From editor@telecom-digest.org Tue Oct 26 20:00:38 2004 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.11.6p3/8.11.6) id i9R00cW02018; Tue, 26 Oct 2004 20:00:38 -0400 (EDT) Date: Tue, 26 Oct 2004 20:00:38 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <200410270000.i9R00cW02018@massis.lcs.mit.edu> X-Authentication-Warning: massis.lcs.mit.edu: ptownson set sender to editor@telecom-digest.org using -f To: ptownson Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V23 #515 TELECOM Digest Tue, 26 Oct 2004 20:01:00 EDT Volume 23 : Issue 515 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Vonage(R) Launches Virtual Phone Numbers From London (Lisa Minter) InfiniCall Adds Brazil to Its Unlimited VoIP Calling Plan (Lisa Minter) Re: Infinicall Adds Brazil to Unlimited VOIP Calling (Angela Epstein) Verizon California Terminates ISDN, FX, Other Services (Jeff Sutter) DT003 Help Needed (Jabriol) Re: Old Stock Quotation Things? (Lisa Hancock) Re: Baseball Broadcast Station? (dold@XReXXBaseb.usenet.us.com) Re: 'K' v. 'W' Television Station Callsigns (J Kelly) Re: 'K' v. 'W' Television Station Callsigns (Mark Roberts) All contents here are copyrighted by Patrick Townson and the individual writers/correspondents. Articles may be used in other journals or newsgroups, provided the writer's name and the Digest are included in the fair use quote. By using -any name or email address- included herein for -any- reason other than responding to an article herein, you agree to pay a hundred dollars to the recipients of the email. =========================== Addresses herein are not to be added to any mailing list, nor to be sold or given away without explicit written consent. Chain letters, viruses, porn, spam, and miscellaneous junk are definitely unwelcome. We must fight spam for the same reason we fight crime: not because we are naive enough to believe that we will ever stamp it out, but because we do not want the kind of world that results when no one stands against crime. Geoffrey Welsh =========================== See the bottom of this issue for subscription and archive details and the name of our lawyer; other stuff of interest. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Lisa Minter Date: Tue, 26 Oct 2004 12:28:30 -0400 Subject: Vonage(R) Launches Virtual Phone Numbers from London http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=109&STORY=/www/story/10-26-2004/0002310515&STORY&EDATE= Vonage(R) Launches Virtual Phone Numbers from London Vonage Customers within the United States and Canada Can Now Have a London Number EDISON, N.J., Oct. 26 /PRNewswire/ -- Vonage, the leading provider of broadband phone service, today announced the availability of virtual numbers with London city codes. Vonage's current and future customers can now select London-based virtual numbers for $4.99 USD/$7.99 CAD per month. Virtual Phone Numbers are inexpensive secondary numbers that ring to the primary Vonage line. London-based virtual numbers make it less expensive for friends, relatives and business professionals residing and working in the United Kingdom's leading cultural and business sector to make calls to the U.S. and Canada. The people they are calling now have numbers local to their calling area. "For several months, Vonage's customers have been requesting the ability to have London telephone numbers to communicate with family members, friends and business associates," said Jeffrey A. Citron, chairman & CEO of Vonage. "Vonage has responded quickly to our customers' demands that we make keeping in contact with friends and loved ones abroad easier and more convenient by offering a local number as a point of contact, no matter where you are in the world." Full story at: http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=109&STORY=/www/story/10-26-2004/0002310515&STORY&EDATE= ------------------------------ From: Lisa Minter Date: Tue, 26 Oct 2004 14:28:09 -0400 Subject: InfiniCall Adds Brazil to Its Unlimited VoIP Calling Plan Jack Decker notes: I think this is the first I've heard of this company -- they do not seem to have the sort of web portal that most consumer VoIP companies have nowadays, but this appears to be the lowest monthly rate I've seen yet for this kind of calling area. If they really deliver unlimited calling to all the mentioned countries for $15 per month that could be quite a bargain, but the very little information given on their web site doesn't really inspire me with confidence (How is their service utilized? Do they have local numbers for incoming calls, and if so, where? What sort of adapter do they use, if any? Their site is very short on information of that type!). Please use all normal caution in dealing with an unknown company, but if you do decide to try them, please post a review. http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/10-25-2004/0002309136&STORY&EDATE= InfiniCall Adds Brazil to Its Unlimited VoIP Calling Plan LOS ANGELES, Oct. 25 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- InfiniCall Corporation (OTC Bulletin Board: INFL) is pleased to announce that it will add the country of Brazil to its unlimited calling plan for all InfiniCall VoIP subscribers, effective November 8, 2004. InfiniCall provides its customers with unlimited monthly calls within the continental United States, Canada, most of Europe, selected countries in Asia and two Latin America countries: Argentina and now Brazil for a flat monthly fee of just $15. InfiniCall Chairman, Gary Rasmussen commented that "with the addition of Brazil to the InfiniCall unlimited dialing plan, we now are able to offer coverage to six of South America's ten most populous cities." About InfiniCall Corporation InfiniCall is a rapidly emerging company in the fast growing VoIP industry. The company provides its customers with access to extremely low cost, long-distance calling via the Internet, using only a standard telephone handset or their personal computer. Contact: http://www.infinicall.net James Trodden (323) 653-6010 Web Site: http://www.infinicall.net ------------------------------ From: Angela Epstein Date: Tue, 26 Oct 2004 17:20:50 -0400 Subject: Re: InfiniCall Adds Brazil to Its Unlimited VoIP Calling Plan BroadVoice provides unlimited calls within USA and Canada as well as 22 countries for $19.95 a month. For $24.95 one can get 35 countries. Some of those countries are in Asia, Latin America, Europe and the Middle East. These prices include basic and advanced features for free (24). You can't beat that! Angela M-Epstein www.broadvoice.com VoIP number: 860 523 5476 cell number: 917 509 ------------------------------ From: lurkeroo@yahoo.com (Jeff Sutter) Subject: Verizon California Terminates ISDN, FX, Other Services Date: 26 Oct 2004 13:05:51 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com In my Verizon bill, there was a tiny insert, advising me that a number of services would be "grandfathered", including some I've never heard of, nor have the people at the Verizon (GTE) office. They include (abbreviated list -- several custom calling bundles omitted) Digital ISDN Single Line Service Verizon Dial Datalink Service Foreign Exchange Service - Primary Service Residence and "InContact". GTE always made it extremely difficult to obtain residential or business FX or ISDN services, and their billing of said services was often fraught with gross errors (some in the customer's favor). It is unfortunate that their obfuscation and pricing policies will now result in justifying the end of useful technologies. ------------------------------ From: jabriol1@excite.com (Jabriol) Subject: DT003 Questions Date: 26 Oct 2004 10:12:30 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com All, I have this data module, I suspect it works with my NEAX 2400. I am using a PA-4DTLA board in the system and can run a data module set up for RS232. However, when I set up the DT-003 data module (V.35) the line on the board becomes busy and it will not pass data. Is there any help you can offer? Thank in Advance. ------------------------------ From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com (Lisa Hancock) Subject: Re: Old Stock Quotation Things? Date: 26 Oct 2004 11:22:56 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com markrobt@comcast.net (Mark Roberts) wrote > They are still in use at railway-station platforms on the Dutch > national railways. > I don't believe these were "Solari boards" which functioned on a > similar principle and were often used on TV game shows to keep score. "Solari" makes train station announcement boards that are in use in many U.S. train stations. Early models used flip over panels where one panel contained a city name, another panel type of service (ie LOCAL, EXPRESS), etc. Later models use tiny panels of single letters so that various messages could be spelled out without physically changing the board. Many of these boards are still in use. Newer boards use illuminated displays which dispense with moving parts. It was reported that in one station which got a new board, they had to add a clicking sound that the prior mechanical panel made so people would look up and check the board for changes. I have found some illuminated panels harder to read than the mechanical ones. Sometimes the letters are too thick and at a distance "bleed" together; and there is also insufficient sharpness or blackness of the background. I don't know if Solari makes the illumninated panels. It was kind of neat watching the displays change on the mechanical flipover panels. These boards are much bigger than TV screens are with larger letters and more information, but there is usually only one master panel per station, with connected TV monitors at other places in the station. There are also minature panels at track gates. One psgr railroad carrier inherited manual pull down metal signs. The gate usher would use a window pole and the sign was hinged. These were replaced by TV monitors which didn't show as much information and were inaccurate. There are other stations with badly working TV monitors. That annoys the heck out of me because TV monitor departure signage is very old technology and the implementers or operators are just plain incompetent. If they can't run their computers, go back to the hinged signs. ------------------------------ From: dold@XReXXBaseb.usenet.us.com Subject: Re: Baseball Broadcast Station? Date: Tue, 26 Oct 2004 20:03:53 UTC Organization: a2i network jtaylor wrote: > Yeah, it's probably not absolutely telecom related (they don't have > the reporters on the 'phone to the station at hockey games anymore, > either), but my neighbour has a good SW radio and wants to hear the > Red Sox win. He lives in Halifax, Nova Scotia, I suggested 1080 > Hartford, but are there any better options? http://espnradio.espn.go.com/espnradio/affiliatebyshow?show=M BANGOR, ME WZON-AM 620 BANGOR ROCKLAND, ME WRKD-AM 1450 PORTLAND AUBURN http://myafn.dodmedia.osd.mil/radio/shortwave/ Armed Forces Radio Network. Keflavik, Iceland Upper Sideband 13,855 KHz and 7,590 KHz http://myafn.dodmedia.osd.mil/radio/sports/schedule.asp Clarence A Dold - Hidden Valley (Lake County) CA USA 38.8-122.5 ------------------------------ From: J Kelly Subject: Re: 'K' v. 'W' Television Station Callsigns Date: Tue, 26 Oct 2004 16:46:56 -0500 Organization: http://newsguy.com Reply-To: jkelly@newsguy.com On Tue, 26 Oct 2004 06:10:20 +0000, bonomi@host122.r-bonomi.com (Robert Bonomi) wrote: > n article , J Kelly > wrote: >> On Sun, 24 Oct 2004 01:18:22 +0000, bonomi@host122.r-bonomi.com >> (Robert Bonomi) wrote: >>> WOI-TV was in operation _long_ before 'Iowa Public Television' came >>> into existence. In point of fact, WOI-TV was the _first_ TV station >>> in the state broadcasting on a regular schedule. >> WOI was in fact on way before Iowa Public Television. IPTV began in >> 1969 when the State Educational Radio and Television Facility Board >> purchased KDPS-TV (Des Moines Public Schools) Channel 11 in Des Moines >> and changed the callsign to KDIN-TV. The network was known as Iowa >> Educational Broadcasting Network (IEBN). Seven other stations >> followed over the next 8 years, and one more was added in 2003 when >> they acquired channel 36 in Davenport. In 1976 the name was changed >> to Iowa Public Broadcasting Network, and was changed to Iowa Public >> Television in 1982. > The first expansion was the addition of Channel 12 (KIIN TV), in Iowa > City. > By circa 1975, there were KDIN, KIIN, and at least 7 UHF 'repeater' > stations across the state. With a decent directional antenna, > virtually every place in the state was within reception range of one > of the transmitters. > The 'repeater' stations were very high-tech (for their day), > *automated*, systems. A high-gain channel-11 antenna pointed towards > Des Moines, coupled to a carrier-operated-relay, that triggered the > transmitter into operation. If KDIN was on the air, the repeater > stations came up, and rebroadcast the signal; when KDIN shut down for > the night, the repeaters turned themselves off, too. > Well, *MOST* of the time. Late one night, in the fall of 1973 (74?), > I was DX hunting with my little B&W, *rabbit-ears*only* TV, in my > apartment on the outskirts of downtown Des Moines. Here is this > *snowy* picture on channel 11 -- old gangster movie. Took quite a > while for a call-sign to come by WQXI. Just for grins, I _called_ the > station, to let them know they had a viewer "way out in Iowa". This > got to be a _very_ strange phone converation. The station > _chief_engineer_ was working the night shift that night, and actually > answered the phone, =himself=. He got *real* upset, and asked me > _exactly_ what I'm seeing, what kind of a monstrosity I'm using for an > antenna, *exactly* where I am, etc., etc. The more detail I provided > in answer to the questions, the _more_upset_ he was getting. > Finally, we get through the panic, and he explains -- several weeks > previously, 'skip' conditions had been 'just right', and their signal > had been hitting Iowa with enough signal strength to *trigger* some of > the IEBN repeaters. Most notably the one in northwest Iowa, from > who's 'viewpoint', Atlanta was nearly in a straight line with Des > Moines. > This led to an incredible stack of paperwork, to mollify the FCC. > Here was 'retransmission'/'rebroadcasting' of a commercial TV station, > *without* the permission/consent of the originating station. Here was > _commercial_ content on an 'educational TV' repeater channel. etc., > etc., ad nauseum. Oh yeah, those remote 'repeater' stations were > automated enough that they did _not_ have an 'engineer on duty' at the > transmitter site. The 'local' engineer had remote monitoring gear at > his house, or wherever. Note: this was *monitoring* capability, > _only_. He did *not* have anything like a 'kill switch' for the > transmitter -- could *not* shut it down, except from on-site > brute-force controls, if the master station (or what the hardware > *thought* was the master station :) was 'on the air'. > As a result of _that_ 'design stupidity', the "problem" recurred > _again_ the next night. And several following nights. Which made the > paperwork swamp *MUCH* worse. Now it wasn't a _single_ 'inadvertent' > error, but a repeated pattern of "illegal" behavior. > He had just finished up (i.e., a day or two previously) _his_ stack of > paper- work related to the problem, > *believing*it*to*be*finally*resolved*, and was relaxing as things got > back to normal -- and this phone call comes in from IOWA, where > somebody is seeing his station, *AGAIN*(!!) In that light, the > 'upset' was quite understandable -- and he _did_ relax considerably > when it was established that I _was_ watching on channel *11* -- not > on some repeater output frequency. The "repeater sites" (and they were NOT repeaters but full tv transmitters) were in fact manned whenever they were on the air. An engineer turned them on and off at the start and end of the day. At no time was there ever any carrier operated relays that turned on the stations. They were turned on manually from the transmitter site itself by a station engineer. I've talked to engineers that have been working at IPTV since the KDPS days and nobody remembers anything about the above story. If there was a whole mess of FCC paperwork generated over it, someone there would remember it. ------------------------------ From: markrobt@comcast.net (Mark Roberts) Subject: Re: 'K' v. 'W' Television Station Callsigns Date: Tue, 26 Oct 2004 22:31:31 -0000 Organization: 1.94 meters Wesrock@aol.com had written: > markrobt@comcast.net (Mark Roberts) writes: >> It's not unique. KOMU-TV was and is still owned by the University of >> Missouri, and is the NBC affiliate for Columbia and Jefferson City. >> From 1953 until 1956, it was the only station in the area and carried >> all three networks. From 1956 until 1971, it was also the secondary >> ABC affiliate for the market. >> Its newsroom is staffed by School of Journalism instructors and >> students, who report and produce the station's newscasts. > The University of Missouri also publishes a commercial daily newspaper > in competition with a locally-owned one, with not only its newsroom > but its advertising department staffed by School of Journalism > instructors and students. > Certainly real world training for both news editors and reporters and > also advertising salesmen and saleswomen. > The privately-owned newspaper feels strongly it is unfair competition. As last I recall, the Missourian's (J-school) circulation was about 25% of the privately-owned Tribune's, even though the Missourian is the morning paper and the Tribune the afternoon paper (plus Saturday and Sunday mornings). The family that owns the Tribune has quietly complained about the situation but does not seem to have suffered terribly. In fact, it benefits from being able to hire recent grads at newbie wage rates. All the sales staff for KOMU-TV are full-time employees of the station. Mark Roberts | "You'll know gas prices are hurting when you see headlines Oakland, Cal.| about plunging sales of sport utility vehicles." NO HTML MAIL | -- Floyd Norris, New York Times, October 23, 2004 ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of networks such as Compuserve and America On Line, Yahoo Groups, and other forums. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. TELECOM Digest is a not-for-profit, mostly non-commercial educational service offered to the Internet by Patrick Townson. All the contents of the Digest are compilation-copyrighted. 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