ZC4LI Silent Key

ZC4LI, Steve Hodgson, also known as 5B4AHA, C4C, G0LII, G6G and ZD8LII, QRV until a few weeks ago, has become a Silent Key, passing on Saturday afternoon, August 31. In April, W3UR received an email from Steve describing his first bout with cancer, in 2011, with 47cm of intestines removed, but it was too late; the cancer had already migrated to his liver.

Steve was well prepared for parting, with a plot in the Military Cemetery in Cyprus "booked." He told Bernie, "I have been living with this for over three years now, so I do tend to get a bit blase. It does not worry me at all, as long [as] it is quick and painless. I could walk off this mortal coil tomorrow. It is the ones who are left behind who have all of the sorrow. I will be well out of it".”

Steve was 69. 5B4AIY, Adrian, says Steve was "an enthusiastic contest operator and had won many awards. I'm sure his call will be sorely missed." A friend has gone; yet those of us reading this remain a little longer.

Warning Key Entities Not To Use Windows 8

August 21st, 2013 - LEAKED: German Government Warns Key Entities Not To Use Windows 8 – Links The NSA

Wolf Richter - "A Special Surveillance Chip"

According to leaked internal documents from the German Federal Office for Information Security (BSI) that Die Zeit obtained, IT experts figured out that Windows 8, the touch-screen enabled, super-duper, but sales-challenged Microsoft operating system is outright dangerous for data security. It allows Microsoft to control the computer remotely through a built-in backdoor. Keys to that backdoor are likely accessible to the NSA – and in an unintended ironic twist, perhaps even to the Chinese.

The backdoor is called “Trusted Computing,” developed and promoted by the Trusted Computing Group, founded a decade ago by the all-American tech companies AMD, Cisco, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Intel, Microsoft, and Wave Systems. Its core element is a chip, the Trusted Platform Module (TPM), and an operating system designed for it, such as Windows 8. Trusted Computing Group has developed the specifications of how the chip and operating systems work together.

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FOC - FOCUS75 Magazine

During the month of May 2013 the First Class CW Operators' Club hosted a CW QSO Party, FOC75, to help celebrate the Club's 75th Anniversary. This turned into a major CW fun event for the whole month. Over 60 stations around the world signed with the *FOC prefix, making over 200,000 CW QSOs and leading to over 1,600 applications for our commemorative certificate - well beyond our wildest dreams. This was a major tribute to Samuel Morse, Alfred Vail and to the Club's motto: "A man should keep his friendship in constant repair" (Samuel Johnson, 1709-1789).

FOC publishes a quarterly magazine for its members called "FOCUS", a high-quality magazine edited by Gabor, S57WJ. But this FOC75 event met with such huge success that we have decided to publish an extra edition, called "FOCUS75". FOC is pleased to share this special edition of our magazine with not only members but also anyone who enjoys CW. Just go to http://www.g4foc.org/ to down-load it. Read the whole story of this month-long celebration of Morse Code, especially the operating experiences around the world, and see photos of those who made it happen in a pull-out poster.

CW is alive and well and will remain so for at least the next 75 years - FOC will see to that!

73 de Roger/G3SXW,
FOC Committee Secretary.

QSL Bureau - a big shame?

[DXNL 1821 - February 27th, 2013]: Changes in the USKA QSL bureau:
QSL cards for non-members of the Swiss IARU society USKA will no longer be returned with a "Not Member" stamp, but silently discarded, to save work and money.

What a shame! This is known problem for many years: the QSL Bureau is roughly abused by a national Ham Radio Society (mostly IARU member) to force hams in the country to join. On the other hand, the Ham radio society officers whining about declining ham-spirit and operating skils. Isn't something rotten there with the IARU and ham radio generally? Why a QSL Bureau can't serve at non-profit basis for an acceptably small fee to ALL HAMS IN THE COUNTRY, regardless of membership?

A particular ham may have a half dozen of reasons to NOT be A MEMBER of the local Ham Radio Society but such ham is excluded from the common QSL exchange. This is an usual practice in many countries for years.

Anyway, my QSL card is MY PROPERTY until delivery to the recipient. I pay for a QSL card (printing, labels, my postal or QSL Bureau expenses etc.) in good belief that it will be delivered to the recipient. The Ham Radio Society decides to silently discard my property without informing me about my waste money.

How much QSL cards discarded do I need to initiate a lawsuit to get a compensation? Where should I get a proof that they actually made such nasty act?

WE NEED A CHANGE!