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Skriven 2012-03-16 03:41:51 av Roy Witt (1:387/22)
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Ärende: Amateur Radio Newsline report number 1805
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Amateur Radio Newsline report number 1805 with a release date of March
16th, 2012 to follow in 5-4-3-2-1.
The following is a QST. More on ham radios role in the wake of a recent
tornado outbreak; FEMA asks the FCC to permit text to speech EAS
transmissions; interference from ocean buoys discovered on 10 meters and a
DXpedition to Mali is cancelled due to political unrest in that nation.
Find out the details are on Amateur Radio NewslineT report number 1805
coming your way right now.
**
RESCUE RADIO: ARES HAMS FILL MULTIPLE ROLES DURING KENTUCKY SEVERE
WEATHER OUTBREAK
Amateur Radio operators in Hardin and surrounding Kentucky counties
provided critical communications during and after the severe weather
outbreaks on February 29th, and again on Saturday March 3rd. Amateur
Radio Newsline's Cheryl Lasek, K9BIK, is here with the details:
--
Members of the Hardin County Kentucky Amateur Radio Emergency Service were
activated initially by the National Weather Service. This as a resource
to relay significant weather information directly to their office in
Louisville.
Hardin County ARES provided weather spotting, logistics, disaster
assessment, and shelter coordination assistance. Throughout the severe
weather, they were busy maintaining communications with served agencies,
with hams in adjacent counties, other ARES units, and to amateur radio
station WX4NWS which is located at the Louisville National Weather service
office.
Knowing in advance the high probability for dangerous weather, several of
the volunteer radio amateurs took personal time off from work in order to
perform this public service.
In the aftermath of these deadly storms, Hardin County Amateur Radio
operators continued to serve with agencies in affected areas in Southern
Indiana and Eastern Kentucky, providing communications, disaster
assistance, and support for ongoing search, rescue and recovery
operations.
Fred Jones, WA4SWF, is the Region 4 Assistant Section Emergency
Coordinator for the ARES in Eastern Kentucky. He e-mailed Newsline that
as of March 11th there were Amateur Radio emergency Service nets still in
operation on 8 repeaters in Eastern Kentucky. Whether or not these nets
have been secured is unknown as we go to air.
For the amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Cheryl Lasek, K9BIK, in Zion,
Illinois.
--
According to Shelby Ennis, W8WN, who is the Emergency Coordinator of the
Hardin County ARES, 20 operators were active during the emergency on
February 29th and 27 volunteered on March 3rd. (WA4SWF, KE4EK)
**
RESCUE RADIO: FEMA WANTS FCC TO ALLOW CAP TEXT TO SPEECH NOW
The Federal Emergency Management Agency better known by the acronym FEMA
has asked the FCC to reconsider portions of its latest EAS Report and
Order. Specifically in the area dealing with message standards.
In its filing, FEMA told the commission that portions of its 5th Report
and Order on EAS limit the ability of local emergency management officials
to obtain all of the benefits of Common Alerting Protocol messaging
standards for EAS. Especially those that deal with text to speech
conversion .
The FCC had put off the text-to-speech conversion issue for a separate
rule making proceeding. But FEMA claims that one possible consequence of
not allowing such conversions now is that Common Alerting Protocol
messages supplied without audio content could cause a C-A-P equipped EAS
device to interrupt a stations normal programming and only convey an EAS
header tone. Or it might only transmit an alert signal and an
end-of-message notification.
FEMA says that for radio stations this would mean that no information
usable by the public would be conveyed. As such, FEMA is urging the FCC
to reconsider and to allow speech-to-text technology to support EAS radio
operations now.
(RW, Radio Today, Observer)
**
COMMUNICATIONS LAW: HOUSE ENERGY AND COMMERCE COMMITTEE APPROVES TWO FCC
REFORM MEASURES
The House Energy and Commerce Committee voted 31 to 16 on Tuesday March
6th to approve an FCC reform bill that puts shot clocks on FCC decisions,
requires disclosure of items before votes, and limits on merger
conditions.
The cable, phone and broadcast industries all supported the FCC reform
efforts as outlined in HR 3309, while House Democrats said the measure
will needlessly tie the FCC's hands and could lead to endless litigation.
Democrats have vowed to defeat the measure.
At the same time the House also passed a second, non-controversial FCC
reform bill. HR 3310 that simply requires the FCC to conduct a biennial
survey of the state of competition in the marketplace that will be
published online and submitted to Congress. (B&C)
**
ON THE AIR: IRLP TOPIC CHANNELS INAUGURATED
The long-awaited Internet Radio Linking Project or IRLP Topic Channels
have now gone live. IRLP- users are now able to log onto reflector
channels allocated for interests ranging from DX'ing to music, media,
history, the upcoming 2012 election and many others.
For those not aware, the Internet Radio Linking Project was the result of
research and development by Dave Cameron, VE7LTD, back in 1998. This as a
way of using the Internet to interconnect repeaters world-wide. With the
advent of IRLP Topic Channels the concept has developed into a global
discussion real-time forum on almost any topic of interest to those signed
on.
For up-to-date information on the IRLP Topic Channels please visit
www.irlptopics.net. To locate an IRLP node near you go to status.irlp.net
on the world-wide-web. (W7RAT, Southgate)
**
INTRUDER WATCH: BUOYS ON 10 METERS
The source of some mysterious weak signals on 29.684 MHz with an 81.9 Baud
and 130 Hz shift have been located. According to the February IARU Region
One newsletter, the signals came from the Spanish coastal area and were
audible across all of Europe but only during band openings and only by
directional antennas.
It turns out the source of transmissions by Datawell buoys. These buoys,
produced in the Netherlands are used for measuring water temperatures and
wave heights. They are designed to transmit with 75 milliwatts on
frequencies between 27 and 40 MHz.
Dick Van Empelen, PA2GRU, of Heemstede in the Netherlands has since
visited the Datawell Company and has informed them that the buoy
transmissions on the amateur service 10 meter band are illegal. The
operations chief promised to inform all Datawell offices about the
situation. (IARU-R1)
**
BREAKING NEWS: PLANNED MALI DXPEDITION ON HOLD DUE TO POLITICAL UNREST
Some breaking news in the world of DX. This with word that political
unrest has led to a planned DX operation to Mali being put on indefinite
hold.
Two weeks ago members of the "Italian Dxpedition Team" announced that they
were planning to be active as TZ5T from Mali between April 12th to the
27th. However, their Pilot station Art Lorenzo, IK7JWY, has now issued a
statement that the situation of civil war in Mali between the government
and Tuareg insurgents is worsening. Because of this and other concerns
Mali authorities will not issue licenses to radio amateurs who may be
targeted because of radio equipment.
For this reason the DXpedition has been postponed until a yet to be
determined later date. For updates please check in regularly at www (dot)
i2ysb (dot) com on the World-Wide-Web. And we will have more DX news
later on in this weeks report. (OPDX)
**
BREAK 1
From the United States of America, We are the Amateur Radio Newsline,
heard on bulletin stations around the world including the Echo Repeater
System serving Mt. Prospect Illinois.
(5 sec pause here)
**
PROPAGATION: YET ANOTHER CME HEADS TOWARD EARTH
Spaceweather reports that the sun has again erupted in a way that will
likely affect radio propagation here on Earth for several days.
Especially on the High Frequency bands. We have more in this report:
--
Sunspot AR1429 unleashed another strong flare on March 13th. The category
M 7.9 explosion produced a significant Coronal Mass Ejection or CME that
solar forecasters predicted would reach Earth at 06:20 UTC, plus or minus
7 hours, on March 15th and whose effects on propagation could last for
several days.
As a result, geomagnetic storms are possible when the charged cloud
arrives that could produce auroral displays in the Northern-most
latitudes. This in turn could lead to aurora propagation at 50 Mhz and
above.
Ironically, a bright comet is at the same time diving into the sun. The
comet was recently discovered NASA's Solar and Heliospheric Observatory
SWAN instrument. As such its been named "Comet SWAN."
The comet's death plunge or "swan dive" as some astronomers are calling it
comes just as the sun has unleashed the strong flare. Because of this
some of the SOHO images of the comet are confused to some degree by
energetic protons striking the camera's imaging sensor.
For the amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Bill Pasternak, WA6ITF, in the
Newsroom in Los Angeles.
--
For updates on this and other solar activity we suggest that you check
spaceweather.com for the latest information. (Spaceweather, Space.com)
**
ENFORCEMENT: FCC AFFIRMS $25000 FINE FOR UNLICENSED SAN JOSE CA FM
BROADCAST OPERATIONS
The FCC has affirmed a $25,000 Notice of Apparent Liability issued to
Gabriel A. Garcia of San Jose, California. This for a 2010 series of
unlicensed radio transmissions heard on 92.9 MHz, 93.7 and 104.3 MHz all
traced to Garcia residences.
Garcia was issued four notices of unlicensed operation from the FCC before
being issued the proposed fine in 2011. The base penalty in such cases is
$10,000 but the agency has said that Garcia operated on multiple
frequencies, on multiple occasions, and called his behavior particularly
egregious. This because his transmissions allegedly interfered with the
Aviation Radio Services band.
Garcia never responded to the proposed fine. Having not heard an appeal
from him since issuing the NAL last March, the FCC now has finalized the
$25,000 fine and given him the customary 30 days to pay. If he fails to
do so the case may be referred to the Department of Justice for
collection. (FCC)
**
COMMUNICATIONS COORDINATION: FREQUENCY COORDINATION FOR 2012 POLITICAL
CONVENTIONS COMMITTEE FORMED
Broadcast engineers have formed a committee to coordinate spectrum use at
the Democratic and Republican conventions this summer. According to
member Ray Benedict PolComm 2012 was formed in an effort to head off radio
and TV personnel who may show up at the conventions and then try to use
their wireless mics and two-way radios without first going through the
frequency coordination process.
The Republican convention is Aug. 27th to the 30th in Tampa, Florida and
the Democratic convention is September 3rd to the 6th in Charlotte, North
Carolina. The committee says that it will seek a temporary rules waiver
to allow TV Channels 14, 16 and 17 to be used as communication channels in
Tampa and TV Channels 14, 16, 17, 18, 19 and 20 in Charlotte.
Broadcast engineering consultant Louis Libin is the PolComm 2012 chairman.
Libin has chaired frequency coordination committees for past seven
national political conventions. (RW)
**
NEW PRODUCTS: THE TALENT POD FROM HENRY ENGINEERING
A fascinating new piece of merchandise has come along that while not meant
for ham radio, deserves a mention.
Henry Engineering, the California-based company owned by Hank Landsberg,
WB6MEU, has come out with a broadcast product that could also be of
interest to contesters, DX'ers as well as dedicated multi-operator
stations such as during Field Day. Called the Talent Pod, the unit is a
desktop local host controller for microphones and headphones that the
company says solves audio problems often encountered when doing remote
broadcasts.
Talent Pod is a mini-console made for use by an announcer. It gives that
person full control of his or her mic and headphones. It lets the
announcer turn the mic on and off and create a mix of local and return
audio in the headphones. The mic button is illuminated and is visible in
outdoor settings. A cough button momentarily mutes mic audio.
There are also two separate inputs for local and return audio, with a
volume control for each. The operator can control the volume level and
mix of the headphone audio.
To prevent confusion between the local and return audio, Talent Pod also
has two pan switches, so the announcer can independently position the
local and return audio in the center, left or right channel of the
headphones.
As most hams involved in contesting and multi-op DXing will note, all of
these functions could easily be adapted to use in an amateur radio multi
operator station environment. All it takes is a bit of imagination. More
information on the Talent Pod is on line at www.henryeng.com. (RW)
**
HAM RADIO HONORS: ARRL OPENS NOMINATIONS FOR SEVERAL AWARDS
The nomination period is now open for a number of ARRL awards that are
designed to recognize educational and technological pursuits in Amateur
Radio, as well as an award to honor a young Amateur Radio operator. These
include the Herb S. Brier Instructor of the Year Award for educators and
the Hiram Percy Maxim Award is for a licensed radio amateur under age 21
to name only two. In all there are a half a dozen awards this year. For
more information take your web browser to tinyurl.com/arrl-awards-2012 or
contact Steve Ewald, by e-mail to wv1x (at) arrl (dot) org. (ARRL)
**
HAM HAPPENINGS: INTERNATIONAL MUSEUMS WEEKEND REGISTRATION NOW OPEN
The International Museums Weekend special event operations will take place
on the weekends of June 16th through the 17th and again on June 23rd and
24th. Radio amateurs are encouraged to participate in this event by
setting up stations in their local museums.
The International Museums Weekend organizer Harry Bloomfield, M1BYT in
Leeds in the U-K. He asks that all those intending to take part in the
event to register their museum operation at www.ukradioamateur.co.uk/imw.
This is not only a fun event but one that permits you to showcase amateur
radio to non-hams world wide. (WIA News)
**
HAM HAPPENINGS: CELEBRATING THE MORSE CODE
New York's QSY Society Amateur Radio Club will be hosting a special event
station at the Samuel F. B. Morse Estate at Locust Grove in the city of
Poughkeepsie. This in celebration of his creation of the Morse Code in
1832. The operation will run from 8:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Eastern Daylight
Time on Saturday April 14th using the special event callsign K2QS.
Transmissions will be centered on 7.034 on 40 meters and 14.034 MHz on 20.
Hams making contact with K2QS will be eligible for a special commutative
QSL card. QSL requests go to David Ruth at 48 Hoof Print Road, Millbrook,
New York, 12545. ((KB2VJP)
**
NAMES IN THE NEWS: STEVE FLETCHER G4RFC NAMED RSGB OLYMPIC FACILITATOR
Some names in the news. The Radio Society of Great Britain has announced
that Steve Fletcher, G4RFC, has been appointed as the U-K national
society's Olympic Facilitator. According to a press release, Fletcher
will be drawing together all the information on radio amateur special
events associated with the upcoming Olympic and Paralympic Games in the
UK. S As such he wants to hear about any individual plans so the RSGB
website can show who is doing what, when and where. Fletcher can be
reached by e-mail to g4rfcinfo (at) yahoo (dot) co (dot)uk. (GB2RS)
**
NAMES IN THE NEWS: G6LVB TO SPEAK AT AMSAT-NA - TAPR HAMVENTION BANQUET
Howard Long, G6LVB will be the featured speaker at the 2012 AMSAT/TAPR
Hamvention Banquet on Friday night, May 18th in Dayton, Ohio. Long will
be talking about his FUNcube Dongle and the 64 to 1700 MHz Software
Defined Receiver. Banquet tickets will not be sold at the AMSAT booth
during the Hamvention therefore reservations must be made ahead of time
through the AMSAT Store. Its located in cyberspace at
tinyurl.com/amsat-na-store. Tickets are priced at $30 each. (ANS)
**
NAMES IN THE NEWS: K9EID UK AUDIO TALK POSTED TO YOUTUBE
And a talk about improving audio on the ham radio bands given by Bob Heil,
K9EID, has been posted on-line by M3XYP. Recorded at the United Kingdom
2011 National Hamfest, the video is in five parts and can be found at
www.youtube.com/user/m3xypsar/videos (M3XYP)
**
BREAK 2
This is ham radio news for today's radio amateur. From the United States
of America, We are the Amateur Radio Newsline with links to the world from
our only official website at www.arnewsline.org and being relayed by the
volunteer services of the following radio amateur:
(5 sec pause here)
**
THE CHANGING OF THE GUARD: PACIFIC DXER RON WRIGHT ZL1AMO - S.K.
Another of those sad changing of the guard moments. This with word that
the ham radio community has lost legendary Pacific DX'er and DXpeditioner
Ron Wright, ZL1AMO.
Word went out two weeks ago that Wright had been admitted to the North
Shore Hospital in New Zealand because of a collapsed lung but recovered.
The last medical update noted that ZL1AMO was in stable condition.
According to reports, Wright was still in the hospital at the time of his
death on March 6th. Services for ZL1AMO were to be held at the Morrison
Fuenral Home in Henderson, New Zealand on Saturday March 10th. At the
time of his passing Ron Wright, ZL1AMO, was age of 75. (OPDX, NZ Herald)
**
HAM RADIO IN SPACE: CALL FOR SPEAKERS AT 2012 AMSAT UK SPACE COLLOQUIUM
A call has gone out for speakers for the AMSAT-UK 2012 International Space
Colloquium. This years gathering will take on the weekend of September
15th to the 16th at the Holiday Inn, Guildford, England. Also being
sought are papers for subsequent publishing on the AMSAT-UK web site.
Submissions should be sent via e-mail to david dot johnson at blackpepper
dot co dot uk or to the postal address for G4DPZ found on QRZ dot com.
More information on this event is on-line at www (dot) uk (dot) amsat
(dot) org/colloquium/twelve.
This years Colloquium will take place only a few weeks prior to the
planned launch of AMSAT-UK's FUNcube-1 ham radio satellite. (AMSAT-UK)
**
HAM RADIO IN SPACE: AMATEUR RADIO SATELLITE COORDINATION FORMS REVISED
Hans van de Groenendaal, ZS6AKV, reports that the Amateur Satellite
Frequency Coordination request form has been updated and is available for
download from www.iaru.org/satellite. Also on the IARU satellite web page
are a number of guideline documents which will assist satellite builders,
including a document on the ITU requirements for amateur radio satellites.
ZS6AKV is the IARU Satellite Advisor. (ZS6AKV)
**
HAM RADIO IN SPACE: AMSAT-NA RECEIVES OKJ TO RE-DISTRIBUTE KEPS
AMSAT's Ray Hoad, WA5QGD has announced that the organizations request to
re-distribute US Air Force Space Command Keplerian elements from
SpaceTrack has been approved for the period April 1, 2012 to April 1,
2013. AMSAT's request to distribute the orbital element data was approved
on March 1st. (ANS, WA5QGD)
**
WORLDBEAT: RNW MEDIA NETWORK WEBLOG TO END MARCH 22
The Radio Netherlands Media Network Weblog will be closing for good at the
end of the winter shortwave broadcast season on Saturday March 24th. This
as the result of a new mandate by the the Holland-based broadcaster that
effective on January 1, 2013, it will no longer be possible to provide
coverage of international media news.
The Weblog is written and edited by Andy Sennitt and contains over 15,000
media news items published since October 2003. Sennitt says that it will
remain online as a searchable archive. To prevent spam, it will no longer
be possible to add comments, but the nearly 14,000 comments already
received will still be available for viewing.
The last Media Network newsletter will be e-mailed to subscribers on March
22nd. (Media Network)
**
WORLDBEAT: GREECE TURNS OFF 11 MEDIUM WAVE TRANSMITTERS
The Administrative Board of the Greek Public Broadcaster has ordered the
switch-off of eleven medium wave transmitters. This as a result of new
austerity measures due to the financial situation being faced by that
European nation. This leaves only nine medium wave transmitters with
their respective Greek Public Radio programs in operation. The action was
adopted by the Administrative Board after a meeting on February 17th.
(GreekRadio.com)
**
RADIOSPORT: 2012 CQIR CONTEST CELECRATES IRTS 80TH ANNIVERSARY
From the radiosports file, word that the CQIR contest is taking place at
not long after this newscast goes to air. That being from mid-day on
Saturday March 17th to mid-day on the 18th.
This years contest will be the international showpiece event for the Irish
Radio Transmitters Society`s 80th anniversary celebration. Paul O'Kane,
EI5DI, advises that his contest logger will be free and unrestricted for
the contest. Also that his SD may be downloaded from ei5di.com.
CQIR entrants should be aware that the Russian DX contest overlaps with
it. You can easily tell the difference between the two in that Russian
stations will send a 2 character district code instead of a serial report
as used in the CQIR competition.
Full rules for the CQIR contest are available on-line at www.irts.ie.
(IRTS)
**
DX
2E1EUB, will once again be active as from Eastern Scotland as 2M1EUB for 7
days beginning March 24th. He will be located in the Cairngorms National
Park operating on 160 and 80 meters and several ham satellites. QSL as
directed under 2M1EUB on QRZ.com.
The current XW1A and XWOZJZ operations from Laos have been approved for
DXCC credit. Bill Moore, NC1L, who heads up the DXCC Desk at ARRL
headquarters made the approval official on Tuesday, March 13th.
EI7CC will be on the air from Lesotho as 7P8PB through April 3rd. Activity
will be holiday style and he will operate when circumstances permit. QSL
via EI7CC, either direct or via the bureau. Logs will be uploaded to
Logbook of the World immediately after his return to Ireland.
A large group from Germany and Poland plan to be active from the Pacific
island of Tonga until March 24th. They are using the callsign is A35YZ.
QSL via DL7DF.
Down the road a bit comes word that DK9FN will once again return to Temotu
Province be active as H40FN between this December 22nd and January 7th of
2013. QSL H40FN via HA8DD. More details will be forthcoming.
Lastly comes news that F4CYZ will be operational from Morocco as CN2YZ
through years end. His activity will be from the city of Tangier and
especially on the weekends. The Mediterraneo DX Club is supporting his
activities and is also providing a Web site with a log-check. Its in
cyberspace at www.mdxc.org/cn2yz.
(Above from various DX news sources)
**
THAT FINAL ITEM: BILL BEFORE CONGRESS TO LET ASTRONAUTS KEEP SPACE
SOUVENIRS
And finally this week, a dispute between NASA and some former astronauts
over ownership of space artifacts has led to a bill in Congress that would
give the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo astronauts "full ownership rights."
This, to items such as checklists and personal logs from their missions.
Amateur Radio Newsline's Don Wilbanks, AE5DW, has the rest of the story:
--
Known as H.R. 4158 the proposed legislation grows out of an effort last
year by Apollo 13 Commander Jim Lovell to sell the lunar module activation
checklist that had been used to convert the moon lander into a space
lifeboat on the periled 1970 Apollo 13 mission. The sale brought
record-setting $388,375 but it was put on hold after the National
Aeronautics and Space Administration demanded proof that the former
astronaut owned the item.
Now comes H.R. 4158 that was introduced by Representative Ralph Hall of
Texas. Hall is the chairman of the House Science, Space and Technology
Committee. He measures co-sponsor was Representative Eddie Bernice
Johnson, also of Texas. It has since amassed an additional fifteen
co-sponsors.
In a letter to heir congressional colleagues the two key sponsors wrote
that the legislation would allow the first generation of astronauts to
retain spaceflight artifacts that have been in their possession. In many
cases for more than 40 years.
Under the proposed measure, astronauts from the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo
programs would be allowed to keep items such as personal logs and
checklists. The only thing off limits would be rock samples gathered on
those early lunar missions. The so-called ƒ?oMoon Rocks.ƒ??
After meeting with Lovell and several other former astronauts last month,
NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said that these are American heroes. He
called them fellow astronauts and personal friends who have acted in good
faith. As such, Bolden says that they are committed to working together to
find the right policy and legal paths forward to address outstanding
ownership questions.
H.R. 4158 has bi-partisan support and is expected to make it all the way
through the Congressional rule making process.
For the Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Don Wilbanks, AE5DW, in New Orleans.
--
This was not the first time that NASA has challenged the sale by an
astronaut of a piece of space memorabilia. In 2010, NASA challenged
Apollo 14 astronaut Edgar Mitchell's attempt to sell a camera he took to
the moon. Mitchell eventually agreed to donate the camera to the
Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum. (collectspace.com;
physorg.com, others)
**
NEWSCAST CLOSE
With thanks to Alan Labs, AMSAT, the ARRL, the CGC Communicator, CQ
Magazine, the FCC, the Ohio Penn DX Bulletin, Radio Netherlands, Rain, the
RSGB, the Southgate News and Australia's W-I-A News, that's all from the
Amateur Radio NewslineT. Our e-mail address is newsline(at) arnewsline
(dot) org. More information is available at Amateur Radio Newsline'sT
only official website located at www.arnewsline.org. You can also write
to us or support us at Amateur Radio NewslineT, 28197 Robin Avenue, Santa
Clarita California, 91350
A reminder that the nominating period for the 2012 Amateur Radio Newsline
Young Ham of the Year Award is now open. Full details and a downloadable
nominating form are on our website at arnewsline.org/yhoty.
For now, with Bill Pasternak, WA6ITF, at the editors desk, I'm Jim Davis,
W2JKD, on Florida's Sunshine Coast saying 73 and we thank you for
listening.
Amateur Radio NewslineT is Copyright 2012. All rights reserved.
R\%/itt
... Only those who will risk going too far can possibly
... find out how far one can go ~ TS Eliot
--- Twit(t) Filter v2.1 (C) 2000-10
* Origin: SATX Alamo Area Net * South * Texas, USA * (1:387/22)
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