That's OK - it got me too. There's just enough of a "ring of truth" (considering this supposedly occurred in California) to make it sound plausible. Mark - N9WYS
--- On Wed, 4/8/09, David Struebel <wb2...@optonline.net> wrote: From: David Struebel <wb2...@optonline.net> Subject: Re: [Repeater-Builder] Ridiculus To: Repeater-Builder@yahoogroups.com Date: Wednesday, April 8, 2009, 7:25 PM According to ARRL HQ it is an April Fool's joke Dave WB2FTX ----- Original Message ----- From: Lee Pennington Sent: Wednesday, April 08, 2009 4:38 PM Subject: [Repeater-Builder] Ridiculus ============ ========= ========= ========= ========= ======= THIS IS ABSOLUTLY REDICULOUS! ____________ _________ _________ __ Subject: California County Taking Actions To Silence ALL Ham Activity From: www radiobanter com San Luis Obispocounty supervisors took drastic and unprecedented action yesterday by passing an ordinance that would prohibit amateur radio operators, known as "hams", from operating their transmitting stations. The measure was put in place to eliminate what officials said were health risks associated with transmitters located close to children. A legal struggle is expected. By a vote of 4 to 1 with one abstention, the governing board of SLO county took action aimed at addressing a recent Stanford University study that showed a correlation between ham radios and attention de ficit disorder and hyperactivity in children, as well as nagging reports of interference caused by radio hams operating their high-powered transmitters in residential neighborhoods. "Our primary responsibility is to provide a safe environment for children to live without the dangerous effects of radio waves constantly bombarding them and causing proven neurological and psychological problems," said E. Duane Nyborg, an attorney who represented the county in several court cases in the past year. "Hams are not the only culprits, but they are usually in very close proximity to children and are no doubt a major contributor to the health problems we've been seeing. The interference is just the last straw that convinced the county that something had to be done about it." Atascadero city manager Laura Lopez said that she has seen a tenfold increase in the number of complaints of interference from ham radio operators in the last six months. New housing developments which have dramatically increased the population there and placed homes unusually close to each other are the predominant contributing factor. Similar conditions exist in most of the county. "We have radio hams getting into toasters, electric pianos, light bulbs, everything, from their powerful transmitters that cause all this static. Many of our citizens can't use basic appliances or watch television because of all the junk that the hams are broadcasting," she tol d the Press-Telegram by telephone. Hams can't say they didn't see this coming. They were warned by the county last year that if they did not submit to a check of their stations by officials, they would have limits imposed on their operation. Few consented to the searches, which most decried as invasive. But nobody expected a total ban on transmissions. "This is outrageous. You'd better believe we're going to fight back and win. This is a totalitarian seizure of our rights that is totally illegal and can't stand up," said Frank Wilson, a local ham club president. He said there were no formal plans for an appeal yet but preparations were underway. Wilson claims that a federal preemption of local zoning ordinances, called PRB-1, delineates three rules for local municipalities to follow in accomodating antenna structures such as are used by hams. But Nyborg says that PRB-1 applies to antenna structures only, and not the transmitters used to feed the antennas with a radio signal. "We know all about PRB-1. That's why we said nothing about antennas. This law is not about antennas. It goes after the root of the problem, which is the transmitters that put out huge signals that get into the brains of our children and short-circuit them out. Those are the facts, that's what the scientific evidence points to," he said at a news conference called shortly after the county's action. In 2008, a grou p of researchers in the school of Environmental Health and Safety at Stanford published their findings that exposure to ham radio signals for three hours per day increased the risk of hyperactivity and related disorders by 10% in children aged 12 and under. This effect was seen when a typical ham radio was turned on up to ¼ mile away. The San Luis Obispo city office says that up to 11,000 children in that city live that close to a ham radio station. The Stanford study showed that frequencies around 3.5, 7, and 14 Megahertz were the most harmful, but that the danger existed all the way up to 450 Megahertz and above. "We know where the hams are, that information is easy to get on the Internet," said former mayor of Paso Robles and current county supervisor Anthony Wu. "Most of these guys are running one hundred watts of power, that's an incredible amount of radiation, and you can't block it out. It enters your house, it gets into your body and does a lot of damage there." Cindy MacMahon, 41, of Morro Bay, soccer mom of two and volunteer at city bake sales, praised the action by the board of supervisors and looked forward to radio-free days ahead. "I'm always getting interference on my TV and stereo that I'm sure is from the guy down the street with his big tower. I don't know why they even allow those big, ugly things. I know that my kids are harder to control whe n he turns that thing on and I've been saying that for three years." Most area hams were totally unaware of the new law and Wilson believes there will be a revolt when they discover it. "I will be speaking about it at our club meeting on Friday. We would normally disseminate the information by radio, but of course that's illegal for the moment." Amateur radio operator Clay Collins of Pismo Beach, was incredulous. "We provide free emergency communications for the county, we assist the police department, we help out several times a year on all manner of public events, and this is the thanks we get. Someone is badly informed. Next thing you know, we'll be accused of being responsible for global warming." Another radio ham who identified himself only as "Deke" said that although a number of hams were mobilizing to do what they could he was pessimistic. "I actually know that Nyborg guy. He walks around twelve hours a day with a cell phone up to his head and yet he's worried about the tiny amount of radiation from my transmitter." Deke claims that the frequencies of a cell phone are close to that of a microwave oven. "You hold a [cell] phone up to your head, you're cooking your brain slowly," he warned. Collins, a ham of fifty-three years and grandfather of six, lives in a housing tract with a homeowners' association that already regulates ham radio operators. He says that restrictive H OA agreements exacerbate the problem. "By prohibiting high antenna towers, [the HOA rules] force me to place my antennas lower and closer to my neighbors, and force me to use higher power to make up for the difference in performance." He said that his antenna, which is located in his attic, creates far more radiation on the ground than if it were up on a 50-foot tower-the same type of tower Collins applied for in 1997 but was denied a permit for. Hams are required by the FCC to keep track of the amount of radiation from their antennas but Collins' station is far below the allowable limits, he says. "In the next earthquake, all of my neighbors will be running to my house to send messages out to their loved ones in other places. I hope they remember this." Dick Henley, a member of the Electronic Industries Association who lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan, claims that most of the interference to appliances, televisions, and phones can't be blamed on hams going about their normal activity. "The vast majority of these appliances is insufficiently shielded against external fields. The slightest interference- even from a garage door opener or a cell phone-can disrupt it. In most cases, it's not the ham's fault." He said that on the contrary, hams are usually the ones who must suffer with interference from these electronic devices. "Most of the stuff coming out of China spews interference to radios, but the h ams have just learned to live with it. Homeowners are totally oblivious to this," he said. Xiang Qang, the principal investigator at Stanford who co-published the original paper, explained that the radio waves, over the long term, polarize cells in the brain tissue and bias a child toward rough or anti-social behavior. "We saw these children who couldn't sit still, couldn't listen to a book being read to them, and who had severe reading delays and disabilities. We started to see that each time a television was turned on near them, they would actually exhibit worse behavior. So we followed that path: why the television? Why the television? Then we discovered that is wasn't the television, but the radiation from it. So we tested many other types of transmitters and found that the worst ones were ham transmitters from Icom and Yaesu, with the Kenwoods being marginally better." Qang explains that it is the brain's frontal lobe which is most vulnerable to external radiation due to its location at the front of the cranium just behind the forehead, its proximity to the sphenoid wing- the bone at the temple that houses the pituitary gland- and it's large size. "The frontal lobe absorbs a lot of radiation and since it governs our behavior, this is why we think that attention deficit and hyperactivity are the symptoms of prolonged absorption of high-frequency waves in that region," she said. "Nonsense," says Dr. V. Subrahaminayalakshm inirayana, head of neurology at Kaiser Permanente in San Francisco. "There is absolutely no conclusive evidence in the literature to support an ambitious and imaginative theory that ionizing radiation can deleteriously and negatively affect behavior in children whether the exposure is at a relatively constant low-level or periodic." He believes that attention deficit hyperactivity is more likely a function of exhaustive over-stimulation of the brain by video games, texting, and television viewing. "Ask the Asian parents of your child's playmate why they never seem to have this problem," he laughed.. In fact, the Stanford study found that Hispanic children were fourteen times as likely to suffer the effects of radio waves than were Asian children. Hydra Brock-Parker, dean of sociology at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and a consultant named in the Stanford study, says that Hispanics live in depressed parts of a city where houses and apartments are packed closer together and the possibility of exposure is much greater. "Where are all of those children going to go to escape radiation from transmitters? There's no backyard to play in and besides, you wouldn't want your children playing outside in those neighborhoods. If you've got, you know, a ham serial-killer type next door flooding your apartment with high-intensity radio waves, you have no choice but to sit there and get sick," she said. Representatives20fr om Marin, Ventura, and Los Angeles counties were present at the press conference and were said to be keenly interested in the implementation of the new law. A similar measure was introduced into the L.A. County Board's docket on Monday and may be considered at the next session in May. ____________ _________ _________ _________ _________ _________ _____ SFDXA mailing list Home: http://mailman. qth.net/mailman/ listinfo/ sfdxa Help: http://mailman. qth.net/mmfaq. htm Post: mailto:sf...@mailman. qth.net This list hosted by: http://www.qsl. net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl. net/donate. html -- "Smart pills are placebos, you can't fix stupid." No virus found in this incoming message. 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