the information moved from the old site and proofed, putting up a new more SEO-friendly splash page and adding many new features to the web site.  Please BEAR with us…

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