March 7, 2007

The Iowa Department of Natural Resources and the Iowa Attorney General's office have delayed a preliminary step leading to the prosecution of Highland Bluffs Resort for pollution violations.

"Your repair service sucks, to put it bluntly," said council member David Hemmer of Mediacom, the city's cable television provider, at Prairie du Chien City Council last night.

Lee Grassley, senior manager for governmental relations, and Doug Nix, area manager for the north central division of Mediacom, appeared before city council to address issues of service and reception problems.

Hemmer said he had an appointment for service three different times and no one showed up. "It took almost a year," said Hemmer, "to get service." He said the 800 number also made it difficult to contact anyone. "You have a long way to go on the service end," Hemmer concluded.

Grassley agreed that the phone situation was difficult and said he had had "long talks with people at the division headquarters" about the problem. He said the problem can't be solved overnight but the company is aware of it and working on it.

Council member Joe Ruskey also commented on reception on channels two through nine. "Some days it's clear," he said, "and other times fuzzy." Grassley said Mediacom is trying to tie all its Wisconsin properties into one network so they can feed programming through a fiber optic network rather than over the air. Until that is completed, he said, there will be reception problems.

In response to a question about the lack of availability of a mid-priced cable package, Grassley said they are looking for something, but encounter problems in getting "a la carte" packages from their providers. Council took no further action.

In other business:

Former City Planner Garth Frable, who is finishing up some consulting work for the city, reported on progress with the transfer of Wolf Machine to the former Quality Wood site. Frabel said he anticipated that the city would closed on purchase of the property currently owned by Wolf in Block 43, and transfer ownership of the former Quality Wood building to Wolf. The city will retain title to the underlying property while environmental remedial efforts are underway. Wolf Machine plans to make renovation and build an addition to the existing building, which should be completed by June. Wolf has guaranteed that they will maintain their current positions and create at least two new positions by 2009, although they hope to add more jobs.

The Rifkin Group, which plans to build a shopping center on the north side of Block 43, at the corner of Hayden and Marquette, is expected to begin construction as early as this month.

Council approved a three-way lot split of property owned by Trautsch Distributing Company near the airport, and authorized the purchase of Lots 1 and 3. Trautsch will maintain ownership of Lot 2. The lots will be made available to expanding industries. Said City Administrator Gordon Gallagher, "In a time of mediocre economic performance at the national level, we're seeing economic and job growth locally, and the city council is being assertive in trying to create jobs for the community."

Council signed an agreement with Vierbicher Associates to help set up an Environmental Tax Increment District at the former Quality Wood site for a fee of $4,200.

Council approved closing out a District Three TIF prior to the end of the contracted agreement. The city will receive $10,000 at closeout time. Had the contract continued until its expiration in five years, they would have received about $12,000.

Gallagher reviewed the 2006 tax roll with the council, noting that general property taxes, in the amount of $8,248,875 had decreased from the 2005 total of $8,286,985, and that delinquent taxes, which will be collected by the county and turned over to the city, are up slightly, from $488,399 to $514,754.

Council accepted a letter of commendation from the state's Department of Commerce safety inspector commending Fire Chief Mark Hoppenjan for his "outstanding efforts in regards to insuring that safety programs and training were completed."

By Sandy Vold

Anyone who thinks that when computers came along, ham radio has gone the way of the typewriter had better check with Rich Kelly, computer problem solver and ham radio operator with the call letters of KB9RNO.

Kelly's office, out of which he runs his business, Kelly Creation Computers, is a showcase for the marriage of ham radio and computer technology. Two computer screens hooked up to his radio equipment display a variety of information about his radio contacts. He can even control the equipment remotely via the internet when he is away from home, if he chooses.

Kelly said he had always been interested in electronics and radio, and when he was 10 or 12 his parents bought him a CB radio for his birthday. Although there is a big difference between CB and Ham radio, Kelly said that whetted his appetite, and in 1997 he decided to study for an amateur radio license. He started with an entry level license and worked his way up until he attained privileges for worldwide communications.

"It's really a huge hobby," he said, "with many different options." Voice is only one form of communication. Operators can also communicate from computer to computer, typing text which is converted to digital communications over the air, and then received by another radio station and decoded back into text. This is known as digital ham radio. It is also possible to communicate via satellite and Morse code.

In radio operation, there is both short distance and long distance communication. Short distance communications occurs within a 100-200 mile radius, and is frequently accomplished by repeaters, which hear the signal on one frequency and repeat it on another, thereby multiplying the distance a signal can travel.

In long distance communication, radio signals are bounced off of various things such as the moon, meteor trails and the aurora borealis (Northern Lights), but it is usually the ionosphere, which reflects signals back to earth differently on different frequencies.

Most people associate sunspot activity with static and poor communications, but for ham radio operators the more sunspots the better. "We're at the bottom of an 11 year cycle," said Kelly. "We can still communicate but the amount and distance is affected by day and night and a lot of other variables." He explained that different frequencies bounce better depending on whether it's day or night. "When the sunspot cycle goes up the time of day doesn't matter so much," he said.

Kelly explained that there are actually contests for ham operators. One such is to see how many different contacts can be made during a certain period. Kelly himself prefers trying to reach different geographic locations or "entities." Out of 337 known entities, Kelly has contacted 258, and has confirmation cards, known as QSL cards, from 237. The cards are a ham operator's proof of contact. Most serious operators have postcards already made up, and when another operator asks for confirmation, they simply fill in the date and time and mail the card. Kelly keeps all his confirmations in a scrapbook. "I've contacted countries whose names I couldn't even pronounce," he said. "All countries in the world have ham operators except for North Korea; they're the only ones who don't allow it."

The contact he is proudest of is from a place called Peter One Island in Antarctica. "It's just a chunk of rock covered by snow," he said, "but some amateur operators went there during the ïsummer' in the midst of severe snow storms, high winds and icebergs.

Kelly said he had contacted research bases in the Antarctic before, but never that place.

Amateur operators come from all walks of life, Kelly said. Although a lot of technical people are attracted to it, so are people without a lot of technical expertise. Among the more famous ham radio operators are, or have been: King Juan Carlos I of Spain, Walter Cronkite, General Curtis LeMay, Barry Goldwater, Chet Atkins, Joe Walsh, Marlon Brando, Patty Loveless, Bill 'Bubba' Bussey from the nationally syndicated Rick and Bubba Show, and Jean Shepherd, as well as most of the launched astronauts and cosmonauts.

Ham radio operators share the radio frequencies with commercial stations and short wave radio, with certain frequencies assigned to each group. Operators monitor their own frequencies, and whenever an unauthorized person is caught using these frequencies, it is reported to the FCC. "We can triangulate with each other and locate the position of an unauthorized person. We'll eventually find him or her and the FCC will prosecute."

A ham radio setup can range in cost from a few hundred dollars to tens of thousands. Kelly said it has taken him 10 years to build up his station, but "you can make it as technical as you want it to be."

His computer screens can display an electronic log of contacts made and where communications are taking place around the world. If he types in the call sign of a distant station, he gets information about the operator and his location as well as an address for sending a confirmation card. At the touch of a key, a map will appear to show the operator's geographical location His computer allows him to turn his antennae in the correct direction, his radio to the correct frequency and tune his antenna for the correct length.

Kelly has impressive towers which he erected in his yard at 417 South Wacouta. He explained that for every frequency, an antenna has to have a different length. His backyard antenna has four hollow fiberglass rods attached to it, and each rod contains copper strips which, when he sends a signal to the antenna, move in or out depending on the frequency. However, Kelly added, "it's also possible to transmit on a simple piece of wire that's the correct length for that particular frequency."

Kelly also has a mobile unit in his truck, which is more limited in sending and receiving; nevertheless he has made contact around the world from his truck.

Although Kelly is familiar with Morse code, he rarely uses it. Pointing to his dusty code key, he said, "If I want, I can use the computer to send and decode it. Some people like Morse code a lot, but not many younger people want to take the time to learn it." Although knowledge of Morse code used to be required for licensure, that requirement was dropped Feb. 23 of this year. English, he said, is the universal language in amateur radio, and it is rare to run across another ham operator who doesn't know enough English to communicate.

Kelly said he has been very fortunate in his relationship with the city and his neighbors. "Some cities," he said, "make it hard for amateur operators to put up antennae or towers." Kelly said he had to contact all his neighbors and appear before the zoning board for a permit, but everyone was very helpful and cooperative. "There is a law," he said, "that cities must make reasonable accommodations to allow ham operators to install antennae and towers, but that doesn't always happen."

For anyone interested in learning more about ham radio, Kelly recommends the website www.arrl.org. That, he said has a list of organizations in every state that will help a person learn how to become an amateur operator. In addition, he said, there are many websites that can help people study for licensure. He said he would also be willing to help anyone interested.

Kelly, who lives with his wife Donna and three children, Derick, Adam and Ana, has passed his interest on to at least one of his children. Derick, who is now a student at UW-Milwaukee, passed the tests and received his amateur license at the age of 12. There is no minimum age limit for licensure.

Kelly wants to make sure people understand that ham operators also perform an important public service. They support the community with emergency and disaster communications. When severe storms are possible, storm spotting groups such as SKYWARN in the United States coordinate amateur radio operators to keep track of severe thunderstorms and tornadoes. Reports from spotters and chasers are given to the National Weather Service to warn the general public. Spotters also give reports during winter storms, floods, hurricanes and wildfires. When all other forms of communication failed following Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, ham radio operators were able to provide crucial information about emergency situations. The federal government also uses ham radio operators as part of its contingency plan for Homeland Security.

Residents inspect Hwy 18 bypass map