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open-spectrum.bsky.social
Long-time radio activist promoting license-free access to spectrum. Based in Prague. Currently editing studies for the Czech Ministry of Industry & Trade on the future of wireless communication. https://www.linkedin.com/in/roberthorvitz/
678 posts 66 followers 77 following
Prolific Poster

US: "Donald Trump, In DOJ Speech, Calls CNN And MSNBC 'Illegal' For Reporting Negatively On Him... He claimed that the mainstream outlets were influencing judges and 'I don’t believe it's legal'.” - www.yahoo.com/news/donald-...

Excited to announce that registrations are now open for "The Dynamic Radio Sky 2025" conference at the University of Sydney. drs2025.github.io/registration/ Come and join us for a week on radio transients of all kinds! Stars, AGN, GRBs, SNe, LPTs, FRBs, TDEs #RadioAstronomy @ozgrav.bsky.social

"An international team of astronomers led by scientists from the Netherlands has shown that a white dwarf and a red dwarf orbiting each other every two hours are emitting radio pulses" - phys.org/news/2025-03...

Brendan Carr on Twitter: "I have received complaints that Google’s YouTubeTV is discriminating against faith-based programming... I’m asking Google for answers." The complaint came from the Great American Family channel, which has 101k YT subscribers; its Pure Flix YT channel has 277k subscribers.

US: The next open FCC meeting on 27 March will explore "alternatives to GPS... we will vote on an inquiry to explore other Positioning, Navigation, and Timing (PNT) systems that can be complements or alternatives to GPS" - www.fcc.gov/news-events/...

"In a milestone judgment—Podchasov v. Russia—the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has ruled that weakening of encryption can lead to general and indiscriminate surveillance of the communications of all users and violates the human right to privacy" - www.eff.org/deeplinks/20...

1 of 2: "Following the February order by the UK demanding backdoor access to iCloud user data, which would grant access to any iCloud content belonging to any user across the globe, Apple has fought against the plan" - appleinsider.com/articles/25/...

US FCC Public Notice: "IN RE: DELETE, DELETE, DELETE. GN Docket No. 25-133. Comments Due: Friday, April 11, 2025... Commenters whose comments raise issues related to other open Commission dockets should file their comments in all relevant dockets" - docs.fcc.gov/public/attac...

US: "'In re: Delete, Delete, Delete' - Federal Communications Commission chair Brendan Carr is asking the public to help him identify 'unnecessary' regulations created by the agency so that he can eliminate them" - www.theverge.com/news/628288/...

US: "CTIA, the wireless industry association, today announced that Ajit Pai has been named President and Chief Executive Officer, effective April 1... he was designated by President Donald Trump as Chairman of the FCC in 2017" - www.ctia.org/news/ctia-an...

"Some of the most populated parts of Mayom County can now tune in to Radio Miraya, a broadcaster operated by the United Nations Mission in South Sudan... Installing Radio Miraya transmitters in hard-to-reach areas... is a priority of the UN peacekeeping mission" unmiss.unmissions.org/new-radio-mi...

"The death of Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista was announced in a radio broadcast on March 13, 1957... by a student revolutionary who had seized control of the station at gunpoint. [His name:] José Antonio Echeverría" - www.9news.com.au/world/today-...

"Digital Mobile Radio (DMR) [was] developed by European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI)... the DMR market size was valued at approximately US$ 7.42 billion in 2023 and is projected to reach US$ 11.53 billion by 2030" - industrytoday.co.uk/it/digital-m...

Thailand: "The National Broadcasting & Telecommunications Commission (NBTC)... board in January approved a draft for a planned auction of 6 spectrum bands: the low bands of 850MHz, middle bands of 1500, 1800, 2100 and 2300MHz, and the high band of 26GHz" - www.bangkokpost.com/business/gen...

"A total of 52.8bn Ultra High Frequency RAIN RFID tag chips were shipped in 2024, a survey of leading chip suppliers by the RAIN Alliance has found, up 54% in just two years" - www.nfcw.com/2025/03/06/3...

"Hackers can turn any Bluetooth device into an AirTag & track its location... 'We present nRootTag, a novel attack method that transforms computers into trackable "AirTags" without requiring root privileges' ...researchers at George Mason University, write in a paper" - cybernews.com/security/hac...

"A TikTok user known as Mister Cyber... cautions that pairing your phone with a car via Bluetooth can lead to unwanted personal data retention on the vehicle's system... 'Unsync your phone from rental cars before you give them back!'" - www.dailyrecord.co.uk/lifestyle/mo...

Security researchers claim the ESP32 Bluetooth chip manufactured by Espressif in China & found in ~billion devices has an undocumented command. Initial claim was that this "secret functionality can be weaponized by bad actors" but commenters say it's just for testing - mashable.com/article/blue...

China’s SpaceSail is expanding fast and could challenge Starlink in the satellite internet race. With 15,000 satellites planned by 2030, is it about to shake up global connectivity? 🌍📡 Read more: techcartel.net/china-spaces...

"Why Low Earth Orbit is the Next Frontier for Great Power Competition between the US & China... Qianfan is even more ambitious, intending to grow its constellation to more than 600 satellites by the end of 2025 & to eventually emplace 14,000 satellites into orbit" - www.afpc.org/publications...

US: Andrew, Federated Wireless, Inc., Google LLC, & Sony Corp. are each approved to continue operating as Spectrum Access System administrators in the 3.5 GHz band for an additional 5-year term" - www.jdsupra.com/legalnews/wh...

"Catch solar bursts in new citizen science project... The new 'Solar Radio Burst Tracker' Zooniverse project is ready for you... Your efforts will create the first catalogue of radio bursts from the Sun seen by Solar Orbiter" - www.esa.int/Science_Expl...

In case you missed the last AtLAST forum on March 6th, the recordings of the two talks are now available on YouTube 🧪🔭

"Call for comments - Public Consultation on the Draft RSPG Opinion on the EU-level policy approach to satellite Direct-to-Device connectivity and related Single Market issues. 14 February 2025 - 28 March 2025" - radio-spectrum-policy-group.ec.europa.eu/document/dow...

"On February 27, 2025, the FCC adopted a Notice of Inquiry, seeking comment on whether it should make... the Upper C-band (3.98-4.2 GHz) available for more intensive use [& how that] would impact radio altimeters, which operate in the adjacent 4.2-4.4 GHz band" - www.jdsupra.com/legalnews/wh...

1 of 2: "Can a single device provide high-speed wireless communication while simultaneously sensing its environment? ...At the core of our system is... a smart, programmable surface that... actively manipulates the signals it reflects" - techxplore.com/news/2025-03...

"The European Commission's Radio Spectrum Policy Group (RSPG) has set a March 28 deadline for inputs into its proposed guidelines for introduction of satellite direct-to-device services... Separately, the RSPG is preparing proposals for how to divvy up 2-GHz" www.spaceintelreport.com/eu-mobile-sa...

UK: "Ofcom proposes to make the 1900 MHz band (covering 1900-1920 MHz) available for the UK's rail network and the emergency services... Ofcom claims UK licenses for the 1900 MHz band were awarded for mobile services in 2000, yet they have not been used" - www.theregister.com/2025/03/11/u...

Eutelsat's CEO asked, "Can you actually replace... the very large number of terminals that Starlink has across Ukraine? ...Eutelsat could get another 2,000 to Ukraine with stock on hand... Matching Starlink’s 40,000 would take 'a couple of months, not years'." - www.marketwatch.com/story/shares...

Listening to radio ads right now is like "Canadians are strong. Canadians are tough. Canadians never back down. Canadians deserve the best. That's why at Bob's Lube Garage, we know your tire lube should smell like poutine and Lake Erie fish,"

Hacking a Heavyweight Philco Radio

You Are Already Traveling at the Speed of Light

US: "How the US Can Speed Up Its Momentum in Electromagnetic Warfare... sticking to a set of universal standards; collaboration on contract requirements, incorporating more commercial products into weapon systems" - www.airandspaceforces.com/us-speed-up-...

China: "Shanghai has set up a special committee on low-altitude radio spectrum safety... /with one subgroup/ focusing on low-altitude electromagnetic safety research & testing & the other group concentrating on low-altitude drone cluster performance" english.news.cn/20250307/2f8...

"Little sign of 5G Broadcast at MWC... 5G Broadcast has yet to capture the imagination of broadcasters and has yet to develop a business model to excite telecommunications network providers or device manufacturers" - informitv.com/2025/03/07/l...

US, 1 of 4: "When /FCC chairman Brendan/ Carr resurrected petitions filed against ABC, NBC & CBS, he declined to revive a petition that former Murdoch lieutenant Preston Padden had filed against Fox" - www.status.news/p/brendan-ca...

Chinese scientists discover low frequency geomagnetic "chorus" 160,000 km from Earth - www.facebook.com/NewsContent....

Cutbacks are underway today at Voice of America, according to sources there. One of the affected staffers is Ostap Yarysh, a top journalist at VOA's Ukrainian service, who confirmed his departure in a Facebook post

US: "The [FCC] heard from advocates more than 50 times in February about their priorities, including opening valuable airwaves for 5G, clearing hurdles to rural broadband & pushing T-Mobile's $4.4 billion deal to take over UScellular's wireless operations" - www.law360.com/articles/230...

Initial findings of the SignalTracker app suggest another reason why so many subscribers find 5G's performance underwhelming: "In UK tests, when the 5G icon was displaying, 38% of tests were in fact a 4G connection" - www.linkedin.com/posts/richar...

"'We’ve got the highest current, highest peak power electron beams ever generated, and we do that by just packing a large amount of charge into a very short bunch duration'... the electron pulses last one-quadrillionth of a second but carry 100 kiloamps of current" - www.science.org/content/arti...

"Over the last 3 months of 2024, more than 800 cases of GPS interference were recorded in Lithuanian airspace. Estonia & Finland have also raised concerns, accusing Russia of deploying technology to jam satellite navigation signals near Nato's eastern flank" - www.bbc.com/news/article...

"The CIA has also helped the Ukrainians build at least 3 secret signals-intelligence collection bases, which the Ukrainians use to intercept Russian communications, reducing their dependence on the United States for intelligence" - www.nytimes.com/2025/03/05/u...

US: "Sinclair said it is 'pioneering' the use of artificial intelligence to provide real-time live language translation of local newscasts [from English into Spanish] on each station's YouTube channel" - www.adweek.com/tvspy/sincla...