Spam That's Out of This World
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From wired.com by Leander Kahney
9:15 a.m. 6.Apr.99.PDT
Ham radio operators are accusing a Swiss watchmaker of working covertly with the Russian Space Agency to redirect an amateur communications satellite to illegally beam advertising messages from space.
As a bizarre marketing stunt, Swatch is planning to broadcast a series of voice and HTML text messages from space using the satellite, which was originally built for amateur radio communications.
It's all part of Swatch's plan for Internet Time -- a new global timekeeping standard that dispenses with existing time zones.
Swatch said the satellite will transmit on a frequency between 145.800 to 146.000 MHz, which ham operators claim infringes upon a range reserved for non-commercial broadcast. Swatch is calling the satellite the Beatnik, a play on Sputnik and "beat," the unit of Swatch's proposed Internet time.
Further, the messages will be accessible only to listeners with ham radio receiving equipment. And many ham operators are outraged that amateur airspace will be used for advertising.
"I'd say we are fairly strongly opposed to it," said Ed Mitchell, a radio ham and publisher of Ham Radio Online, an online newsletter. "The problem is, this may become popular and a lotof companies will start using this approach. Amateur radio could be overwhelmed with advertising. That's a big no-no."
Swatch is planning to use a ham radio satellite built by two teams of the Radio Amateur Satellite Corp. (AMSAT) based in France and Russia, according to documents posted to a Swatch boycott page, maintained by Rob Carlson, a ham radio enthusiast.
The satellite, originally called RS-19, was built for experimental and educational purposes. Classed as a mini-Sputnik, it's about the size of a soccer ball. It will store and transmit up to 10 messages, each about seven seconds long. New messages can be beamed up to the satellite every 24 hours. The satellite is battery driven and will operate for about 30 days.
The satellite was transported to Russia's MIR space station on 2 April, according to a recent American Radio Relay League newsletter. A MIR cosmonaut will reportedly open a hatch and literally throw it out into space sometime this month.
But it appears Swatch and the Russian Space Flight Control Center (SCSC), which launched the satellite, made a secret deal to use the satellite for Swatch's advertising.
The leaders of both the French and Russian AMSAT teams deny any knowledge of plans to use the satellite for marketing purposes, according to documents published on the Swatch boycott site. In the letters, the AMSAT leaders distancethemselves from the project and apologize to the ham radio community.
If broadcast, the Swatch messages would be available on a single channel ina range of frequencies supposedly reserved for amateur communications. Ham Online's Mitchell said the amateur bands are prohibited from commercial use by an international amateur radio treaty.
The estimated millions of ham radio operators worldwide, 750,000 of which reside in the United States, would be able to hear the broadcast. So would listeners with radio scanners.
Swatch, which has said it will also post the messages on its Web site, was not available for comment.
It is unclear, however, if the satellite will be used only for Swatch's advertising or whether amateur radio traffic will also be mixed in.
Carlson, who organized the Swatch boycott, said it doesn't matter.
"It's the first step on a slippery slope," he said. "They call it underwriting. But if it's allowed to progress, chances are they will try to get a little more each time. I've seen it before with Public Radio. It starts off with underwriting and ends up as 60-second advertising spots. Then it's not underwriting any more, it's commercial advertising."
The radio messages will advertise Internet Time, Swatch's new timekeeping standard, according to Swatch's Web site. The company is calling for readers tosubmit voice messages. If they contain a Swatch marketing buzzword, they willbe broadcast around the globe from the satellite.
"I am appalled by your decision to advertise on amateur frequencies," said one of the messages submitted on Swatch's site. "By using amateur frequencies,not only will you fail to reach any potential market, but you will enrage thousands of amateur radio operators worldwide. I will encourage and support any possible litigation against your company to prevent this action or to seek damages as a result."