C-Message Weighting Messaging System (408)-377-7441 14,400 V.32/V.42bis ======================================================================= B A S E L I N E N E W S - A U G U S T 1 9 9 3 Alfred Deisner, Editor ======================================================================= "News about technology and technology policy" _____________ including an electronic digest of published reports_________ This Month: =========== - Signals of Interest - Red Net Info - System Review =========== SIGNALS OF INTEREST (MHZ) 33.100 Santa Clara County Red Net, Control Stations 33.960 Santa Clara County Red Net, Repeater, Carol Drive, San Jose 151.925 Marriott Hotel, Santa Clara (shuttle to airport, Great America) 153.740 California State University, Hayward (police) 154.570 Mountain Winery, Saratoga (concert security) 154.600 Mountain Winery, Saratoga (show production & coordination) 163.5375 US Army Fort Hunter Liggett, Jolon (fire department) 165.1125 California Air National Guard, Moffett Field (security) 172.650 Yosemite National Park, Yosemite (park rangers) 451.450 GTE California Inc., Los Gatos, Morgan Hill 452.250 Yellow Cab Company, Dispatch, Palo Alto (repeater, peninsula) 453.575 Sacramento County Sheriff's Dept., Sacramento 453.675 Sacramento County Sheriff's Dept., Sacramento 460.200 Yuba County Sherriff's Department, Marysville 462.000 Post Newsweek Cable Co., Santa Rosa (repeater: Mt. St. Helena) 462.000 Homedco, Inc., Salinas (medical equipment delivery) 462.000 A-1 Towing, San Jose, Santa Cruz, Watsonville 462.150 Airport Holiday Inn, San Jose (airport shuttle bus) 490.2625 Great America Park, Santa Clara 937.7625 Freeway Service Patrol, Tow Disp.: CHP Golden Gate, (trunked) 937.775 Freeway Service Patrol, Tow Disp.: CHP Golden Gate, (trunked) 937.7875 Freeway Service Patrol, Tow Disp.: CHP Golden Gate, (trunked) 937.800 Freeway Service Patrol, Tow Disp.: CHP Golden Gate, (trunked) 937.8125 Freeway Service Patrol, Tow Disp.: CHP Golden Gate, (trunked) 937.825 Freeway Service Patrol, Tow Disp.: CHP Golden Gate, (trunked) 937.8375 Freeway Service Patrol, Tow Disp.: CHP Golden Gate, (trunked) 937.850 Freeway Service Patrol, Tow Disp.: CHP Golden Gate, (trunked) 937.8625 Freeway Service Patrol, Tow Disp.: CHP Golden Gate, (trunked) 937.875 Freeway Service Patrol, Tow Disp.: CHP Golden Gate, (trunked) MORE ON THE RED NET The Red Net was constructed to connect Santa Clara County fire agencies dispatch facilities. The system officially went on-line for use on Monday, 26 July. The reason for deployment of the net is to speed up mutual aid and task force dispatches. In addition, all fire agency dispatch centers are supposed to have more awareness of which agencies are missing people and equipment on account of a mutual aid or task force assignment. Red Net tests will be held on the second and fourth Monday of each month. One test will be held for each dispatch center shift. The first test will be at 0200 (2:00 a.m.), the second at 1000 (10:00 a.m.), and the third at 1800 hrs (6:00 p.m.). The communications centers initiating the test will be rotated so that each agency has a chance to ring down all other agencies. A few agencies do not have their Red Net bases installed yet. The system uses 33.960 MHz through a repeater located at the Santa Clara County Communications Facility. SYSTEM REVIEW: HOW MANY YELLOW CAB COMPANIES ARE THERE? Yellow Cab of Palo Alto uses a UHF repeater on 452.250 MHz. The repeater has good level discipline and nearly every radio in the system works as it should. Cars observed are shiny, clean, and have few dents. Drivers are professional when on-the-air. A series of color codes is employed to show status; their meanings are something like: WHITE: start of shift - not currently available BLACK: end of shift - assign no more calls BLUE: (undetermined) GOLD: available for a fare SILVER: fare on board The company serves the peninsula from San Francisco International to San Jose. Most calls seem to be for areas between Palo Alto to SF International Airport. Zone numbers are assigned to areas with the lower numbers appearing to be south and high numbers north. Drivers work twelve- hour shifts. BICYCLE PATROLS GAIN POPULARITY Many police departments are putting patrol officers on bicycles. Palo Alto and San Jose use bicycle patrols in downtown areas. Anaheim is deploying bicycle patrols around Disneyland to curtail crimes against tourists. The officers can easily maneuver through stopped, rush-hour vehicular traffic to reach an incident. Bicycle officers are also in a good place to do traffic enforcement. NEW INFORMATION IN OUR ON-LINE FREQUENCY DATABASE Our on-line frequency database is steadily growing in size. We keep weeding out old records and adding newer ones. There are always a few misspelled names, cities, or typographical errors. We need your input to make sure all areas and interests are addressed. On average, we are adding about seven new records every day or about two hundred per month. GTE MOBILNET SCRAMBLES TO HELP GTE Mobilnet donated "scrambled" cellular telephones and air time for use during Operation Rescue's week of protests. Both San Jose Police and the Santa Clara County Sheriff's Department were loaned specially-equipped cellular phones that make eavesdropping more difficult. Wafaa Aborashed, Government Specialist, is the contact person at GTE Mobilnet who arranged the donation. Other area companies and government agencies also use the specialized service according to the SAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS. PAGING/PCS DIRECTORY The 1993 PAGING/PCS DIRECTORY is now available from BIA Publications. The Directory features histories of paging companies, channel-by-channel accounts of each paging market's frequencies, a list of trade associations, as well as pending regulations. BIA claims their records are more accurate than FCC records, (quite believable to us). The book is targeted at law enforcement, paging companies and consultants. The first copy is $134.00 with additional copies $84.00 each. There is a discount for Telelocator members. For further information, contact: BIA Publications, 14595 Avion Parkway, Chantilly, Virginia, 22021, (703) 818-2425. UNIFIED LICENSING SOUGHT The European Community is studying licensing and frequency coordination procedures used throughout the Community in a effort to standardize telecommunications services and equipment. The Telecommunications Policy Directorate will compose a green paper on mobile communications that will include new trends in frequency management, as well as trends in licensing according to XIII NEWS REVIEW. SPECIAL DISTRICTS Open your eyes. Special districts are all around you. In California, special districts are political entities defined by the state Government Code. Special districts can be formed to meet nearly any need. Some typical special districts are formed for: DISTRICT FUNCTION EXAMPLE =========================== ============================== - mosquito/vector control Marin-Sonoma Mosquito Abatement District - school/college districts Yosemite Community College District - fire protection Menlo Park Fire Protection District - police services Broadmoor Police Protection District - multiple functions Cameron Park Community Services Dist. - preserve open space Midpeninsula Regional Open Space Dist. - operate parks East Bay Regional Parks District - operate a cemetery Saratoga Cemetery District - supply drinking water Sutter Extension Water District - operate waste water system West Bay Sanitation District - mass transportation Bay Area Rapid Transit District Districts can provide many other functions including parking and street lighting. The areas they serve may or may not match city or county boundaries. They may be nearly invisible. Sometimes they have no marked trucks or office because the district contracts with companies or other nearby agencies to perform services. In some cases, the County Board of Supervisors may sit as the district's governing board and make decisions on behalf of the district. In other cases, elected citizens hold governing board posts. There are as many different kinds of special districts and ways of implementing services as the Government Code and imagination will allow. WELLS, METERS, CORROSION, PLANNING The American Water Works Association offers some specialized software packages to fill needs of the water technology industry. Four packages are offered to address industry problems. The Rothberg, Tamburini, and Windsor developed a computer model for corrosion control and water process chemistry. It is a spreadsheet template which can be loaded into either Lotus 1-2-3 or Quattro Pro. The Lotus version requires Lotus 1-2-3 Version 2.01 (DOS) or higher. The Quattro Pro template was designed for Release 3.0 but will also work with Release 4. The cost of the template is $125.00 on 3.5- or 5.25-inch diskettes not including the spreadsheet program. AWWAs (circa 1988) meter inventory software operates on a IBM or 100%- compatible with at least 512K RAM, and DOS Ver. 3.0 or greater. A hard disk is recommended. The software allows tracking of meter number, size, description, make, model, type, purchase date, set date, location, status, and measurement. A demonstration diskette is available for $10.00 The software is available for $495.00 which includes an operation manual. Considering the age and cost of this software, you might weigh the possibility of developing your own program using a commercial database program. Well System Manager (C) software (1991) automates record-keeping for wells in your water system. The program allows recording of static water levels, flow rates, and pumping water levels. Graphics capabilities allow generation of several reports and graphs. An IBM PC, AT, PS/2, or compatible with 640K RAM, MS- or PC-DOS 3.1 or greater, and a 30MB hard disk are required. The program supports most graphics display adapters, dot-matrix and laser printers at $695.00. A financial planning model for water utilities uses Lotus 1-2-3's calculation abilities to model costs of your water system. The model helps analyze growth, changes in water consumption, debt, capital expenditures, and operating costs. Complete with an instruction binder and both 3.5- and 5.25-inch disks, the program requires Lotus 1-2-3 Version 2.1 or greater and costs you $150.00. Need more information? American Water Works Association, 6666 West Quincy Avenue, Denver, Colorado, 80235 (800) 926-7337 FOR VISION IMPAIRED, GUI MAKES LIFE DIFFICULT "Until the graphic user interface (GUI), computer screens had 24 lines and 80 columns of text, with each cell holding one character," said John Perry, Stanford Researcher. "Those characters could be translated for the blind into voice, using a synthesizer, or braille." GUIs like those used in Macintosh, OS/2, and Windows interfaces turn the screen into thousands of pixels that are not readily changed to voice. The change means thousands of people whose vision falls outside of the usual range are being pushed out of the workplace by computers with GUIs. Stanford researchers, working in part under an IBM grant, are developing techniques to present graphics as tactile information or sound. Perry likens the new interface developments to curbside ramps placed in sidewalks to allow those in wheelchairs easy access. Those with vision impairments will need them but many others will appreciate having another option in communicating with their computers. Some ideas for input devices include Morse code keys and voice recognition devices according to Stanford's CAMPUS REPORT. NEW BATTERY ON THE HORIZON A new battery, called nickel-metal-hydride, has been developed by a Michigan company. Energy Conversion Devices developed the non-toxic, maintenance-free battery that has caught the attention of auto makers. The battery uses a proprietary mixture of nine or ten metals to store hydrogen as a solid. The new batteries cost about one and a third times the cost of standard lead-acid batteries, according to Stanford's CAMPUS REPORT. "At a single charge, it can go about 250 to 300 miles," says Stanford Professor John Ross, who created the battery. BIG UGLY FAT FELLOW The Boeing B-52 bomber has been referred to as "Buff", a shortened version of "big ugly fat fellow" -- or something like that but less printable. The first B-52 was delivered to the U.S. Air Force in 1955. There are currently about 148 B-52s remaining: 53 B-52Gs and 95 B-52Hs. The Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) calls for destruction of some of the present aircraft inventory at Davis Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson, Arizona. B-52s carry from 45 to 51 500-pound bombs in a conventional role and can release bombs at 150 millisecond intervals. Here are a few specifics on bombs dropped by B-52s during Desert Storm: Quantity dropped Munition: on Iraqi targets: ---------------------------- ----------------- M-117 750 lb. bombs 44,761 MK-82 500 lb. bombs 17,835 CBU-52/58 cluster bomb 8,652 CBU-71/87/89 cluster bomb 8,652 UK-1000 1,000 lb. bomb 252 Air Launched Cruise Missile 35 Total 72,765 This works out to over 3,700 tons of bombs delivered by B-52s during Desert Storm. AMTRAK TO TEST HIGH SPEED UNITS The National Railroad Passenger Corporation (AMTRAK) will be testing German-built intercity express trains on the rail corridor between New York and Washington. Siemens and AEG will lease the train from the Bundesbahn, the Western German national railroad. The companies will modify the train for U.S. trackage in order for Amtrak to test the train. Amtrak will use test results to determine bid specifications for twenty six high speed trains they plan to purchase in the future. CYPRESS STRUCTURE REPLACEMENT The elevated portion of Interstate 880 that collapsed in the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake will be replaced. The section of freeway, known as the Cypress Viaduct, will be replaced with a new roadway at ground-level. Construction of the new roadway is expected to take between three and four years. Negotiations between the City of Oakland and the State Department of Transportation (CalTrans) concluded this week. Many freeway structures have been modified to prevent them from collapsing in an earthquake. Details on CalTrans' earthquake retrofit program are available in the Automotive Files area in a file named QUAKEPRF.ARC. The text file details changes to bridge and viaduct structures that CalTrans is making. BEHIND THE SCENES: CREDIT The seventh largest issuer of credit cards in the United States is First Chicago. First Chicago began an experiment with credit cards it issued in the northeast U.S. Because of an unusually high bankruptcy rate among cardholders in the northeast, the company began reviewing credit card holders' records more frequently than the normal two-year cycle. A series of screening procedures -- based on database information on persons who filed for bankruptcy -- was applied to cardholder's credit information. Based on this information and the attributes of the cardholder account records, First Chicago believes it can predict the likelihood of a cardholder filing for bankruptcy based on statistical evidence. Characteristics used to determine if a cardholder was likely to file for bankruptcy include: * Time living at present address * Number of dependents * Payment history * Credit card account history * Credit references * Credit card account balances over the credit limit SOURCE: "Equal Credit Opportunity Act: OCC Should Further Review First Chicago's Screening Test for Credit Card Holders," United States General Accounting Office, (GAO/GGD-92-4) December 1991. WORKPLACE ETHICS Many NASA employees believe they will be punished or lose their jobs for reporting mistakes or errors in Space Shuttle processing operations according to the SAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS. A 45-page NASA report says that work force reductions and media coverage of problems with the Shuttle program contribute to the fears. Does one report that he/she broke something so important that it will cost a launch delay and perhaps their job? Or, do you assess the fact that the shuttle is overbuilt to rationalize the risk of not reporting it. It'll probably be okay... Many people see bringing low-value items like pens and correction fluid home from work as okay. Who hasn't used the office telephone to place a personal call? Can you use the office copier and laser printer to make 10,000 fliers for a church barbecue? Is it okay to take home a typewriter or a VCR? Most people would say it's not okay to steal a VCR. But where exactly does the line get drawn? VOCABULARY BUILDER miasma: (my-az-ma) noun. 1. A poisonous atmosphere once believed to rise from swamps and putrid matter and cause disease. 2. A thick vaporous atmosphere or emanation. 3. A harmful influence or atmosphere. Source: WEBSTER'S II NEW RIVERSIDE UNIVERSITY DICTIONARY, 1984. THOUGHTS for August... --------------------- Unlike the United States, Europe does not have a single, unified air traffic control system: 54 control centers operate with 31 different computer systems using 70 different computer languages. The Association of European Airlines has launched a campaign for a single system, reporting that in May 1992, 21% of all European flight departures were delayed by more than 15 minutes -- up from 15.3% in May 1991. In its coverage of the chaotic European situation, THE ECONOMIST cited Jrgen Weber, the Chairman of Lufthansa, who complained that in a single year his airline had lost a total of 14,600 aircraft-hours waiting to take off and another 13,700 flying in circles waiting to land. EG&G Annual Report 1992 Higher attrition rates and job mobility early in a career are a normal part of labor force behavior for all occupations and professions. Individuals choose occupations with limited experience and information and often decide to change occupations, once more experience is gained... D.W. Grissmer, S.N. Kirby, PATTERNS OF ATTRITION AMONG INDIANA TEACHERS 1965- 1987, (RAND R-4162-LE, 1991) _____________________________________________________________________ Thanks to individuals who contributed information for Baseline News. _____________________________________________________________________ Baseline news is not affiliated with Bay Area Scanner Enthusiasts (BASE). Baseline News (C) Copyright 1993 C-Message Weighting Messaging System (408)-377-7441 1200/2400/9600/14400 baud. As long as you distribute this file in its entirety, (including this statement) it is okay to redistribute, print, or copy this file for any lawful purpose without other restrictions. Please note that system disclaimers described in Bulletin 1 apply to the contents of this newsletter. (end)